Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic, with its multidimensional consequences, is the most serious threat of the 21st century affecting the mental health of women in the perinatal period around the world. Resilience, which assumes the flexible use of an individual’s resources in facing adversity, is an important, protective factor influencing mental well-being. The presented study aimed to determine to what extent psychological resilience, mitigates the relationship between adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and symptoms of depression and anxiety in women in the perinatal period. Methods: We recruited pregnant women from 17 February to 13 October 2021, using social media, the parenting portal, and the snowball method. To assess mental well-being, we used: The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2), Self-report Labour Anxiety Questionnaire—LAQ and the self-developed COVID-19 Pandemic Anxiety Questionnaire (CRAQ). Resilience was measured usingthe Resilience Measure Questionnaire (KOP26). Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), an independent t-test, and a Pearson correlation analysis were performed. Results: Low resilience was significantly associated with depressive symptoms (r = −0.46; p < 0.05) and anxiety related to childbirth (r = −0.21; p < 0.05). No associations were found for resilience and pandemic-related stress. Very high and high perinatal anxiety along with the lowest level of resilience clustered with EPDS and BDI-2 scores indicating depression. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that lower levels of resilience during pregnancy may be a significant predictor of increased severity of depressive symptoms and higher levels of anxiety related to childbirth among the perinatal population.

Objective: The armed conflict in Ukraine and its impact on Europe's economy have led to an war and economic crisis, potentially affecting the mental health of women during the perinatal period. This study aimed to assess the severity of depressive symptoms and labor anxiety among Polish women in perinatal period during this crisis. Methods: From June 2, 2022, to April 11, 2023, 152 women completed three sets of online surveys-two during pregnancy (before 33 weeks and/or between 33 and 37 weeks) and one postpartum (4 weeks after childbirth). The questionnaires used to evaluate the anxiety and depressive symptoms included Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2), Labor Anxiety Questionnaire (LAQ), and team-developed questionnaires evaluating war-related anxiety (WAQ) and global situation anxiety (GSAQ) Statistical analyses included U-Mann Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Friedman tests and Spearman's correlations, with a significance level set at p < .05. Results: Among Polish pregnant women aged 23-43, 31.6% of participants experienced depressive symptoms, while 70.4% reported increased labor-related anxiety. Additionally, 24.3% experienced significant anxiety due to the war, and 25% suffered from severe anxiety related to the global situation. Positive correlations were noted between EPDS and GSAQ scores (R = 0.34, p < .001) and LAQ and WAQ scores (R = 0.21, p = .008). Conclusions: The prevalence of perinatal depression is high during war and economic crisis, underscoring the urgent need to improve screening for perinatal depression in Poland. Further, the manuscript did not discuss symptom patterns across the three time points.

Introduction and objective: Multiple studies worldwide have shown that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increased risk of depression and anxiety in women during the perinatal period. This study aimed to assess the severity of this phenomenon in the Polish population, and to investigate the potential risk factors and their relationship with COVID-19 related anxiety and labour anxiety. Materials and methods: Between February and November 2021, 122 women in the perinatal period were recruited to complete three sets of surveys: two during pregnancy and one during puerperium. The questionnaires used to evaluate the anxiety and depressive symptoms included Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Labour Anxiety Questionnaire and COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Anxiety Questionnaire. Results: It was shown that 26.2% of participants had symptoms indicating at least mild depression, and 61.4% of participants had increased labour anxiety. Women with a documented history of COVID-19 infection had significantly higher level of labour anxiety, whereas the severity of depression was not higher in their case. A positive correlation between COVID-19 related anxiety score and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score was found. The main concern associated with COVID-19 was the anxiety about the separation from the new-born baby, which was even higher than the fear of potential harm to the new-born resulting from COVID-19. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the percentage of women with perinatal depression during COVID-19 pandemic may have been higher than previously reported and it may be vital to improve perinatal screening of depression in Poland.