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The coronavirus currently sweeping the world may injure the placentas of pregnant women and cut off blood supply to their unborn babies, a small study has found.

Scientists found visible damage to the placentas of all 15 mothers who were involved in the research.

Lesions and blood clots were discovered in the vital organ, responsible for providing oxygen and nutrients to the foetus.

Issues with placental blood flow can lead to low birth weight, organ damage in the baby or even foetal death.
 
Although none of the children in the study had any health troubles, the researchers who conducted the study said the findings 'worried them'.  

The results highlight the need to monitor expectant mothers infected with COVID-19 'right now', they added.

Sixteen women in total were involved in the study by Northwestern University, in Illinois.

Fifteen of them delivered healthy babies, while one miscarried in the second trimester.

The risk of miscarriage was therefore 6 per cent. This is slightly higher than the 1 per cent of miscarriages that occur in the second trimester of an average pregnancy. 

But the woman was asymptomatic and the researchers are unsure whether the virus caused the miscarriage or if it was unrelated.

They say their study is too small to draw broad conclusions about coronavirus' link to miscarriages.  

In the successful births, all 15 of the children tested negative for the virus and were considered 'healthy'.

So it came as a surprise that every mother suffered visible damage to their placentas, according to lead author  Dr Jeffrey Goldstein.

Dr Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University, said: 'Most of these babies were delivered full-term after otherwise normal pregnancies, so you wouldn't expect to find anything wrong with the placentas, but this virus appears to be inducing some injury in the placenta.

'It doesn't appear to be inducing negative outcomes in live-born infants, based on our limited data, but it does validate the idea that women with COVID should be monitored more closely.

'These findings support that there might be something clot-forming about coronavirus, and it's happening in the placenta.'  

Dr Goldstein said it makes sense to continue to follow babies born to coronavirus-infected mothers to see if they face any difficulties in later life.

Previous research has found that children who were in born during the 1918-19 flu pandemic have higher rates of heart disease. 

On the miscarriage, Dr Goldstein added: 'That patient was asymptomatic, so we don't know whether the virus caused the miscarriage or it was unrelated.