WEDNESDAY, Jan 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Women who have COVID-19 during childbirth are more likely to face complications than expectant mothers without the coronavirus, researchers say.
Fortunately, the absolute risk of complications for a woman is very low (less than 1%). However, the relative risks for problems – like clotting and early labor – are significant, according to the new study.
Still, “the findings here really are that among women hospitalized for childbirth who have been diagnosed with COVID, adverse events are incredibly low. This should give great reassurance to women hoping to conceive during this time . ” or who are pregnant, “said study co-author, Dr. Karola Jering, of the cardiovascular medicine department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In eight months in 2020, she and her colleagues collected data on more than 400,000 expectant mothers, of whom nearly 6,400 were infected with COVID-19.
In the COVID-19 patients, the researchers found that the relative risk of developing blood clots was almost five times higher than in patients without the virus, and in venous thromboembolism, blood clots in the veins, almost four times higher.
The researchers found that these women also needed an intensive care unit or a ventilator much more often.
Those who had the virus were:
- 7% are more likely to need a caesarean section.
- 19% more likely to have premature births.
- 17% more likely to have a premature birth.
- 21% more likely to have preeclampsia.
There is little a pregnant woman can do to reduce these risks other than not being infected, Jering said.
“The problem, of course, is that we currently mostly care for supportive patients with COVID in general. And of the things that have been tested for treating patients with COVID, most of them have not been tested in pregnant women,” said co-author Dr. Scott Solomon, also from Brigham and Women’s.
Jering says pregnant women are given the other medications commonly given to COVID-19 patients, including blood thinners to help prevent blood clots.
Overall, the study results are positive, emphasized Jering. Of the pregnant women with COVID-19 who gave birth, 99% were discharged home, 3% needed intensive care, and 1% needed mechanical ventilation. Less than 1% died in the hospital.
Comments are closed.