COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge fear and anxiety among many people. If you are pregnant, you would likely have many questions related to threats of coronavirus to your baby and to you. Even though the queries do not have any clear answer, knowledge from previous epidemics based on similar types of respiratory problems may help you in understanding and managing viral infections at the time of your pregnancy during COVID-19.

Whether Pregnant Women Have a Relatively High Chance to Get COVID-19

Doctors do not exactly know whether a pregnant woman has a high risk to suffer from coronavirus than other individuals. However, as hormonal changes take place in women during different trimesters of pregnancy, they have a chance to get infections. Hence, women expecting their babies should protect them properly.

For instance, if a conceived woman has flu-like symptoms (mild to moderate) at the initial stage but are consistently getting worse, she may have a severe chest infection. In this situation, you should immediately go for hospitalization. Moreover, if the woman develops highly severe symptoms or has a delay in the recovery process, she should immediately consult a first response hospital for COVID-19 test and treatment immediately.

Key Precautions to Take in the Case of pregnancy during COVID-19 

If you have pregnancy during COVID-19, you should take the following actions to prevent suffering from the disease-

Always Practice Social Distancing

Always make sure to maintain a minimum of 2m distance from other people whenever you go to the clinic, hospital, or any other public place. You should avoid contact with other individuals as much as you can.

Wash the Hands Frequently

Strict hygiene plays a vital role to protect you from COVID-19 exposure during pregnancy. For this, you should wash the hands frequently.

Use Tissue Paper and Dispose of it properly

You should always use tissue papers whenever you sneeze or cough and later on, throw the same tissue in the dustbin. Later on, wash your hands.

Give More Preference to Virtual Consultations

You should give preference to virtual consultations rather than prenatal visits to your doctor or gynecologist. Furthermore, you should try to reduce the time to spend in the waiting room of your doctor or in the clinic/hospital. However, a few of the tests need you to present with other people, like fetal testing, blood tests, and ultrasound. In this situation, you should maintain social distancing as much as possible and cover your face with a mask or clean cloth.

Always Make Sure of Your Safety

High fevers combined with throat pain/itching, cough, and cold are few of the symptoms, which indicate the infection of coronavirus. Accordingly, pregnant women should strictly avoid coming close contact with any person, who has either of the mentioned symptoms.

Get the Necessary Flu Vaccinations Timely

Even though flu vaccines cannot protect you from COVID-19 exposure, they make you relatively less susceptible to influenza that may cause complications at the time of pregnancy.

Never Overlook Any of Your Respiratory Symptoms

If you experience cough, cold or any other type of respiratory problem, you should consult your doctor immediately. Once your doctor collects the detailed history of your health issues, he or she may recommend you for COVID-19 tests.

Effect of the Baby in the Case a Pregnant Woman is COVID-19 

Another big concern that comes in the mind of women at the time of pregnancy during COVID-19 is whether the virus has any negative impact on their newborn baby or not. For this, doctors have until now do not find any evidence that highlights an increased risk related to miscarriage or development defects in the new baby. Along with this, none of the doctors has found any evidence related to vertical transmission to indicate the ability of COVID-19 to pass to the unborn baby at the time of pregnancy.

 

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