Case Report

A Case Report of Vaginal Delivery at Home due to Fear of Covid-19

Abstract

Introduction: Childbirth can be a normal and nonintervention process, but sometimes the process gets out of normal and requires immediate medical intervention. Thus, home delivery cannot be considered safe without coordination with the treatment staff. Sometimes fear of Covid-19 epidemic prevents mothers to go to the hospital for childbirth and they decide to do it in an unsafe condition, which puts the health of the mother and the neonate at risk.
Presentation Case: Our case was a pregnant woman  with a negative blood group (A-)  who did not come to the hospital because of fear of contracting Covid-19 from the hospital and decided to give birth at home without medical and midwifery support. After giving birth at home, she called the midwife who was taking care of her pregnancy. But she was still afraid to go to the medical center for postpartum care. The midwife informed the mother and her husband that they would be transferred to the midwifery clinic for further care and follow-up, with the necessary counseling and assurance of protective care to control Covid 19 transmission.
Conclusion: Counseling and training of protective methods during pregnancy can reduce the concerns of pregnant women. It is also recommended that pregnant women avoid unnecessary travel, public places, use of public transportation and contact with sick people, and most importantly, observe personal and public health issues. Some pregnant women may experience severe anxiety and depression during epidemics such as Covid 19, which require educational psychological counseling and continuous psychological support to prevent unintended consequences.

1. Chen Y, Peng H, Wang L, Zhao Y, Zeng L, Gao H, et al. Infants Born to Mothers With a New Coronavirus (COVID-19). Front Pediatr. 2020;8:104.
2. Ho CS, Chee CY, Ho RC. Mental Health Strategies to Combat the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Beyond Paranoia and Panic. Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2020;49(3):155-60.
3. Liang H, Acharya G. Novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) in pregnancy: What clinical recommendations to follow? Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2020;99(4):439-42.
4. Qiao J. What are the risks of COVID-19 infection in pregnant women? The Lancet. 2020;395(10226):760-2.
5. Brooks SK, Weston D, Greenberg N. Psychological impact of infectious disease outbreaks on pregnant women: Rapid evidence review. medRxiv. 2020.
6. Lee CH, Huang N, Chang HJ, Hsu YJ, Wang MC, Chou YJ. The immediate effects of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic on childbirth in Taiwan. BMC Public Health. 2005;5:30.
7. Premkumar A, Cassimatis I, Berhie SH, Jao J, Cohn SE, Sutton SH, Condron B, Levesque J, Garcia PM, Miller ES, Yee LM. Home Birth in the Era of COVID-19: Counseling and Preparation for Pregnant Persons Living with HIV. American Journal of Perinatology. 2020; 37(10): 1038-1043.
8. Tang B, Wang X, Li Q, Bragazzi NL, Tang S, Xiao Y, et al. Estimation of the Transmission Risk of the 2019-nCoV and Its Implication for Public Health Interventions. J Clin Med. 2020;9(2):462.
9. Kobayashi T, Jung SM, Linton NM, Kinoshita R, Hayashi K, Miyama T, et al. Communicating the Risk of Death from Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). J Clin Med. 2020;9(2).
10. Pakpour A, Griffiths M. The fear of CoVId-19 and its role in preventive behaviors. Journal of Concurrent Disorders. 2020.
11. Shigemura J, Ursano RJ, Morganstein JC, Kurosawa M, Benedek DM. Public responses to the novel 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Japan: Mental health consequences and target populations. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2020;74(4):281-2.
12. Nosratabadi M, Hekmat K, Dencker A, Abbaspoor Z. Individual and Group Psycho-Educational Counseling on Knowledge, Attitude and Preference for Birth Method in Nulliparous Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Family Reprod Health. 2018;12(2):103-10.
13. Panahi L, Amiri M, Pouy S. Risks of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Pregnancy; a Narrative Review. Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2020;8(1):e34.
14. Mosby LG, Rasmussen SA, Jamieson DJ. 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) in pregnancy: a systematic review of the literature. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology. 2011;205(1):10-8.
15. Topalidou A, Thomson G, Downe S. COVID-19 and maternal mental health: Are we getting the balance right? MedRxiv. 2020.
16. Ren SY, Gao RD, Chen YL. Fear can be more harmful than the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in controlling the corona virus disease 2019 epidemic. World J Clin Cases. 2020;8(4):652-7.
17. Lum LHW, Tambyah PA. Outbreak of COVID-19 - an urgent need for good science to silence our fears? Singapore Med J. 2020;61(3):169.
18. Lin C-Y. Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Soc Health Behav 2020;3(1):1.
Files
IssueVol 15 No 4 (2020) QRcode
SectionCase Report(s)
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/ijps.v15i4.4306
PMCIDPMC7610078
PMID33240387
Keywords
Covid-19 Fear Home Delivery

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Nosratabadi M, Sarabi N, Masoudiyekta L. A Case Report of Vaginal Delivery at Home due to Fear of Covid-19. Iran J Psychiatry. 2020;15(4):366-369.