At present, there is a common concern that a pregnant woman is more prone to corona. Though pregnancy alters the immune system, there is no evidence that a pregnant lady is more venerable than others. Corona Virus (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-Cov 2 virus which is an RNA virus and belongs to the corona family, the family which was first discovered in 1960.
Clinical Trials Prove Corona Positive Mothers Do Not Pass On The Virus
According to the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the mother who is in her third trimester (week 28 to week 40) should take very good care of her, both physically and mentally. So in my view, every other person should take good care of her health. I also want to tell her family members to take care of her mental health as well because mental health has a close relation with immune power.
Now the question arises if this virus can have vertical transmission ability. Well, till now there is no clear evidence if an affected baby will take birth from a corona positive mother. Clinical research was done on 9 corona positive mothers and everyone gave birth to normal babies.
No evidence of a virus is found in breast milk and even vaginal fluid. When a baby took birth from a positive mother, the baby’s IgM was high. We all know that immunoglobulin M being high signifies an acute infection. So maybe due to SARS-Cov2, the IgM in the baby is high, but we cannot be sure. More research work is needed on this.
Now let’s talk about what to do if your pregnant wife has a fever and cough. Don’t be late in contacting your physician or ASHA or ANM or Anganwadi workers. Take her to a nearby primary health care centre. They will do a COVID-19 test done by reverse transcriptase PCR.
Follow The Corona Guidelines Strictly
If the reports come positive then the pregnant lady will get the treatment. Don’t worry, till now no evidence of miscarriage due to COVID-19 has been found. If your report is negative, take a good rest, and take the test again to make sure that the reports are not a false negative.
Now let’s talk about the maternal mortality rate in COVID-19. I read an incident of a COVID-19 positive mother dying during delivery. Her autopsy proves the virus was in the lung. Delivery is always risky. Death of the mother could happen due to cardiac disease, sudden cardiac failures, liver failure, amniotic fluid embolism, etc. So the direct connection between maternal mortality and COVID-19 is not clear.
As I mentioned, reverse transcriptase PCR is used for the corona test, which now takes just 2 hours. Confirmation is done by a nucleic acid amplification test. So, at last, I want to state that all pregnant mothers should take care of themselves and follow the ICMR and, WHO guidelines on the pandemic.