A new survey of more than 4,000 pregnant women hospitalized in the United Kingdom with COVID-19 during the first 18 months of the pandemic shows severe illness was linked to poor birth outcomes, including pre-labor caesarean birth, very or extreme preterm birth, stillborn birth, and the need for admission to a neonatal unit.A smaller study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported a similar impact.Higher impact on women with risk factorsIn the UK study, women who were 30 or older, obese, mixed ethnicity, or diagnosed with gestational diabetes were more likely to suffer from an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes.The research was published today in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, and its authors say it further supports the need to vaccinate pregnant women against COVID-19, especially those who have co-morbidities that make either pregnancy or COVID-19 infection more risky."This study emphasizes the importance of ensuring that interventions to promote vaccine uptake are particularly focused towards those at highest risk," said senior study author Marian Knight, FMedSci, of the University of Oxford, in a press release from Wiley, the journal's publisher.14% of pregnant women had severe infection The study included hospital admissions across the United Kingdom from Jan 3, 2020 to Oct 31, 2021.
Though the study included 4,436pregnant women who were hospitalized for COVID-19, severe infection — defined as need for high flow or invasive ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or death — was described in 13.9% of women, or 616.
Two-thirds (65.4%) of women had mild infection, and 20.7% had moderate infection.Women with severe infection were more likely to be 30 or older (adjusted odds ratio [aOR],