COVID-19 and maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality: a systematic review

Objective: This is the first comprehensive review to focus on currently available evidence regarding maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality cases associated with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, up to July 2020.

Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and Web of Science databases to identify any reported cases of maternal, fetal or neonatal mortality associated with COVID-19 infection. The references of relevant studies were also hand-searched.

Results: Of 2815 studies screened, 10 studies reporting 37 maternal and 12 perinatal mortality cases (7 fetal demise and 5 neonatal death) were finally eligible for inclusion to this review. All maternal deaths were seen in women with previous co-morbidities, of which the most common were obesity, diabetes, asthma and advanced maternal age. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and severity of pneumonia were considered as the leading causes of all maternal mortalities, except for one case who died of thromboembolism during postpartum period. Fetal and neonatal mortalities were suggested to be a result of the severity of maternal infection or the prematurity, respectively. Interestingly, there was no evidence of vertical transmission or positive COVID-19 test result among expired neonates.

Conclusion: Current available evidence suggested that maternal mortality mostly happened among women with previous co-morbidities and neonatal mortality seems to be a result of prematurity rather than infection. However, further reports are needed so that the magnitude of the maternal and perinatal mortality could be determined more precisely.