Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Updated : April 23, 2020 6:51 PM IST
pregnant
The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading alarmingly in India and every day more and more people are testing positive for the virus. As per the latest official reports, there are now 21,393 positive cases in the country. The death toll stands at 681. The elderly and people with underlying health conditions are at a greater risk of severe complications of this disease. Another vulnerable group, according to experts, may be pregnant women. Recognising this risk, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says that asymptomatic pregnant women must go in for tests in health facilities where they were expected to deliver. They further add that all arrangements must be made to collect and transfer samples to testing facilities. Women should not be referred for lack of testing facility. This applies to all pregnant women who reside in hot spot areas.
Pregnant women undergo a lot of physical and hormonal changes and any kind of added stress is not good for them. They are vulnerable to infections and need extra protections from viruses. Many experts also say that COVID-19 can affect both pregnant women and their unborn child. Since the beginning of the pandemic the focus has remained mainly on protecting the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. The needs of pregnant women, who fall in the vulnerable group, has been by and large overlooked.
As we know, you need a strong immune system to fight off the COVID-19 infection. But a pregnant woman has a naturally low immunity. This makes her more susceptible to viral infections. Moreover, the size of the chest cavity also becomes small during this time. It means that the lungs have less space to work because of pressure from the growing womb. This is the reason why many pregnant women experience breathing difficulties in the last trimester. All these issues can also make a pregnant woman more susceptible to severe complications of COVID-19.
A recent study in The Conversation analysed the first 108 pregnancies where the mothers were confirmed COVID-19 patients. The mothers often suffered from the classic symptoms of COVID-19, which are fever and a dry, persistent cough. But researchers saw that all pregnant women did not exhibit symptoms, and some had only one or two. Most of the women were in their third trimester and required a hospital stay with medical treatment. A handful needed treatment in an intensive care unit and no deaths were reported. But pre-term delivery was common. Researchers also noticed that even though normal delivery was possible most of the women opted for caesarean section. One reason for this may have been foetal distress.
According to experts, women with already high-risk pregnancies had more severe COVID-19 infections. But so far there is no evidence that a pregnant mom can pass on the virus to their unborn child. But of course, more research is needed before anything can be said conclusively. So, till then it is better to be safe and go in for testing even if you don't have any symptoms.
