Guidelines for Pregnancy Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Public Health Conundrum

Caroline Benski, Daria Di Filippo, Gianmarco Taraschi and Michael R. Reich
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Caroline Benski: Takemi Program in International Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Daria Di Filippo: School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia
Gianmarco Taraschi: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Geneva University Hospital, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
Michael R. Reich: Takemi Program in International Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Pregnant women seem to be at risk for developing complications from COVID-19. Given the limited knowledge about the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy, management guidelines are fundamental. Our aim was to examine the obstetrics guidelines released from December 2019 to April 2020 to compare their recommendations and to assess how useful they could be to maternal health workers. We reviewed 11 guidelines on obstetrics management, assessing four domains: (1) timeliness: the time between the declaration of pandemics by WHO and a guideline release and update; (2) accessibility: the readiness to access a guideline by searching it on a common browser; (3) completeness: the amount of foundational topics covered; and (4) consistency: the agreement among different guidelines. In terms of timeliness, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) was the first organization to release their recommendation. Only four guidelines were accessible with one click, while only 6/11 guidelines covered more than 80% of the 30 foundational topics we identified. For consistency, the study highlights the existence of 10 points of conflict among the recommendations. The present research revealed a lack of uniformity and consistency, resulting in potentially challenging decisions for healthcare providers.

Keywords: antenatal care; intrapartum care; postnatal care; COVID-19; Sars-CoV-2; pandemic; obstetrics guidelines; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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