Pregnant women, new moms and vaccines

Show Me the Science

Pregnant patients who get COVID-19 have much worse outcomes than women who don’t get infected. They are three times as likely to end up in intensive care, three times as likely to need a ventilator to help them breathe and twice as likely to die. Ebony Boyce Carter, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, has delivered babies throughout the pandemic while promoting health equity for high-risk pregnant women and their babies. Carter herself has three young daughters, and she says the pandemic has been challenging, not only in terms of keeping her patients safe and healthy but also because of the steps she must take to avoid exposing her children — who are too young to be vaccinated — to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While Carter has delivered babies and encouraged new moms to get vaccinated, Heather A. Jones, MD, an assistant professor of dermatology, gave birth to a baby during the pandemic. Her pregnancy was particularly stressful because she has to be physically close to patients while examining them, including times when patients unmask to receive thorough skin exams. Jones became eligible for, and received, the vaccine a couple of weeks after giving birth. Now she says her main concern is for her older child, who, unlike her infant, is not getting COVID-19 antibodies through breast milk and also is too young to get vaccinated.

The podcast, “Show Me the Science,” is produced by the Office of Medical Public Affairs at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.