Close
Skip to content

Our Study

Our team is composed of experts in the perinatal and obstetric fields. They came together to create a comprehensive study, at the start of the pandemic, to rapidly evaluate the mental health of pregnant persons in a time of crisis.

See more

About CONCEPTION Our Mission

Our mission is to determine, compare and inform about the impact of the pandemic and the guidelines set on the health of pregnant women and their future child.

See More

Our Work

We invited participants currently pregnant or who delivered since March 13th 2020 to join our study by completing questionnaires evaluating their stress and other factors related to the COVID-19 guidelines.

See More

Our Team We're all about teamwork.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Anick Bérard

Principal Investigator
Co-investigator

Dr. Évelyne Vinet

Co-investigator
Co-investigator

Dr. Sasha Bernatsky

Co-investigator

Timeline

2020

Our study was officially launched at the end of June 2020. Although the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to be fading at that time, some guidelines and policies remained, but largely the world was facing many uncertainties. Shortly after our launch, we received multiple feedback from women who had been pregnant during the beginning of the pandemic but had given birth by the time they had discovered our study. In response, we launched the arm of our study specific for those who delivered since March 13th, 2020 to collect their experiences.

2021

As of summer 2021, our study has interested more than 6,000 women. Of those, 4,643 were eligible and accepted to participate in either arm of the CONCEPTION Study (were currently pregnant or delivered since March 13 th , 2020). Of the currently pregnant group, 2,067 accepted to be contacted for a follow-up following their delivery, and of all our participants, 1,978 accepted to a linkage between their responses to the questionnaire and their administrative health data. Thank you to all who support this study!

As the pandemic continues, so does our study! Not only that, as restrictions continue or are lifted, new mothers may experience a level of stress that would otherwise not been present if there was no pandemic. Many of our participants, when contacting us, mentioned that they would like to tell us about the stress related to returning to the office during a pandemic or to starting daycare during the pandemic when their new child has only had limited human contact outside of their parents for so many months. Our study will thus continue evolving with the stress and difficulties experienced by pregnant women along this pandemic as we develop new phases of our study.

2022

In February 2022, we launched a 3rd questionnaire to follow up on the child’s health and cognitive development. Our team is currently working on a new part of the study, that of a 24-month follow-up, which will be done in person, with children in the Greater Montreal area. Children will be assessed by our research team at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, using a tool that assesses the child through play.

English