Lockdown in Kuwait increased pregnancy rates
KUWAIT CITY, June 7: Although there are no official statistics regarding an increase in pregnancy rates during the lockdown experienced in Kuwait over the past two months, in light of the emergent coronavirus crisis, there are assurances from several doctors about an increase in the rate of pregnancy during this crisis period.
Doctors attributed the increase to the desire of some women to take advantage of the ban period and free time in staying at home. “There are no studies proving the transmission of the new coronavirus from mother to the fetus through the placenta while a pregnant woman is more likely to be infected with the virus because of the weak immunity.”
A consultant gynecologist and obstetrician, Head of the Fertility Unit at Jahra Hospital Dr Hazem Al-Rumaih confirmed “the corona pandemic forced everyone around the world to stay at home for a long period other than what people are used to”.
He affirmed that one of the expected social outcome of staying at home is an increase in the practice of marital life “amid the desire of many women to become pregnant at a time when they are free than at any other time”. He stressed that no official figures and statistics are available in this regard, but on the surface, there is an increase in the proportion of pregnancy during the pandemic locally.
Currently, we do not have sufficient information as professionals regarding the new coronavirus and the circumstances of pregnancy in this pandemic period but we can say that COVID-19 does not affect the fertility of both sexes and neither causes any problems with pregnancy, he pointed out, stressing at the same time that “an increase in early deliveries in patients with the disease has been observed without any negative or congenital problems on the fetus and it has yet to be establish transmission of the virus from mother to fetus during pregnancy”.
On the declining rate of the epidemic, Al-Rumaih said many of the IVF centers in the world have begun returning to work with the application of professional precautions