January 17, 2023 – Women who contract COVID-19 while pregnant are seven times more prone to die during childbirth or while pregnant than uninfected pregnant women, a brand new study shows. The latest report also warns of many other serious complications related to the virus while pregnant, in addition to risks to the child after birth.
However, the researchers said they found no evidence that COVID-19 infection while pregnant affected the chance of stillbirth or the child's growth rate while pregnant.
The study, which was a meta-analysis of previous research, was published Monday within the journal BMJ Global HealthData from 12 studies from 12 countries were combined, allowing researchers to investigate results for 13,136 pregnant women.
Babies born to moms who were infected with COVID while pregnant were almost twice as prone to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and were also more prone to be born prematurely than babies born to moms who weren't infected with COVID.
The researchers also found that pregnant women who contracted COVID were more prone to be admitted to intensive care, require a ventilator to survive, develop dangerous blood clots or develop preeclampsia, a hypertension condition that could be fatal to mother or baby.
One of the strengths of the study was that it included women in several trimesters of pregnancy.
“This is something new here too, that COVID brought this additional risk to mother and babies at any point during pregnancy,” said lead creator Emily R. Smith, ScD, MPH, assistant professor of worldwide health at George Washington University, in a Video statement.
The report sparks calls for increased efforts to influence pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The rate amongst them stays low: About 1 in 5 pregnant women had received probably the most recent COVID-19 booster shot by January 7, in response to the CDC.
“The conclusion here is that it's really important to get vaccinated if you're pregnant or planning to become pregnant,” Smith said. “It can really reduce the risk of some of these negative outcomes for the mother or the baby.”