Neonatal and Maternal Outcomes Before and After COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Coronavirus disease increased concern about vulnerable groups of society including pregnant women and babies. This study was conducted in order to investigate maternal and neonatal outcomes in newborns admitted to Ali Ibn Abi Talib Hospital in Rafsanjan before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this cross-sectional study, 337 infants admitted to the hospital in the first 3 months of 2019 (before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic) and 194 infants admitted in the first 3 months of 2020 (after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic) were included. Demographic characteristics and maternal and neonatal complications were extracted from the files and analyzed by independent two-sample t-test and chi-square test.

The Apgar scores of the first and fifth minutes had significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic (p<0.001), while infant death (p=0.003) and asphyxia at birth (p<0.001) had significantly increased. The frequency of premature rupture of fetal membranes, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and diabetes in the pregnant mothers before and after the pandemic were not statistically significant (p>0.05).

According to the results of the present study, although there was no difference in the prevalence of maternal outcomes between the period of COVID-19 and before, but the outcomes of newborns during the period of COVID-19 were more than before, which indicates the need for more careful prenatal care, health protocols training, and careful monitoring of the fetus during and after delivery to reduce neonatal complications and outcomes during the COVID-19.