This week Sky News Presenter & mama-to-be Sarah-Jane Mee interviewed GP Dr Zoe Williams to clarify the current advice for pregnant women surrounding Covid-19, also known as Coronavirus.
Sarah-Jane, who is currently 26 weeks pregnant with her first baby, is self-isolating at home, so she conducted the interview online, along with a follow up Instagram post the next day, looking stylish both times in Seraphine maternity dresses.
You can watch the interview on YouTube, but we have also transcribed it below.
Do Pregnant Women Have to Self-Isolate for 12 Weeks?
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Sarah-Jane: I spoke to Dr Zoe Williams about this and she said that the current guidance is that it’s only pregnant women with heart conditions who should be self-isolating for 12 weeks.
If you’re having a healthy, normal pregnancy, you should be practicing strict social distancing rules as a precaution. That will involve working from home if you can. If you can’t, you need to operate that strict 2 meter social distance rule and put into practice all the other government guidelines – things like washing your hands regularly.
Why are pregnant women more at risk?
Dr Zoe: So far, from the evidence that we have, pregnant women are no more likely to get the infection and they’re no more likely to have the serious consequences of Covid-19. However, we know that pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, can affect your immune system and many women can be more vulnerable to getting unwell with viruses.
So, although this doesn’t seem to be the case so far with coronavirus, because we know so little about it, it’s really a case of taking additional precautions.
But the reassuring this is that so far with coronavirus we’re not seeing that pregnant women are more likely to run into the serious consequences.
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Is there a greater risk depending on what stage of pregnancy you’re at?
Dr Zoe: During the third trimester, the interference that pregnancy can have on your immune system is more likely.
But there’s an added note – although pregnant women and young healthy people are very unlikely to get the serious consequences of Covid-19, a small number do, and if a woman is pregnant in the third trimester and she does require ventilation, it can be very difficult and very complicated. So, there are just a couple of reasons why women in the third trimester need to be a little more cautious.
Are newborns particularly vulnerable?
Dr Zoe: So far, the evidence tells us that newborns are not a vulnerable group – they are not more likely to get difficulties with Covid-19. Which is really good news, because obviously with newborns we wrap them up in cotton wool and we protect them from everything, and of course we should still do that, but they are not vulnerable. So, let’s annihilate that anxiety that many new mothers will have.
But it is important to say that everybody wants to come and visit when you have a newborn and at the moment, for a number of reasons, to protect the newborn but also to protect the people visiting and everybody else, unfortunately, no visitors allowed.
Here at Seraphine, we were all proud to take part in Thursday’s applause for the amazing front-line workers at the NHS. We are so grateful for your strength, courage & resilience in these challenging times. We were aslo pleased to spot Sarah-Jane joining in at home in her Seraphine dress!
Disclaimer: The above advice is aimed at healthy women with normal pregnancies. No two pregnancies are the same, so as always, please follow the advice given to you by your own doctors & health care providers.