Many mothers may have delayed or abandoned plans for additional children because of COVID-19 pandemic

Date:
September 15, 2021
Source:
NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Summary:
Nearly half of New York City mothers who had been trying to become
pregnant again before the coronavirus pandemic began stopped in
the first few months of the outbreak, a new study shows.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Nearly half of New York City mothers who had been trying to become
pregnant again before the coronavirus pandemic began stopped in the
first few months of the outbreak, a new study shows.


==========================================================================
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the survey of
1,179 mothers in New York City also found that one-third of women who
had been thinking about becoming pregnant before the pandemic but had
not yet begun trying, said they were no longer considering it.

"Our findings show that the initial COVID-19 outbreak appears to have
made women think twice about expanding their families and, in some cases, reduce the number of children they ultimately intend to have," says study
lead author and epidemiologist Linda Kahn, PhD, MPH. "This is yet another example of the potential long-lasting consequences of the pandemic beyond
the more obvious health and economic effects." Pregnancy becomes riskier
and more difficult to achieve as women age, so the delays prompted by the pandemic may lead to increased health risks for both mother and child,
as well as the need for costly fertility treatments, she adds.

Kahn, an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and
Population Health at NYU Langone Health, notes that all of the women in
the study already had at least one child age 3 or younger. As a result,
it is possible that the challenges of caring for a young child during
the peak of New York City's outbreak and subsequent lockdown may have
played a role in their hesitancy to have another baby.

Early evidence has already identified a birthrate decline in the
United States during the coronavirus pandemic. Recent data showed that
the country saw roughly 300,000 fewer births in 2020 than experts had
expected based on annual fertility trends, with a particular drop in the
last two months of the year, which corresponds with fewer conceptions
at the beginning of the outbreak in March. However, until now, few investigations have explored the root causes behind individual parents' decisions to delay pregnancy.



==========================================================================
The new study, publishing online Sept. 15 in the JAMA Network Open,
is the first to examine pregnancy plans among mothers during the first
wave of COVID- 19 in New York City.

For the investigation, the researchers analyzed data from an ongoing
pregnancy and child health study. In the survey, which collected data
beginning in mid- April 2020, the mothers were asked to recall their
pregnancy plans before the pandemic as well as whether they were still
going forward with their plans at the time of the survey.

Among the findings, the study revealed that fewer than half of mothers
who had stopped trying to become pregnant were certain they would resume
trying to become pregnant once the pandemic ended, suggesting that they
may abandon rather than just delay their plans to expand their families,
Kahn says.

In addition, those with higher stress levels and greater financial
insecurity were especially likely to postpone or end their plans for an additional child.

According to the study authors, this finding highlights the importance
of financial health in parents' decisions around pregnancy and suggests
that additional financial support for families may be needed to address
the nation's ongoing fertility decline, which began in 2008.

"These results emphasize the toll the coronavirus has taken not only on individual parents, but perhaps on fertility rates overall," says study
senior author epidemiologist Melanie Jacobson, PhD, MPH.

Jacobson, a research scientist in the Division of Environmental Pediatrics
at NYU Langone, cautions that the investigation only included women
who were planning to have children and did not account for unplanned pregnancies.

She says the study authors next plan to repeat the survey with the
same group of mothers and explore the potential impact of vaccination,
an option not available at the time of the survey.

Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health
grants UH3 0D023305 and K99 ES030403.

In addition to Kahn and Jacobson, other NYU Langone researchers included Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP; Mengling Liu, PhD; Shilpi Mehta-Lee, MD;
and Sara Brubakerf, MD.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by NYU_Langone_Health_/_NYU_Grossman_School_of_Medicine.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Linda G. Kahn, Leonardo Trasande, Mengling Liu, Shilpi S. Mehta-Lee,
Sara
G. Brubaker, Melanie H. Jacobson. Factors Associated With Changes in
Pregnancy Intention Among Women Who Were Mothers of Young Children
in New York City Following the COVID-19 Outbreak. JAMA Network Open,
2021; 4 (9): e2124273 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.24273 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210915111002.htm

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