Placenta

Aim Study the effect of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), on the placenta and ...

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR). A high prevalence of COVID-19 positivity was observed in the mothers with a reduced transfer of IgG antibodies from the mother to the fetus. [[25]](#references) and Aragie and Oumer [[16]](#references) who similarly found that first childbirth showed an increased risk of abnormal insertion of the cord in their study. The obstetric history of the participating mothers showed that in the MCI group, the majority (n=20) were primiparous with a gravida and parity of 1 (n=24), with no history of stillbirths (n=48) or spontaneous abortions (n=46), no PIH (n=47), and with six antenatal visits (n=23). However, the majority of mothers in our study belonged to a lower age group, the cause for which could be that most of the Indian population is relatively young with the latest report by the United Nations stating that youth constitute the majority of the population in India. It is known that pregnancy leads to increased oxygen demand in the mothers due to increased metabolism, anemia (very common morbidity in pregnant mothers in India), and increased fetal oxygen consumption. In the newborns, COVID-19 antibodies levels were significantly lower in the MCI group while the blood parameters like Hb, WBC, RBC, and PCV were lower while MCV was marginally higher in mothers with MCI when compared to the group with NCI, albeit with no statistical significance. Similarly, the COVID-19 antibodies transfer from the mother to the UC (Cord/Mother or C/M antibodies ratio) was also lower, albeit insignificantly in the MCI group. After delivery of the newborns, 5 ml of blood was collected from the UC by the recruited staff, in the labor room, in ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) and plain vacutainers (without anticoagulants). Among the 48 cases with MCI, 58% (n=28 cases) were COVID-19 positive and 42% (n=20) were COVID-19 negative. The prevalence of MCI was observed to be high in COVID-19-affected mothers in our study. Both the weight of newborns (p value=0.03) and their COVID-19 antibodies levels (p-value =0.05) were observed to be significantly lower in the MCI group.