According to a large study by US health authorities, pregnant women who have contracted the Covid-19 virus are twice as likely to have a stillborn child. The Delta variant has something to do with it.
Unfortunately, it seems that Covid-19 may be synonymous with danger for pregnancy. The virus can spread through the placenta and therefore reach the fetus. According to some researchers, a pregnant woman has a 5 to 10% more risk of having a severe course of the disease and being admitted to intensive care. On the other hand, she is also two to three times more likely to have a premature delivery or for the fetus to die in her womb.
On Friday November 19, US health authorities published a study on the possibility that the Covid-19 virus may be one of the causes of the increased risk of having a stillborn child when future mothers have been infected with the disease. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) analyzed more than 1.2 million deliveries between March 2020 and September 2021, from a database of hospitals.
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Results without appeal
And the result is edifying: during the period analyzed by specialists, theThe risk of having a stillborn child was 1.90 times higher among women who contracted Covid-19. Concretely, over this period, 1.26% of births were those of a stillborn child in women who had Covid-19, against 0.64% for the others. Some studies have in the past suggested that it was certainly due to the fact that Covid would lead to inflammation and decreased blood flow to the placenta. The CDC said they could not determine whether the women with Covid-19 were sick at the time of their hospitalization or whether they had been infected previously. It is important to know that this risk taking because of the virus can now be avoided thanks to vaccination from the 2nd trimester of pregnancy.
* A baby is considered stillborn when it dies in its mother’s womb from 20 weeks of pregnancy (approximately 5 months) until death directly after birth. Fortunately, this phenomenon remains quite rare because it concerns only 0.65% of births.
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Delta variant is an additional risk
Centers for Disease Prevention and Control have also reported that the Delta variant increases the risk of having a stillborn baby. Compared to uninfected women, the risk was thus increased by 1.47 for mothers positive for Covid-19 during the pre-Delta period, and by 4.04 now that the variant is in the majority in most countries.
Health authorities strongly recommend that pregnant women be vaccinated against Covid-19, before or during their pregnancy.