COVID-19 infection during pregnancy: a systematic review to summarize possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundWith the exponential increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, an increasing proportion of pregnant women are now infected during their pregnancy. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize the possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes of women infected with COVID-19 during their pregnancy.MethodsFour databases (Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL) were searched on March 25, 2020, using the following keywords: “COVID-19”, “nCoV-2019”, and “coronavirus.” Articles included if they reported either the symptoms, treatments for the women who had been infected with the COVID-19 during their pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes. The selected articles’ results were summarized employing a narrative synthesis approach.ResultsA total of nine studies were selected for this study, comprising 101 infected pregnant women. Other than the infected general population, infected pregnant women reported different symptoms; however, fever (66.7%), cough (39.4%), fatigue (15.2%), and breathing difficulties (14.1%) were common. Infected pregnant women were given different treatments than the general infected population. The C-section was a common (83.9%) mode of delivery among infected pregnant women, and a higher proportion of births were preterm births (30.4%) and low birth weight (17.9%).ConclusionsPregnant infected women had different symptoms, and they were given dissimilar treatments than the general infected population. Healthcare providers may have appropriately informed about these symptoms and treatments. They, therefore, would be able to handle infection during pregnancy effectively, which would reduce common adverse consequences among infected pregnant women.