Analysis of the impact of maternal sepsis on pregnancy outcomes: a population-based retrospective study

To investigate the association between maternal sepsis during pregnancy and poor pregnancy outcome and to identify risk factors for poor birth outcomes and adverse perinatal events.

We linked the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study (TBCS) database and the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Database (NHID) to conduct this population-based study. We analysed the data of pregnant women who met the criteria for sepsis-3 during pregnancy between 2005 and 2017 as the maternal sepsis cases and selected pregnant women without infection as the non-sepsis comparison cohort. Sepsis during pregnancy and fulfilled the sepsis-3 definition proposed in 2016. The primary outcome included low birth weight (LBW, < 2500 g) and preterm birth (< 34 weeks), and the secondary outcome was the occurrence of adverse perinatal events.

We enrolled 2,732 women who met the criteria for sepsis-3 during pregnancy and 196,333 non-sepsis controls. We found that the development of maternal sepsis was highly associated with unfavourable pregnancy outcomes, including LBW (adjOR 9.51, 95% CI 8.73–10.36), preterm birth < 34 weeks (adjOR 11.69, 95%CI 10.64–12.84), and the adverse perinatal events (adjOR 3.09, 95% CI 2.83–3.36). We also identified that socio-economically disadvantaged status was slightly associated with an increased risk for low birth weight and preterm birth.

We found that the development of maternal sepsis was highly associated with LBW, preterm birth and adverse perinatal events. Our findings highlight the prolonged impact of maternal sepsis on pregnancy outcomes and indicate the need for vigilance among pregnant women with sepsis.