Pregnancy and SARS-CoV-2 infection with a focus on its vertical transmission, breastfeeding, cord blood banking, and vaccination during COVID-19 infection

ABSTRACTThe SARS-CoV-2 outbreak led to a health crisis worldwide. This infection can infect individuals, particularly pregnant women. In this review, we tried to find the possibility of vertical transmission of COVID-19 and investigate the effects of COVID-19 on pregnancy, breastfeeding, cord blood banking, and the effects of recommended vaccines on pregnant and lactating women. Keywords include COVID-19, congenital infection, SARS-CoV-2, pregnancy, and COVID-19 vaccines. Vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was searched in scientific databases, such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The criteria for including studies in this article are the study of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women, fetuses, and neonates during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and also the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on them. There are several conflicting results in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from the maternal–fetal interface. Since many neonates born from COVID-19-infected mothers had no signs of this infection, the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 congenital transmission cannot be confirmed. Also, SARS-CoV-2-infected women can breastfeed their babies if they have mild symptoms. Up till now, no adverse effect of COVID-19 vaccines has been identified on mothers, infants, and the fertility of men or women. Even so, more investigations are needed on the long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccines.KEYWORDS: COVID-19Congenital infectionSARS-CoV-2pregnancyCOVID-19 vaccines AcknowledgmentsThe authors thank the deputy of research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University for kind assistance and support. Also, the authors thank BioRender as we used this software to design the figures.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.