Increased spontaneous preterm births during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Mahajan, Niraj N; Pednekar, Rahi; Gaikwad, Chaitanya; More, Prajakta; Pophalkar, Madhura; Kesarwani, Shweta; Jnanananda, Bhargavi; Mahale, Smita D; Gajbhiye, Rahul K

OBJECTIVE There are contradictory reports on the impact of COVID-19 on preterm births (PTBs). We aimed to compare the spontaneous preterm births (SPTBs), and iatrogenic preterm births (IPTBs) rates during both waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS Retrospective analysis of the PregCovid registry of pregnant women with COVID-19 was done at a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai, India. The data of 1,630 women was analyzed for this study. between April 4th, 2020 to July 4th, 2021. Prepandemic data were analyzed and compared with pandemic data. Main outcome measures was spontaneous preterm birth rate. RESULTS Preterm deliveries were reported higher during second wave (14%, 46/329) compared to first wave (10.2%, 82/807) of the COVID-19 pandemic (p=0.065). Higher SPTBs were reported during second wave than first wave (12.5% vs 8.3%) [p=0.03] as well as the prepandemic period (12.5% vs 10.5%) (p=0.286). IPTBs were significantly lower in the pandemic period than in the prepandemic period (1.8 vs 3.3) (p=0.012). CONCLUSIONS In Mumbai, India, we found an unusual change in SPTBs during the 6 months of the second wave of COVID-19 compared with the previous 10 months of 1st wave of pandemic and one year of prepandemic.