The Emotional Landscape of Pregnancy and Postpartum during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: A Mixed-Method Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the perinatal emotional landscape in Italy, a country that had high mortality and implemented strict lockdown during pandemic. This study explores emotions challenges of pregnant postpartum women pandemic, using AI-based mixed methods. analyzed 1774 from national survey COVID-ASSESS: 1136 638 women. qualitative questions on feelings related to birth, communication with healthcare professionals, media, peers family. We used natural language processing machine learning classify emotions, identify themes, extract citations data. Fear anxiety replaced joy as dominant pandemic: trust decreased by 49.3% 36.4%, respectively, while sadness fear increased 52.3% 49.3%, respectively. also induced loneliness, isolation, frustration, anger. Women faced HCPs, They coping strategies such self-care, news limitation, trying cultivate gratitude hope. provides comprehensive exploration Italian findings underscore significant psychological impact highlight women’s resilience strategies.