COVID-19-Positive Pregnant Women: Maternal and Newborn Outcomes

Abstract

Background: Because the maternal immune system is suppressed during pregnancy, pregnant women are a risk group for COVID-19 infection. Thus, this study investigates the pregnancy outcomes of COVID-19-infected women during childbirth.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital Mostar, that included a total of 65 COVID-19-positive women who delivered between March 2020 and April 2022. The control group consisted of COVID-19-negative women with no detected SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy or labor (n=65). The data for maternal and newborn outcomes were collected from database and medical records.

Main findings: The pregnancies of COVID-19-positive women were more often completed by cesarean section (35.4%), compared to the control group (26.2%). There were no significant differences in pregnancy complications such as preterm birth, preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, preterm premature rupture of membranes, fetal growth restriction or perinatal asphyxia between the COVID-19-positive mothers and the control group. The percentage of infected newborns was 4.6% in the COVID-19-positive group.

Principal conclusion: The study concludes that COVID-19-positive women experienced more adverse perinatal outcomes compared to the control group, but without statistical significance. Accordingly, the importance of perinatal surveillance of COVID-19-positive pregnancies should be emphasized.