Comparison of Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes Among COVID-19 and Healthy Pregnant Women in the West of Iran: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: In the COVID-19 epidemic, pregnant women, fetuses, and newborns are a high-risk population that is more susceptible than the general population. These groups are more susceptible to serious respiratory illnesses and pneumonia because of their weakened immune systems. This study compared maternal and neonatal outcomes in postpartum women with COVID-19 with similar healthy women at the hospital. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the characteristics of 100 pregnant women with COVID- 19 (confirmed by a positive PCR test during pregnancy) were compared to 150 healthy pregnant women who were referred to Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan from March, 2020 to February, 2021. The maternal and neonatal outcomes were collected from the medical record of patients and analyzed using SPSS software (Ver. 26). Results: No significant differences were observed in the average ages (± standard deviation) of the two groups of COVID-19 (30.25 ± 6.24 years) and healthy (29.48 ± 6.73 years) women. In this study, pregnant women were infected with COVID-19 from weeks 7 to 41 of gestation, with a median infection time of 35 weeks. The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of pre-eclampsia and preterm birth was significantly higher in women with COVID-19 than in healthy women with the following values 2.79 (1.61, 7.34) and 22.26 (2.86, 173.33), respectively. Conclusion: Pregnant women suffering from COVID-19 had considerably greater rates of gestational issues, neonatal difficulties, pre-eclampsia, and premature delivery, according to the findings of this study. During epidemics, it is advised that pregnant women and their newborns receive more basic care.