Deaths of pregnant and puerperal women on the rise in Brazil due to the pandemic

The Observatory also pointed out that the death rate has increased so far this year by 61.6% among the Brazilian population in general, but that the increase is much more pronounced among pregnant and postpartum women: 145 , 4%.

Despite the enormous asymmetry, the report specifies that the deaths of this vulnerable part of the population represent only 0.23% of the deaths this year due to the pandemic, according to official data from the Ministry of Health.

According to the rethe recovery of the Observatory, among the most frequent causes of death in this vulnerable group is the lack of access to intensive care beds -This crucial service has collapsed in most states of the country- and supplies must be intubated, a problem that has already become massive in wealthy cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

In the midst of this increasingly dramatic context, yesterday the Ministry of Health of the government of Jair Bolsonaro asked women not to get pregnant for the moment to avoid the risks in the midst of a pandemic.

At a press conference, the Secretary of Primary Care of the health portfolio, Raphael Camara, asked “if possible, postpone the pregnancy a bit” to have a “calmer” pregnancy.

According to Camara, the new variants of Covid-19 are said to be “more aggressive” in pregnant women, although she admitted that there is no national or international study to prove it.

“Before, the severity was linked to the end of the pregnancy, but now a more serious course is observed in the second trimester and even in the first trimester”, he explained, quoted by the Sputnik news agency.

The official said the recommendation was for women to consider postponing pregnancies during the peak of the pandemic, as happened five years ago during the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

And, he noted that The Ministry of Health already recommends the vaccine against the coronavirus to pregnant women with risk factors and that it is studying to extend it to all pregnant women.

With more than 13.8 million people infected and nearly 369,000 deaths, Brazil is the second country most mourned by the coronavirus in the world and the hardest hit by the pandemic in Latin America.