Report No. 4. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care during pregnancy

Abstract

In March 2020, the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 created an international health and care crisis. In Catalonia, as in many other places in Spain, Europe, and the world, health services were overwhelmed and at risk of collapse, not only to respond to the ravages caused by the new disease but also to address other situations, such as care for pregnant women before, during, and after childbirth. In this context, the measures adopted in the health services to face the emergency scenario caused important alterations in the processes of maternity care as it had been carried out up to that moment. Furthermore, some voices denounced that the sexual and reproductive rights of women during pregnancy, labor, or postpartum were being subordinated to the demands of the management of the pandemic and, on some occasions, violated. Based on the interest in understanding the extent and the way in which health care for women was affected at such a fundamental moment in their lives, the Inclusive Societies, Policies and Communities Research Group (SopCI) and the UNESCO Chair Women, Development and Cultures of the Universitat de Vic- Universitat Central de Catalunya promoted the research project Sexual and Reproductive Rights in times of pandemic: maternity and COVID-19 in Catalonia. The project initially received funding from the Ministry of Equality (Secretary of State for Equality and against Gender Violence/State Pact against Gender Violence). Subsequently it also received funding from the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR0657). The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya. Beyond the publications and other scientific results derived from the project, we believe that the data generated are of great relevance to, firstly, shed light of situations, not always positive, that thousands of women in Catalonia had to live at a time in their lives with an enormous need for care and support. Therefore, it also seems important to us to publish the main results of the research in this brief report format to make them accessible to different audiences.