Neurodevelopment assessment in newborns of women exposed to SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy

Newborn patients at the HUB and HRAN who meet the inclusion criteria in the study will be evaluated. These patients will be allocated to the exposed or unexposed group according to the maternal exams that classified them as exposed or not exposed to SARS-CoV-2 during the gestational period. An estimated 300 patients are children of women and 300 patients are children of unexposed women. Data collection will end when this number is reached or sooner, depending on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in the population. After discharge from the maternity hospital, regardless of whether they stayed in a joint accommodation or in a neonatal ICU, these newborn patients will be referred to the BORN Multidisciplinary Clinic. This clinic was created exclusively for the purposes of the study. The service will operate on Fridays from 1 pm to 6 pm in the Orange Corridor of the HUB. The patient will undergo pediatric follow-up and neurodevelopmental assessment with an occupational therapist and will perform auditory evoked potential and transnfontanellar ultrasound. The first year of life is important for the child's development, considering that the period of more neuronal plasticity occurs in this phase. In this context, special care is given to infants who are more likely to have problems in this period due to exposure to risk factors. These factors can lead the child to be more susceptible to delays or disturbances in his motor, mental, sensory and emotional development (Martinez et al 2007). The assessment of child neurodevelopment will be carried out by the Bayley III Scale at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 and 18 months. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development III - Bayley III is classified as the gold standard for the assessment of the neuropsychomotor development of infants, being used frequently in research. It is a test divided into five independent scales: cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional and adaptive behavioral. Bayley used to assess children between one and 42 months of age (Bayley, 2006). Occupational Therapists at will be blinded to the information as to whether the patient belongs to the exposed or unexposed group. All study data will be stored using the RedCap platform.