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Pregnant women hospitalized with coronavirus are less likely to show symptoms and may have a higher risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit than non-pregnant women of similar age, a study found.
The analysis, which encompassed 77 studies conducted globally and was published in the British Medical Journal, examined 11,432 pregnant women admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with suspected or confirmed Covid-19.
It showed that pregnant women may have a higher risk of needing to enter an intensive care unit (ICU) than non-pregnant women of a similar age, as is the case with other respiratory viruses such as influenza. This could be attributed in part to the realization that a mother’s immune system is often compromised to protect the baby, and that the lungs and cardiovascular system, the coronavirus field of attack, are already under pressure during pregnancy.
Compared to non-pregnant women of reproductive age, pregnant and recently pregnant women with Covid-19 were less likely to report fever symptoms, according to the report.
About two-thirds of non-pregnant people admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 report symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath, but a large proportion of pregnant women infected with Covid may have no symptoms, the study researcher said. Shakila Thangaratinam. Professor of Maternal and Perinatal Health at the University of Birmingham.
About four out of 100 pregnant women with Covid-19 appear to require intensive care, Thangaratinam said. “The overall risk, the actual risk per se is low, but compared to women of reproductive age who are not pregnant, pregnant women seem to stay in ICUs a bit more.”
The critical care findings come largely from a single study of a large US data set, said Marian Knight, a professor of maternal and child health at the University of Oxford, who served as an advisor to the systematic review group.
The Covid-19 rate is “nowhere near” the high mortality rate in pregnant women seen in the Sars and Mers outbreaks, Thangaratinam added. Only 73 pregnant women in the analysis with confirmed Covid-19 died from any cause.
However, a quarter of all babies born to mothers with Covid-19 were admitted to a neonatal unit and had a higher risk of admission than those born to mothers without the virus, but there were “negligible risks” of rates of fetal and newborn death. the researchers said.
According to the general population, the risks of severe coronavirus increase in pregnant women with increasing age, high body mass index, and pre-existing conditions.
More data is needed to compare pregnancy outcomes with women who do not have Covid-19, Thangaratinam noted. “Although 17% of women gave birth before 37 weeks, which is considered preterm labor, only 6% actually went into preterm labor and gave birth, leading us to think they could have other factors at play … like hospital policies. “
How pregnant women and their unborn children are affected by Covid-19 is a persistent and wide-ranging question. Researchers will typically conduct systematic reviews that integrate multiple studies to reach consensus, but in the case of Covid, scientists have been inundated with data that often becomes out of date within a few months of publication. So the researchers, including scientists at the World Health Organization, embarked on a project that regularly updates their findings as new data becomes available.
Other burning issues need to be addressed as well, such as the impact of coronavirus on early pregnancy and transmission from mother to baby in the womb, ”said Dr. Edward Mullins, NIHR Clinical Academic Professor at Imperial College, who was not involved. In the analysis.
