SARS‐CoV‐2 during pregnancy and associated outcomes: Results from an ongoing prospective cohort

Abstract

BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic is an ongoing global health threat, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). Questions remain about how SARS‐CoV‐2 impacts pregnant individuals and their children.ObjectiveTo expand our understanding of the effects of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection during pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes, regardless of symptomatology, by using serological tests to measure IgG antibody levels.MethodsThe Generation C Study is an ongoing prospective cohort study conducted at the Mount Sinai Health System. All pregnant individuals receiving obstetrical care at the Mount Sinai Healthcare System from 20 April 2020 onwards are eligible for participation. For the current analysis, we included participants who had given birth to a liveborn singleton infant on or before 22 September 2020. For each woman, we tested the latest prenatal blood sample available to establish seropositivity using a SARS‐CoV‐2 serologic enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Additionally, RT‐PCR testing was performed on a nasopharyngeal swab taken during labour. Pregnancy outcomes of interest (i.e., gestational age at delivery, preterm birth, small for gestational age, Apgar scores, maternal and neonatal intensive care unit admission, and length of neonatal hospital stay) and covariates were extracted from medical records. Excluding individuals who tested RT‐PCR positive at delivery, we conducted crude and adjusted regression models to compare antibody positive with antibody negative individuals at delivery. We stratified analyses by race/ethnicity to examine potential effect modification.ResultsThe SARS‐CoV‐2 seroprevalence based on IgG measurement was 16.4% (95% confidence interval 13.7, 19.3; n=116). Twelve individuals (1.7%) were SARS‐CoV‐2 RT‐PCR positive at delivery. Seropositive individuals were generally younger, more often Black or Hispanic, and more often had public insurance and higher pre‐pregnancy BMI compared with seronegative individuals. None of the examined pregnancy outcomes differed by seropositivity, overall or stratified by race/ethnicity.ConclusionSeropositivity for SARS‐CoV‐2 without RT‐PCR positivity at delivery (suggesting that infection occurred earlier during pregnancy) was not associated with selected adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes among live births in a cohort sample from New York City.