SynthesisPloS one2021
COVID-19 and pregnancy: An umbrella review of clinical presentation, vertical transmission, and maternal and perinatal outcomes.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- A global living systematic review and meta-analysis hub of emerging vaccines in pregnancy and childhood.Reproductive health · 2025Pooled it
- Safety and Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines During Pregnancy: A Living Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Drug safety · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Clinical risk factors of adverse outcomes among women with COVID-19 in the pregnancy and postpartum period: a sequential, prospective meta-analysis.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2023Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines during Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: A Systematic Review of Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes.Viruses · 2022Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and risk of preeclampsia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2022Pooled it
- Prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2, early relational health, and child socio-emotional functioning in the first 6 months.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- A systematic review of maternal and perinatal health outcomes in the context of epidemic threats: towards the development of a core outcome set.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2025Review
- A core outcome set for maternal and neonatal health research and surveillance of emerging and ongoing epidemic threats (MNH-EPI-COS): a modified Delphi-based international consensus.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- The Effect of COVID-19 on Neonatal Outcomes in a Community Hospital.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The influence of the perception, attitude, and level of trust on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations among pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic in mbeya urban, Tanzania.BMC public health · 2024Article
- COVID-19 in pregnancy: A cross-sectional study on clinical features, disease severity, and health outcome.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Analysis of the transplacental transmission of SARS CoV-2 virus and antibody transfer according to the gestational age at maternal infection.Scientific reports · 2024Observational
- Article
- Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in newborns born to SARS-CoV-2-positive mothers at 2 weeks of life.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
- Development of a core outcome set for maternal and perinatal health research and surveillance in light of emerging and ongoing epidemic threats.Gates open research · 2024Article
- Self-rated health status and hygienic behaviour of pregnant women in Hungary during the pandemic.Central European journal of public health · 2023Article
- Perinatal Outcomes at Birth in Women Infected and Non-Infected with SARS-CoV-2: A Retrospective Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWe conducted an overview of systematic reviews (SRs) summarizing the best evidence regarding the effect of COVID-19 on maternal and child health following Cochrane methods and PRISMA statement for reporting (PROSPERO-CRD42020208783).
methodsWe searched literature databases and COVID-19 research websites from January to October 2020. We selected relevant SRs reporting adequate search strategy, data synthesis, risk of bias assessment, and/or individual description of included studies describing COVID-19 and pregnancy outcomes. Pair of reviewers independently selected studies through COVIDENCE web-software, performed the data extraction, and assessed its quality through the AMSTAR-2 tool. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. Each SR's results were synthesized and for the most recent, relevant, comprehensive, and with the highest quality, by predefined criteria, we presented GRADE evidence tables.
resultsWe included 66 SRs of observational studies out of 608 references retrieved and most (61/66) had "critically low" overall quality. We found a relatively low degree of primary study overlap across SRs. The most frequent COVID-19 clinical findings during pregnancy were fever (28-100%), mild respiratory symptoms (20-79%), raised C-reactive protein (28-96%), lymphopenia (34-80%), and pneumonia signs in diagnostic imaging (7-99%). The most frequent maternal outcomes were C-section (23-96%) and preterm delivery (14-64%). Most of their babies were asymptomatic (16-93%) or presented fever (0-50%), low birth weight (5-43%) or preterm delivery (2-69%). The odds ratio (OR) of receiving invasive ventilation for COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 pregnant women was 1.88 (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.36-2.60) and the OR that their babies were admitted to neonatal intensive care unit was 3.13 (95%CI 2.05-4.78). The risk of congenital transmission or via breast milk was estimated to be low, but close contacts may carry risks.
conclusionThis comprehensive overview supports that pregnant women with COVID-19 may be at increased risk of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes and low risk of congenital transmission.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.