Children of women who had COVID-19 during pregnancy are more at risk of autism, speech delays and other neurodevelopmental delays by the age of three, researchers have found.
They also found the risk was greater among male children and that risk was highest when pregnant women had COVID-19 during their third trimester.
The team from Mass General Brigham in the U.S. say their findings add weight to the importance of preventing infection during pregnancy, especially in light of current wariness of vaccines, particular those for COVID-19.
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The study’s senior author Andrea Edlow, MD, MSc, is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist. She said: “These findings highlight that COVID-19, like many other infections in pregnancy, may pose risks not only to the mother but to fetal brain development.”
Previous research has shown that infections during pregnancy may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental diseases in childhood, which may be down to immune activation impacting normal fetal brain development.
The Mass General Brigham team looked at data from 18,124 live births during March 2020 and May 2021, examining possible links between infection during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring.
Of the 861 children whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy, 140 (16.3%) received a neurodevelopmental diagnosis by the time they were three. Of the 17,263 children born to mothers who did not have COVID-19 during pregnancy, 1,680 (9.7%) received a neurodevelopmental diagnosis.
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The authors found there was a 29% greater risk of a child being diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental condition if their mother had COVID-19 during pregnancy.
However, they stressed the risk still remains low, co-senior author Roy Perlis, saying “the overall risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in exposed children likely remains low.”
First author Lydia Shook, MD, also a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist, said raising awareness among pregnant women is crucial, saying: “By understanding the risks, parents can appropriately advocate for their children to receive proper evaluation and developmental support.”
Read more in Obstetrics & Gynecology
