COVID-19 infection during pregnancy: A systematic review to summarize possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); one of the most hazardous threats that the world has ever been faced, is now increasing exponentially worldwide. An increasing proportion of the women are now infected with this virus during their pregnancy, which may put them in danger in terms of adverse maternal and newborn outcomes. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize the possible symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes if the women are infected with COVID-19 during their pregnancy. Methods: Four databases (Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL) were searched on March 25, 2020, using the following keywords: 'COVID-19', 'nCoV-2019', and 'coronavirus'. Articles included if they reported either the symptoms, treatments for the women who have been infected with the COVID-19 during their pregnancy or pregnancy outcomes. Further searches were conducted using the reference list of the selected articles and in the websites of the selected journals. All reported symptoms, treatments, and pregnancy outcomes were summarized through a narrative review of the selected articles' results. Results: Total of eight studies selected for this study that comprises 100 infected pregnant women. The common symptoms of infection were fever (65%), cough (38%), fatigue (15%), and breathing difficulties (14%). Usual recommended treatments for general infected people to treat COVID-19 disease such as chloroquine, corticosteroids are not applicable for pregnant women because of potential adverse outcomes. Use of C-section was a common (85.4%) mode of delivery among the COVID-19 infected pregnant women than their counterparts. The occurrence of preterm birth (29.1%), and low birth weight (16.4%), were also among babies of the infected women. Conclusions: The COVID-19 infected pregnant women often reported common symptoms of infection: fever, cough, and fatigue with numerous additional symptoms, including myalgia, and sore throat. The proposed treatments for infected pregnant women are different from what usually recommended for the general infected people. The healthcare providers may have appropriately informed about these symptoms and treatments; therefore, they could able to handle infection during pregnancy effectively, which may reduce the occurrence of adverse maternal and newborn consequences.