Representações sociais da gestação e parto de mulheres que tiveram essa vivência durante a pandemia do COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the social representations of pregnancy and childbirth for women who experienced this, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Is a qualitative research study, composed of two stages. A systematic mapping review was conducted in March 2024, using the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. After removing duplicates, the selection of studies was first carried out by analyzing the abstract and, subsequently by reading the full text. Excel spreadsheets were created to categorize the variables of the included studies, and the data were presented descriptively. Empirical data collection was carried out through semi-structured and audio-recorded interviews with women from three cities in the interior of São Paulo, who were pregnant and gave birth between 2020 and 2021. After transcription of the collected material, it was subjected to content analysis, resulting in categories of analysis based on the most frequent textual excerpts. Results: 65 primary studies on perceptions of pregnancy and childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic were mapped, and 14 women who had these experiences during the aforementioned period were interviewed. The social representations of pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic were anchored in fear, sadness, and loneliness, where there was a discontinuity in their conceptual references of pregnancy, and therefore, a mismatch between expectations and reality related to the gestational period. Regarding childbirth, social representations were anchored in cesarean sections, obstetric violence, and unsuccessful experiences in vaginal delivery. Final considerations: The social representations of childbirth, compared to the pre-pandemic period, underwent significant transformations, with a shift in images from joy to fear, from sharing to loneliness and sadness, resulting in intense psychological suffering for women during pregnancy. Meanwhile, the social representations of childbirth remained aligned with the previously reified universe before the virus, to the traditions of birth and its generally consensual entirety, where being in labor usually means being subjected to a cesarean section or experiencing some degree of obstetric violence, where the covid-19 pandemic intensified vulnerabilities related to healthcare and the mother's satisfaction with the care received