Pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to have complications with pregnancy and birth than those without, according to the research journal PLOS Medicine.

The study looked at hospitalisation for births in France during the first six months of the pandemic and suggested that vaccination may be useful to protect women and their babies, particularly for women at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 infections. Researchers from different universities of France analysed data for hospitalisations for birth after 22 weeks gestation in France between January and June 2020. Of 244,465 births in hospital, 874 or 0.36% of mothers had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Women in the COVID-19 group were more likely to be older, have obesity, carry more than one baby, or have a history of high blood pressure than those without. In addition, the women with COVID-19 had a higher frequency of admission to ICU; death; preeclampsia and eclampsia; gestational hypertension; haemorrhage either before or after birth; very premature spontaneous or induced birth; and cesarean section.

The authors concluded that, compared to the non-COVID-19 group, women in the COVID-19 group were associated with an increased frequency of admission to ICU, mortality, preeclampsia/eclampsia, gestational hypertension, postpartum haemorrhage, and spontaneous haemorrhage and induced preterm and very preterm birth, fetal distress and cesarean section.

Read the full paper

Source: The Daily Star

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