The delta variant is causing severe symptoms among pregnant women, putting more of them in the hospital and life support, area doctors said Monday during an Austin Public Health virtual press conference.
The doctors said pregnant women are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at a higher rate than earlier in the pandemic and are more likely to require intubation, suffer from pregnancy complications or have a preterm delivery. They are also at a higher risk of maternal death and stillbirth, the doctors said.
The majority of the hospitalized pregnant patients are unvaccinated, they said, prompting the doctors to remind the public that the available COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated to be safe among women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Dr. Kimberly DeStefano, medical director of maternal fetal medicine at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, said the earlier a woman gets a vaccine during her pregnancy, the more antibodies the child will have. Antibodies are also shared with infants during breastfeeding, she said.
Many of the pregnant women in the hospital are in their second or third trimester, and a majority of them are women of color, the doctors said.
The press conference comes as the highly contagious delta variant has caused a new surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the area.
Local health officials said last week that the number of beds available in the Austin area’s intensive care units was fluctuating around 16 — the lowest since the pandemic started. That’s 16 ICU beds for 11 counties with more than 2.3 million residents.
Watch the press conference below:
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