Data show no increase in stillbirths in April and May

[StealthPolarBear]

hopefully reassuring

Bump. Also no increase in low birthweight, very low birthweight and premature deliveries slightly down on what would be expected

Very interesting.

I wonder if they have provisional data for the births over the summer? It certainly seems like getting coronavirus in the last 3 months of pregnancy isn’t a big risk.

Thanks for that. People seem to be blaming Covid for everything at the moment, the hysteria is not helping.

I'd read somewhere that prematurity was down and their was speculation that it was partly down to people rushing around less late in pregnancy..however can't remember where I read this, I have ex premmies and follow various groups so could have been anywhere

Yes I've seen that too.
Particularly for some women with physical jobs maybe on furlough which essentially brought their pregnancy leave forward?
I hope that's not insensitive, just trying to work out possibilities.

I read the same thing about less prem babies- it was a paper from a hospital in Ireland at the start of the pandemic.It struck me that it was way too early to see a Covid effect (it was data from February/March) and was much more likely that the hospital had a bad reputation that they didn’t know about!!

I guess there could be a small effect as if would get swamped in the data for all births if only a few percent of women had covid. Does anyone know if data for mums who tested positive was collected?

No, this wasn't specifically about whether the mums had covid or not, just about the numbers in general.

@peakotter

I read the same thing about less prem babies- it was a paper from a hospital in Ireland at the start of the pandemic.It struck me that it was way too early to see a Covid effect (it was data from February/March) and was much more likely that the hospital had a bad reputation that they didn’t know about!!

I guess there could be a small effect as if would get swamped in the data for all births if only a few percent of women had covid. Does anyone know if data for mums who tested positive was collected?

They only started testing in labour/prior to c sections and inductions in early May. At least in my area anyway. I had my baby in the first week of the hospital swabbing everyone so imagine there's very little data on pregnant women before that unless hospitalised.

Pregnant and post partum women are at risk: obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijgo.13328.

Sorry I should have said these figures are England only

There was a thread last week on FWR about a Nature article showing a 'spike' in stillbirths...? (
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a4025722-Spike-in-stillbirths-caused-by-lockdown

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02618-5

"Birth data from a large hospital in London showed a similar trend. In July, Asma Khalil, an obstetrician at St George’s, University of London, and her colleagues reported a nearly fourfold increase in the incidence of stillbirths at St George’s Hospital, from 2.38 per 1,000 births between October 2019 and the end of January this year, to 9.31 per 1,000 births between February and mid-June.

Khalil calls this the collateral damage of the pandemic. She says that during lockdown, pregnant women might have developed complications that were not diagnosed, and might have hesitated about coming to hospital and therefore been seen by doctors only when a complication was advanced, when less could be done.

Add to the list of ways in which the pandemic and how it's been mismanaged has disproportionately affected women."

I don't think that study found a true result.

There were very few still births in the pre pandemic period. I suspect it's usually higher.

And the national and regional data are not backing it up

Does it not matter to you that pregnant women are slightly more at risk @StealthPolarBear? Normally risk is considered in relation to the mother as well as the baby.

Of course that is important.
I found it interesting if there were any unexpected positives in this unusual situation and particularly as to what might be the cause of the low prem births which seemed to be a phenomenon earlier in lockdown. It's not a situation that could've easily been tested in a trial.

MRex I think the study you posted was about women who had COVID? It's not actually 100% clear from the summary - I'm assuming 'Covid-related' means women who've had the virus, rather than more indirect effects such as lack of resources due to the virus...

Yes, unfortunately it's covid itself that appears to have been causing the issue, in the UK anyway. Much higher risk for BAME women, for reasons that don't yet seem to be fully medically understood. It means even closer monitoring and care is needed in late pregnancy than usual, especially for BAME women. It's worth women knowing they should get in touch with maternity at the hospital if they get covid and arrange to go in for monitoring for any concern, however mild.

There have been deaths in some places from lack of medical care due to the covid situation rather than the virus itself, e.g. The 7 babies in Zimbabwe: www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53580559.

@MRex

Does it not matter to you that pregnant women are slightly more at risk *@StealthPolarBear*? Normally risk is considered in relation to the mother as well as the baby.

Yes that's a really good point. The mbrrace programme considers maternal deaths and serious illness and I will be keeping and eye on that. Thank you.

In fact they did put put a report very early on with some findings although I think thankfully there was no increase in maternal deaths. However they consider each woman's care in a lot of detail.

10 pregnant women have died of covid in the UK alone: www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/news/2013-mbrrace-uk-release-saving-lives-improving-mothers-care-rapid-report.

It isn't only deaths, hospital admissions mean many women are very unwell, here is the NHS update about efforts to reduce issues: www.england.nhs.uk/2020/06/nhs-boosts-support-for-pregnant-black-and-ethnic-minority-women/.

Many women will be fine, hopefully more with the additional efforts. However, you can see that it's best to not put out messages that suggest all is well please, because that may confuse families, friends and employers who should be helping to keep pregnant women as safe as possible.

All is fine in terms of outcomes of pregnancy. That was my message. There have been anecdotal accounts of a rise in stillbirths and it is presented as fact. I want to counter that. Yes there are other issues which I am not addressing.

And it is only well so far. The data are very early days.

And the npeu report, which is the one I mentioned earlier, specifically says this does not represent an increase in maternal death rates. No women should die, I agree. But the risks to pregnantbwomen and their babies on the basis of what we know so far, are small.

I wonder if they have provisional data for the births over the summer? It certainly seems like getting coronavirus in the last 3 months of pregnancy isn’t a big risk

Not to the baby - there have been two cases reported in the press where the mother died of Covid but the baby was delivered by CSec and have been fine

Just trying to put the nepu report numbers into context in my head. 10 pregnant women died with a positive test over 3 months. How does this compare to non-pregnant women?

The 10 deaths in the report (2 of which were not due to coronavirus but had tested positive) were over three months, mar/apr/may. In total the death rate was 6.2/100,000

For comparison the death rate for women in only April age 25-29= 5.9/100,000
The three month death rate must be at least double this.

(Correct me if my maths is wrong please)

This must be due to shielding. So I guess the conclusion is we can’t tell yet what the risk is until the data for women with positive tests comes out.