The consequences of COVID-19 on pregnancy are slowly emerging. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, expectant moms who are infected with the virus have a higher risk of serious complications or even death during pregnancy.

Dr. Torri Metz, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor at the University of Utah Health, discusses the consequences of being pregnant and unvaccinated against COVID-19.

The purpose of this study was to determine if infection with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy was related to poor maternal outcomes. And, more particularly, they looked at obstetric complications that resulted in death or significant morbidity.

Having high blood pressure during pregnancy, having a postpartum hemorrhage or bleeding after birth, or having an infection other than SARS-CoV-2, such as a wound infection or something that happened after your delivery were some of the issues they included in their study.

“And what we found is that those women who had SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy did have a higher risk of having this really serious morbidity or dying during the pregnancy. And when we say serious morbidity, it wasn’t just having those conditions. But it was really having complications from those conditions,” said the researcher.

“We saw an overall 40% higher risk, but we can translate that into more absolute numbers. So the people who had SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy had a 13% risk and those who didn’t have a 9% risk.”

The study author also explained what puts pregnant women at higher risk.

“I think it’s probably a combination of factors, honestly,” said the authors, adding “the infection itself puts people at higher risk. We know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus does affect the placenta and can lead to some pregnancy complications, like high blood pressure. We also know that there are a lot of changes to health care delivery during the time of the pandemic. And these data were all collected in 2020, so early in the pandemic. And at that time, people were worried about going to the hospital. And so there may have been delays in care. And that way that resulted in higher risks of these serious morbidities. Or, you know, it could be that health care providers needed to put on special personal protective equipment to care for people who had COVID-19, and that could have led to some delays that resulted in serious morbidity. And honestly, it’s probably a combination of a lot of those factors.”

What about newborns?

“We also did see risks to the newborns themselves. They were at higher risk of being born preterm when the mother had SARS-CoV-2, and they were also at higher risk of needing to go to the ICU or the neonatal intensive care unit,” said the expert.

Does mild or severe virus load have any effect?

The expert explained: “When we looked at this more closely by COVID-19 severity, we found that, really, these risks were much higher in people who had moderate or higher COVID-19 severity. So people who had an oxygen requirement, people who were needing to be admitted to the hospital to be taken care of when they had COVID-19 are really the ones that are affected by these worse obstetric outcomes.”

Does COVID vaccination factor in here?

“Vaccination is safe and effective,” said the professor. “Not only is it going to keep them safe from having more severe or critical COVID or dying of COVID. But also, you know, based on these data, it should decrease their risk of having really significant obstetric complications, as well.”

Best way to keep pregnant women and their pregnancy safe?

According to him, “vaccination is the best thing that they can do for both themselves and for the pregnancy and that it’s safe at any time in pregnancy. Beyond that, I tell them to exercise caution just like we tell other people, you know, when you are going to be indoors, wearing masks, staying socially distant. You know, obviously, the CDC has changed their guidance in low-transmission areas, but I still tell my patients to exercise caution. We really don’t want them to be contracting SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, given all these known increase risks.”

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