Background: Our aim was to describe the clinical features of mothers with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection during gestation or delivery, and the potential vertical transmission. We also wish to evaluate the possible horizontal transmission after hospital discharge, by means of a follow-up of all the newborns included at 1 month of age.
Methods: This multicenter descriptive study involved 16 Spanish hospitals. We reviewed the medical records of 242 pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 13 to May 31, 2020, when they were in their third trimester of pregnancy. They and their 248 newborn infants were monitored until the infant was 1 month old.
Results: Caesarean sections (C-sections) were performed on 63 (26%) women. The initial clinical symptoms were coughing (33%) and fever (29.7%). Mothers hospitalized due to COVID-19 pathology had a higher risk of ending their pregnancy via C-section (P = 0.027). Newborns whose mothers had been admitted due to their COVID-19 infection had a higher risk of premature delivery (P = 0.006). We admitted 115 (46.3%) newborn infants to the neonatal unit, of those, 87 (75.6%) were only admitted due to organizational circumstances. No infants died and no vertical or horizontal transmission was detected. Regarding type of feeding, 41.7% of the newborns received exclusive breast-feeding at discharge and 40.4% at 1 month.
Conclusions: We did not detect COVID-19 transmission during delivery or throughout the first month of life in the newborns included in our study. Exclusive breast-feeding rates at discharge and at 1 month of age were lower than expected.