Impact of COVID-19 on Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused global uncertainty. Recent studies indicate an increased risk of spontaneous abortion, spontaneous preterm labor, and severe maternal and neonatal complications caused by COVID-19.

The aim of our study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection on maternal and neonatal perinatal outcomes.

This is a non-interventional, analytical clinical study. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 410 histories of pregnant women admitted to hospitals from 2020 to 2022 in the City Infectious Disease Centre and the City Infectious Disease Hospital of Shymkent.

In the main group, there were 48 (21.0%) babies, while in the control group, there were 18 (10.5%) babies. A weight above 2500 g was recorded in 79% (182) of newborns in the main group. When comparing the weight of newborns between the groups, we did not find statistically significant differences (P = 0.051). Births of babies weighing more than 2500 g were 2.26 times more common in the control group than in the main group (95% CI: 0.984 - 5.228). A birth height of less than 48 cm was recorded in 1.7% (3) cases in the control group and 13.8% (32) of newborns in the main group (P = 0.002). A birth height greater than 48 cm was recorded in 86.2% (198) of neonates in the main group and 98.3% (84) in the control group.

A large systematic review (28 studies involving 790,954 pregnant women, among whom 15,524 were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection) aimed to investigate the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and the risk of pre-eclampsia. It should also be noted that SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy increases the likelihood of developing severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. In our study, preeclampsia (54 - 13.1%) and HELLP syndrome (4 - 1.1%) were more frequent in the main group than in the comparison group. It should also be noted that frequent complications of COVID-19 in pregnant women included preterm labor (80 - 19.4%) and antenatal fetal death (8 - 2.0%).Analysis of perinatal outcomes revealed that women with COVID-19 infection are significantly more likely to give birth to infants with low growth, prematurity, and lower Apgar scores, and these infants are more likely to stay in the neonatal pathology department compared to those born to women without COVID-19 infection.