If you’re wondering what can go wrong with Covid-19 while you’re pregnant, take a look at a recent post in Pediatrics. This publication details two separate cases of newborn toddlers who suffered quite severe brain damage after their mothers had Covid-19 during their pregnancy. And one of the mothers didn’t even have symptoms while inflamed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Add those two instances to the developing list of things you deserve to hate about Covid-19.
This is a reminder that while you’re pregnant, it’s not a good idea to say, “Hey, let’s find a way to get SARS-CoV-2. “-19. And catching Covid-19 would not be wonderful for that little one or for that boy who is developing internally. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), previous studies have already shown that mothers who had a pregnancy with Covid-19 were more likely to feast on headaches such as preterm labor (before 37 weeks) or stillbirths.
How severe can those headaches be during pregnancy?In a word, a lot. The new publication in Pediatrics describes what happened to two newborns who had the misfortune of being born in 2020 when our nation’s leaders were trapped in their collective pants during the pandemic. If you recall, in 2020, a number of politicians and personalities claimed that contracting covid-19 was okay and that the strategy of letting other people get angry, otherwise known as the do-nothing strategy, was a moderate approach. This was before covid-19 vaccines were licensed and widely available.
In one case, the 21-year-old mother, healthy until 27 weeks pregnant, was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with pneumonia and multisystem illness after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Five weeks later, or 32 weeks into the pregnancy, after the mother was no longer positive for SARS-CoV-2, doctors performed a C-section. The premature male infant was in very poor condition, suffering from repeated seizures and requiring a ventilator to breathe due to significant lung disease. Although the tests did not detect the virus in the baby, his blood contained antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and elevated levels of serum inflammatory markers and cytokines. An MRI of his brain showed bleeding in his brain, which is never a smart thing to look at. This is because the baby’s brain evolution did not continue normally, so when the baby was discharged after spending 3 months in the hospital, he had microcephaly, that is, when the head is much smaller than expected. . After being discharged, the baby continued to have repeated respiratory infections and neurological disorders until he sadly died in old age at only thirteen months of cardiac arrest.
In the current case, the 20-year-old mother tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the end of her current trimester. She never experienced any symptoms of Covid-19 at the time and when she tested positive when she gave birth vaginally. When she gave birth at 39 weeks, there were symptoms of infection of the placenta and amniotic fluid. The little woman needed oxygen after giving birth and was prescribed antibiotics. During his first day away from his mother, the boy suffered seizures. the baby had no detectable SARS-CoV-2, his blood contained antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and remarkably elevated inflammatory markers and cytokines. and respiratory infections. By the age of one, she had clear microcephaly and a variety of neurological conditions, which led her to palliative care.
Yes, for those who have said “Covid-19 is not serious”, look at saying this to a mother who has had a stillborn baby or who has ended up in hospice. Both cases were tragic, with mothers who might have had simple pregnancies otherwise if not for this tiny, tiny, little virus.
So what particularly happened to those babies while they were still squatting in the womb?Well, the researchers set out to see if there was a placental cause. In either case, the placentas showed symptoms of inflammation, such as an increase in cytokine levels. they also don’t seem to work as well, as levels of a vital hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), were particularly lower than normal. Examinations of the placenta also revealed that things were damaged through blood clots and loss of blood vessels. The placenta is damn vital to the fetus. Once the fertilized egg attaches to the lining of the mother’s uterus, the placenta eventually develops and serves as a transient organ that carries oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the fetus through the umbilical cord. Thus, the placenta serves as an oxygen tank, mini-bar, refrigerator and dining room for the baby. If something goes with the placenta, the mother and fetus could be in danger of serious harm. Like many.
Since none of the babies tested positive for the actual virus, it is fully transparent whether SARS-CoV-2 ever crossed the placenta into the fetus. Therefore, the damage to the baby’s brain may have been just the result of inflammation disrupting functioning. from the uterus so that the fetus can get the full amount of nutrients and oxygen. It may also have been the result of cascades of chemicals involved in all the inflammation that causes harm to babies.
Then there’s the immune reaction to the virus that fetuses would possibly have had themselves. In 2020, when your frame had never noticed SARS-CoV-2 before, your immune formula may also have behaved like a virgin on a first date, firing on random instructions just to see what might be working. It may also have ended up causing more damage to your body. Something may also have happened to those two babies, whose immune formulas were necessarily new to everything.
In fact, it is possible that SARS-CoV-2 crossed the placenta in any of the fetuses. Testing for SARS-CoV-2 is like asking someone if they’ve read 50 Shades of Grey. You may not always get an accurate answer. Just because some tests didn’t locate the virus doesn’t mean it wasn’t present.
Of course, two cases in 2020 don’t necessarily mean that such conditions are super common. How often such brain damage could occur in babies born to mothers with Covid-19 is not entirely clear. Understanding this would require more research, which, by the way, calls for those little things you call cash and time. Covid-19 has a lot to learn, as Yoda would say.
In the meantime, those cases are a reminder that there are real risks of contracting pregnancy with Covid-19. That doesn’t mean you deserve to lock yourself in a toilet paper castle and watch Love Is Blind on Netflix over and over again. But there are precautions you can take, such as getting vaccinated against covid-19, wearing a face mask in enclosed public spaces, avoiding poorly ventilated spaces, and staying away from others who might be in danger. Being infected.
Of course, 2023 is not 2020 nor is 2022. Things have definitely moved forward gradually with the Covid-19 pandemic, no matter how hard politicians have tried to mess things up. Many more people have been exposed to the spike protein through vaccination and exposure to herbs and everyone’s immune systems are now more familiar with the virus, the virus no longer poses the same risk as in 2020. However, contracting Covid-19 is still not the same as getting the flu or without blood. that this is the case. But at this point, that’s not the case.