Covid led to rise in pregnancy emergencies

BENGALURU: The Covid pandemic affected perinatal and neonatal stages for pregnant mothers, leading to neonatal morbidity and mortality. Studies have shown an increase in the frequency of women presented to obstetric emergencies, apart from a jump in the number of infants with small gestational age (SGA) diagnoses, short labour and even death of infants.

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Mangala Devi said they witnessed a higher incidence of preterm delivery and even instances of babies dying inside the uterus (IUD), especially after the Covid second wave. The cases, however, have subsided now as the aftereffects do not last long.

A National Library of Medicine study showed that pregnant women disrupted their regular antenatal care and more pregnant women were admitted to the obstetric emergency department with many requiring acute intervention. This led to an increase in cases diagnosed with SGA and brain dysfunction among newborns.

Dr Sudha CP, a senior consultant at Sagar Chandramma Maternity Hospital, said the mortality and morbidity rates were higher for both mother and baby during the first wave. Since people were not aware of being Covid-positive, they would arrive at the end stage making it difficult for doctors to tackle 
such cases.

Another study by News Medical Life Sciences done across 36 territories of the country, comparing the two years of the pandemic to years before it emerged, it was found that there was a 27 per cent decrease in the average number of home deliveries in the presence of skilled birth attendants (SBA) and the number of institutional deliveries also saw a dip of 8.34 per cent.

A gynaecologist from Suguna Hospital said the Covid scare could have been the reason for this. It could have also caused a rise in the number of C-section deliveries as patients wanted to be monitored by fewer people which was not the case in the labour room (standard delivery).