Pregnant During a Pandemic
Resources & Support for Before, During, & After Pregnancy
Can you have baby bliss…during coronavirus?
Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy welcomed Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis, Dr. Tiffany Green, and Dr. Darby Saxbe to talk about the benefits (yes, benefits!) and challenges of pregnancy in a pandemic, as well as navigating your emotions after baby arrives.
Our Pandemic Parenting Exchange webinar, Pregnant During a Pandemic: Resources & Support for Before, During & After Pregnancy, offered tools and support needed to have a mentally healthy pregnancy and postpartum recovery during COVID-19.
Watch the recording below and explore additional resources and questions to help you reflect on your own pregnancy and postpartum experience.
Table of Contents
Key Moments
Listen back to specific questions posed by our moderator Alyssa Morris.
(3:50) Guest panelist introductions: Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis, Dr. Tiffany Green, and Dr. Darby Saxbe
(6:00) What do we know about what helps parents in the weeks and months after the arrival of a new baby?
(6:53) What do we know about what contributes to mentally healthy pregnancies? Are these the same sort of factors that support parents in the postpartum period?
(12:07) Black women tend to experience worse maternal mental health outcomes compared to white women. How is the pandemic further exacerbating these disparities?
(14:50) What are new and expecting parents worried about right now?
(26:00) What about time we’re spending with our partners and what that could mean for pregnancy during a pandemic?
(36:17) What’s one thing you would tell new parents?
(46:02) How has COVID-19 impacted families dealing with infant loss, infertility, and adoption?
(1:01:34) What advice would you give to a pregnant woman who is worried about contracting COVID-19 and/or mental health of newborn?
Reflection Questions
Webinars and resources are all well and good, but having a ton of information is only as helpful as you can do something with it. Take a few moments with yourself, your partner, or others in your circle of support to reflect on the following questions and process the insights and tips that stood out most to you.
Grief is a normal response to many things we have lost due to COVID-19. Are there things that you are grieving about expecting or becoming a new parent during this time? Name them. Identifying what feels most lacking can help you figure out ways to get your needs met.
What are some ways that you can seek to connect with others safely during this time?
What has been the most challenging part about being pregnant, trying to conceive, or adopting during this pandemic? Are there any silver linings?
Black women experience significantly worse maternal health outcomes in the US compared to White women. The pandemic is making these existing disparities worse. How can we bring attention to this important issue?
Let’s discuss your support systems. What has been helpful to you during this pandemic, and what is still missing?
Additional Related Resources
Books
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong — And What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster
Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, From Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster
Articles & Videos
Pregnancy & Postpartum in a Pandemic: 4 Things to Know about Depression and Anxiety (by Dr. Lindsay Malloy of Pandemic Parenting for Zulily)
Pregnancy During COVID-19: 3 Ways to Stay Connected with Your Village (by Dr. Amanda Zelechoski of Pandemic Parenting for Zulily)
Local experts weigh in on black communities' disproportionate share of COVID-19 deaths (with our guest expert Dr. Tiffany Green on ABC27 WKOW)'
Mothering Transitions Research Program (by our guest expert Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis)
Can you baby proof your relationship? (by our guest expert Dr. Darby Saxbe; Psychology Today)
Pregnancy and COVID-19: Summary Overview (by Dr. Emily Oster; Covid Explained)
America is failing Black moms during the pandemic (by Anna North; Vox)
Can fathers have Postpartum Depression? (by Douglas Quenqoa; The New York Times)
Pregnancy during a pandemic: The stress of COVID-19 on pregnant women and new mothers is showing (The Conversation)
The surprising benefits of being pregnant in a pandemic (by Abbey Sharp; Healthline Parenthood)
NEW RESEARCH! Perinatal mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic (by moderator Alyssa Morris, guest expert Dr. Darby Saxbe, and colleagues)
Key Moments From This Webinar
Silver Linings of the Pandemic for New Parents
What New Parents Need to Know
Bouncing Back After Having a Baby
Does Postpartum Anxiety Exist?
Why might new moms want to consider therapy?
Healthy Parents = Healthy Babies
Meet Our Guests & Moderator
Cindy-Lee Dennis, Ph.D.
Dr. Cindy-Lee Dennis is a Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She holds the Women’s Health Research Chair at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. Previously she held the Canada Research Chair in Perinatal Community Health. She is currently the principal investigator of seven large, multi-site studies and is a co-investigator on 24 other research projects concerning maternal, paternal, and infant health outcomes with a particular focus on perinatal mental health, breastfeeding and e-health interventions. She holds over $23 million in funding as a principal investigator from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and has over 200 peer-review publications. She is the lead author on eight Cochrane systematic reviews and has provided over 165 invited presentations. She developed the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale, the most widely used breastfeeding measure in the world that has been translated into over 20 different languages. Dr. Dennis has worked with the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health, and Public Health Ontario to influence policy and improve the care provided to women and their families across the perinatal period.
Tiffany Green, Ph.D.
Dr. Tiffany Green is an economist and population health scientist and a nationally recognized expert in racial/ethnic and nativity disparities in reproductive health. She is currently Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Green earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her B.A. in economics from Florida A&M University. Her research focuses primarily on understanding the individual-, family-, and structural-level determinants of racial disparities in women's health and birth outcomes. Dr. Green's mission is to shed light on how and why Black women, regardless of socioeconomic status experience the worst maternal and child health outcomes of any racial/ethnic group and what evidence-based solutions might ameliorate these persistent inequalities in health and wellbeing. She is also currently investigating the contributions of racial/ethnic bias to health-related disparities in childbearing and other populations. Most recently, she was selected as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Society of Family Planning's Changemakers in Family Planning Grant Program, is a Temple Center for Public Health Law Research Fellow and is a University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Centennial Scholar. Finally, Dr. Green serves as the co-chair of the Black Maternal & Child Health Alliance of Dane County, a coalition committed to centering the voices of Black mothers and ensuring that Black children are free to reach their highest potential.
Darby Saxbe, Ph.D.
Dr. Darby Saxbe is an Associate Professor of Psychology and directs the USC Center for the Changing Family. Her research focuses on close relationships and stress, particularly in couples transitioning to first-time parenthood.
Alyssa Morris
Our moderator, Alyssa Morris, is a Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Southern California. Alyssa is interested in the impacts of perinatal mental health and early-life stress on child development. She recently launched the Coronavirus, Health, Isolation, and Resilience during Pregnancy (CHIRP) study alongside Dr. Darby Saxbe to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the perinatal experience.
Pandemic Parenting is a collaboration between two psychologists, scholars, and moms committed to sharing their expertise and research in ways that are immediately accessible and useful to families. Learn more about Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy.