Many pregnant women have not gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 鈥� across the U.S., only about 16% are fully vaccinated. And as the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic hits the St. Louis region, physicians say far too many are ending up in the ICU.
鈥淚n one of our hospitals, the rate of COVID positive on [the] labor and delivery [ward] was 20% last week. It's the highest that I've ever seen it the entire pandemic,鈥� said Dr. Ebony B. Carter, an associate professor and chief of the Clinical Research Division in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University. 鈥淚t's d茅j脿 vu in the worst possible way.鈥�
The scenes Carter is witnessing this summer remind her of the early days of the pandemic 鈥� 鈥渢he most traumatic professional period I鈥檝e lived through in my 15 years as a physician.鈥�
Prior to the pandemic, obstetricians didn鈥檛 typically have discussions about end-of-life decisions with their patients.
鈥淏ut I'm having them now,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淎s a patient is struggling to breathe, and she's just trying to gasp for air, I'm saying, 鈥極K, if the baby is in distress too, do you want me to do a C-section for the baby, if you can't make decisions for yourself? Who do you love and trust to make those decisions for you?鈥�
鈥淵oung healthy people should not have to have those conversations when we should be talking about a gender reveal party and fun baby stuff, right? We shouldn't be talking about end-of-life care,鈥� Carter said.
She joined St. Louis on the Air to discuss the increased number of unvaccinated pregnant women becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 and why it鈥檚 so important for pregnant people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
鈥淧regnant people are prone to getting really sick with COVID. This is the way that I explain it to my patients: 鈥榊ou have this little foreign alien living inside of your body for nine months, and you do not want your body to attack that foreign being inside of you. So your immune system kind of tamps down a bit so that you don't attack the baby 鈥� which is great for the baby, [but] not good for you because that means if you get the flu, you're more likely to get sick or end up in the ICU,鈥欌�� Carter said.
鈥淪ame thing is true for COVID. If you get a COVID infection, your risk of ending up in the intensive care unit [is] three times higher than the non-pregnant version of you. Your risk of needing a machine to breathe for you is three times higher. Your risk for death is twice as high than when you're not pregnant.鈥�
Carter also shared the results of who drink breast milk from mothers who have been vaccinated within the past 80 days. She was both an investigator for and a patient in the study.
鈥淚 was breastfeeding, and I wanted to know if it was in my breast milk too,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淪o I was a volunteer for the study, and we saw that there were antibodies 鈥� those little soldiers against COVID 鈥� in the breast milk.鈥�
While she acknowledged that the study sample was small and that it hasn鈥檛 been followed long enough to be certain, the findings suggest that vaccinated mothers are passing along antibody protection to their babies via breast milk.
鈥淚t's very unlikely that you're harming your baby through vaccination, and it's very likely that you're probably giving that kid some protection,鈥� she said.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . The audio engineer is .
