The Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, now boasts a labour room where pregnant women infected with COVID-19 are able to give birth.
Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said there are currently 22 pregnant women hospitalised at the facility.
“We are keeping them at the COVID hospital and when they go into labour, we sometimes move them over to the Georgetown hospital to give birth. We have recently set up a labour room at the Oceanview hospital so persons could deliver there as well, and we have added operations together so if we need to do an emergency cesarean section that we will be able to do that at the Ocean View hospital.”
The health minister is again appealing to expectant mothers to get vaccinated against the deadly disease. In October, the health ministry, in an effort to reduce the number of Covid-19 infections among pregnant and breastfeeding women, rolled out a targeted vaccination campaign.
Dr. Anthony said there is still a large percentage of pregnant women who are unvaccinated.
“That would result in them getting sick because during pregnancy. Your immune response is a bit depressed and therefore you must get the COVID vaccine which will protect you from COVID-19.”
Dr. Anthony reiterated that it is safe to take the COVID-19 vaccine at any time during pregnancy.
“At this point, you can be vaccinated in any one of the trimesters, whether it’s first, second or third. It doesn’t matter but you need to be vaccinated. We have had meetings with the obstetricians, we’ve spoken to them we have sent out guidelines to all the doctors who are caring for pregnant women, and we have shown them the consensus that has emerged around the globe from very stringent authorities pertaining to why women should get vaccinated during pregnancy.”
Earlier this year, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding pregnant and breastfeeding women taking a Covid-19 vaccine, as there was limited scientific data on the issue. However, recent studies have shown that the vaccines are safe for them to take.
