Mother-infant bonding and postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic - a risk for nurturing care and child development.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic Increased the risk of impairing the mother-infant bonding. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the early bond established between mother and infant and postpartum depression (PPD) in pregnancies that occurred during the pandemic period, to identify the factors that may have influenced these outcomes and to verify if there was an association between bonding and probable PPD.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of postpartum women from a public maternity hospital in the city of São Paulo conducted from February to June 2021, involving 127 mother-baby dyads.