H1N1 blamed for rise in pregnancy deaths

Pregnant women with the H1N1 (swine) flu were 13 times more likely to become critically ill than non-pregnant women infected with H1N1 , according to a report from researchers in Australia and New Zealand.

The H1N1 virus or swine flu  is thought to put pregnant women at a higher risk for serious complications. This is because during pregnancy, the immune system is less active. To study the association between pregnancy and swine flu, researchers looked at the medical records of 209 pregnant women and women who had given birth within the previous four weeks who had contracted H1N1 and were hospitalised in the intensive care unit (ICU) between June and August 2009. Sixty-four of these (30) were either pregnant or had recently given birth, 57 were admitted to an ICU in Australia and 7 to an ICU in New Zealand.

Of 64 women included in the study, those who were more than 20 weeks pregnant faced a 13-fold higher risk of ending up in an ICU compared to women with H1N1 flu, who weren't pregnant. None of the women had been immunised against seasonal flu despite recommendations that mothers-to-be get vaccinated.

It was found that 11 percent of mothers and 12 percent of the babies died, but the researchers noted that it is difficult to draw conclusions because there were very few pregnant women infected with H1N1 in the study. Nonetheless, the study confirmed earlier findings that pregnant women are more vulnerable to swine flu than others and should be immunised against H1N1.