Posttraumatic growth and its associations with perceived stress and core beliefs in women after traumatic childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic added new challenges and stressors to the childbirth period, potentially increasing the risk of traumatic childbirth experiences. There is little known about posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a childbearing population. This study describes PTG in women after traumatic childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with sociodemographic, birth-related characteristics, traumatic childbirth events, perceived stress, and core beliefs, as well as explores what factors predict PTG. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 202 women who self-identified as having experienced traumatic childbirth. Measures included sociodemographic and birth-related characteristics, traumatic childbirth events, self-reported stress during childbirth, the PTG Inventory, and the Core Beliefs Inventory (CBI). RESULTS: Perceived stress at the time of birth was very high in 70% of the respondents. CBI showed moderate disruption of core beliefs. 41.6% of mothers indicated substantial PTG. Education and type of birth were related to perceived stress levels; higher disruption of core beliefs was observed in individuals who experienced perineal trauma and lack of partners' presence during childbirth, and higher disruption of core beliefs was positively associated with PTG. Predictive models showed that perceived stress had a minimal effect, while the disruption of core beliefs showed a significant positive association with PTG. CONCLUSION: Traumatic childbirth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic were positively related to PTG. Health professionals should create an environment where women can explore their feelings and emotions. Changes in current practices are also necessary as cesareans have been shown to be highly associated with high levels of perceived stress.

High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound-specific isotope analysis.

The remains of those who perished at Herculaneum in 79 CE offer a unique opportunity to examine lifeways across an ancient community who lived and died together. Historical sources often allude to differential access to foodstuffs across Roman society but provide no direct or quantitative information. By determining the stable isotope values of amino acids from bone collagen and deploying Bayesian models that incorporate knowledge of protein synthesis, we were able to reconstruct the diets of 17 adults from Herculaneum with unprecedented resolution. Significant differences in the proportions of marine and terrestrial foods consumed were observed between males and females, implying that access to food was differentiated according to gender. The approach also provided dietary data of sufficient precision for comparison with assessments of food supply to modern populations, opening up the possibility of benchmarking ancient diets against contemporary settings where the consequences for health are better understood.