Multicentre Spanish study found no incidences of viral transmission in infants born to mothers with COVID-19.

AIM

Our aim was to describe the clinical features of mothers infected with COVID-19 and examine any potential vertical mother to newborn transmission. We also assessed how effective the discharge recommendations were in preventing transmission during the first month of life.

METHODS

This multicentre descriptive study involved 16 Spanish hospitals. We reviewed the medical records of 42 pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 13, 2020, to March 29, 2020, when they were in their third trimester of pregnancy. They and their newborn infants were monitored until the infant was 1 month old.

RESULTS

Over half (52.4%) of the women had a vaginal delivery. The initial clinical symptoms were coughing (66.6%) and fever (59.5%), and one mother died due to thrombo-embolic events. We admitted 37 newborn infants to the neonatal unit (88%), and 28 were then admitted to intermediate care for organisational virus-related reasons. No infants died, and no vertical transmission was detected during hospitalisation or follow-up. Only six were exclusively breastfed at discharge.

CONCLUSION

There was no evidence of COVID-19 transmission in any of the infants born to COVID-19 mothers, and the post-discharge advice seemed effective. The measures to avoid transmission appeared to reduce exclusive breastfeeding at discharge.