Evaluation of stillbirths and infant mortality before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective study

Abstract

Objective The maternal-child health services remain an important indicator to look at how different countries have handled the pandemic. This study aims to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child healthcare use and evaluate data on stillbirths and infant mortality. Methods In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, a retrospective analysis was performed on 293 stillbirths and 324 infant deaths, which occurred in Samsun Province of Turkey between 1 March 2018 and 1 March 2021. The study period was examined in three groups as pre-pandemic period 1 (1 March 2018-28 February 2019), pre-pandemic period 2 (1 March 2019-29 February 2020) and pandemic period (1 March 2020-28 February2021). Results The study found that the share of difficulties in delivering health-care services to the families (may be due to reasons such as difficulty in accessing health services for those living in rural areas, disruption of the referral chain) in stillbirths and infant deaths has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years (p = 0.037 in stillbirths, p = 0.002 in infant deaths). The mean number of follow-up visits during pregnancy has partially reduced during the pandemic (p > 0.05). Other variables of the health-care services have remained similar to years before the pandemic (p > 0.05). The rate of families without health insurance (p = 0.001 in stillbirths, p = 0.001 in infant deaths) and unemployed persons contributing to family budget (p = 0.012 in stillbirths, p = 0.016 in infant deaths) has significantly decreased during the pandemic. Conclusions In our study, it was determined that the variables of stillbirth and infant mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic period, and maternal and child health services in primary care and hospitals continued to provide services in a similar way to the pre-pandemic period. Compared to pre-pandemic periods during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was found that while the number of stillbirths was similar, there was a significant decrease in infant mortality.