Unvaccinated pregnant women more likely to suffer Covid-19 complications: study

ANKARA – Research recently published in Nature Medicine magazine revealed that unvaccinated pregnant women are more likely to be hospitalised for the coronavirus. 

“Covid-19 in pregnancy is associated with increased risk of specific pregnancy-related complications (such as) pre-eclampsia, preterm birth and stillbirth,” reported Anadolu citing the monthly research magazine.

SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 vaccination rates in pregnant women in Scotland were based on analysed data from an 11-month observation of 87,000 pregnant women in Scotland from December 2020 to October 2021. 

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 and die”. 

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. – Bernama, January 15, 2022