Unvaccinated pregnant women are more likely to be admitted for the coronavirus, according to new research published in Nature Medicine magazine.
“COVID-19 in pregnancy is associated with increased risk of the pregnancy specific complications pre-eclampsia, preterm birth and stillbirth,” according to the monthly research magazine.
Noting that pregnant women do not seem to be more susceptible to the virus than non-pregnant women, researchers found that pregnant women are still at “higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease.”
They also found that “pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection are more likely to be admitted to critical care, receive invasive ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation”.
From December 2020 and October 2021, a total of 2,364 babies were born to mothers with COVID-19 during pregnancy.
“Of these, 2,353 were live births, of which 241 were preterm births,” it added.
While the percentage of premature births in the general population was 8%, that rate was 17% in babies born within 28 days of their mothers being infected with the virus.
