US: COVID-19 linked to increase in pregnancy-related deaths, study reveals

COVID-19 was responsible for a sharp rise in the number of women who died in the United States last year due to pregnancy-related or childbirth-related issues,according to a government report released Wednesday.

For expectant moms and their newborn children, the research outlines depressing national patterns.

According to the study, there have been an increase in pregnancy-related mortality of almost 80% since 2018, with COVID-19 being a contributing factor in 25% of the 1,178 deaths reported in 2018. In addition, following years of stability, the proportion of preterm and low birthweight infants increased in 2017. Additionally, more pregnant and postpartum women are describing depressive symptoms.

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“We were already in the middle of a crisis with maternal mortality in our country,” said Karen Tabb Dina, a maternal health researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “This really shows that COVID-19 has exacerbated that crisis to rates that we, as a country, are not able to handle.”

After Congress requested that it assess maternal health outcomes in the 2020 coronavirus relief bill, the nonpartisan USGovernment Accountability Office, which produced the report, examined pregnancy-related mortality.

In spite of the fact that the United States has a higher maternal mortality rate than many other affluent countries and that it had been rising in the years prior to the pandemic, COVID-19 has merely made things more difficult for expectant mothers in this country.

High health hazards are associated with the virus infected pregnant women. In addition to COVID-19 restrictions and staffing shortages, pandemic stress has made depression, a common symptom during pregnancy, worse. Expectant moms now face even more obstacles in their quest for in-person medical care.

According to that report, hospitals in rural, low-income, and predominately Black regions have been cutting back on their obstetric services.

There were more than half of rural counties without a hospital that provided maternity care as of 2018,According to the analysis.

(With inputs from agencies)

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