Impact of Isolation measures on pregnancy outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to explore the impact of isolation measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on childbirth outcomes in pregnant women. The design was a retrospective cohort study. The pregnant women during the outbreak lockdown and isolation from February 1 to April 30, 2020, were defined as the exposed population, and the pregnant women in the same time frame in 2019 as the non-exposed population. All data for the study were obtained from the National Health Care Data Platform of Shandong University. Generalized linear regression models were used to analyze the differences in pregnancy outcomes between the two study groups. A total of 34,698 pregnant women from Shandong Province, China in the data platform met the criteria and were included in the study. The proportions were 11.53% and 8.93% for macrosomia in the exposed and the non-exposed groups and were 3.47% and 4.37% for low birth weight infants, respectively, which were significantly different. They were 22.55% and 25.94% attributed to average exposed effect for macrosomia and low birth weight infants. Meanwhile, the mean weight and standard deviation of full-term infants in the exposure group were 3414.80 ± 507.43 g, which were significantly higher than in the non-exposed group (3347.22 ± 502.57 g, P < 0.001). The effect of exposure was significant in the third trimester. In conclusion, the isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic increases the birth weight of infants and the probability of macrosomia, regardless of which trimester in isolation a pregnant woman was, while the third trimester is the sensitive window of exposure. Our findings provide a basis for health care and policy development during pregnancy in COVID-19, due to COVID-19 still showing a pandemic trend around the world in 2022.