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RESEARCH Characteristics and outcomes of pregnant women admitted to BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.m2107 on 8 June 2020. Downloaded from hospital with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK: national population based cohort study Marian Knight,1 Kathryn Bunch,1 Nicola Vousden,2 Edward Morris,3 Nigel Simpson,4 Chris Gale,5 Patrick O’Brien,6 Maria Quigley,1 Peter Brocklehurst,7 Jennifer J Kurinczuk,1 On behalf of the UK Obstetric Surveillance System SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Pregnancy Collaborative Group For numbered affiliations see ABSTRACT over, and 145 (34%) had pre-existing comorbidities. end of the article. OBJECTIVES 266 (62%) women gave birth or had a pregnancy loss; Correspondence to: M Knight To describe a national cohort of pregnant women 196 (73%) gave birth at term. Forty one (10%) women [email protected] (or @Marianfknight and @NPEU_ admitted to hospital with severe acute respiratory admitted to hospital needed respiratory support, and UKOSS on Twitter: syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in five (1%) women died. Twelve (5%) of 265 infants ORCID 0000-0002-1984-4575) the UK, identify factors associated with infection, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, six of them within Additional material is published and describe outcomes, including transmission of the first 12 hours after birth. online only. To view please visit the journal online. infection, for mothers and infants. CONCLUSIONS C ite this as: BMJ2020;369:m2107 DESIGN Most pregnant women admitted to hospital with http://dx.doi.org/10.1136 bmj.m2107 Prospective national population based cohort study SARS-CoV-2 infection were in the late second or third Accepted: 27 May 2020 using the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS). trimester, supporting guidance for continued social SETTING distancing measures in later pregnancy. Most had All 194 obstetric units in the UK. good outcomes, and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to infants was uncommon. The high proportion of women PARTICIPANTS from black or minority ethnic groups admitted with 427 pregnant women admitted to hospital with infection needs urgent investigation and explanation. confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between 1 March 2020 and 14 April 2020. STUDY REGISTRATION ISRCTN 40092247. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES http://www.bmj.com/ Incidence of maternal hospital admission and infant infection. Rates of maternal death, level 3 critical care Introduction unit admission, fetal loss, caesarean birth, preterm The World Health Organization declared a global birth, stillbirth, early neonatal death, and neonatal pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) unit admission. caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona- 1 RESULTS virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in March 2020. As the number The estimated incidence of admission to hospital with of confirmed cases increases, evidence on the trans- confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy was mission, incidence, and effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on 24 September 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. 4.9 (95% confidence interval 4.5 to 5.4) per 1000 in mothers and their babies remains limited. Pregnant maternities. 233 (56%) pregnant women admitted to women are not thought to be more susceptible to the hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy were infection than the general population.2 3 However, from black or other ethnic minority groups, 281 (69%) changes to the immune system mean that pregnant were overweight or obese, 175 (41%) were aged 35 or women may be more vulnerable to severe infection.4 Evidence from other similar viral illnesses, such as influenza A/H1N1,5-8 severe acute respiratory syn- WH AT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC drome,9 and Middle East respiratory syndrome,10 11 Published evidence on transmission, incidence, and effect of SARS-CoV-2 suggest that pregnant women are at greater risk of infection in mothers and their babies remains limited mainly to reports of single severe maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. cases or small case series Some evidence suggests that the risk of critical illness 5 10 11 Evidence from other similar viral illnesses suggest that pregnant women are at may be greatest in the later stages of pregnancy. greater risk of severe maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality To the best of our knowledge, as of 12 May 2020 more than 90 scientific reports of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Cases of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection to the neonate have been pregnancy had been published in English,2 10 12 13 none reported, but how frequent this is on a population basis is unclear of which was population based. Most reported cases WH AT THIS STUDY ADDS occurred in the third trimester, and around half of More than half of pregnant women admitted to hospital with SARS-CoV-2 women gave birth during the acute infection episode. infection in pregnancy were from