COVID-19 Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes.

Objective: This research sought to investigate the impact of COIVD 19 on the pregnancy outcome comparing that to the non-COVID pregnancies. Methods: This study undertook a retrospective comparative observational study design, among 68 randomly selected single tone pregnancy cases (34 RT-PCR diagnosed COVID positive and 34 RT-PCR diagnosed COVID negative) who were admitted in the selected hospital in their third trimester to attain medical care for delivery purpose. The study has been carried out between the period of March 2023 to October 2023 on the hospital records of patients admitted between July 2022 to February 2023. Data regarding maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes have been inspected and compared among the COVID and non-COVID cases. Results: Only 14.7% of the COVID cases had mild symptoms, and rests were asymptomatic. In this study the adverse outcomes of the pregnancy were higher among COVID positive cases compared to non-COVID cases. Gestational age at delivery was significantly lower and hospital stay was significantly higher among COVID mothers (p<0.05). Prolonged labor, preterm delivery, ante-partum and post-partum complications, requirement of oxygen therapy and intensive care treatment were higher in proportion among COVID positive cases (p>0.05). Fetal distress, requirement of oxygen therapy and NICU, breathing difficulties found to be evident only among newborn of COVID positive cases (p>0.05). Conclusion: Maternal adverse outcomes were more common than the fetal outcomes when compared between COVID and non-COVID pregnancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]