21 Jun ARC researchers evaluate impact of pandemic on maternity healthcare services reconfiguration
Home › News & insights › Latest news
21 June 2023
ARC researchers evaluate impact of pandemic on maternity healthcare services reconfiguration
Researchers in the ARC’s maternity and perinatal mental health theme interviewed maternity healthcare professionals about their experience of working in the first year of the pandemic, analysing decisions made and their positive and negative impacts.
About the study
Published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. Part of a broader project evaluating the pandemic’s impact on maternity care services reconfiguration and how services can recover to be more resilient against future health shocks.
The study explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on decisions made by maternity services. Sergio A. Silverio led the team in obtaining data from a hospital in south London throughout 2020 by interviewing maternity care staff.
Responses highlighted both positive and negative aspects of their experience. Healthcare workers described how they used three types of decision-making paradigms to navigate the pandemic.
Three decision-making paradigms identified
Reflective decision-making — opportunities for improvement
Found to have provided unique opportunities to improve the care provided. This encompassed various practices of staff empowerment including flexible working patterns (both individual and collective) as well as more personalised care delivery for patients.
Pragmatic decision-making — necessary responses
Decisions and practices undertaken as a necessity due to the nature of the pandemic. This included Covid-19 protection measures — social distancing, PPE, masks, and minimal patient contact.
Though workers understood the importance of these measures, they were concerned about their impact on care, including the increased difficulty in establishing a rapport with patients due to social distancing.
Reactive decision-making — significant challenges
Rapid changes to guidelines and mixed information on protection against Covid-19 resulted in significant issues and the devaluation of maternity care. Workers described how reactive decision-making within healthcare created considerable strain.
“The physical and mental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are well-documented after more than three years of research. However, the healthcare workforce — especially in maternity care — is still struggling to recover. Our analysis of workforce decision-making can ensure when we write policy to inform future practice and service delivery, we help prepare healthcare professionals to make decisions resulting in the best possible care.”
Lead author
Implications for post-pandemic recovery
The authors argue that the benefits of reflective and pragmatic decision-making during the pandemic could be key to a successful rebuild in a post-pandemic climate. This would include:
✓
Incorporating the innovations which arose from reflective decision-making during the pandemic
✓
Utilising a pragmatic decision-making framework with a greater focus on minimising disruption to care
The authors also hope that developing this analysis of decision-making can provide a general framework for health systems to help healthcare professionals and policymakers navigate future crises.
Further work from this project
The team are now conducting similar analyses in children’s healthcare to see whether similar patterns are shown in other healthcare services. Additional published work from this project includes:
- 📄
Race issues among women and children’s healthcare professionals — published in eClinicalMedicine - 📄
Maternity care precarity and preparedness — published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica - 📄
Women’s perceptions of maternity care during the pandemic — published in Midwifery - 📄
Psycho-social experiences of women during the pandemic — published in Women and Birth
📄
Read the full paper
Decision-making paradigms used by maternity healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative evaluation
Related content
- →
Post-pandemic resilient maternity care (RESILIENT study) - →
Changing maternity care during Covid-19: implications for virtual and remote care - →
Maternity and perinatal mental health research at ARC South London - →
ARC South London Covid-19 research
Original source: arc-sl.nihr.ac.uk — NIHR ARC South London legacy content archived May 2026.
No Comments