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The number of stillborn children during the confinement tripled: the data is from an investigation carried out in Lazio but there are also indications in other parts of the world. The increase in mortality is not directly due to Covid, which rarely affected a pregnant woman, but is, according to the survey, a consequence of it. The effects of the long spring lockdown linked to the Covid-19 pandemic are only now beginning to show. According to an Italian study, carried out by Mario De Curtis’ team from the Sapienza University of Rome published in ‘Archives Disease in Childhood’, the number of stillbirths tripled in the period analyzed.
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Italy, the researchers recall, was the first country in Europe to be violently hit by the epidemic wave. The drastic measures taken immediately to stop it, although certainly necessary, have caused a series of negative effects and in particular an economic and social crisis that has affected millions of people. During the confinement period, there was also the suspension and postponement of health checks that also affected pregnant women.
On the other hand, preterm births are declining
“We carried out an epidemiological study to determine the main perinatal data for the Lazio region, where around 5.8 million people live and around 10% of all Italian births are born,” explains De Curtis. The retrospective study evaluated the number of all births, very premature births (<32 settimane di età gestazionale), moderatamente pretermine (32-36 settimane), a termine (37-41 settimane) e post termine (>41 weeks). The number of stillbirths and caesarean sections was determined (all non-viable newborns with a gestational age greater than 22 weeks were considered stillbirths).
The survey took into account all those born in the maternity centers of the region in the months of March, April, May 2020, that is, during the closing period. These data were compared with the same ones observed in the same period of 2019.
“To avoid confounding, only unmarried babies were considered, not multiples born.” Well, “there has been a decrease in the number of births. This phenomenon is in line with the decrease in the birth rate that has been present in Italy and Lazio for more than 10 years ”, the study reads.
But “the number of stillbirths tripled.” This figure would seem not to be the effect of the Covid-19 infection, also because the incidence of the disease in pregnant women in central Italy, according to the Higher Institute of Health, was very low (around 1 in every 1,000). . Rather, it appears to be the consequence of the fact that many women, fearing contracting the infection in hospital, did not undergo adequate controls during pregnancy.
The increase in births / mortality was also recently reported in a London hospital (‘Jama’) and in a study conducted in Nepal (also reported in ‘Nature’).
The decrease in moderately preterm births (those born between 32 and 36 weeks), which represent the majority of premature babies (before 37 weeks of gestational age), can be interpreted “as the effect of forced rest, of suspension of work outside the home, of the reduced physical activity to which even pregnant women were forced during the confinement, “the researchers continue.
The prevention of birth / mortality “is a fact that should be taken into account in the next closings that are announced,” the authors emphasize. This study also confirms that rest is a very important factor in reducing prematurity that recognizes several triggers and is one of the leading causes of infant mortality.
Last update: November 12 at 06:29
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