Caring and being cared for: Pregnant women in the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The health and social drama experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted health services, work, household, and social life, generating harmful consequences for women’s reproductive lives. This article presents the results of a qualitative study based on narrative interviews with 31 women who experienced pregnancies between 2020 and 2021. This work aimed to understand how the pandemic affected their experience of pregnancy and their care conditions. Although challenges regarding access and quality of assistance were expected, the atmosphere of fear and insecurity caused by misinformation and the irresponsibility of the federal government’s actions had an indescribable deleterious impact on their lives. The outcomes on women’s daily lives, sociability, and work resulted in overload, exhaustion, insecurity, loneliness, fear, and anguish, with immense physical and psycho-emotional repercussions.