Recruitment
A total of 149 pregnant women with established diagnosis of SCD were recruited. This excluded women who were referred with acute pregnancy-related complications, in active labor, or after delivery, and those who were unable to comply with the follow-up requirements for prenatal visits. The diagnosis of SCD was determined by cellulose acetate hemoglobin electrophoresis at alkaline pH. For the current analyses, data from 104 pregnant women (HbSS: 40; HbSC: 64) who had spirometry testing within 2 weeks of enrolment, and followed up for at least 12 weeks (at least 6 weeks while pregnant and 6 weeks post-delivery) were included (Figure 1). All study participants received multi-disciplinary care, described in detail in a previous publication13.