The work focuses on the experience of pregnancy, childbirth and the six-month postpartum period during the Covid-19 epidemic in Slovenia. It also looks in depth at the experiences of (expectant) fathers during their partner's pregnancy, during labour and after the birth. The epidemic proved to be a major risk factor for mental health problems, and vulnerable groups (such as couples expecting a baby) were even more exposed during the epidemic. Given the heavy burden on the health care system, which is the main professional area in the treatment of pregnant women in our country, we used a quantitative survey in the empirical part of the study to examine to what extent the needs of expectant mothers were nevertheless met and to what extent any lack of treatment caused them stress. The expectation of a child has, however, not only a physical, biological dimension, but also a social and emotional dimension, which have been limited due to the epidemic, and to which the research also pays attention. In the qualitative part of the research, we also focus on the experiences of the expectant fathers, who often received (too) little attention during their partner's pregnancy. In it, we identify what this meant for fathers in terms of connecting with their newborn and taking on the new social role of father.
The value of the findings lies above all in the potential to improve the situation of parents-to-be, who deserve all the support, information and help they can get from their environment.
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