The Effect of COVI-19 on the Health Status of Pregnant Women and Their Neonates: A Systematic Review Study

The rapid global emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, could potentially result in life-threatening pneumonia, especially among susceptible popualtions, including pregnantwomen. However, little is known about COVID-19 during perganacy and its transmission to the neonates. The present study was aimed to review the literature to examine wether the COVID-19 could result in higher mortality rate among pregnant women. The vertical transmission of the disease to the fetus was also evaluated.

The principal electronic databases including, Google scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus were searched carefully using appropriate English terms between the January and March 2020 to identify related articles. A number of 317 intial articles were found which after filtering based on the inclusion criteria only 20 were found to be eligble and reviewd in this study.

The results showed that pregnant women are more prone to the COVID-19. Premature birth was the most common complication of pregnancy among these cases. The RT-PCR tests were negative for amniotic fluid, breast milk, placental and umbilical cord blood, as well as vaginal fluid in pregnant women with COVID-19, even among those women whose babies tested positive for coronavirus. No evidence of vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 pneumonia was found. Neonatal infection with COVID-19 was observed only for a limited number of pregnant women who were positive for the disease.

Based on the fidings, no vertical intrauterine transmission was found among pregnant women positive for COVI-19. Pregnant women who tested postove for COVID-19 at their late trimester may experience no complications. However, further studies should be conducted on the impact of COVID-19 on the fetal development in positive pregnant cases.