NUH investigates outcomes for pregnant women with COVID-19 | Latest news

How COVID-19 affects women in pregnancy is one of the key questions that researchers at both Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital are aiming to answer with their involvement in the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) study. This prospective observational cohort study has a high priority nationally and if part of the UK research response to COVID-19.

The UKOSS is a single UK wide routine, reporting system which describes the epidemiology of a variety of uncommon disorders of pregnancy. The lead investigator is Professor Marian Knight, at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. 

Given the rapid evolution of the Coronavirus pandemic and concerns about the possible effect of COVID-19 on both expectant mothers and their unborn babies, Covid-19 was added into the study in March.

Any pregnant woman who is admitted to hospital with confirmed COVID-19 infection at any stage of her pregnancy is enrolled in UKOSS. Maternity units at both QMC and City Hospital are taking part in the study, along with researchers at many other hospitals across the UK.

Other research questions that UKOSS seeks to answer include:

• What are the outcomes of COVID-19 infection in pregnancy for both mother and infant?
• What are the characteristics of women who are hospitalised with pandemic COVID-19 infection in pregnancy and do these characteristics influence the outcome of the disease?

NUH’s contribution to UKOSS is being co-ordinated by two researchers, one for each maternity unit.  Dr Amita Mahendru, Consultant Obstetrician and subspecialist in Feto-maternal medicine is managing the study for QMC and Dr Suzanne Wallace, Consultant Obstetrician, for City Hospital with the help of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology research teams.

Women who are involved in the study will have their anonymised (personal information about them will be removed so that an individual cannot be identified). 

UKOSS gathers data through monthly prospective, case collection from obstetricians, midwifes, obstetric anaesthetists and risk midwives in hospitals across UK. It was set up to enable conduct of parallel cohort or case-control as well as descriptive epidemiological studies for a range of conditions under surveillance and to enable rapid response to emerging conditions of major public health importance. 

In addition to COVID-19 in pregnancy, there are other studies being conducted through UKOSS such as Amniotic Fluid Embolism, Cirrhosis in Pregnancy, Fontan and Pregnancy, New Therapies for Influenza, Extreme pre-term prelabour rupture of the membrane and Diabetic ketoacidosis.

UKOSS is sponsored by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. UKOSS will be gathering data on COVID-19 between 1 March 2020 to 31 March next year. More information is available online:  www.npeu.ox.ac.uk.