San Antonio doctor urges pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccine after pregnant woman in intensive care loses her baby

SAINT ANTHONY – The delta variant of COVID-19 is causing a heartbreaking trend in San Antonio hospitals for some pregnant women who are not vaccinated and are hospitalized in the intensive care unit.

And in one case, the outcome was tragic, with an expectant mother losing her child, said Dr. Patrick Ramsey, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

The loss puts an exclamation mark at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urging all pregnant women and their families to get vaccinated, especially now that the delta variant is proving particularly harsh on pregnant women. Instead of a mild form of the virus, for whatever reason, the delta mutation attacks with vengeance and puts the baby at high risk of premature birth or death.

“It’s very difficult, very difficult, and these decisions are made every day in our unit and in the city, the state and the country,” said Ramsey.

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Ramsey said it was essential for the mission to protect unvaccinated pregnant women and their families. Ramsey admits the new COVID-19 crisis was unexpected and is putting vulnerable lives at risk like never before.

“The cases that we have seen where mum has lost the baby have been where mum is so seriously ill that it is not even safe for her to deliver. And we try to keep mom’s life first priority, ”Ramsey said. “And unfortunately sometimes we just aren’t able to save the baby in these cases, especially if it’s really, really early in the pregnancy.”

It is a heartbreaking development, which is described as being out of control at the moment. While the spring and summer 2020 increases affected a number of women in the region who were hospitalized during their pregnancy, this new increase is different.

“So this is definitely a major change from what we’ve seen with the previous outbreaks we’ve had,” Ramsey said, adding that while pregnant women don’t have a greater predisposition to contract COVID -19, they have the potential to get seriously ill. Ramsey said of the roughly 100,000 pregnant women who have been vaccinated, there have been no major concerns.

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There are also no known long-term effects on a newborn from a pregnancy affected by COVID-19, and babies are expected to receive important antibodies from their mothers at birth. The antibodies are thought to protect the baby for the first three months of life.

The CDC now strongly recommends that all pregnant women who have not been vaccinated do so immediately, noting that only 23% received even a single dose.

For more information on the benefits of the vaccine for pregnant women, click here.

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