Telehealth Systems for Midwifery Care Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.

Background: Intrinsic features of COVID-19 disease, including the severity of the virus transmission and mortality rates, make it difficult to provide obstetric care to pregnant women. In this regard, telemedicine can provide comprehensive midwifery care relying on new technologies, such as virtual clinic, telehealth, tele-monitoring, m-Health, wearable sensors, and the internet of medical things. The objective of this study is to identify the application and requirements of a telehealth system for midwifery care. Methods: We conducted a literature search from 2019/12/1 to 2022/10/1 using the following electronic scientific databases: Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. We carried out hand searches from the reference lists of retrieved studies of journals. Results: We showed that, during COVID-19 pandemic, prenatal care via telehealth increased and telehealth is a good strategy for prenatal and post-partum disease managements. Mental health services are also feasible via telehealth. These new technologies also reduce the risks associated with interpersonal contacts in COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: With the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth became the norm. The future of medical services will be built around this technology and that is a great opportunity to move toward a great evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]