"It's always hard being a mom, but the pandemic has made everything harder": A qualitative exploration of the experiences of perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in vulnerable groups, such as pregnant and parenting women, is a critical research and clinical imperative. Although many survey-based perinatal health studies have contributed important information about mental health, few have given full voice about the experiences of pregnant and postpartum women during the prolonged worldwide pandemic using a qualitative approach. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experience of pregnant and postpartum women in the United States during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Qualitative phenomenological study. SETTING: This study was conducted in the community, by recruiting women throughout the U.S. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-four pregnant and postpartum women participated in qualitative interviews. METHODS: Data from one-on-one semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a team-based phenomenological qualitative approach. RESULTS: Two key themes were apparent: the pandemic has shined a light on the many typical struggles of motherhood; and, there is a lack of consistent, community-based or healthcare system resources available to address the complex needs of pregnant and postpartum women, both in general and during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Going forward, as the world continues to deal with the current pandemic and possible future global health crises, health care systems and providers are encouraged to consider the suggestions provided by these participants: talk early and often to women about mental health; help pregnant and postpartum women create and institute a personal plan for early support of their mental health needs and create an easily accessible mental health network; conceptualize practice methods that enhance coping and resilience; practice in community-based and interdisciplinary teams (e.g., midwives, doulas, perinatal social workers/ psychotherapists) to ensure continuity of care and to foster relationships between providers and pregnant/ postpartum women; and consider learning from other countries' successful perinatal healthcare practices. REGISTRATION: Number (& date of first recruitment): not applicable. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Pregnant and postpartum women insist that mental health care must be overhauled, stating the pandemic has highlighted inherent cracks in the system.

Biotinylated derivatives of omega-conotoxins GVIA and MVIID: probes for neuronal calcium channels.

The omega-conotoxins are small, disulfide-rich peptides which inhibit voltage-sensitive calcium channels. Biotinylated omega-conotoxins are potentially useful reagents for characterizing distinct subsets of calcium channels. We describe the preparation and characterization of biotinylated derivatives of two specific omega-conotoxins, GVIA and MVIID, which bind different calcium channel subtypes. Eight biotinylated derivatives were tested; all specifically displaced binding of the radiolabeled unbiotinylated omega-conotoxin. In general, the addition of one biotin moiety decreased the apparent affinity for the receptor target site by only approximately 10-fold. However, derivatization of omega-conotoxin MVIID at the Lys10 residue caused a much more marked effect, a ca 500-fold decrease in affinity. These results indicate that the vicinity of the Lys10 residue of omega-conotoxin MVIID may be more critical for binding to the receptor target site than regions around other amino groups in omega-conotoxins GVIA and MVIID. Thus, high affinity biotinylated omega-conotoxin GVIA and MVIID derivatives have been chemically defined; the biotin groups have been shown to be accessible to streptavidin. Given the commercial availability of streptavidin coupled to various reporter groups, the biotinylated omega-conotoxin derivatives described here should be widely useful for fluorescence, electron microscopic or immunological applications.