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Research published Thursday paints a startling picture of the destructive toll Covid-19 can take on pregnant women and their growing fetuses. The virus can attack and destroy the placenta, a vascular organ that serves as a fetus’s lifeline, leading to asphyxiation and stillbirth, according to the study in the journal Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. (Sullivan, 2/10)

Although other viral infections have also been linked to stillbirths, a new study suggests the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may have a completely different way of impacting a developing fetus. A 44-member international research team studied 64 stillbirth cases and four early neonatal deaths from 12 countries to determine how COVID-19 caused perinatal deaths. All the expecting mothers were unvaccinated. Based on their findings, they concluded the COVID-19 infection destroyed the placenta, depriving the fetus of oxygen, according to the report published Thursday in Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Researchers determined the virus reaches the placenta and causes it to fail by passing through the mother’s bloodstream, a process known as viremia. (Rodriguez, 2/10)

Lead author Dr. David Schwartz, an Atlanta pathologist, said other infections can infiltrate the placenta and cause stillbirth, typically by infecting and damaging the fetus. A recent example is Zika virus. He and his colleagues wanted to see if that was the case with stillbirths in women with COVID-19. But what they found was almost the opposite: it was the placenta that was infected and extensively destroyed. “Many of these cases had over 90% of the placenta destroyed — very scary,” said Schwartz. (Tanner, 2/10)

Researchers conducted 30 autopsies of the 68 perinatal deaths and found no abnormalities except for intrauterine hypoxia and asphyxia. [Dr.] Schwartz told Changing America that these babies essentially suffocated due to lack of oxygen being delivered to the placenta. (Ali, 2/10)