×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

Pregnancy and the pandemic

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | Mar 31, 2020

NASHUA – Right now, everybody could use a miracle or two.

And while pregnancy is one of the most exhilarating and miraculous events in a woman’s life, carrying a child during the COVID-19 pandemic can make for an unnerving experience.

So, as expecting moms prepare for one of the most intense and emotional experiences of their lives, they face the possibility of delivering babies in hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients — and plans they’ve made for where to give birth and who will be there with them are often now in question.

Julie Braga, director of general obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, called the current situation, “a scary and stressful time for everyone.”

“I think it’s only natural for pregnant women to be nervous about the virus and its potential implications during pregnancy,” she said. “However, from what we know thus far, it appears that this novel coronavirus is no different for pregnant women than it is for anyone else. This is in contrast to some other viral infections, such as influenza, where we know that pregnant women can have much more serious complications.”

Some health authorities, including in China and the United States, recommend isolation of newborns from their infected mothers; others, including the World Health Organization (WHO), strongly recommend breastfeeding and keeping mothers and babies together, while taking precautions such as the mother wearing a mask.

Braga said that while the baby remains in the womb, it is protected from infection and there have not been any reported cases of congenital infection of the virus.

“This is true for other coronaviruses as well,” she said. “And seems to be true for this particular coronavirus. We know this from studies that have been done on the placenta and amniotic fluid of mothers who have the coronavirus around the time of delivery and also babies that have been born to mothers with the coronavirus seem to have negative nasal swabs when they’re born, which is fantastic news.”

Everything changes once the baby is born. Braga said, “it’s a different picture,” as newborns are extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus as anyone else in the room not wearing a mask.

“Of course, you can’t put a mask on a newborn,” she stated. “What the Centers for Disease Control is recommending, and what we at Dartmouth Hitchcock are recommending, is that if a woman has coronavirus or is suspect of having coronavirus when she delivers, we are recommending that the baby and the mom get separated right after delivery.”

Braga called this decision difficult, but it is “no doubt, the right thing to do for the baby.”

“What we are doing here at DH is trying our best to prevent this from happening,” she said. “And prevent this scenario where they have to be separate from their baby after it is born.”

It should be noted that for reasons that nobody fully understands, COVID-19 does not appear to cause severe disease in previously healthy children.

“The first, and most likely scenario, is that children are contracting COVID-19 but are getting a milder version of the disease,” said Thomas Murray, MD, PhD, Yale medicine pediatric infectious disease specialist and associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.

In general terms, doctors say don’t panic. While the disease is widespread, even if it’s mild in your child, doctors and hospitals are trying to prevent the spread of disease so that hospitals are not overwhelmed with sick patients who all require the same resources at the same time — like people are seeing in New York.

“Just be vigilant. Wash your hands. For children, it’s primarily about containment, not seriousness of disease,” says Dr. Murray. “The majority of healthy young people who are getting sick from this virus are experiencing a mild to moderate illness.”

Sick children should avoid older adults to prevent spread of disease to the most at risk population.

——

EDITOR’S NOTE: This content is being provided for free as a public service to our community during the coronavirus outbreak. Please support local journalism by subscribing to The Telegraph at https://home.nashuatelegraph.com/clickshare/checkDelivery.do;jsessionid=40C089D96583CD7318C1C1D9317B6162.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *