Hi! I'm Shelby Dickison, OBGYN, at Washington University.
I'm here to talk to you a little bit about COVID-19 and pregnancy.
Pregnancy at baseline is associated with a lot of
anxiousness regarding the new baby. Right now I thought we talked just a
little bit to help calm the anxiety or calm those nerves in
this new pandemic. Pregnancy normally is associated with an increased
risk of the mom getting sick with any respiratory infections such as
influenza or the flu, which is a perfect example.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, we're not seeing any worse maternal
outcomes, but everything is changing very quickly. We're monitoring the status
of our pregnant moms both during pregnancy and then also
after to see how the virus is affecting you.
There might be a risk of pre-term delivery associated with COVID-19, but
once again it's just preliminary data. We do
know that in order to help prevent spread of the infection,
we do recommend that all pregnant women follow CDC guidelines
including wearing a mask in public, washing their hands both
before placing the mask and also taking it off,
and then also maintaining social distancing with
staying greater than six feet from other individuals.
Because of these constraints, you may notice that your doctor might change
your pregnancy follow-up interval. You might
be doing telehealth visits. You might be doing phone visits. You
might also notice a shorter stay if you have an
uncomplicated delivery after delivery. For moms who do test positive for COVID-19
during delivery, we have a new policy
at Barnes Jewish Hospital. The mom and baby as long as everybody is
healthy, will stay in the room together. We
will try to maintain as much social isolation or
distance as possible while being in the same room,
so you can still see your baby. We do still encourage breastfeeding. We
can help you do that during this time period, because breast
milk is very important for you but then also for your baby as well.
Routine obstetrics hasn't changed because of COVID-19.
We still will do skin to skin, if it's appropriate, delayed cord clamping,
and operative delivery only if medically necessary.
We don't recommend a c-section just because of COVID-19,
although you might have other indications for that.
Now it is good to know that with COVID-19, we are seeing individuals who have higher
risk conditions such as diabetes and hypertension
who are getting more sick than the general population.
If you are pregnant and you have another medical complication such as
those, it might put you at a higher risk if you
did get COVID-19, so it's important to keep that in mind.
COVID-19 testing currently is not recommended for
everybody. It is only recommended if you have symptoms.
Recently the FDA has approved antibody screening. Antibody screening
is looking to see if you have proteins that have been exposed to the virus.
We don't know if you do have antibodies if they will prevent you from getting it
in the future, and we also don't know how well the
tests can pick it up accurately. So, we aren't currently
screening all pregnant women for antibodies in
addition to the viral testing now unless it changes your medical care
you might be asked for those tests. Our visitor policy at Barnes Jewish
Hospital remains for Parkview Tower as well. You
have one visitor during your hospitalization.
If you have another support person that you want to be involved with your
delivery, we have done Zoom or FaceTime
whatever is good for you and that person to work together with. We will support
you in that endeavor. If you do have a visitor come with you
into the hospital, they will be screened just as you. They
will be required to wear a mask. They won't be able to leave while
they're with you in the hospital. We have a tent outside of Parkview Tower
that we are screening individuals as they come in
to ensure that if anybody has a concern for COVID-19 that we're
able to put them in a special place, so that the virus
isn't spread to everyone in that in the tent.
Lastly, I just want to emphasize that we are
currently allowing COVID-19 moms to be in the room with their baby, but understand
as clinical conditions change our policies are changing to adapt to them
as well. Hang in there. We will do this
together. We will take care of you and if you have
any questions, I encourage you to call your OBGYN.