LAUSR

According Khamees et al. study [1] entitled “Anxiety and depression during pregnancy in the era of COVID-19” that was published in June 2021 in your valuable journal, we wanted to share our experience of the fear and anxiety of the pregnant women of being infected by COVID-19 in themselves and their newborns. This study was performed in Sistan, a very deprived area in Iran where the Delta has caused many deaths because its high infection ability and transferability [2]. One of the high risk groups for COVID-19 infection is pregnant women and psychological well-being of these women is important. Findings of previous studies during severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 showed that they experienced high levels of anxiety and worries [3, 4] which could affect maternal and fetus wellbeing. Preterm delivery, low birth weight and caesarean deliveries are consequence of prenatal stress [5, 6]. In this study pregnant women were asked to fill the valid and reliable Persian version of Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) [7]. BAI included 21 questions, each had multi-choice responses and scoring between 0 and 3. Scores between 0 and 7 showed no anxiety, scores between 8 and 15 showed mild and scores between 16 and 25 were indicatives of moderate anxiety and scores more than 26 showing severe anxiety. Data regarding age, gestational age, knowledge regarding routes of transmission, prevention methods, conduction diagnostic tests, symptoms during the pandemic stage, following quarantine rules, and if one of the relatives had COVID-19. One hundred and 49 pregnant women participated in this study. The mean ± SD (standard deviation) age and gestational age were 27.6 ± 6.2 years and 21.2 ± 10 weeks respectively. The mean ± SD of BAI score was 10.1 ± 7.4 which indicated mild anxiety. Basic characteristics of the participants as well as the complications and their anxiety levels are shown in Table 1. The results showed that more than half of pregnant women were anxious and there was no significant difference regarding pregnancy trimester and level of anxiety. We also found that 94% were worried about getting COVID-19 and 97% were worried about their neonate’s infection. In a study which was conducted by Liu et al., 1947 pregnant women were evaluated. They found that near 90% of the participants found themselves vulnerable for this infection and forth-fifth felt nervous [8]. Anxiety status was reported in 24.5% in Wuhan participants and 10.4% in participants of Chongqing [8]. The anxiety was more common in our pregnant women. Except