There’s been a lot of confusion in recent months surrounding whether or not COVID-19 can harm babies still residing in their mother’s womb. One recent study suggested that three babies in China may have contracted the new coronavirus in the womb, in what’s known as vertical transmission, but these findings were inconclusive, Live Science previously reported.
Now, a new study from Northwestern University has found some compelling evidence that COVID-19 can, at the very least, interfere in pregnancies.
Placentas taken from 16 women who tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant were pathologically examined right after birth, and they all showed significant evidence of injury. More specifically, these injuries indicated abnormal blood flow between mother and child. These observations are quite significant, and possibly mean the discovery of a new COVID-19 related complication.
“Most of these babies were delivered full-term after otherwise normal pregnancies, so you wouldn’t expect to find anything wrong with the placentas, but this virus appears to be inducing some injury in the placenta,” says senior author Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine pathologist, in a release.
“It doesn’t appear to be inducing negative outcomes in live-born infants, based on our limited data, but it does validate the idea that women with COVID should be monitored more closely.”
The study researchers examined placentas from 16 pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19, and found that the placentas contained blood clots and showed signs of abnormal blood flow between mother and baby.
However, the study does not prove that COVID-19 was behind these abnormalities with the placenta. Indeed, nearly half of pregnant women without COVID-19 who had their placentas examined for other reasons also show such signs of injury.
In addition, given that most of these women had normal pregnancies and delivered seemingly healthy babies at full-term, it’s unclear these placental changes mean much. The researchers note that even partly damaged placentas can often supply babies with sufficient nutrients.
“Placentas get built with an enormous amount of redundancy,” study co-author Dr. Emily Miller, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a statement. “Even with only half of it working, babies are often completely fine.”
Still, Miller added “there’s a risk that some pregnancies could be compromised.” The findings suggest the need to closely monitor pregnant women with COVID-19, the authors concluded.