Having COVID-19 around the time of delivery will increase the risk of still birth. The risk of still birth is worst with the Delta variant.
The CDC released a study on November 15, 2021 bout the risks of still births due to COVID-19 infection.The study compared women with COVID-19 to women without COVID-19.
Pregnant women are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19 infection. Over 1 million births were in the study. Among those births there were 8,154 still births or about 0.65%.
21,553 women with COVID-19 were in the study. Of these women there were 273 still births or about 1.26%. The risk of still birth when infected with COVID-19 is close to double.
Prior to the pandemic still births were at about 0.59%. But during the pandemic women who did not have COVID at the time of birth experienced stillbirths at a rate of 6.4%. This in itself it a marked increase. Perhaps the women had been infected and recovered by the time of birth. It is also possible that omen avoided health care during the pandemic.
Prior to the Delta variant the risk of still birth was 0.98% or an adjusted relative risk of 1.47. During the Delta variant surge the risk rose to 2.7% or an adjusted relative risk of 4.04 so still births were more than 4 times more likely during the delta variant.
It is safe to assume that in other developed countries the rates of still births would be comparable and in undeveloped nations the numbers of still births would likely be higher.