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Strong guidance needed to prevent COVID-19 infection in pregnancy, study shows

2 March 2021
2 min read

Findings in a major study support the need for extra precautions to prevent COVID-19 infections in pregnancy.

PAN-COVID, a study aiming to understand the impact of COVID-19 on new mothers and their babies, found that women with COVID-19 were more likely to have a premature birth.

There is no clear explanation yet for the higher-than-expected number of preterm deliveries, although it has been suggested that it could be down to healthcare teams choosing to deliver some babies early due to concerns around the infection. Spontaneous early deliveries were lower than expected.

The study also showed that COVID-19 is not linked to an increase in the proportion of stillbirths, low birth weight or early neonatal deaths. There were also low rates of transmission from mother to baby.

PAN-COVID (Pregnancy and Neonatal outcomes for women with COVID-19) is an international study led by Imperial College London, with support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) North West London.

The study looked at 4,004 pregnant women in the UK and the US, who had suspected or confirmed COVID-19. All gave birth between January and August 2020. Clinical case reports were collected to allow researchers to explore the impact of COVID-19 on miscarriage, pre-term delivery, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth, and transmission from mother to baby.

In the UK, 12% of women had a premature delivery - 60% higher than the national average of 7.5%. In the US, 15.7% of women had a premature delivery - 57% higher than the national average of 10%.

“It just shows what can be achieved when research is understood as an absolutely key part of the response to the pandemic...”

Project manager of the PAN-COVID study, Alison Perry, said:

“…It’s great to be able to begin to make findings from PAN-COVID and hopefully our knowledge will be able to contribute to the wider understanding of the virus in pregnancy.

“As the project manager and as a regional champion, I can truly say that the success of PAN-COVID has been down to the individual and collective endeavour of many people during this time and we’re grateful for all the collaboration at 180 hospital sites.

“It just shows what can be achieved when research is understood as an absolutely key part of the response to the pandemic and we all pulled out the proverbial stops to get this up and running rapidly...”

Alison is the Lead Research Midwife and Manager of the Women’s Health Research Centre at Imperial College and also an NIHR Champion of Reproductive Health and Childbirth for North West London. The Chief Investigators of the study are Dr Edward Mullins, Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College and Consultant Obstetrician, and Professor Lees, Head of Fetal Medicine & Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Find more information on the study website. And read the full paper (preprint) online.