Experts now know more about the pandemic than they did a year ago.
Lewis says, “The overall risk remains low, but we have since learned that there is a greater risk of severe illness, ICU admission, and the need for a ventilator in pregnant women than nonpregnant persons of the same age.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that pregnant women are more likely than others to contract COVID-19 and have a higher risk of developing severe illness or premature births.
A recent Washington study found that pregnant women were more likely than nonpregnant women to get a severe COVID-19 infected.
The study also found that pregnant women of racial or ethnic minorities were twice to four times as likely to be affected by the disease. This could be due to inequal access to healthcare and social inequalities that have been made worse by the pandemic.
“Our data suggests that pregnant women did not escape the pandemic as much as we hoped,” Dr. Kristina Waldorf, who is a professor of obstetrics at University of Washington School of Medicine, and one of the study’s authors, says.
Prenatal care using PPE
As I got older and tried to remember how my feet looked, I began to compare everything with my first attempt.
My prenatal visits at the clinic were, on the one hand, very similar. I listened carefully to my baby’s heartbeat and asked my OB questions regarding various aches, pains, and then went through the usual prenatal testing.
My husband and I were able to go along for the landmark 20-week anatomy scan at UW Medicine. We got a glimpse of our baby.