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Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

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Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#11

Post by uuilly »

nostromo wrote: post #8

Heart attacks are similarly down 40-60%. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doc... And cancer diagnoses are down by half. https://youtu.be/TWF8KLKy-I0 Of course, no, they aren’t down, it’s just that people that absolutely should be going to the hospital aren’t and they’re endangering their lives trying to avoid COVID-19. Could something similar be at play here? I laughed out loud when they sugge…

Difference is you can't "hold in" a pre-term birth b/c you're afraid of covid.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#12

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

Here's a study from Denmark showing a 90% drop in the rate of extremely premature births (gestational age below 28 weeks - the HN article talks about 32 weeks, so the drops cannot be directly compared):

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.22.20109793v...

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#13

Post by nostromo »

uuilly wrote: post #11
nostromo wrote: post #8

Heart attacks are similarly down 40-60%. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doc... And cancer diagnoses are down by half. https://youtu.be/TWF8KLKy-I0 Of course, no, they aren’t down, it’s just that people that absolutely should be going to the hospital aren’t and they’re endangering their lives trying to avoid COVID-19. Could something similar be at play here? I laughed out loud when they sugge…

Difference is you can't "hold in" a pre-term birth b/c you're afraid of covid.

Half of premature babies are delivered via c-section and many more are induced, usually because there is some risk to the mother or baby at holding the baby to term.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#14

Post by anoncareer0212 »

spenczar5 wrote: post #3

> "By staying home, a pregnant woman may have less stress from commuting and from work, and that might have helped them," Alshaikh said. Ah yes, I'm sure my 7-months-pregnant wife would agree that this has been a lovely, low-stress time. Wouldn't have it any other way.

You seem to be dunking on them for making a qualitative judgement, but they made a comparative one.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#15

Post by ramraj07 »

spenczar5 wrote: post #3

> "By staying home, a pregnant woman may have less stress from commuting and from work, and that might have helped them," Alshaikh said. Ah yes, I'm sure my 7-months-pregnant wife would agree that this has been a lovely, low-stress time. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Emotional stress? Yes. Physical stress? Hopefully not?

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#17

Post by ninjanomnom »

spenczar5 wrote: post #3

> "By staying home, a pregnant woman may have less stress from commuting and from work, and that might have helped them," Alshaikh said. Ah yes, I'm sure my 7-months-pregnant wife would agree that this has been a lovely, low-stress time. Wouldn't have it any other way.

From a purely personal perspective I have genuinely been less stressed recently and like the current situation. Obviously I know this pandemic is an awful event for many people and you were (I think?) being sarcastic. But I would be surprised if there wasn't at least some portion of mothers feeling similarly. Is it enough to account for the changes we're seeing? I suspect it's more than one factor.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#18

Post by mithr »

spenczar5 wrote: post #3

> "By staying home, a pregnant woman may have less stress from commuting and from work, and that might have helped them," Alshaikh said. Ah yes, I'm sure my 7-months-pregnant wife would agree that this has been a lovely, low-stress time. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Came here to say this.

The past few months have been some of the most emotionally stressful in recent memory. Even work-wise -- less of a commute, sure, but unless you already had a job that was compatible with working from home, the transition by itself has been anything but easy and relaxing. Not to mention the incredibly sharp rise in unemployment, the lack of physical social interaction, the fear (or reality) that your parents/grandparents contact the virus, etc etc.

And as for physical stress, exercise is generally good, not bad for one's health, including during pregnancy. Unless your job involves doing physically taxing work, which you continue to do even while pregnant, it's a little hard to imagine how being forced to stay indoors would be particularly good for your overall physical health.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#19

Post by DangitBobby »

nostromo wrote: post #13
uuilly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Difference is you can't "hold in" a pre-term birth b/c you're afraid of covid.

Half of premature babies are delivered via c-section and many more are induced, usually because there is some risk to the mother or baby at holding the baby to term.

I find it doubtful that the people researching this phenomenon didn't think of that, don't you?

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#20

Post by wahern »

nostromo wrote: post #13
uuilly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Difference is you can't "hold in" a pre-term birth b/c you're afraid of covid.

Half of premature babies are delivered via c-section and many more are induced, usually because there is some risk to the mother or baby at holding the baby to term.

Such as inducement for preeclampsia, which in prior years accounted for ~15% of premature births in the U.S.: https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/preeclampsia.aspx

Like with coronary and cardiovascular diseases, I imagine long-term impacts won't be known for several years.

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