Pregnancy outcome in COVID positive pregnant patients and risk of intrapartum maternal to fetal transmission of COVID-19 during birth: An observational study

Abstract

Objective: We conducted a study on lab confirmed COVID 19 positive pregnant women who delivered babies through vaginal route and caesarean section and intrapartum maternofetal transmission of COVID-19 during birth was studied. Materials and Methods: An observation- al study was conducted in a covid designated tertiary care hospital in Srinagar, India on a total number of 249 pregnant patients and 130 neonates were included. COVID-19 infection was con- firmed using reverse transcriptase real-time PCR on specimens of respiratory tract (nasal and pharyngeal swabs) of pregnant patients on admission and of all neonates within 48hours of birth. Results: Out of the total 249 COVID positive pregnant patients, 105 patients were discharged from the hospital after they turned out to be COVID negative on repeat RT - PCR test (test was repeated after 10 days of hospital admission) The obstetric outcome was studied in the remaining 144 patients. Regarding the maternal obstetric outcome, the different outcomes that we observed were ectopic pregnancy, abortion, molar pregnancy, preterm birth (delivered before< 37 wks) and term delivery. Besides there were 2 maternal deaths due to severe COVID pneumonia. There was no case of mother to child transmission found in our study. Conclusion: No evidence of ver- tical transmission during pregnancy and delivery was found. However, the possibility of this cannot be excluded.