Covid-19 and pregnancy: increased risks for the mother, no effect on the baby’s brain – LCI

“Vaccination has been shown to protect pregnant women.“On November 17, the learned societies of gynecology insisted on the importance for future mothers, more vulnerable and with reduced immunity, to be immunized against Covid-19. “Studies have shown that vaccinated pregnant women are less often infected”, underlined the Research Group on Infections During Pregnancy (GRIG) and the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) in a press release they co-signed. It is therefore better to be vaccinated before or during pregnancy.

A study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, and reported by The Parisian, Tuesday, November 30, thus tends to prove that pregnant women, who contract SARS-CoV-2, would be more likely to encounter complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Based on the French hospitalization database, the researchers studied the nearly 245,000 births over the period from January to June 2020. The risk factors, linked to Covid, were taken into account, such as the age of the expectant mother, obesity or a history of diabetes and hypertension.

Several lessons emerge from this work. Thus, women who are at least 22 weeks pregnant and diagnosed positive, “were more likely” to be older, to have obesity, a multiple pregnancy and a history of hypertension. Compared to the non-covid group, they “had a higher frequency of ICU admission (5.9% vs. 0.1%), mortality (0.2% vs. 0.005%), preeclampsia / eclampsia (4.8% vs. 2, 2%), gestational hypertension (2.3% versus 1.3%), peripartum and postpartum hemorrhage (10.0% versus 5.7%). ” According to the study, a Covid-19 infection is also juxtaposed with a greater number of premature deliveries and cesarean sections.

Until now, “No study has comprehensively assessed the association between maternal morbidities and disease during the first wave of the pandemic among pregnant women”, assure the group of scientists behind these discoveries, part of which works at the University of Paris. Since then, “These results suggest that pregnant women with Covid-19 may have an increased risk of obstetric morbidity compared to non-Covid-19 pregnant controls.”

“Although causation cannot be established”, complications would go well with SARS-CoV-2. “Pregnancy is like a form of immunosuppression”, notes Jade Ghosn, doctor-infectious disease specialist at Bichat hospital in Paris and co-author of the study, in The Parisian. Hence an incentive for vaccination. “These results raise the possibility that vaccination, which can be offered to pregnant women from the second trimester according to the recommendations of several health authorities, may be useful in protecting women from excess obstetric risk”, can we read in the summary.

In addition, the impact of the disease on an unborn baby was until then little understood. A study of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), posted on the same day, would show that there is “no proof” that a maternal infection with Covid-19 has “an effect on brain development“of a future newborn. After analyzing the fetal MRIs of 33 infected patients, at an average of 28 weeks gestation, it was established that brain development in the areas assessed was comparable with other fetuses. “This fact should help reassure affected parents”, explains Sophia Stoecklein, head of the radiology department at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. Researchers will follow patients “until the age of five”, with a detailed neonatal and neurodevelopmental assessment.

However, only expectant mothers with mild to moderate symptoms and without hospitalization were included in the study, its lead author warned. “Since the impact of severe infection on fetal brain development has not been conclusively determined, active protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy remains important. (…) So far, vaccination is the most promising protection against Covid-19 “, she added. “All of the potential side effects are manageable, even in pregnant women. Therefore, despite the encouraging results of our study, pregnant women should seriously consider vaccination.”