Researchers Find Severity Of COVID-19 Linked To Severity Of Pregnancy Complications

SALT LAKE CITY — New research from the University of Utah shows the severity of COVID-19 is linked to the severity of complications in pregnancy. Those with mild cases may have no complications, but researchers said they hope this will help doctors as they counsel pregnant patients.

When pregnant women catch COVID-19, they don’t know how bad the illness will be or how it will impact their baby.

The study provides a better understanding of which pregnant mothers may have more serious complications.

“For me, I felt like it was just a cold,” said Melissa Lambson, who caught the virus in September and found out later that she was also pregnant. “It was a cough for a day and fatigue and just those typical symptoms.”

But, the mother of four did not know what that meant for her unborn baby.

“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ and I kind of tracked when I had been exposed, and I was definitely pregnant at the time of exposure,” she said. “So, for me, I was thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I hope this is an OK thing.'”

She comforted herself that her illness had been mild.

Now, one of the largest multi-state studies on COVID-19 and pregnancy, so far, backs that up.

“These results suggest there are adverse pregnancy outcomes among patients who develop COVID-19 in pregnancy,” said Dr. Torri Metz, a maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist at University of Utah Health, who is the lead author of the study. “They do seem to be limited to that severe and critical group, but we don’t have control over who ends up being in that severe and critical group.”

The study of more than 1,200 pregnant women from 33 hospitals across the country showed that those who become severely or critically ill due to the virus were at greater risk of dying and experiencing serious pregnancy complications, compared to those who have COVID-19, but were asymptomatic or without symptoms.

But, pregnant women with mild or moderate illness were not at higher risk of pregnancy complications than those without any symptoms.

“I think this is reassuring to patients who only have mild to moderate disease that is managed in the outpatient setting, that we don’t anticipate that they will go on to have adverse pregnancy outcomes,” said Metz.

Lambson said she’s relieved her case was mild.

Her baby is due in June.

“I’m doing great,” she said. “The baby … we did genetic testing because I’m 38, and all of that looked perfect and normal,” she said.

But, 12% of patients involved in the study fell into that critical and severe category.

“If pregnant women do develop COVID-19, they are at risk for developing very critical illness,” said Metz. “If they do, they are at risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes.”

So, Metz reminded pregnant women how critical it is to avoid catching the virus and to mask up at all times.