Exploring factors associated with complete mental health of pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To explore a wide range of factors associated with complete mental health (i.e., positive mental health - the presence of flourishing, and the absence of mental illness - depressive and anxious symptoms) among Portuguese pregnant women, during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Quantitative cross-sectional study. SETTING: Data were collected through an online survey placed on social media websites targeting pregnant Portuguese adult women between October 2020 and April 2021. PARTICIPANTS: The sample comprised 207 pregnant women. RESULTS: A multivariate logistic regression model showed that higher levels of self-compassion and higher engagement in mindful self-care practices increased the likelihood of reporting complete mental health during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting self-compassion and mindful self-care may be particularly important in pregnant women, as these psychological factors appear to contribute to complete mental health during COVID-19 pandemic. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The COVID-19 pandemic represented a demanding period for pregnant women. Our findings highlight that targeting the promotion of self-compassion and mindful self-care practices during stressful periods could significantly contribute to their overall mental health.

A Web-Based, Mindful, and Compassionate Parenting Training for Mothers Experiencing Parenting Stress: Results from a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Mindful Moment Program.

Objectives: Mindful Moment is a self-guided, web-based, mindful, and compassionate parenting training for postpartum mothers who experience parenting stress. We aimed to assess Mindful Moment's feasibility, acceptability, and usability, and to gather preliminary evidence of its effectiveness in reducing parenting stress and outcomes such as mindful parenting, self-compassion, depressive symptoms, anxious symptoms, dispositional mindfulness, mother's perception of infant temperament, and mother-infant bonding. Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) was a two-arm trial and followed the CONSORT 2010, CONSORT-EHEALTH, and CONSORT-SPI 2018 extension guidelines. A total of 292 Portuguese mothers were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 146) or to the waiting list control group (n = 146) and completed baseline (T1) and postintervention (T2) self-reported assessments. Results: A total of 31 mothers (21.23%) completed the Mindful Moment intervention. Most mothers evaluated the program as good or excellent (90%), considered that Mindful Moment provided them the kind of help they expected or wanted (61%), were satisfied with the help provided by the program (74.6%), would recommend it to a friend in a similar situation (86.4%), and would use it again if needed (81.4%). Regarding the program's preliminary effectiveness, mothers in the intervention group presented a greater decrease in parenting stress, a greater increase in dispositional mindfulness, and a greater decrease in their perception of the difficult temperament of their infants from T1 to T2. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence of the Mindful Moment's effectiveness and suggests that it is a feasible and acceptable program for postpartum mothers experiencing parenting stress. Further research is needed to confirm these results in a larger RCT. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04892082).

The role of mothers' self-compassion on mother-infant bonding during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study exploring the mediating role of mindful parenting and parenting stress in the postpartum period.

The current COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging time for postpartum mothers, and associated challenges may have a negative impact on their parenting and, consequently, on mother-infant bonding. This study aimed to longitudinally explore whether mothers' self-compassion was associated with mother-infant bonding and whether this relationship was mediated by mindful parenting and parenting stress. A total of 125 Portuguese mothers of infants aged between 0 and 12 months completed an online survey at two assessment points during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (T1: April-May 2020; T2: June-July 2020). The survey included several questionnaires assessing sociodemographic, clinical, and COVID-19 information; self-compassion; mindful parenting; parenting stress; and mother-infant bonding. Mothers presented significantly higher levels of self-compassion, less impaired mother-infant bonding, and lower levels of depressive symptoms at T2 than T1. Higher levels of self-compassion at T1 predicted less impaired mother-infant bonding at T2, and this relationship was mediated by higher levels of mindful parenting and lower levels of parenting stress (both assessed at T1). These results highlight the relevance of mothers' self-compassion to establishing mother-infant bonding in the postpartum period, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the important role of mindful parenting and parenting stress in determining this relationship.

Postpartum during COVID-19 pandemic: Portuguese mothers' mental health, mindful parenting, and mother-infant bonding.

BACKGROUND: Millions of people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has impacted maternal mental health and mother-infant relationships during the postpartum period. OBJECTIVES: To explore how mothers' anxious and depressive symptoms, parenting stress, mindful parenting, and mother-infant bonding vary as a function of the moment of the baby's birth (pre-COVID-19 or post-COVID-19) and to examine the contribution of those variables to mother-infant bonding. METHODS: The sample was recruited online and comprises 567 mothers (18-46 years) with an infant aged between 0 and 12 months old. RESULTS: Approximately 27.5% of the mothers presented clinically significant levels of anxious and depressive symptoms. Mothers who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic presented lower levels of Emotional Awareness of the Child and a more impaired mother-infant bonding than mothers who gave birth before the pandemic started. Approximately 49% of the mother-infant bonding variance was explained by parenting stress and by several dimensions of mindful parenting. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide important insights into the impact of COVID-19 on maternal mental health and parenting.