“We are seeing loads of pregnancy complications from Covid-19 infection,” said Dr. Ellie Ragsdale, director of fetal intervention at UH Cleveland Medical Center. Sadly, those complications include premature deliveries, unusually high blood pressure in the expecting mothers, and stillbirths.
Alarming Rise of Stillbirths
One study analyzed the outcomes of over one million pregnancies between March 2020 to September 2021. And it showed that stillbirth rates were low before the pandemic. However, the percentage has jumped from 0.59% to 0.64% among women who never contracted Covid. Per the CDC, the rates rose to 0.98% among expectant mothers who contracted Covid. Furthermore, once the delta variant hit this year, those rates rose to a whopping 2.7% for expecting mothers with Covid.
“Although stillbirth was a rare outcome overall,” the study authors wrote, documented Covid diagnosis was associated with a marked increase in the risk for stillbirth, “with a stronger association during the period of delta variant predominance.” In addition, obstetricians documented the notable differences in how much oxygen fetuses could absorb in infected mothers. Dr. Ragsdale and her colleagues noted that pregnant women with Covid have difficulty getting oxygen-rich blood to their fetuses. “We’re seeing areas of the placenta that are oxygen-deprived,” she said. “That’s the baby’s source of oxygen and survival in pregnancy.”
