Impact of covid 19 pandemic on severe maternal outcomes -An observational study from a referral institute of India

Covid 19 pandemic has taken the world by storm. As far as maternal health is concerned, it has been affected both directly and indirectly. Not only are the women getting affected by COVID disease but also the health services are suffering in terms of availability, approachability and access. The study aimed to analyze the change in the trends of maternal near and maternal mortality comprising severe maternal outcome (SMO) between 2019 and 2020 in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology of our hospital due to COVID pandemic. This retrospective study was conducted in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. The maternal death review data and maternal near miss statistics were analysed. This included assessing the change in the number of maternal deaths and obstetric near miss, their respective causes, and case fatality rate specific to COVID during pregnancy. The total births decreased from 6056 in 2019–4140 in 2020 whereas women with severe maternal outcomes increased from 4.6% in 2019 to 6.5% in 2020(p value