Study Found a Spike in Premature Births During COVID-19 Pandemic

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024 -- 10:01 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many health experts were concerned about the new disease's impact on older adults and people who are immunocompromised. 

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, Jenna Nobles, sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was interested in another potentially vulnerable group, pregnant people.

"We know that emerging infectious diseases can be extremely consequential for pregnancies, both people who are carrying the pregnancies and the infants who are born from them," Nobles said.

Now, more than three years later, Nobles and her research partner Florencia Torche from Stanford University have published a study that identifies a spike in premature births caused by COVID-19.

They found that from 2020 into 2023, maternal COVID infection increased the risk of preterm births by 1.2 percentage points. The rate was especially high during the second half of 2020, coming in 5.4 percentage points higher than anticipated.

"A one percentage point jump is already very large," Nobles said. "To move the needle that much on population risk is akin to exposing pregnant people to weeks of very high levels of environmental exposure, air pollution from wildfire for example."

The study also found that the premature birth rate returned to normal levels after the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nobles said the decline in early births happened earlier in communities that had early adoption of the vaccines by residents.

"That becomes a really important piece of information to have," she said. "It's not just that vaccines are safe and effective in pregnancy. It's also that avoiding vaccines can be very harmful, particularly in the context of emerging infections like COVID."

She said the research could help people who are pregnant now and considering getting the vaccine for the first time or even the latest booster.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.