Studies: COVID linked to poor maternal, neonatal outcomes

COVID-19 during pregnancy is tied to dramatically higher rates of maternal death, preeclampsia, preterm birth, and infection and severe outcomes in newborns, according to two new studies. In the first study, published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics, a team led by University of Oxford researchers studied 2,130 pregnant women age 18 and older and their newborns at 43 institutions in 18 countries from March to October 2020, as part of the observational INTERCOVID Multinational Cohort Study. For each woman who tested positive for COVID-19 before delivery, two unmatched, uninfected women were enrolled at any stage of pregnancy or delivery.