COVID in the Context of Pregnancy, Infancy and Parenting (CoCoPIP) Study.
COVID-19 has affected our lives in many ways. Many of us will have been affected emotionally, financially, medically and socially. We have had to change the way we work, how much time we spend at home, and how we socialise with friends and family. There have also been changes to the availability of social support networks such as antenatal or mum and baby groups, and health services such as GP appointments and routine health checks.
The purpose of this research study is to understand the physical, psychological and social impacts of COVID-19 on expectant and new parents, and how young infants are affected by changes in the way that we interact with others.
As well as being interested in how the COVID-19 public health challenge is affecting life now, we would also like to understand how the effects change over time, gathering information from families at four stages of the parenting journey:
- during the second trimester of pregnancy
- during the third trimester of pregnancy
- when baby is 0-3 months
- when baby is 3-6 months
The study explores both fetal development, antenatal healthcare and support, parental mental health and support as well as their infants social and cognitive development. The families are able to join the study anywhere from their 1st trimester of pregnancy til their infant in 7 months old. Its open to any caregiver to complete (not just the mother), and to date we’ve have over 1600 families partake.
This study is being run by a multidisciplinary team drawing on expertise from the Departments of Psychology and Education at Cambridge as well as the Department of Social Policy and Intervention from Oxford. Currently they are publishing some of their initial qualitative data relating to parental perceptions of their antenatal support and healthcare during the pandemic, and are keen to give families a voice.