Table 2.
The main themes and extracted categories
| Theme | Category | Sub-category |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Fear of disease | Reducing maternal referrals for prenatal and postnatal care | Reduction in the number of prenatal care referrals in health centers |
| Reduction in the number of referrals to hospital centers | ||
| Reduction in the activity of private offices | ||
| The preference of mothers to give birth in safe centers | Tendency to delivery in private centers | |
| The increased mothers’ referrals to non-hospital delivery centers | ||
| concerns on maternity complications | Neglecting the complications of pregnancy and childbirth | |
| Attention to and focus on COVID-19 | ||
| Workplace insecurity | Unknown nature of the disease | |
| Asymptomatic carriers | ||
| shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) | ||
| 2. Burnout | The increased workload | New roles |
| Infection of employees and staff shortages | ||
| The reduced family relationships | concern on transmitting the disease to the family | |
| Entrusting children to grandparents and staying away from them | ||
| lack of motivational factors | Lack of encouraging supports | |
| Comparing their working conditions with other staff | ||
| Lack of empathy of officials | ||
| 3.Lessons learned by the COVID-19 Pandemic | Adaptation to new conditions | The increased knowledge about the disease to overcome conditions |
| Enhanced team working among staff | ||
| Inter team cooperation | ||
| The need to strengthen and support maternity health services | Providing consulting services to staff | |
| Providing a platform for maternity care at home | ||
| Using the capacity of telemedicine for maternity services | ||
| The need for incentive processes for maternity care staff | ||
| The need for performing rapid screening tests in birth centers |