Spike in unvaccinated pregnant women hospitalized for COVID-19, alarming health leaders

SEATTLE (KOMO) — Health leaders are sounding the alarm about a spike in pregnant women getting hospitalized for COVID-19.

Doctors said the vast majority of these women with severe cases are unvaccinated.

KOMO News spoke to top OB/GYN doctors in the Puget Sound region Tuesday. They told me in some cases, babies are born prematurely to help the mother breathe, and in the most severe cases — women have died.

Scarlett To is grateful to be alive after contracting coronavirus when she was 24 weeks pregnant in early April — by that point, she had not gotten vaccinated. To was hospitalized for COVID-19 for nearly two months.

"Both the baby and I were dying, so the doctors decided to do an emergency delivery when the baby was 26 weeks," To said. "During the whole time, I was asleep, so I couldn’t see the baby, I was alone in the ICU, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t speak with the ventilator on. Nobody would expect that I would wake up."

When To came off of the ventilator, she could barely stand and struggled to hold her baby boy — who was in the NICU for a total of 94 days — just weighing two pounds.

"Like holding two hands together and that’s how small he was," To said.

To and her baby are still recovering. Sadly, stories like theirs are becoming all too common around Western Washington and the entire country.

"It's just heartbreaking," said Dr. Tanya Sorensen, executive medical director for women and infant services at Swedish. "You see these families and these pregnant moms who are suffering."

Sorensen said watching her patients fight to survive is devastating for her and the entire staff.

"We’ve actually had a maternal death and it’s incredibly hard to see," Sorensen said.

Sorensen said this spike should be a wake-up call for expecting mothers to get a shot.

"It's pretty clear that there’s no reason not to get it and there is every reason to get it," Sorensen said.

"Just in the last few weeks, we’re seeing some very tragic outcomes for pregnant women," said Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, University of Washington professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Adams Waldorf said unless major strides are made to overcome vaccine resistance in pregnant women, she expects hospitalizations to get worse before getting better.

"We’re expecting to see more pregnant women admitted to the hospital with severe difficulty breathing, more than would need admission to the intensive care unit, possibly breathing with a ventilator," said Adams Waldorf.

Doctors Tuesday said there’s a big problem in tracking the number of pregnant women who get coronavirus, saying there are huge gaps in the data. The Washington State Department of Health and other local health districts said Tuesday they couldn't give me data pertaining to pregnant women and coronavirus. DOH said it would take a week to gather and send that data.

Adams Waldorf said she's working alongside other leaders to improve data tracking for these trends at a state level.

Finally, Adams Waldorf and Sorensen stress pregnant women should feel confident COVID-19 vaccines are safe.

"All of our data looks very strong that vaccination is the very best thing you can do to protect your own health and your baby’s health," Waldorf said.