Babies born during the pandemic show a lower level of development

Babies born during the first year of the pandemic (regardless of whether their mother experienced COVID-19 in pregnancy) scored slightly lower on tests of development of social and motor skills than those born just before the pandemic.

Researchers at Columbia University (New York) responsible for the study suggest that these worse results are a consequence of the enormous amount of stress that mothers felt during pregnancy.

The study, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, involved 255 six-month-old babies born in New York hospitals between March and December 2020. Almost half of the mothers in the study passed the COVID-19 at some point in your pregnancy, although most are mild or asymptomatic.

Viral diseases during pregnancy are known to increase the risk of neurodevelopmental delays in children by activating the mother’s immune system, which in turn affects the brain development of the fetus.

The study authors wanted to assess whether the COVID-19 It could also have consequences for the baby.

To do this, through questionnaires with the parents, they evaluated aspects of child development, such as communication and fine and gross motor skills, problem solving and social skills of the babies.

The study found no difference in scores between those who were exposed to the COVID in utero and those born during the pandemic whose mothers had not contracted COVID-19 During pregnancy.

It was not found “Absolutely no signs to suggest that exposure to COVID-19 during pregnancy was related to neurodevelopmental deficits ”, summarizes Dani Dumitriu, a researcher at Columbia University and the main author of the work.

However, the mean scores of babies born during the pandemic (regardless of whether their mothers had been through the disease) were lower than those of gross, fine motor and social skills of 62 babies born before the pandemic in the same hospitals .

The simple fact of being in a mother’s womb during the pandemic was associated with “Slightly lower scores in motor and social skills, but not in areas such as communication or the ability to solve problems”, points out Dumitriu.

These results suggest that the enormous amount of stress pregnant mothers experienced during these unprecedented times may have played a role, the authors caution.

Although the study does not show great differences between some babies and others “But only small changes in mean scores between groups”, are sufficient to confirm that this pandemic “May have a significant impact on public health”, warns Dumitriu.

The results of the study do not mean that this generation will have problems in the future, since babies are in a very early stage of development “With many opportunities to intervene and ensure that they develop correctly”, concludes the author.

However, the researchers will monitor the development of these children in the coming months.