India: Over 400 babies born to Covid-positive mothers in Kochi hospital

The Government Medical College Hospital in Kochi in Kerala has seen deliveries of more than 400 babies to Covid-positive mothers, according to doctors.

There were more symptomatic cases among expectant mothers in the second Covid wave. According to Dr Sobha Pillai, a gynaecologist at the hospital, the number of Covid cases among pregnant women were the same in the second wave as in September and October last year.

“This time, we have had more patients in the ICU,” she told a newspaper. “There are more cases of Covid pneumonia, requiring non-invasive ventilation. At the hospital, there was one maternal death in the first wave, and one more in the second wave.”

And the patients in ICU could take about three weeks to recover. According to Pillai, since some mothers also developed myocarditis attributed to Covid, a pulmonologist and cardiologist are also involved in the treatment.

“If the patient is worsening or her oxygen requirement is increasing, we deliver the baby so that the mother can be better looked after, and drugs can be administered without any worry of what it might do to the pregnancy,” said Pillai. “This has worked out to the benefit of the patient, but pre-term babies have had to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. The mother’s condition usually improves once the pregnancy is taken care of.”

• India