A new medical study has found that pregnancy complications and maternal deaths in childbirth rose during the first 14 months of the COVID pandemic as women missed their in-person doctors’ appointments.
Published Friday in JAMA Network Open, the study of 1.6 million pregnant patients in 463 hospitals found the overall number of live births decreased by 5.2% between March 2020 and April 2021 from the previous 14 months.
Over the same period, the study’s seven researchers found a “small but significant increase” in hypertension, hemorrhaging and mothers dying in childbirth.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were increased odds of maternal death during delivery hospitalization, cardiovascular disorders, and obstetric hemorrhage,” the study said.