According to new research, children born to moms who contracted COVID-19 during pregnancy may be at a greater risk of developing developmental abnormalities by the time they reach three, such as autism, motor impairments, and speech delays.

These could be caused by immunological activation during pregnancy, which interferes with normal fetal brain development, according to researchers from the Mass General Brigham in the United States.

According to Andrea Edlow, a Maternal-Foetal Medicine specialist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mass General Brigham, “these findings highlight that Covid-19, like many other infections in pregnancy, may pose risks not only to the mother but also to foetal brain development.”

An examination of 18,124 live births within the peak Covid window of March 2020 to May 2021 served as the basis for the findings, which were published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The group examined 18,124 pairs of mothers and children. In contrast to 1,680 (9.7%) of the 17,263 children from SARS-CoV-2-negative pregnancies, 140 (16.3%) of the 861 infants whose mothers were SARS-CoV-2-positive during pregnancy were diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders by the time they were three years old.

SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy was linked to a 29% increased risk of a neurodevelopmental disorder in offspring after controlling for other contributing variables.

Additionally, the researchers discovered that men were more vulnerable than women. Infections that happened in the third trimester of pregnancy carried the highest risk.

Additionally, the study reaffirmed the significance of attempting to avoid Covid infection during pregnancy, especially at a time when public confidence in vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccine, is declining.

Although risk reduction is crucial, co-senior author Roy Perlis of the Mass General Brigham Department of Psychiatry stated that “the overall risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in exposed children likely remains low.“