PP-036 The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the prevalence of intrauterine fetal death in philippine general hospital

This study aims to determine the profile of cases of intrauterine fetal death among pregnant patients who were admitted in the Philippine General Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to December 2021.

This retrospective cross-sectional study involved all COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative pregnant women who delivered stillbirths during the pandemic period (March 2020 – December 2021) at the UP-PGH. Maternal and fetal factors of each pregnancy were analyzed.

From the 3199 deliveries, there were a total of 68 stillbirth cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021. The prevalence rate during the pandemic was higher, at 2.1% as compared to the pre-pandemic rate which was 1.1%. Sixty-four percent belong to the 19 to 34-year-old age group, 13.2%  were obese, 66.2%  were multiparous, 33.8% high school as the highest educational attainment, 75% were single and 41.5% had at least 1-3 prenatal visits.

There was not enough evidence to show a significant difference in the demographic and clinical characteristics between those with positive and negative COVID-19 disease. Fifty-one cases (75%) were COVID-19 negative and 17 (25%) were COVID-19 positive. There was not enough evidence to show that any additional cause of IUFD was associated with COVID-19 disease, based on the demographic and clinical characteristics.

There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of stillbirths pre-pandemic and the year during the COVID-19 pandemic in our institution. Moreover, the COVID-19 disease did not have a direct impact on the cases of stillbirths as evidence did not show that any additional cause of the IUFD was linked to the COVID-19 disease. This can be interpreted as COVID-19 disease was not significantly associated with the negative effect on pregnant women and their fetuses but rather that the pandemic's effect on government policies and restrictions as well as admission protocols at our institution were to be considered as contributing factors affecting the stillbirth cases during the pandemic.