A recent single-center study has found that pregnant women, those with diabetes and hypertension in particular, with Covid-19 are considerably at higher risk of developing pre-eclampsia. They were also more likely to deliver prematurely.

A prospective observational study of 100 pregnant women with RT-PCR confirmed Covid-19 was conducted at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, between March 2020 and March 2021. Researchers intended to examine the maternal and neonatal outcomes in pregnant women with Covid-19 and compared them to 100 matched controls without Covid-19 in an at-risk population.

The incidence of preterm births (< 37w0d) was significantly higher in women with COVID-19 in pregnancy compared to those who did not have Covid-19; 64% vs 31%, respectively, according to results presented at the 2022 virtual The Pregnancy Meeting of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

After adjusting for diabetes, the risk of preeclampsia was higher in women with Covid-19, who were also hypertensive with an adjusted odds ratio of 4.3 compared to non-hypertensive women with Covid-19 (aOR = 2.6). Likewise, after adjusting for hypertension, the risk for preeclampsia was higher in women with diabetes and Covid-19 than in those without Covid-19; aOR 3.9 vs 1.3 respectively. The occurrence of other obstetrical comparisons like preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), shoulder dystocia was comparable between the two groups.

The probability of complications like respiratory distress syndrome (RDS),  intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), hyperbilirubinemia was seven times higher in neonates born to mothers with Covid-19. More babies born to Covid-positive mothers were admitted to NICU; 44 vs 18, respectively. They also required longer duration of intensive care. Neonatal deaths occurred in infants born to mothers with Covid-19, but not in those born to mothers without Covid-19.

Reference

1. Ahmed S. Zaki Moustafa et al. COVID-19 increases preeclampsia susceptibility among women with pre-existing hypertension