COCOON: Continuing care in COVID-19 outbreak: A global survey of bereaved parent experiences

COCOON is a global research study currently being coordinated by The Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted the provision of healthcare and efficiency of healthcare systems and is likely to have profound implications for pregnant and postpartum women and their families including those who experience the tragedy of stillbirth or neonatal death. This study aims to understand the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 and the experiences of parents who have accessed maternity, neonatal and bereavement care services during this time. We aim to explore the perspectives and experiences of parents to understand:

• Maternity and perinatal bereavement care practices during the COVID-19 pandemic (eg, labour and birth practices) including the support services available (both formal and informal), and public health limitations (eg, visitors to hospital, presence of partners during prenatal care and childbirth); and how these vary across countries, hospital settings and geographical locations (ie, metropolitan vs rural).
• The psychosocial impact of COVID-19 including stress, social loneliness, anxiety and depression symptoms.
• Satisfaction with information provided about COVID-19 during pregnancy and postpartum.
• Preventive measures taken by parents to protect themselves and others against COVID-19 (eg, decreased health service utilisation).

This international collaborative study involves participants from 15 countries including Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, and USA and it aims to explore the experiences of pregnant and postpartum women, and their partners accessing maternity and postnatal care during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The results of this study are expected to inform strategies to improve not only pregnancy and postpartum care but also the bereavement care for women, their partners, and their families during this or any future similar outbreak(s).

PUDDLES: Nested qualitative interview study

Several COCOON country coordinating centres are also participating in an international, nested, qualitative interview study. This study is titled ‘The experiences of Parents who sUffer pregnancy loss and whose babies died During the panDemic: A quaLitative study of latE-term miscarriage, Stillbirth and neonatal death’ (PUDDLES). The aim is to further explore the experiences of bereaved parents following a late-term miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death during the COVID-19 pandemic.