PREGNANT women who have had coronavirus may need to be monitored more closely, doctors warned.
A small study showed that the disease can cause “injuries” to the placenta, which acts as a respiratory device for the fetus.
However, you have assured mothers-to-be that these injuries do not appear to harm an unborn child.
The researchers examined the placenta of 16 women who had tested positive for the virus during pregnancy.
Pathological examinations showed evidence of injury to the placenta.
However, the team said in particular that there appeared to be no negative results for newborns, but added that expectant mothers with a history of coronaviruses may need closer monitoring.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists emphasized that most pregnant women with coronavirus had normal and healthy pregnancies – and the prospects for newborns are good.
They also stressed that pregnant women are not at higher risk from Covid-19 and that there is no evidence that this could increase the miscarriage rate.
The new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, found that the new injury could cause abnormal blood flow between mothers and their babies.
The authors said the new results raised concerns about the pandemic’s monitoring of pregnant women.
Dr. Emily Miller of Northwestern University said that while she didn’t want to “paint a creepy picture”, the results were “worried”.
“I don’t want to draw any comprehensive conclusions from a small study, but this preliminary insight into how Covid-19 could cause changes in the placenta has some pretty significant health effects in pregnancy.
“We need to discuss whether we should change the way we monitor pregnant women now.”
From the limited data set, the team of Dr. Miller, however, that the virus caused some placenta injury, added that these injuries did not appear to have any negative consequences in live births.
Dr. Miller said the study shows that the placenta in women with Covid-19 may not be fully utilized
She added: “The placenta acts like a ventilator for the fetus, and if it is damaged, it can have bad consequences.
“In this very limited study, these results provide some evidence that the ventilator may not work as well as we would if the mother tested positive for SARS-CoV2.”
Dr. Miller said that there was a risk that some pregnancies could be “at risk” and said that in some cases the blood had been blocked, which made it difficult for the placenta to grow.
The placenta acts as a ventilator for the unborn baby and the development could mean that women will be monitored more closely if they test positive for Covid-19.
This could include a non-stress test that examines how effectively the placenta delivers oxygen.
Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein added that flu-like viruses do not get into the placenta, saying that anything that causes problems is due to a violation of placental immune activity.
Of the 16 patients participating in the study, 15 were born in the third trimester and one in the second trimester.
However, the researchers pointed out that the patient who had a miscarriage was asymptomatic, so there was no indication whether this was due to the virus.
Commenting on the results of the study, Professor Marian Knight, professor of maternal and child health at Oxford University, said it is important to note that the majority of women had normal pregnancies.
“This small study showed differences in the appearance of the placenta in some women with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to women who had a placenta examination for other reasons.
“It is unclear what proportion of the infected women had their placenta examined, whether the women had a current or previous infection or whether they had other indications for a placenta examination and whether the differences observed could be causally related to a COVID-19 infection.
“It is important that the majority of women had normal pregnancies and healthy babies, and the meaning of these pathological findings is therefore unclear.
“Women should be reassured by the results of much larger studies that did not suggest a higher risk of problems for babies due to placental complications.”
–
