Pregnancy during the evolving pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A rapid scoping review of early evidence in the published literature

Abstract

BackgroundWithout any preventive or curative medication, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a higher risk to pregnant women, due to their immunosuppression during pregnancy. This rapid scoping synthesized the earliest evidence from the published scientific literature on the clinical feature and management for pregnant women with COVID-19.MethodScientific literature (published in English between 1 January 2019 to 31 March 2020) were systematically extracted from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and “Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)”. Results from eligible studies were charted, synthesized, and presented in a narrative format. ResultOur study identified 52 unique articles, and among them, 29 were included in this review. Pregnant women with COVID-19 were mostly in their third trimester and presented with fever, dry cough, myalgia, and dyspnea. Ground-glass opacity was the cardinal feature of COVID-19 in the computerized tomography scan of the chest. Except for two participants, severe pneumonia did not occur among pregnant women. Higher episodes of preterm birth and cesarean delivery were observed; however, it cannot be explicitly attributed to COVID-19. There is no published evidence on the vertical transmission. A collaborative team of healthcare professionals must manage pregnancy with COVID-19. Contact tracing, investigation of travel history, radiological assessment, and laboratory tests with regular fetal health monitoring must be done. ConclusionEvidence of higher perinatal complications puts pregnant women in a further vulnerable condition. Cautiousness is imperative during the clinical management of pregnant women with COVID-19, as there is no approved treatment regime available at this moment.