COVID-19 in Pregnancy
UPDATE April 2022: Please only report patients who were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 prior to 1st April 2022. You do not need to report any patients admitted after that date, however we will continue to collect outcome/missing data for previously reported cases.
Key points
- Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.
- Covid-19 had not been detected in humans before the outbreak in December 2019.
- As the virus is new, little is known about its effect on certain groups of people, including pregnant women.
Surveillance period
1st March 2020 – 31st March 2023
Background
Covid-19 (novel coronavirus) is a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in humans. An outbreak of Covid-19 was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 with increasing global transmission. It is a respiratory illness, the symptoms of which usually include cough, high temperature and feeling short of breath, but it is not known what impact the virus will have on pregnancy women and their babies. Single case reports of Covid-19 infection in pregnant women, with vertical transmission of infection to infants, are emerging, and given known adverse pregnancy outcomes of both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV[1], a rapid study on Covid-19 infection in pregnancy is important to inform prevention and treatment.
Objective
To use the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) to determine the incidence of hospitalisation with pandemic Covid-19 infection in pregnancy and assess the outcomes of pandemic Covid-19 in pregnancy for mother and infant.
Research questions
- What are the outcomes of Covid-19 infection in pregnancy for both mother and infant?
- What are the characteristics of women who are hospitalised with pandemic Covid-19 infection in pregnancy and do these characteristics influence disease outcome?
- How does the treatment of pandemic Covid-19 infection in pregnancy influence outcomes for mother and infant?
Case definition
Any pregnant woman admitted to hospital with confirmed COVID-19 infection within 7 days of her initial positive test.
Funding
This study is being funded by the NIHR.
Ethics committee approval
This study has been approved by the East Midlands – Nottingham 1 REC
(Ref. Number: 12/EM/0365).
Study registration
This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry.
Lead investigator
Professor Marian Knight, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford
Download the Data Collection Form (DCF)
References
- ^ 2019-nCoV epidemic: what about pregnancies? Favre G et al. The Lancet 2020. Published online 6 Feb. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30311-1
