Enormous Numbers of Pregnant Women With COVID-19 Reported in Texas

With the Delta variant getting worse, now the state and country also are seeing increasing numbers of pregnant women getting COVID-19.

According to the Texas Tribune, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation is a big factor in why pregnant women are not getting the vaccine, but the numbers of pregnant patients getting diagnosed with COVID-19 is getting worse.

“We’re just seeing a lot more of them progress [to serious illness] very quickly,” said Dr. Manisha Gandhi, Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

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In August 2020, over 15 pregnant women were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women.

Fast forward to last month, the number of pregnant women hospitalized was nearly double that.

“This variant is much more aggressive, [and] pregnant women are getting sicker much faster,” Gandhi said.

The CDC is recommending the vaccine for pregnant women, but the problem lies in the fact that hesitancy and misinformation has scared pregnant women away from getting the vaccine.

“Women want to make the best decision for them and their unborn child, and it’s a really difficult position when they don’t include pregnant or lactating women in the [vaccine clinical] trial,” said Dr. Teresa Baker, Professor and Regional Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in Amarillo.

The lack of information about how COVID-19 affects pregnant women mixed with the varying guidance from the CDC, many pregnant women have felt like they do not have the proper information.

The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology recently held a study and found the vaccine offers similar protection for pregnant women and those who are not pregnant.