Documenting Motherhood Stories and Stressers during COVID-19

Abstract

For birth persons, the COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges further compounding difficulties faced by new mothers. This “COVID-19 and new Motherhood Experiences” project examines the experiences of those who gave birth during the pandemic. Along with generating stories, the project utilizes a photo and map archive to give context to experiences. The work is inspired by A Journal of the Plague Year project, a national rapid-response archive. Within that national project, ours is one of five locally funded projects gathering stories on the impact of COVID-19 on the people of the Great Plains, focusing on those who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Partially, the “COVID-19 and new Motherhood Experiences” project seeks to make visible how health disparities caused by the intersecting inequities of race, class, and ethnicity are exacerbated during a pandemic. We recruited women by partnering with local non-profits working with new mothers, utilized surveys, and conducted semi-structured interviews via Zoom. Research participants were from the Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska areas; 19 years of age and older; who gave birth after January 30, 2020—the date the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Researchers employed critical reflexivity and inclusive, empowering methods from feminist cultural geography and cultural anthropology. Preliminary findings center on six themes: 1) “normal” birth motherhood stressers, 2) missing support systems, 3) having increased stressors, 4) not being listened to by their healthcare providers, 5) dissimilar priorities of mothers and providers, and 6) taking extra precautions because of the pandemic.