Preterm Birth Risk in Severely COVID-19 Infected Mothers

The more severely infected with COVID-19 a mother is, the more likely she is to experience preterm birth has been discovered by Researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health's Perinatology Research Branch in Detroit.

Preterm birth, the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide, is defined as one that occurs before 37 weeks of gestation.

‘A dose-dependent relationship between the severity of COVID-19 infection and the preterm birth risk is discovered.’

Two-thirds of preterm births are due to spontaneous onset of preterm labor. The remaining third is due to medical conditions that affect either the mother or the unborn baby that necessitate delivery.

Researchers conducted a study to find the rate of preterm birth in about 1,000 pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19 depended on the severity of their infection. The study findings are published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

They found patients with severe COVID-19 have a five-fold greater risk of preeclampsia than asymptomatic patients. Moreover, the relative risk of developing preeclampsia in women with moderate or severe COVID-19 was 3.3-fold higher than in those with asymptomatic or mild infection.

This principal finding is a dose-response relationship between the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of subsequent development of preeclampsia and preterm birth.

The excess rate of premature birth usually reported is due to medically-induced preterm birth brought about by concerns for the health of the mother, such as preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a sudden increase in blood pressure after the 20th week of pregnancy.This condition is responsible for 76,000 maternal deaths and more than 500,000 infant deaths every year.

Some mothers develop seizures (eclampsia) and suffer intracranial hemorrhage, the main cause of death in those who develop the disorder. Some women develop blindness.

The babies of preeclamptic mothers are affected by the condition and may develop intrauterine growth restriction or die in utero.

This study shows that more severe the COVID-19 infection, the greater the risk of preeclampsia, which makes doctors to medically induce early delivery to save the lives of mothers infected with COVID-19.

Regardless of those medically induced preterm births, the possibility that COVID-19 infection causes preeclampsia must also be considered.



Source: Medindia