Perinatal anxiety, which refers to the experience of distressing anxiety symptoms during pregnancy and up to a year after childbirth, is fairly common. In fact, research suggests under ‘normal circumstances’ around 1 in 5 women may experience significant levels of anxiety in the perinatal period. However, it seems likely that this proportion may be even higher as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and preliminary evidence we are collecting appears to support this idea.

Despite the prevalence of perinatal anxiety, fewer than 50% of women experiencing symptoms will seek help or receive treatment (see theNCT的#HIDDERHALF广告系列for more details). This is problematic, as research suggests that untreated perinatal anxiety may be associated with a number of long- and short-term consequences for both mother and baby, includingpremature birth,过多的婴儿哭泣,联系问题， 和developmental and mental health problems in children。因此，重要的是，我们必须更好地理解，识别和支持可能患有围产期焦虑症状的女性。

To shed some light on this, we recently held focus groups to explore women’s experience of anxiety in the perinatal period and gain insight into their opinions of online support. While我们的研究， 出版于BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth，在大流行开始之前进行，某些发现可能在我们社会疏远以防止Covid-19的传播时特别重要。

Anxiety Triggers

The study identified a number of specific sources of anxiety for women in the perinatal period. These included:

在锁定中，转向互联网以获取信息和在线同行支持可能特别有用。

(1) A mismatch between mothers’ reality and their expectations of childbirth and motherhood.社交媒体和传统媒体都包含浪漫化的描述，即怀孕和生孩子应该是什么样的，这可能会使母亲的期望设定不切实际，并且可以使妇女感到焦虑，就像她们的经历不太匹配时她们失败了。

“我只是为父母的诚实而挣扎。就像这些天有很多社交媒体在说您应该如何成为的事情一样。对我来说，实际上，就像最大的事情确实阻止了我认为实际上还可以，就像这是正常的一样。”

（2）不确定性和产妇信心。与第1点有关，许多妇女描述了在适应孕产的调整方面挣扎。与大量的研究表明焦虑症状与不确定性感觉之间存在显着联系的研究，这项研究中的妇女发现，怀孕和母性的未知数特别发人深省。They felt generally underprepared which often translated into a lack of maternal confidence and feeling like they weren’t doing it ‘right.’ This uncertainty stemmed from a general lack of experience with and knowledge about key aspects of motherhood, from giving birth to changing nappies and feeding.

“这是为什么人们那么挣扎。我中se we all go through our lives being good at a lot of things. You’ve established a career, you’ve established yourself, you’ve got qualifications. And then suddenly… this baby arrives and you’re not good at anything.”

(3) A lack of support.大多数女性都谈到孕产有时会孤立，这是一个很大的困扰根源。那些离朋友和家人很远的人觉得这是一个特别的焦虑来源。这可能是在锁定下特别关注的，尤其是因为我们研究中的大多数女性强调，她们的同龄人是围产期最重要的支持来源。

（4）Mental health literacy.A lack of recognition and knowledge about perinatal anxiety itself also contributed to anxiety symptoms, as women often didn’t know what was wrong with them. While many were able to find information about postnatal depression, few identified information about the anxious symptoms they were experiencing, which led them to feel distressed, confused, and increasingly anxious. This lack of knowledge and uncertainly about their situation acted as both a barrier to seeking support and as a trigger for spiraling anxiety.

在线支持

One of the key aims of the study was to explore women’s opinions of existing and potential online strategies for supporting perinatal anxiety.

Overwhelmingly, women in the study thought the Internet could be a valuable source of support for women experiencing perinatal anxiety. Specifically, they felt that being able to access unbiased evidence-based information about parenthood and anxiety itself could alleviate some of the uncertainty that underlay their anxiety symptoms. However, they were generally unable to find information on perinatal anxiety specifically. To address this, we have now developed an open-access website that provides evidence-based information explicitly about perinatal anxiety. Visit开放P.A.W.S.有关更多信息，筛选工具，自助指南和练习。

此外，妇女能够使用互联网获得同伴支持，这也有能力分解孕产的理想观念。尽管我们的研究表明，使用大型论坛（例如Mumsnet/Netmums）可能比缓解更具焦虑性，但许多妈妈发现，较小的目标群体确实有帮助。这些提供了一个机会，可以与母亲在与他们自己的位置相同的位置建立虚拟关系，并听取更现实的父母故事，这可以使自己的经历正常化。

“所以我们就不管。所以,如果你having a really naff day you’ll say Jesus Christ, the kids have done this, this and this. And someone goes oh tell me about it. And it’s just somebody, like, who’s feeling the same thing as you, so it’s not completely like… all the social media where it’s this perfect mum… it’s well I’m here with cereal stuck in my hair and it’s two o’clock in the afternoon. So at least with that it was other normal mums that were just like yeah, I’m doing the same thing as you. So you didn’t feel so alone.”

隔离和锁定

在锁定中，当孤立感可能进一步加剧焦虑症状时，转向互联网以获取信息，在线同伴支持可能特别有用。找到有关围产期焦虑（例如OpenPAWS）和有针对性的同伴支持的可靠，现实的信息来源（例如The Perinatal Mental Health International Online Peer Support Group）在这段时间内缓解焦虑症状可能特别有益。