PREGNANCY EXPERIENCE DURING COVID-19 : KEY CHALLENGES AND DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused problem in a particular sensitive area: pregnancy, a moment with a significant impact on women's life. Prior research in this area has examined how women experience and manage pregnancy. However, it is still unclear how the experience of pregnant women is affected by key challenges arising from COVID-19. This research acts as a prerequisite study which can serve as a base for future design research in HCI (Human Computer Interaction). This study used semi-structured interviews in order to collect data. Participants in this study were recruited from two countries, India and Sweden, using initial purposive sampling followed by snowball sampling method. A qualitative analysis was carried out on the data, which showed that the key challenges faced by pregnant women during COVID-19 were as follows: social life, emotion and online/remote support. The study revealed that participants felt isolated and were deprived of social contact during their pregnancy, and that the feeling of women's partners being separated from the mother and baby during doctor visits and their other pregnancy related activities impacted both partners negatively. Moreover, while pregnancy application were used to compansate for these needs, such applications were typically lacking in accuracy of information on the participants specific needs, and were thus not well-suited for used during the pandemic. Thus, HCI experts need to look at design solutions considering pregnant women needs during pandemic situations.