The Perception of Telemedicine as a Consultation Method by Antenatal Women in a Covid 19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND Covid 19 is a pandemic which created anxiety especially among the antenatal women regarding their health and the fetus in the womb. During the lockdown period this apprehension doubled and we had to use telemedicine as a tool for clearing their queries. We wanted to assess the perception of telemedicine as a consultation method by antenatal women in a covid 19 pandemic. METHODS It was a cross sectional study involving 100 antenatal women conducted in 2019 for over three months. The telephonic consultation was done and counseled them regarding nutrition, covid prevention, warning signs and high risk factors where she has to report to the hospital immediately. Feedback on their perception was obtained by Likert scale and analysed. RESULTS A majority of antenatal women (92%) opined that telemedicine was useful for clearing their queries. They felt that it should be integrated on regular basis and done continuosly. All 100 women were asked the same questions. Teleconsultation was satisfactory for 84%, for 12% it was just satisfactory: They were from urban area & educated, on the other extreme 4% women were highly satisfied: They were from rural area & illiterate. Irrespective of socioeconomic status we got calls. Patients’ views on telemedicine were - Asset for gaining confidence (72%), Useful for themselves & family members (10%), excellent for clearing apprehension and anxiety (8%), wanted multiple counselling sessions through out pregnancy (6%) and could avoid issues related to high risk pregnancy (4%). On the whole, majority ( 94%) of them expressed that examination part was missing and they were still worried about baby. CONCLUSIONS Though the traditional approach was missing, telemedicine was good for antenatal women on the whole for better communication with the doctors in the lockdown period due to covid 19 pandemic.