Pregnant women in Malta who tested positive for COVID-19 were not exposed to any additional risks despite their infection status, researchers have found.
The study, conducted between March 2020 and May 2021 and published recently, is the first of its kind, providing an insight into the impact of the virus pandemic on pregnancy and birth.
The researchers did not make a distinction between women who were infected at any point during their pregnancy and those who gave birth with COVID-19.
During the period under review, a total of 5,398 deliveries were registered in Malta.
Of these women, who had an average age of 31, a total of 160 tested positive at some point during their pregnancy and 100 of them had given birth by May 2021.
Since the start of the pandemic, there has been “conflicting data worldwide” on the effect of active infection with COVID-19 in women during pregnancy, the researchers said.
There have also been uncertainties on perinatal (those months before and after the birth) and neonatal (the first four weeks of a baby’s life) outcomes.
But it seems that in Malta’s case, there was no negative impact on the pregnant women as a result of the coronavirus.
“No significant difference was found with regards to antenatal complications including gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia and suspected intrauterine growth retardation IUGR,” the researchers said.
The study also showed that while for the general population the rate of elective and emergency caesareans was 33 per cent, for the COVID-positive women it was 30 per cent.
The average maternal length of stay in hospital was found to be similar between both those women who had contracted the novel coronavirus and those who had not.
The researchers said no significant difference was found when analysing gestational age, birth weight, Apgar scores [a quick way for doctors to evaluate the health of all newborns], admissions to the Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and mortality.
More likely to be artificially fed
Babies of COVID-positive mothers were more likely to be artificially fed, although the researchers noted that this could be explained by the initial policy of separating the positive mothers from their newborns.
Only one woman needed intensive care unit admission and no maternal deaths were recorded.
“The background incidence and case-fatality ratio in the Maltese islands is low compared to other European countries,” the researchers said.
“The reported comparable outcomes in this study were retrieved from mothers who were overwhelmingly unvaccinated.
“In conclusion, pregnant women positive for SARS-CoV2 infection had comparable perinatal outcomes when compared to the general population in the Maltese cohort,” the researchers added.
The research study was conducted by Andee Agius, Miriam Gatt, Yves Muscat Baron and Tanya Melillo.