In recent months, multiple studies have been developed to analyze how the coronavirus (Covid-19) could affect pregnant women before, during and after delivery, as well as their babies.
While very few documented cases have been found in which vertical transmission has taken place during childbirth, a small study carried out in Spain has found that the type of delivery could influence the health of mothers, since caesarean sections would increase the risk of complications in pregnant women with covid-19 .
Recently published in the journal JAMA , this new Spanish research analyzed whether the mode of delivery was related to some complications after childbirth in those women who had tested positive for coronavirus, regardless of whether they showed symptoms or were asymptomatic.
In total, 82 pregnant women with coronavirus participated in this study. Of these, four showed severe symptoms of coronavirus, while the remaining 78 showed mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.
In the case of the 78 who were asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms, 41 gave birth vaginally, while the remaining 37 did so by cesarean section. Of those 37 who had their baby by cesarean section, 29 had this type of delivery for medical indications and eight for their coronavirus symptoms.
According to the results of the study, 21% of the women who had caesarean section had subsequent complications, compared with 4.9% of those who had vaginal delivery . After delivery, 13.5% of those who had caesarean section needed to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), while none of those who had vaginal birth needed it.
But in addition to complications in mothers, the study found that babies were also affected by the type of delivery , since 29.7% of those born by cesarean section needed to enter the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), while in the case of those who were born vaginally, 19.5% needed it.
The researchers comment that in order to reach these conclusions, necessary adjustments had to be made about the mothers’ status and previous condition, so that the only thing that differentiated the women in each group was the type of delivery they had had.
As we have mentioned previously, cesarean sections tend to have greater complications and this study shows that in the case of those who have coronavirus the situation is similar. Although delivering by cesarean section is an option for the birth of babies, we must remember that they should only be done if necessary .
It is important to emphasize that the researchers mention that they have another similar study underway but with a larger sample of patients, since this is a small study carried out with few cases, which, although it does not mean that the results are conclusive, it does give us a sample of how the type of delivery can influence the health of pregnant women .
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Via | The country
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