COVID-19 Salgını Sırasında Deneyimlenen İlk Annelik Yaşantıları: Nitel Bir Çalışma
First-time Motherhood Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Summary/Abstract: It has been known that the factors such as social isolation, restrictions, health concerns, and weakened support networks experienced during the pandemic period has positive and negative effects on new mothers both in the prenatal and postnatal period. Therefore, it is important to comprehensively examine the experiences of mothers in terms of caregiving responsibilities, relationships, and coping with new motherhood during the COVID-19 period. Accordingly, in this study, it was aimed to have information about the experiences of new mothers during the COVID-19 period. In this study, information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 16 female participants who became mothers for the first time during the pandemic period. The ages of the participants ranged from 26 to 38 (M = 32, SD = 3.48). A total of 14 questions were developed by the researchers in order to have in-depth information about women’s experiences of becoming a mother during the COVID-19 period, the effects of the pandemic period on their family life, coping strategies in the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether they received social support during the baby care process. The interviews were individually conducted on online platforms. The obtained data were evaluated by content analysis. Interrater reliability was found to vary between .81 and .91. The results indicated that being a first-time mother and being a working mother during the COVID-19 period is disadvantageous. It was observed that mothers frequently used active coping strategies and most frequently received social support from family of origin and spouse. Moreover, most of the participants stated that father-infant relationships were positively affected by the pandemic process. Mothers reported financial loss, emotional distress, and difficulties in accessing social support during the pandemic, highlighting the challenges of first-time motherhood during this period.

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