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As the delta variant continues to surge across the country, doctors are reporting a significant increase in the number of critically ill pregnant women with COVID-19 in intensive care units. The increase comes as hospitals struggle to deal with the influx of patients, leaving just 25% of ICU beds across the country empty.
"None of us has ever seen this magnitude of really, really sick women at one time," Dr. Akila Subramaniam, an associate professor at the University of Alabama's Birmingham Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, told NBC News.
Pregnant women who have COVID tend to have more complications when they get sick and require special care to ensure their health and the health of their unborn child.
"Babies get oxygen from their mom's blood through the placenta," Dr. Kerianne Crockett, an OBGYN at Vidant Medical Center, told WNCT. "That becomes really complicated when you're trying to manage a pregnant person's inability to exchange oxygen very well and how that trickles down to the baby."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 110,000 cases of COVID have been reported in pregnant women from January 22, 2020 - August 23, 2021. Over 18,000 had to be hospitalized, and 490 had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. A total of 131 pregnant women in the U.S. have died due to COVID-19, and more than 200 lost their pregnancies.
"Many people don't realize how easy it is to get this virus, how transmissible it is, and how, if you are pregnant, how severely ill you can get," Dr. Brenna Hughes, chief of the Duke University Medical Center's Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Durham, said. "Most people who are otherwise young and healthy think that they might not be as severely ill. But we have clearly seen that is not the case."
Just 23% of pregnant women are fully vaccinated, and almost all of the women who end up in the hospital are unvaccinated. Doctors are urging pregnant women to get vaccinated and said there is no evidence the vaccines can cause complications. In addition, the vaccines can provide protection for the baby as well.
"We really, really, really are encouraging this because we want to keep people safe, and we want to protect them, and we want to protect their babies," said Dr. Crockett.