46% pregnant women with Covid have adverse maternal outcomes: Study
Experts suggest women be extra careful planning for a baby, and get vaccinated as early as possible
Some 46% of Covid-19-infected pregnant women have adverse maternal outcomes such as preterm delivery and loss of baby, according to a study revealed Tuesday.
Among the adverse maternal outcomes, 78.79% were preterm deliveries, that is, the birth of babies before 37 weeks, 15.15% were stillborn, the death or loss of a baby before or during delivery, and 5.3% were ectopic pregnancies, a condition in which a fertilised egg grows abnormally outside a woman's uterus.
The National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) conducted the research, "Association of Covid-19 with maternal and perinatal outcomes in pregnancies during the pandemic in Bangladesh", the first of its kind in Bangladesh.
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Professor Dr Baizid Khoorshid Riaz, the principal investigator of the study and director of NIPSOM, presented the study report that said a Covid-19 positive pregnant woman had an 8.63 times higher risk of developing an adverse maternal outcome than a non-infected pregnant woman.
The study was conducted with 890 pregnant women at different hospitals in the capital, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Mohammadpur Fertility Services and Training Centre, and Greenlife Medical College Hospital, from January to June this year. Of the 890 study participants, 215 were Covid-19 positive and 675 showed negative test results.
Dr Baizid said 95.3% of the Covid-19 positive respondents faced complications in their childbearing period.
The newborn children of Covid-positive mothers were at 1.4 times higher risk of being admitted to intensive care units than children of Covid-negative mothers.
The study also found that 91.2% of the Covid-positive pregnant women were symptomatic, 8.4% asymptomatic, while the deadly virus claimed 0.5% of the Covid-positive women.
"We lost many pregnant women to Covid-19. Now a new variant, Omicron, has entered Bangladesh which, it is feared, will bring another wave," said Professor Rowshan Ara Begum, a noted gynaecologist and member of the National Technical advisory committee on Covid-19.
She suggested women be extra careful in planning for a baby, and urged them to take Covid vaccine shots as early as possible.
Saying that vaccines can be taken even during pregnancy, the gynaecologist called for ensuring antenatal care.
