Study design and participants
This was a prospective case-control study on HRQoL and QoC for pregnant and postnatal women attending the Rotunda Hospital, a tertiary maternity hospital in Ireland, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women were recruited from June to July 2020 to complete three validated questionnaires; The Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), CORE-Outcome Measure Questionnaire (CORE-OM) and Quality from the Patient’s Perspective (QPP), as well as provide basic anonymous demographic information. Data was anonymously collected and was not linked to maternal medical records. All questionnaires were completed with recruited women by a single researcher for consistency. Women were recruited from prenatal, delivery and postnatal wards, as well as a voluntary COVID registry. The latter is an institutional registry of pregnant women who tested positive by polymerase chain reaction for SARS-CoV-2, and consented to being contacted for future research. 18 women who were SARS-CoV-2 positive consented to complete this research project. 20 perinatal women who had no signs, symptoms or positive SARS-CoV-2 results were recruited as case-controls. Women were eligible to participate if they attended the maternity unit during the COVID pandemic, if they had capacity, spoke English and were at least 18 years old.