Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality Among Pregnant Women With and Without COVID-19 Infection: The INTERCOVID Multinational Cohort Study

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to linger, more data are becoming available about what possible links there may be between COVID-19 infection in pregnancy and risks to mothers and their babies. In this study, research teams from around the world came together to study pregnant women with COVID-19 infection to ask what outcomes in mothers or their babies could be linked to COVID-19. Researchers found the risk for preeclampsia was 76% higher in a study group of 706 women who had COVID-19 during pregnancy (compared to a group of pregnant women without COVID-19 diagnosis). In a smaller analysis in their study of only pregnant women with COVID-19 infection but without any symptoms (i.e., asymptomatic), researchers still found a 63% increased risk for preeclampsia in the asymptomatic women. Researchers also found increased risks for severe infection and preterm birth in women with COVID-19 infection in pregnancy. Studies like these are important to understand how COVID-19 illness may affect pregnant women and can be taken into account when making decisions about social distancing, masking, and vaccination.

LINK: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33885740/

About Research Roundup

Each quarter, our team of researchers reviews the most current studies related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and selects those studies they feel will be of greatest interest to our community to summarize.

Special thanks to our volunteer research team, who under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Sutton, make Research Roundup possible: Alisse Hauspurg, MD Felicia LeMoine, MD Jenny Sones, PhD, DVM, and Robin Trupp, PhD, RN.