Publication:

Impact of pandemic restrictions on antenatal complications at a tertiary care center

Background The ongoing pandemic has drastically affected the heath care sector, especially the tertiary care centers taking the major burden of patients. Apart from COVID-19 positive patients there has also been an increase in Covid 19 negative patients due to other private hospitals being closed. We have conducted an analysis at a tertiary care centre comparing the patient data in 3 months that is from 23rd March 2020 to 22nd June 2020 and the same time period last year 2019. The antenatal and postnatal complications and mode of delivery were analysed.

Methods A total of 1837 cases were compared. Patients were divided into 2 groups case and controls.Control group comprised of 780 patients admitted between 23rd March 2019 to 22nd June 2019. Case group consisted of 1057 patients admitted between 23rd March 2020 to 22nd June 2020. Patient were matched for age, parity, socioeconomic and demographic dataResults: Our results showed that there was no statistically significant increase in antenatal complications despite there being an increase in the total number of patients during the same time period. There was however a significant increase in unregistered cases p<0.0001. There was also a statistically significant increase in the total number of lscs and normal deliveries (p=0.03).

Conclusions Our analysis concludes that despite there being an increase in the total number of cases compared to the previous year there was no statistically significant increase in complications.There was however a significant increase in unregistered cases which may be due to increased referrals from PHCs. The increase in work load perceived by the doctors may possible be due to stress and the added burden of managing COVID-19 positive patients.