A surveillance study of more than 6,000 women who gave birth in Canada during the pandemic suggests that those infected with COVID-19 were at higher risk for hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission than those of nonpregnant women of childbearing age.

University of British Columbia researchers led the observational study, which also found that infected pregnant women may have been at significantly increased risk for preterm birth compared with their uninfected peers.

Most cases in pregnancy symptomatic

The team studied 6,012 women from six Canadian provinces who tested positive for COVID-19 at any point during their pregnancy (all but 17.1% of them symptomatic) from Mar 1, 2020, to Oct 31, 2021, a period that included Delta variant domination but not the emergence of Omicron.

Their outcomes were compared with those of age-matched women infected with COVID-19 and uninfected pregnant women from the same pandemic period.

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