- there's some evidence that healthcare in general can benefit from deliberate less intervention by patients and medical staff [0]
- maternity intervention is notorious for intervention (historically for good reasons) yet, today, so much extra can be profited by just pre-planning interventions that are distorting incentives [1]
- pandemic has raised the stakes of leaving home, particularly visiting hospitals so people think twice before deciding to go for intervention - patients preserveer more. That includes expecting mothers.
[0] this an opinion https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/19/patien...
[1] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/too-much-too-soon-address...
Also, I couldn't find reference in the article where they describe that data as being excluded..
"By staying home, some pregnant women may have experienced less stress from work and commuting, gotten more sleep and received more support from their families, the researchers said."
I am not saying air pollution should be dismissed as a factor, but the elephant in the room is that the stress levels experienced in a _lot_ of workplaces are not compatible with pregnancy.
It is also unfair to expect someone to just be 'equally performing' in the workplace during pregnancy.
From an evolutionary standpoint high stress levels are created by threats, if there are threats you are better off (from an evolutionary standpoint) suffering a miscarriage or early pregnancy since you would more likely be alive to try another pregnancy later when the external conditions present no threats.
A good piece of general evidence I once heard against this is: premature births & miscarriages did not increase in London during The Blitz (I think they may have even reduced). There's a big narrative around stress and all of its wild short-term health implications, but I'm not convinced it translates into reality. It's not easy to measure.
People are changing interpersonal work stress for interpersonal family stress which is itself magnified by the circumstances, plus the stress of a pandemic.
I have no idea what the cause could be, but to argue that "premie births are down because stress is down" can't possibly by tested right now, when stress is at an all-time high.
Also, I wasn’t exposed to all the other random illnesses besides Covid-19.
If this wasn’t our first kid, I probably would have been more stressed due to childcare problems, though.
This being Germany, I’ve been off work since I hit week 34, pandemic or no pandemic.
I was equally performing during pregnancy. The thing about pregnancy is that it varies a lot.
I am not sure how to word this but I think there is a distinction between the anxiety experienced during the current pandemic and a more extreme 'high cortisol' 'high adrenaline' stress.
This would be the type of stress you would experience if someone threathened you with a knife or a gun on the street. The problem is that a lot of people experience a very similar hormonal response but induced by for example being berated face-to-face by an abusive employer or getting into a near confrontation with someone in traffic or public transport.
The anxiety you describe is indeed 'stressful' and arguably we all have different experiences but I would speculate that if you experience anxiety about the current situation but in the confort of your home and with all your basic needs met, than perhaps that will still generate less 'hormonal' stress levels than the face-to-face interactions associated with some workplaces, commutes, etc.
From anegdotal evidence it seems to me interpersonal relations in families got better because of lockdowns and working remotely.
Depends where you live and on your lifestyle. I know that for me and close friends it actually has the opposite effect, I'm much more chill than before covid and I doubt we're the only ones.
In any case; just because a pandemic is stressful doesn't necessarily mean that stress that matters here isn't lower. All those various strains don't affect us in the same way.