Can Pregnant Women Transmit The Coronavirus To Their Babies?
The coronavirus pandemic has shown certain peculiarities that are still being investigated. A question that appeared at the beginning of the outbreak was whether pregnant women can transmit the coronavirus to their babies.
Previous experiences with epidemics and pandemics alerted the scientific community from the beginning. Many viral diseases that cause respiratory symptoms have a higher incidence of severity among the population of pregnant women and their fetuses.
The two previous outbreaks of coronavirus, which occurred in 2002-2003 and 2012-2013, did not have mother-to-fetus transmission, but did complicate pregnancies. During these epidemics, infected pregnant women had a higher risk of miscarriage than other pregnant women.
Similarly, when the H1N1 influenza pandemic struck in 2009, pregnant women were a high-risk group. Immediately quarantine was indicated for them and special measures to attend their deliveries, opting for a cesarean section before the natural route.
Based on the background we named, Chinese scientific study centers investigated whether pregnant women can transmit the coronavirus to their babies. The first results, although limited in size, indicate that there is no vertical transmission.
What is vertical transmission?
To understand whether pregnant women can transmit the coronavirus to their babies, we have to understand how mother and child communicate during pregnancy. It is this intimate communication that can transfer the virus from one body to the other.
The fetus is connected to the mother through the umbilical cord and the placenta. This anatomical and physiological unit carries nutrients from the mother’s blood to the developing child. Substances and pathogens also circulate there.
There is talk of vertical transmission when a pathogenic agent passes from the mother to the fetus through this placental unit during the development of the pregnancy. The most current and widespread example that we have in the world is that of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
But vertical transmission is not the only form of mother-baby contagion that exists. During natural childbirth, the fetus can be infected with infections from the mother by coming into contact with the mucous membranes of the reproductive system. This is known as perinatal transmission.
And once outside the mother’s body, breast milk is another route of infection, although it does not apply to all pathologies. In those that did prove contagion, the mother is instructed not to breastfeed and to supplant feeding with milk formulas.