Childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic involved infection-control measures and changes in maternity care that may have increased psychological stress and affected early mother–infant bonding. The potential for maternal infection at the time of delivery to influence postpartum mental health and bonding is a specific concern, given both direct stressors of illness and the indirect effects of altered care pathways during public health emergencies.
The study aimed to directly compare postpartum depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, and mother–infant bonding among women who tested positive versus negative for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR at the time of delivery.
This was a comparative cross-sectional study that included 107 postpartum women. Of these, 53 were COVID-19 positive and 54 were COVID-19 negative based on PCR testing performed at delivery. Participants were assessed within the first few days of postpartum hospitalization.
All participants completed a sociodemographic form and three validated instruments during early postpartum hospitalization: the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to assess depressive symptoms, the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to assess anxiety (including state anxiety), and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) to assess mother–infant bonding difficulties. Assessments occurred within the first few days after delivery, as reported.
Compared with women who were COVID-19 negative at delivery, women who were COVID-19 positive had significantly higher scores for postpartum depressive symptoms, state anxiety, and bonding difficulty scores. The study reports these differences as statistically significant but does not provide exact p values or mean score values in the abstract.
In both the COVID-19–positive and COVID-19–negative groups, higher depressive symptoms and higher anxiety scores were positively correlated with greater bonding problems measured by the PBQ. The correlations between psychological symptoms and bonding difficulties were stronger in the COVID-19–positive group than in the COVID-19–negative group, according to the reported results.
The authors performed multivariate analyses to examine independent associations with bonding difficulties. Depressive symptoms and, particularly, state anxiety remained independently associated with bonding problems after adjustment. Notably, when anxiety was included in the models, COVID-19 status at delivery was no longer a significant independent predictor of bonding difficulties. This suggests that elevated anxiety explained much of the observed association between maternal COVID-19 infection and early mother–infant bonding problems in this cohort.
The study highlights that women who were COVID-19 positive at delivery experienced higher depressive symptoms, state anxiety, and challenges in early mother–infant bonding compared with women who tested negative. Because anxiety retained an independent association with bonding difficulties and attenuated the direct effect of COVID-19 status in adjusted models, the findings emphasize the importance of screening for and addressing postpartum anxiety and depressive symptoms in the peripartum period—especially when infection-control policies or illness may increase maternal distress.
From a service-planning perspective, the authors conclude that maternity care practices during public health emergencies should consider interventions and supports that safeguard maternal mental health and promote healthy mother–infant bonding. The abstract does not specify particular interventions, effect sizes, timing beyond the first few postpartum days, or long-term follow-up; those details were not reported in the source abstract.
The abstract reports a cross-sectional design and assessment during the first few postpartum days; it does not provide longitudinal follow-up, detailed effect sizes, or p values in the abstract itself. Any additional methodological details, subgroup analyses, or specific numerical results are not included in the abstract and therefore were not available for this summary.
COVID-19; Maternal bonding; anxiety; pandemic; postpartum depression.