Motherhood: Examining the social well-being and social support of mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mothers have had an immense responsibility for the protection of children for centuries and this responsibility has grown with the occurrence of catastrophic world events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and health pandemics such as Covid-19. Covid-19 (C-19P) is a fatal virus that has infected more than 101 million individuals and has resulted in the death of more than 2.18 million people as of 2021 (Koutsakos et al., 2021). The complications of the virus have proven to be deadly. When not deadly, individuals are still at risk of adverse effects of the virus, both directly and indirectly. Mothers having to manage through a health crisis, such as C-19P, has revealed some of the negative effects related to motherhood, which includes concerns about their health and well-being. Research reveals the C-19P virus posing not only threats to one’s physical health, but also one’s mental health (including fear of death or becoming ill), loosing family members because of the illness, loosing livelihood including employment and income, and being socially excluded from family and friends (Ghebreyesus 2020). The long standing physical and mental consequences present increasing concerns to this public health crisis. The uncertainties of the virus have resulted in elevated mental and behavioral health conditions including anxiety, depression, substance use, trauma, and stress (Czeisler et al., 2020).