Uptrend in distress and psychiatric symptomatology in pregnant women during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract Introduction Prenatal maternal distress has a negative impact on the course of pregnancy, fetal development, offspring development, and later psychopathologies. The study aimed to determine the extent to which the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic may aggravate the prenatal distress and psychiatric symptomatology of pregnant women. Material and methods Two cohorts of pregnant volunteer women were evaluated, one that was recruited before the COVID‐19 pandemic (n = 496) through advertisements in prenatal clinics in Quebec, Canada, from April 2018 to March 2020; the other (n = 1258) was recruited online during the pandemic from 2 April to 13 April 2020. Prenatal distress and psychiatric…