French scientists have first confirmed that the coronavirus has been passed in the womb to an unborn child, they write Tuesday Nature Communications. There is no cause for great concern, health experts say, because newborn children of corona patients rarely contract the virus.
Until now, it was not entirely clear whether unborn babies could indeed become infected with COVID-19 in the womb. In previous studies, researchers failed to rule out that the child had contracted the virus only after birth.
Now French scientists say they have evidence that in at least one case a mother has passed the virus to her unborn child.
The study examined a 23-year-old mother and her child extensively. The results also indicate that the virus may have been transmitted through the placenta, the researchers say.
Virus in amniotic fluid before vomiting membranes
The mother entered the hospital pregnant with a high fever in March and had to cough a lot. Inflammations consistent with COVID-19 were observed in her placenta.
Coronavirus was found in both the mother’s and the child’s blood. The virus was also in the mother’s amniotic fluid before the membranes broke.
Mother and child recovered
After birth, the child had to be ventilated for the first six hours and it looked blue. Remarkably, the baby developed neurological symptoms on the third day after birth, which made the child irritable and involuntarily tensing muscles.
These neurological symptoms have been observed more frequently in adult corona patients and once previously in a newborn child. This child was not further investigated at the time whether it had become infected in the womb.
Both the child and the mother have recovered from the virus. The child started to get better after three days. After two months, the neurological symptoms in the baby were gone. The mother was released from hospital six days after the birth.
Few babies test positive
Marian Knight, a professor of maternity care at Oxford University, says the case is interesting, but pregnant women shouldn’t be concerned.
“Of the many thousands of babies born to infected mothers, only about 1 to 2 percent test positive,” Knight said.
Andrew Shennan, a professor of obstetrics at King’s College London, confirms that it is rare for newborn children to get the virus from their mother. He refers to recent British figures, which show that of the 244 babies born in the country to infected mothers, 95 percent had no symptoms of COVID-19.
“Mothers can rest assured that pregnancy is not a major risk factor with COVID-19 for them or for their babies,” says Shennan.
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