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Table 2 An example of the process of extracting a theme from semantic units, codes

From: Maternal mental health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran: a content analysis study

Semantic units

Primary codes

Subcategory

category

category

… It was constantly said on TV that someone got corona and died of it and…..I would definitely die of corona disease because I was pregnant

Hearing the death of people repeatedly

Fear of her own death

Fear of death

maternal mental health threats

…When I hear the news of the death of people who are infected, I am really stressed and I am afraid that I will die too…

…. I am sure I will die because I am pregnant I know I will die ….

Increased fear of dying due to pregnancy

So far, some pregnant have been infected and died … I was also afraid to die…

In my previous pregnancy, a woman's baby was stillborn. Sometimes I worry that my baby will die during childbirth or die in my womb! When I worry like this, I go to the doctor, and when I hear the baby's heartbeat, I calm down

The experience of hearing the death of another's fetus and the fear of its occurrence

Fear of fetal death

It happened to one of my colleagues that the umbilical cord got wrapped around his baby's neck and died, I'm afraid it will happen to me and my baby will die

My stress is so that nothing happens to my baby in these 9 months and I spend this period healthy and my baby is born healthy and alive

Fear of having an unfortunate event and losing the fetus during pregnancy

Fear of Premature Birth

Pregnancy threat

I am very afraid of premature birth, I say to myself, lest water sac rupture, lest I bleed, the baby will be born soon

My brother-in-law's wife, my sister-in-law, and my brother's wife had a history of abortion, and I was also afraid of having an abortion, so for the first three months of my pregnancy, I was only at home and I was only praying that my child would not miscarry

Fear of having a history of recurrent abortion and repeating them

Fear of Abortion

… I have a history of two miscarriages, one of which had no heart, and now I am all stressed to get to the 18th week of pregnancy and go through it safely