| Theme 1: Perceptions of the benefits of telehealth during the pandemic |
“Truthfully, for a lot of the early prenatal visits, you just sat in the waiting room for what felt like 10 hours, you peed in a cup, and you waited in the exam room for 10 hours. Then, it was a quick Doppler belly check, a quick ‘How are you doing?’, [a] blood pressure check, [and] ‘All good. Great. We’ll see you in a month.’ So that’s it. I can do the blood pressure at home. I could do the Doppler, theoretically. I could do weight at home.” [G1, patient 13] “Well, I think it is very cool that they’re doing virtual visits. One thing that I thought was really neat is that, at my doctor’s appointment, they gave me a Doppler so I can listen to the baby’s heartbeat at home . . . I was very pleasantly surprised. I felt like, you know, unless there’s something major going on, that a virtual visit every now and then was totally appropriate.” [G1, patient 12] “Virtual visits are a big deal . . . I was comfortable doing one. Of course, if there was something I was concerned about it, I could come in. I think it is just less enjoyable to come in because, you know, in the back of your head, you are worried about the possibility of being exposed to someone, especially if you are in a medical building.” [G2, patient 4] “I feel great about it. They sent me home with a blood pressure cuff and I want to say . . . a Doppler. I think that, with the baby and stuff, it really . . . you minimize your exposure, and you don’t have to drive back and forth and sit in a waiting room. So, I feel like as long as you’re healthy and everything’s good, then these are great options.” [G2, patient 10]
|
| Theme 2: Reassurance that comes from in-person clinical visits with an obstetric provider |
“She [her provider] said she’d send us home with Dopplers to listen to the baby’s heart at home, which is like, ‘Woah. I’m supposed to sit there and try to find it?’ I can’t even think about that. So, it’s definitely weird and different and not what I expected at all. It makes me nervous that the doctor won’t be right there to do it for me, like someone who went to school for this and is trained in this.” [G1, patient 3] “I don’t necessarily feel a virtual visit with my provider offers the same thing that an in-person appointment would, for example, with measuring your fundal height or making sure the heart rate is good. Unless you have the tools at home or the knowledge, you wouldn’t have the ability to make sure you’re on track compared to your provider doing that in person.” [G1, patient 10] “I would like more in person visits versus the telehealth, just for my own peace of mind that the pregnancy is progressing as it should.” [G2, patient 12] “I just feel like it would feel safer for me to actually see a doctor and actually have them look at me, instead of having the virtual visit. I was never worried or concerned about going to the doctor to get checked.” [G1, patient 8] “Being the first child, I just think it’s nice going into the doctor especially early on when, even though you might have symptoms like you’re tired or nauseous, I don’t have much of a stomach yet, I don’t feel the baby kicking. So, it’s nice to go in and have that reassurance that [the] baby is still growing properly and everything. So, I would prefer going in.” [G1, patient 11]
|
| Theme 3: Added concerns about the responsibility of determining the well-being of the pregnancy at home |
“The only thing I would be worried about is if something was wrong. Like, they need to make sure they hear a heartbeat or something like that having more fetal movement when I was further along.” [G1, patient 4] “I went home, and I tried to use it, and it was a couple days later and I couldn’t get it to work, and I was worried it was because there was nothing there to listen to.” [G1, patient 13]
|
| Theme 4: The impact of telehealth on patient experience with pregnancy and prenatal care |
“But I think it’s also important to be able to do the in-person visits, and there’s some things I would imagine could get missed just by not having that in-person contact, so I see why that’s important as well.” [G1, patient 14] “Right now, my regular physician has been going teledoc, so we’ve had to do a couple of those. The worst part about it is maybe the connection when you’re standing at a laptop and there might be, like, a delay. So, that is just something you gotta take, I guess, if you’re doing virtual. I wouldn’t not be interested in it.” [G2, patient 9] “I don’t necessarily feel a virtual visit with my provider offers the same thing that an in-person appointment would.” [G1, patient 10]
|
