Epidemiological Investigation of COVID-19 Effects in Pregnant Women and Their Infants

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate in pregnant women after being infected with SARS-CoV2 infection and whether any possible complications develop for the pregnant woman and the baby. This study was conducted on n=301 pregnant women who were registered and being followed up at the COVID-19 Home Follow-up and Monitoring Coordination (HFM) Centre. A questionnaire consisting of a Personal Information Form questioning sociodemographic characteristics and questions about the COVID-19 history of the pregnant women during their pregnancies and information about the baby after birth was administered to them by telephone. The mean age of the pregnant women was 30.21±5.34 years and n=79 (26.2%) had received COVID-19 vaccine. Preeclampsia was observed in 1.0%, miscarriage in 5.8% and stillbirth in 0.3% of the pregnant women. Two (0.7%) of the babies died after birth. 21.6% of the babies had to be hospitalised due to a health problem. 2.3% of the babies had COVID-19. 12.1% of the babies had respiratory distress and 55.0% had jaundice (32.3% in the first 24 hours). Of the jaundiced babies, n=64 (41.3%) received treatment for jaundice. 13.9% of the babies had breastfeeding problems after birth. Developmental delay was found in 3.6% of the babies. There was no increase in the risk of congenital anomalies and miscarriage rates due to COVID-19 in pregnant women, but the incidence of cardiac anomalies increased compared to other anomalies. Abortion rates were higher in vaccinated pregnant women compared to unvaccinated pregnant women.

Keywords

• Pregnancy
• COVID-19
• effect
• congenital anomaly

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