COVID-19 impact on pregnancy ‘worsens with gestation’

However, there’s no increased risk of pregnancy loss or neonatal death, researchers say
Pregnant woman getting vaccine

The effects of COVID-19 infection during pregnancy become more severe as gestational age increases, underlining the importance of vaccinating early, researchers say.  

A study of 11,000 pregnant women in four European hospitals — including 400 who contracted COVID-19 — found infection from 15 weeks’ gestation was linked to an increased risk of pre-eclampsia.  

Writing in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the researchers said that women infected from 24 weeks’ gestation onwards had a higher risk of premature delivery and women infected from 28 weeks’ onwards had a higher risk of neonatal ICU admission.  

However, they described 20 weeks’ gestation as the “crucial threshold”.