An international study in which 100 researchers from 43 hospitals in 18 countries (including two Spanish) participated and in which 2,100 pregnant women participated, concludes that infected women are 50 percent more likely to have complications during pregnancy such as premature delivery, pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) or admission to the ICU.
The international study Intercovid, coordinated from the University of Oxford and published in the journal ‘JAMA Pediatrics’ , has found results that have surprised researchers, since at the beginning of the pandemic, preliminary studies indicated that Covid did not cause significant complications in pregnant women.
These complications during pregnancy can be pre- eclampsia / eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) -the most common-, premature delivery (related to pre-eclampsia) and admission to the ICU .
It also increases the risk of death, although researchers have stressed that “the number of pregnant women with complications in developed countries is very low.”
In any case, there is no need to be alarmed, since 95 percent of pregnant women with Covid-19 do not have adverse results.
Pregnant women, a vulnerable group
Dr. Nerea Maiz, a researcher at the Maternal and Fetal Medicine group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) explained to Efe that this study has made it possible to verify the “magnitude” of complications related to Covid and confirm that pregnant women they are a “vulnerable group”, which must be treated as such in prevention policies, including vaccination.
They have also found that the risk that pregnant women with Covid may end up in the ICU increases by up to five, a risk directly related to the severity of the disease.
Likewise, it points out that newborns of infected women have almost three times the risk of serious medical complications and of ending up in the neonatal ICU, mainly due to the increase in premature births.
The study also noted that about 10 percent of newborns of mothers who tested positive for the virus also tested positive for the virus in the first few days after delivery.
Vaccination as prevention
The authors argue that pregnant women should be considered one of the priority groups when planning preventive initiatives such as vaccination.
These days we are learning about a study with encouraging data on vaccination in pregnant women who have received messenger RNA vaccines, after verifying that no safety problems or side effects have been found different from the rest of the population.
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