Pregnant women urged to get vaccinated against Covid-19

Pregnant women who haven't been vaccinated against Covid-19 are urgently advised to get the shot. The Delta variant of the coronavirus appears to be more dangerous to pregnant women than previous variants that spread in the country, gynecologist Hans Duvekot of the Covid-19 & Pregnancy work group said to the Volkskrant.

This week, at least five pregnant women ended up in intensive care with the coroanvirus, the newspaper found in a survey of hospitals. Last week, UMC Utrecht alone had four pregnant women in ICU. 

"Initially, it did not seem that healthy pregnant women are more at risk of a more serious course of corona than women who are not pregnant. But that has now changed," Duvekot said to the Volkskrant.

Kitty Bloemenkamp , professor of obstetrics at UMC Utrecht, raised similar concerns to newspaper AD last week. The pregnant women in ICU at the hospital "have not been vaccinated and have no underlying diseases. Yet they become very ill," she said. "In the worst case, their baby is even delivered earlier, while the mother is on a ventilator in the ICU."

The American CDC, their version of public health institute RIVM, on Wednesday issued a warning that unvaccinated pregnant women are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from a coronavirus infection. The CDC advised all pregnant women, or women want to become pregnant, to get vaccinated.

Last month, the Dutch Gynecology Association estimated that less than half of pregnant women in the Netherlands were vaccinated.