Becoming a New Parent During the Pandemic: Experiences of Pregnancy, Birth, and the Post-Natal Period

New parenthood in ordinary times can be a sensitive and unpredictable time. The Covid-19 pandemic brought additional, unprecedented changes to policy and practice that drastically impacted on the experiences of parents. This study aimed to generate data to enhance understanding of the experiences of new parents during the pandemic by qualitatively analysing their experiences. New parents from the UK (N = 303; female = 297; male = 7) responded to a survey asking about experiences of pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period and their experiences of digital technology during this time. Responses were analysed thematically by drawing across the three time periods. Parents reported conflicting feelings, negative feelings and silver linings cutting across eight themes that we developed, including: impacts on well-being, feeling without a village, changes to healthcare, atypical social experiences as a new parent, differential impacts on financial and working lives, conflicting feelings around digital technology, anger and worry regarding contradictory government guidance and recommendations for other parents. The findings offer much needed insights into the experiences of new parents during this time and provide some context to elevated levels of perinatal mental health difficulties in new parents during the pandemic. We suggest key recommendations going forwards in the care of new parents both now, and in times of future national crisis.