Pregnancy and Coronavirus Disease 19

Abstract

As Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) is declared a global pandemic. Management of expecting mothers and newborn care becomes a great challenge to the physicians and their family. They should follow same guidelines as the general population to avoid exposure to the virus as much as possible. Pregnancy does not seem to increase the risk of infection nor accelerate its natural history or the severity of illness. Routine prenatal-antenatal care should be home monitored and tele-medicine encouraged as much as possible. Women with comorbidities or at high risk of infection such as recent history of travel, from a containment zone, history of primary or secondary contact should be closely monitored for symptoms. RT PCR is recommended prior to labour or one day prior to elective surgery. Supportive treatment is important in infected patients. Low molecular weight heparin can be used for thromboprophylaxis in severe illness. Data on use of Remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir-Ritonavir are limited. There is limited data on placental transmission of the virus. Newborn should also be immediately be tested following delivery of a COVID19 pregnant women. If newborn is found to be negative, strict hygienic measures according to CDC should be followed to express breast milk. According to WHO, breast milk banks are a safe alternative. Few mothers may prefer to give formula feeds, which can be administered by healthy care givers. There is limited data regarding transmission of virus through breast milk.

Correlation between Pregnancy Status and Severe Corona-Virus Disease Characterized by Cytokine Storm: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Prior studies have reported results that contrast with those presented here—namely, no significant difference between pregnant versus non-pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 in terms of its associated severity (Selim et al, 2020; Shankar & KR, 2020; TIRMIKÇIOĞLU, 2021; TN & RA, 2020). In addition, a meta-analysis conducted by Matar et al (Matar et al, 2021) failed to find a relationship between being pregnant and severe COVID-19 24 studies including pregnant women, and another meta-analysis indicates that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy probably has a clinical presentation and severity resembling that in non-pregnant adults (Elshafeey et al, 2020).…”