Analysis of Postpartum Patients in a Survey of New Mothers in North Carolina

The postpartum period represents a formative time when new mothers face waves of physical and mental changes and health and wellness concerns, many of which were exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Using survey data from mothers who gave birth during COVID, I aim to extract a narrative that highlights some of the potential shortcomings in postpartum care in the context of COVID and examine their demand for telehealth-based postpartum care. The survey was administered in September 2020 to 254 new and expecting mothers in North Carolina. I employed mixed methods to examine characteristics of new mothers who gave birth during the early portion of the COVID pandemic, find commonalities between them, and examine their perspectives on care. More specifically, (1) describe the sample population (2) examine patient perspectives on their care, and (3) determining correlations between telehealth use and insurance, telehealth use and demographic characteristics, and telehealth use and patient experience. Together, I hope my findings will draw a clear picture from the survey data and inform my advisor’s future work.Master of Science in Information Scienc