More and more studies indicate that pregnancy is a risk factor for covid-19.
Now a group of researchers from, among others, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, China and the USA have made a comprehensive compilation of the state of knowledge.
In total, they have reviewed 77 different studies from different parts of the world, which together include almost 11,500 women during or shortly after pregnancy.
The results, which have been reviewed by other researchers and published in the British Medical Journal, show that pregnant women with covid-19 receive intensive care to a greater extent than non-pregnant women who have covid.
In addition, they give birth more often prematurely compared to healthy pregnant women, ie before week 37 of pregnancy.
With regard to the fetus, the researchers could not see any increased risk of death, but it was more common that the newborns needed to be cared for in the neonatal ward.
Severe infections always risk
At Karolinska University Hospital, 550 people with coid-19 have been cared for in the intensive care unit.
Of these, eight were pregnant women.
- During pregnancy, all forms of severe infections are dangerous, then we are liberal in using intensive care, says Björn Persson, chief physician and operations manager.
He has no information on whether these gave birth prematurely, but says that it is relatively common for seriously ill pregnant women to give birth prematurely or need to have a caesarean section.
Swine flu much worse
He emphasizes that during the swine flu in 2009 it was much clearer that pregnancy was a strong risk factor.
- Then we had a much larger proportion of pregnant women who were cared for in intensive care.
That flu hit younger people much harder than covid, which mainly affects older people with risk factors, says björn Persson.
What does it look like when it comes to "ordinary" flu?
- It happens that pregnant women become seriously ill, but even from it, relatively few young people are hard hit, so it is difficult to draw any conclusions.