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BACKGROUND One year since the first reported cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has infected more than 75 million people in 218 countries and caused the loss of life of close to 1.7 million persons. The effects of COVID-19 during pregnancy on obstetric, neonatal, and infant health are still poorly understood. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to identify topics and questions regarding COVID-19 and pregnancy most frequently discussed in websites with high traffic. METHODS To carry out this study, 50 websites were selected on the basis of having high domain authority ranking and a section dedicated to questions and answers about COVID-19 and pregnancy. The questions were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS About 15% of all questions were related to mother-to-baby COVID-19 transmission. Close to 10% of the questions discussed whether the hospital is a safe environment for pregnant women, especially to visit for touring and for prenatal and postnatal care. Approximately 8.6% provided recommendations on how to protect mothers and their babies during pregnancy and after birth. Another frequently asked question was regarding hospital visitors: about 8% discussed the hospital policy regarding bringing a supporting person during labor and delivery. A similar proportion provided guidelines on what to do when a pregnant woman tests positive for COVID-19. Additionally, it is important to understand some of the pitfalls of getting information about COVID-19 and pregnancy from online sources. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights gaps in information available on websites related to COVID-19 and pregnancy and emphasizes the need for verified online sources that provide evidence-based health information related to maternal-fetal health and the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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Diego F. Wyszynski (2020) studied this question.