‘Number of pregnant women contracting COVID-19 increasing’

MANILA, Philippines — Doctors are seeing a remarkable rise in the number of pregnant women getting infected with the coronavirus disease in the last several weeks.

This was confirmed by both the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS) and the Philippine Society of Maternal and Fetal Medicine (PSMFM) in a virtual briefing yesterday.

“Speaking from my personal experience in the last 10 weeks, all my patients are COVID positive,” said Dr. Carmela Madrigal-Dy, PSMFM president.

Dr. Maria Julieta Germar, POGS Clinical Consensus and Working Group chair, said there is no official data yet, but many of their admitted pregnant patients at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila tested positive for the infection since the start of the year.

“More and more of them are positive, but many of them are what’s called ‘incidental positive’ – they felt no symptoms or had a mild symptom like a cold then tested positive,” Germar said.?She also clarified that most of the pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19 were confined in the hospital due to other medical reasons.

Dr. Marilyn Dee, POGS president, said hospitals are requiring pregnant women to get tested for COVID-19 and, surprisingly, many of them turned out positive.

Because of this development, doctors are encouraging pregnant and lactating women to get themselves vaccinated and boosted for their own and their babies’ protection.

Except for the Russia-made Sputnik V, all available vaccines against COVID-19 are safe for pregnant and lactating women, doctors said.

They disputed the misconception that COVID-19 vaccines can cause miscarriage and infertility.

“As shown by many studies, COVID vaccines are proven safe during pregnancy and for breastfeeding mothers,” said Dr. Sybil Lizzane Bravo, Philippine Infectious Disease Society in Obstetrics and Gynecology president.

She even pointed out that vaccines were proven to provide protection against COVID-19 infection for up to six months for infants born to vaccinated mothers. – Pia Lee-Brago