The pandemic has created a hostile environment for pregnant people and their babies. Stress levels among expectant mothers have soared. Pregnant women with covid are five times as likely as uninfected pregnant people to require intensive care and 22 times as likely to die. Infected moms are four times as likely to have a stillborn child. Yet some of the pandemic’s greatest threats to infants’ health may not be apparent for years or even decades. That’s because babies of covid-infected moms are 60% more likely to be born very prematurely, which increases the danger of infant mortality and long-term disabilities such as cerebral palsy, asthma and hearing loss, as well as a child’s risk of adult disease, including depression, anxiety, heart disease and kidney disease. Studies have linked fever and infection during pregnancy to developmental and psychiatric conditions such as autism, depression and schizophrenia. “Some of these conditions do not show up until middle childhood or early adult life, but they have their origins in fetal life,” said Dr. …
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