Effect of COVID-19 on pregnancy and childbirth

Abstract

Considering the significance of ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, it is important to study the effect of coronavirus on pregnancy. In this review, different case studies of COVID-19 pregnant women from various hospitals of China are discussed. The symptoms of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia were mainly fever and cough and except one study, there is no evidence for vertical transmission in late pregnancy. Though the conclusions from the discussed studies are limited by the small sample size, it is believed that the findings discussed in this review are important for understanding the clinical characteristics. As SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, not much is known about its effects and it is difficult to get definitive answer for the treatment. To summarize, there is no evidence to suggest that pregnant women are more likely to contract the virus and SARS-CoV-2 might not get transmitted from the mother to the neonate.