Vast majority of pregnant women with Covid-19 won’t have complications, said National Institutes of Health’s Director Dr Francis Collins.
Quoting a study in his latest blog post, he said that a large, observational study has taken a more comprehensive look at the issue and published some reassuring news for parents-to-be.
The vast majority of women who test positive for COVID-19 during their pregnancies won’t develop serious health complications, he said, adding that it’s also unlikely that their newborns will become infected with SARS-CoV-2.
“The findings reported in JAMA Network Open come from a busy prenatal clinic that serves women who are medically indigent at Parkland Health and Hospital System, affiliated with the University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas,” wrote Dr Collins.
He added that Researchers there, led by obstetrician Emily Adhikari, followed more than 3,300 pregnant women, most of whom were Hispanic (75 percent) or African American (14 percent). From March through August of this year, 252 women tested positive for COVID-19 during their pregnancies.
Diagnosis & findings
During diagnosis, 95 percent were asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms. Just 13 of the 252 Covid-19-positive women (5 percent) in the study developed severe or critical pneumonia, including just six with no or mild symptoms initially. Only 14 women (6 percent) were admitted to the hospital for management of their COVID-19 pneumonia, and all survived.
After comparing mothers with and without Covid-19 during pregnancy, researchers found there was no increase in adverse pregnancy-related outcomes.
It was found that women with Covid-19 during pregnancy were not more likely to give birth early on average. They weren’t at increased risk of dangerous preeclampsia, which is a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and organ damage, or an emergency C-section to protect the baby.
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(With inputs from The OnLook News Research Bureau)
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