Pregnancy Outcomes with Coronavirus Infection

(COVID-19)

Nasrin Fazel^1,2, Sina Shahrooyan², Shohreh Shahrouyan³

 

¹Iranian Research Center On Healthy Aging, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran
²PhD in Public Health, Vienna University, Vienna, Austria
³Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry named after A. I. Evdokimo, Moscow, Russia
⁴Hakim University Sabzevar, Subzevar, Iran

 

SUMMARY

 

Introduction: The clinical therapy of COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is still insufficient and limited. The current literature on COVID-19 infection during pregnancy and childbirth is summarized in this article, with a focus on maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Material and methods: From June 1 to September 7, 2020, a systematic search of pertinent medical subject heading (MeSH) terms, covered by the electronic databases Web of Science and Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SID key phrases including coronavirus or COVID-19 and pregnancy was undertaken. The search and selection criteria were restricted to English and Farsi literature. COVID-19 in pregnancy articles of all types were considered in the study. The references of relevant studies were also searched. After deleting duplicate and ineligible items, a total of 21 articles were collected.

Result: We found 21 studies with a total of 6,569 pregnant women who had COVID-19 infection: only one publication provided disease severity: 368 (95.6%) mild cases, 14 (3.6%) severe cases, and three (0.8%) serious cases. A total of 6,569 women gave birth more often by caesarean than by vaginal delivery. With multiple organ dysfunction syndromes (MODS), some women developed symptoms that necessitated ICU admission. The most commonly administered treatments for pregnant women with COVID-19 were hydroxychloroquine, Beclomethasone, Calamine, diclofenac sodium, Methylprednisolone, Azithromycin, Ganciclovir, Chinese herbal medicine, and Oseltamivir. The most commonly reported symptoms were fever and cough, followed by rhinorrhea, chest tightness, dyspnea, nasal congestion, and myalgias. Maternal outcomes included premature rupture of membranes, maternal death (21), gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, placental abruption, fetal distress, anemia, preterm birth (< 37 weeks), and fetal growth restriction, miscarriage, hypertension, and influenza. Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, prematurity, birth weight 2,500 g, preterm delivery (37 weeks), fetal discomfort, neonatal asphyxia, stillbirth (5), and neonatal death (9) were among the outcomes for babies. All of the infants had good Apgar scores.

Conclusion: Prenatal and neonatal outcomes appear to be favorable in the majority of cases. Pregnant women and babies should be considered particularly vulnerable populations in terms of COVID-19 preventive and management strategies.

 

Key words: COVID-19, novel coronavirus, pregnancy, fetus, newborn

 

Corresponding author:

Nasrin Fazel

e-mail: shohreh1368@yahoo.co.uk