Woman in coma with COVID gives birth to ‘miracle baby’ after postponing vaccination

A woman battling COVID-19 in North Carolina gave birth to what her sister described as a “miracle baby” while in a medical coma earlier this month.

The new mother “is still fighting for her life” with double pneumonia in a hospital as relatives care for her newborn baby, the woman’s sister, Tarisha Leach, told the news channel based in Charlotte WSOC-TV.

“This baby is a miracle baby,” Leach said in a recent interview with the station. “She is beautiful.”

Vicky Goodson is employed as the cafeteria principal at the Starmount Academy of Excellence, an elementary school in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district which indicates on its website that it has fewer than 500 students. Goodson has postponed plans to get the COVID-19 vaccine until after pregnancy, family members told the station.

About a month before the birth, Goodson alerted her friends and family that she had tested positive for the virus, according to a social media post shared by the station. “Please keep me and my baby in your prayers because I found out today that I have tested positive for covid-19,” the post read.

Goodson contacted his sister in early September to tell her she was having trouble breathing, Leach told the station. Goodson was then admitted to the hospital, and a few days later doctors gave birth to her daughter on September 11. The baby did not have the virus but had to spend about two weeks in the hospital’s newborn intensive care unit before being placed in the care of Goodson’s family, WSOC-TV reported.

Leach said other pregnant women “definitely should” get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Definitely get yourself vaccinated,” she said. “It’s the safest thing right now.”

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that all people for whom COVID-19 vaccines have been approved, including pregnant people, get the vaccine to protect themselves and help limit the spread of the virus in the community. Earlier this week, the CDC issued an emergency advisory that specifically encouraged women who are already pregnant or trying to get pregnant to get the vaccine if they haven’t already.

“Pregnancy can be both a special time and a stressful time – and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in the advisory. “I strongly encourage women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to discuss with their health care provider the protective benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure the safety of their babies and themselves. “

National data showed that about 31% of pregnant women in the United States were fully vaccinated against the virus by the end of September, according to the CDC. Of the more than 125,000 pregnant women in the United States who have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic, more than 22,000 had been hospitalized and more than 160 had died, according to agency data.

News week contacted Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.