en Midwifery Orginal research <p><span style="line-height:2;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="color:#2980b9;"><b><i>Background:</i></b></span><span style="color:#000066;"> </span><span lang="EN">COVID-19 </span>originated from China and causes pneumonia and respiratory, digestive and many other symptoms. The risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes may increase in pregnant women infected with this virus. </span><br> <span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="color:#2980b9;"><b><i>Objectives:</i></b></span><b> </b><span lang="EN">This study aimed to compare the pregnancy outcomes and health indicators of newborn born in two periods before (the first 6 months of 2019) and after (the first 6 months of 2020) the COVID-19</span>.</span><br> <span style="color:#2980b9;"><b><i>Methods:</i></b></span><span style="color:black"> <span lang="EN">In this cross-sectional study, 2303 newborns were studied. Of these, 1195 were born in the first 6 months of 2019 and 1108 were born in the first 6 months of 2020.<b> </b></span>The data collection tool was a checklist that was extracted from the integrated health system (SIB) of the Iranian Ministry of Health. The SPSS26 was used for data analysis.</span><br> <span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="color:#2980b9;"><b><i>Results:</i></b> </span>T<span lang="EN">he newborns born in these two periods before and after COVID-19 pandemic had no statistically significant differences in terms of maternal age, gestational age, birth weight, height and head circumference at birth (P-Value>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of gender, stillbirth and twins or multiples variables in the two time periods before and after COVID19 (P-Value>0.05). </span>Cesarean section <span lang="EN">rate after the COVID19 pandemic in the first 6 months of 2020 (60.8 %) was higher than before pandemic in the first 6 months of 2019 (56.7 %) (P-Value<0.05). In addition, the birth rate in rural areas after the COVID-19 pandemic was higher than before pandemic (P-Value=0.005)</span>.</span><br> <span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="color:#2980b9;"><b><i>Conclusion:</i></b></span><span style="color:#000066;"> </span><span lang="EN">Caesarean section rate after the COVID</span>-<span lang="EN">19 pandemic has increased significantly compared to before</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height:normal"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></span></span></span></p> COVID19, Pregnancy Outcomes, Newborn Health Indicators 19 25 http://nmcjournal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-952-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Tahoora Hasanpoor Baghbani Baghbani_t@yahoo.com 100319475328460013653 100319475328460013653 No M.D, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran Mina Jafari Jafarimina22@gmail.com 100319475328460013654 0009-0002-0028-9636 No PhD of Molecular Biology, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran Majid Mirmohammadkhani majidmirmohammadkhani@yahoo.com 100319475328460013655 100319475328460013655 No Department of Community Medicine, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran Kamyar Mansori kamyarmansori@yahoo.com 100319475328460013656 100319475328460013656 No Department of Epidemiology, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran Elahe Ghods elaheghods2020@gmail.com 100319475328460013657 100319475328460013657 Yes Department of Community Medicine, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran