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. 2020 Sep:252:559-562.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2020.07.008. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Maternal COVID-19 infection, clinical characteristics, pregnancy, and neonatal outcome: A prospective cohort study

Lina Antoun  1 , Nashwa El Taweel  2 , Irshad Ahmed  3 , Shalini Patni  3 , Honest Honest  4
Affiliations

Maternal COVID-19 infection, clinical characteristics, pregnancy, and neonatal outcome: A prospective cohort study

Lina Antoun et al. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: To study the effect of COVID-19 on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

Study design: Prospective cohort study in a large tertiary maternity unit within a university hospital with an average annual birth of over 10,000 births. We prospectively collected and analysed data for a cohort of 23 pregnant patients including singleton and multiple pregnancies tested positive for COVID-19 between February 2020 and April 2020 inclusive to assess the effect of COVID-19 on pregnancy, and neonatal outcomes.

Results: Twenty-three pregnant patients tested positive for COVID-19, delivering 20 babies including a set of twins, with four ongoing pregnancies at the time of manuscript submission. 16/23 (70 %) whom tested positive were patients from Asian (Indian sub-continent) background. The severity of the symptoms ranged from mild in 13/23 (65.2 %) of the patients, moderate in 2/23 (8.7 %), and severe in 8/23 (34.8 %). Four out of total 23 COVID-19 pregnant patients (17.4 %) developed severe adult respiratory distress syndrome complications requiring ICU support, one of whom led to maternal death 1/23 (4.3 %). 11/23 (48 %) of the patients had pre-existing co-morbidities, with morbid obesity 5/23 (21.7 %) and diabetes 4/23 (17.4 %) being the more commonly represented. Of the 23 pregnant patients 19 were in their third trimester of pregnancy and delivered; 7/19 (36.8 %) had preterm birth, 3/19 (15.8 %) developed adult respiratory distress syndrome before delivery, and 2/19 (10.5 %) had pre-eclampsia. 16/19 (84 %) of patients delivered by C-section. Out of the 20 new-borns, 18 were singletons with a set of twin.

Conclusion: COVID-19 is associated with high prevalence of preterm birth, preeclampsia, and caesarean section compared to non-COVID pregnancies. COVID-19 infection was not found in the newborns and none developed severe neonatal complications.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Maternal morbidity/mortality; Neonatal morbidity/mortality; Pandemic; Pregnancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of suspected and confirmed cases for COVID-19 between February and April 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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