Coronavirus Significantly Raises Risk Of Stillbirth, Says US Study

The authors wrote that previous research had suggested a potential biological cause for the increased risk could be the result of inflammation or decreased blood flow to the placenta.

The risk of stillbirth is about twice as high for women with Covid compared to those without, and grew to about quadruple during the period when the Delta variant became dominant, a large US government study said Friday.

The analysis, carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was based on more than 1.2 million deliveries between March 2020 and September 2021 from a large US hospital database.

Overall, stillbirths were highly rare, accounting for 0.65 percent or 8,154 deliveries.

But, after using statistical methods to account for the effect of other variables that might bias the result, stillbirths were 1.47 times more common among Covid-positive mothers pre-Delta, 4.04 times higher after, and 1.90 times higher overall.