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Category: Project

Description: This prospective study investigated the relationship between pregnant women’s mental and physical well-being during COVID-19 pandemic and the course of pregnancy, labour and her child’s health and development. More than 5000 women from all over Poland completed questionnaires. The survey focused on received support, anxiety and depression experienced by pregnant women. It also included questions about exposure to COVID-19, mother’s resilience, child’s temperament, and father’s information (including adverse childhood experiences). We also investigated the problem of access to medical services and the impact of pandemic restrictions. To measure biomarkers of stress exposure and pace of biological ageing we gathered mother’s and child’s hair and nail samples for cortisol levels measurements and chick swabs for telomere length. The project results aid in understanding the complex net of relations between mother’s and child’s health and stress exposure, and the possible buffering effect of social support and resilience.