大象传媒

Throughout the pandemic, concerns have circulated about the risks to pregnant women - from the virus itself, but also from the vaccine. Medical experts urge pregnant women to have the vaccine, and related boosters, and data suggests the majority of pregnant women needing hospital treatment from Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Over the past couple of years, hospitals have severely restricted visitors to maternity wards in order to protect pregnant women and newborn babies from Covid and some hospitals have created dedicated Covid maternity wards to cut the risk of pregnant women catching the virus.

Dr Audrey Coumans, Head of Obstetrics at Maastricht University Hospital in the Netherlands and Dr Angela Ramoni, Head of Obstetrics at Landes-krankenhaus and University Clinic in Austria, discuss their experiences of doing their job during the pandemic. They agree that more pregnant women are being hospitalised with Covid than before, and the dangers of the virus to pregnant women, which can restrict the supply of oxygen to the foetus, can even lead to a pre-term birth for some women. Dr Coumans says that in the first stages of the pandemic, a woman was not allowed a partner or friend to be with her at the birth but this policy has now been changed, as going through the birth alone was so difficult psychologically. She also notes that pregnancies are up six percent since the pandemic began.

Photo: A woman plays with her baby Credit: Getty Images