Comparison of the pregnancy outcomes and health indicators of newborns before and after the pandemic of covid-19 in Iran

 COVID-19 originated from China and causes pneumonia and respiratory, digestive and many other symptoms. The risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes may increase in pregnant women infected with this virus.

 This study aimed to compare the pregnancy outcomes and health indicators of newborn born in two periods before (the first 6 months of 2019) and after (the first 6 months of 2020) the COVID-19.

 In this cross-sectional study, 2303 newborns were studied. Of these, 1195 were born in the first 6 months of 2019 and 1108 were born in the first 6 months of 2020. The data collection tool was a checklist that was extracted from the integrated health system (SIB) of the Iranian Ministry of Health. The SPSS26 was used for data analysis.

 The newborns born in these two periods before and after COVID-19 pandemic had no statistically significant differences in terms of maternal age, gestational age, birth weight, height and head circumference at birth (P-Value>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of gender, stillbirth and twins or multiples variables in the two time periods before and after COVID19 (P-Value>0.05). Cesarean section rate after the COVID19 pandemic in the first 6 months of 2020 (60.8 %) was higher than before pandemic in the first 6 months of 2019 (56.7 %) (P-Value<0.05). In addition, the birth rate in rural areas after the COVID-19 pandemic was higher than before pandemic (P-Value=0.005).

 Caesarean section rate after the COVID-19 pandemic has increased significantly compared to before.