black or other ethnic minority groups Most women were delivered by caesarean section, predominantly for maternal indication, although at Most women did not have severe illness, and most were admitted in the third least three studies reported cases of fetal distress.13-17 trimester of pregnancy Most women developed mild or moderate symptoms Transmission of infection to infants of infected mothers may occur but is including cough, fever, and breathlessness, and only uncommon a small number developed severe disease.15 16 18-21 the bmj | BMJ 2020;369:m2107 | doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2107 1 RESEARCH Risk factors are suggested to mirror those in the containing details of each woman’s characteristics, general population, with a high proportion of women management, and outcomes. Reporters who had not BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.m2107 on 8 June 2020. Downloaded from with severe covid-19 having a raised body mass index returned data were contacted by email at weeks one, or comorbidities such as pulmonary conditions (25%) two, and three after notification. This analysis reports or pre-existing cardiac disease (17%).15 17 characteristics and outcomes of women who were Evidence suggests that severe covid-19 in pregnancy notified as admitted to hospital between 1 March and is associated with iatrogenic preterm delivery (75%), 14 April 2020 and for whom complete data had been predominantly for maternal indication and in the received by 29 April 2020. third trimester.17 Most neonates born to mothers with We defined body mass index on the basis of the first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic recorded weight in pregnancy and gestational age and discharged home well. A small number of neonates according to the final estimated date of delivery based had symptoms, with a minority needing admission to on ultrasound assessment. Ethnic group was based on neonatal specialist care14 15; only in a few instances women’s self-report, as recorded in medical records. We have neonates had positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 cross checked data on maternal and perinatal deaths following delivery.22-25 Three neonates had elevated with data from the MBRRACE-UK collaboration, the serum IgM antibodies identified shortly after birth in organisation responsible for maternal and perinatal umbilical blood, but SARS-CoV-2 was not identified death surveillance in the UK.28 in any of these infants in the neonatal period despite testing.23 25 These three infants had no symptoms, Sample size and statistical analysis so the significance of vertical transmission remains In this national observational study, the study sample unknown. size was governed by the disease incidence, so we The aim of this study was to describe, on a did no formal power calculation. We calculated the population basis, characteristics and outcomes of incidence of admission to hospital with confirmed pregnant women admitted to hospital with SARS- SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and among CoV-2 in the UK, in order to inform ongoing guidance population subgroups by using denominator estimates and management. This study was designed in 2012 based on the most recently available (2018) national and hibernated pending a pandemic; it was activated maternity data for the constituent countries of the by the UK Department of Health and Social Care as an UK and National Maternity and Perinatal Audit data urgent public health study in response to the SARS- from 2016-17 for body mass index groups. We present CoV-2 pandemic. numbers, proportions, and risk ratios with 95% http://www.bmj.com/ confidence intervals. Continuous data are summarised Methods as medians with interquartile ranges. We did a We did a national prospective observational cohort sensitivity analysis excluding women from London, study using the UK Obstetric Surveillance System the West Midlands, and the North West of England (UKOSS).26 UKOSS is a research platform that collects to explore the proportion of women from black and national population based information about specific minority ethnic groups admitted with SARS-CoV-2 in severe complications of pregnancy from all 194 pregnancy outside of the major urban centres. We used on 24 September 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. hospitals in the UK with a consultant led maternity Stata version 15 for statistical tabulation and analyses. unit. We asked nominated reporting clinicians to notify us of all pregnant women with confirmed Study registration SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to their hospital, The study is registered with ISRCTN, number using a live reporting link specific to each individual 40092247, and is still open to case notification. The reporter. For the purposes of this study, we defined study protocol is available at https://www.npeu.ox.ac. confirmed maternal infection as detection of viral uk/ukoss/current-surveillance/covid-19-in-pregnancy. RNA on polymerase chain reaction testing of blood or a nasopharyngeal swab, respiratory compromise in Patient and public involvement the presence of characteristic radiographic changes Patients and the public were involved in the design of of covid-19, or both.