Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Apr. 22, 2021
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 hits pregnant women harder than the general population. Now, one of the first large studies with a proper control group has firmed up earlier evidence for how the virus can alter the course of pregnancy and harm mothers and their newborns.
The study of more than 2100 pregnant women enrolled at hospitals in 18 countries found that, compared with uninfected pregnant women, those with COVID-19 are at higher risk for severe illness, death, pregnancy complications, and preterm birth. Those results underscore the importance of including pregnant women in priority groups for COVID-19 vaccines and limiting their exposure to ill people, says corresponding author Aris Papageorghiou, a fetal medicine specialist at the University of Oxford.
?This is a great study,? says physician, epidemiologist, and public health specialist Nathalie Auger of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre, who was not involved with the research. ?They followed women through pregnancy, which is a really great design, and helped confirm the previous studies that are much easier to critique.?
Many studies have linked pregnancy to worse COVID-19 outcomes, but they have either included too few participants to draw firm conclusions, or have relied on health records that women agree to share after the fact. These registries tend to lack details such as when in pregnancy a woman got infected. They also attract sicker patients, which could make the effects of COVID-19 look worse than they actually are.
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Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 hits pregnant women harder than the general population. Now, one of the first large studies with a proper control group has firmed up earlier evidence for how the virus can alter the course of pregnancy and harm mothers and their newborns.
The study of more than 2100 pregnant women enrolled at hospitals in 18 countries found that, compared with uninfected pregnant women, those with COVID-19 are at higher risk for severe illness, death, pregnancy complications, and preterm birth. Those results underscore the importance of including pregnant women in priority groups for COVID-19 vaccines and limiting their exposure to ill people, says corresponding author Aris Papageorghiou, a fetal medicine specialist at the University of Oxford.
?This is a great study,? says physician, epidemiologist, and public health specialist Nathalie Auger of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre, who was not involved with the research. ?They followed women through pregnancy, which is a really great design, and helped confirm the previous studies that are much easier to critique.?
Many studies have linked pregnancy to worse COVID-19 outcomes, but they have either included too few participants to draw firm conclusions, or have relied on health records that women agree to share after the fact. These registries tend to lack details such as when in pregnancy a woman got infected. They also attract sicker patients, which could make the effects of COVID-19 look worse than they actually are.
READ MORE