Bengaluru: Rising cases of meconium in womb, stillbirths due to Covid-19?

The rising cases of stillbirths and babies passing meconium while still in the wombs could be due to the mothers having contracted coronavirus, doctors in hospitals across the city believe.

Meconium is the newborn's first poop, which babies typically pass within the first few hours and days of birth. Doctors handling childbirths are seeing rising intrauterine fetal deaths (stillbirths) and babies passing meconium ever since the pandemic began.

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Doctors notice the phenomenon when researches show that vertical transmission is not happening in most cases.

"We noticed a lot of meconium being passed in utero, which is a sign of fetal distress due to coronavirus,” said Dr Anitha G S, assistant professor, BMCRI. "When the mother has fever, the baby's temperature also goes up. In that distress, the baby may pass faeces and swallow it. Sometimes it goes into the lungs and causes pneumonitis,” she said.

Obstetricians at Vani Vilas Hospital had facilitated the delivery of 118 babies of Covid-19 positive mothers.

Dr Anitha cited the example of a 35-year-old Covid-19-positive woman who had her first baby via a Caesarean section, the 97th baby delivered by a Covid positive mother at Vani Vilas. "She had come with severe BP and diabetes. The baby had thick meconium," she said.

The 12 obstetricians at MS Ramaiah hospital with 210 Covid-19 patients have delivered babies of 16 asymptomatic mothers. The hospital has set a protocol to deliver them via C-section at 39 weeks.

The hospital put the women in labour on prophylaxis heparin. "This reduces the chances of meconium or an intrauterine death," said Dr Sujani B K, head of the department of obstetrics, MS Ramaiah hospital.

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"For a non-COVID mother, a baby coming out of the vaginal route is beneficial as it compresses the chest and the baby aspirating it is less common,” she said.

"By bringing the baby out by a C-section, the baby may take a breath and aspirate the meconium. It could be due to Covid-19 because the blood circulation may be hampered to a certain extent. Only one or two mothers had meconium at our hospital and both babies are fine," the doctor said.

Dr Vijayalakshmi V, gynaecologist and obstetrician, KC General Hospital, said the hospital had seen two intrauterine foetal deaths this month alone. The hospital has performed five C-sections and six normal deliveries.

"The first case of intrauterine death was because of the separation of the placenta in the womb itself that might be due to Covid-19. The second stillbirth's cause is not known,” she said.