Pregnant and Newborn Mothers Attention!

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more serious diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Coronaviruses can be transmitted from animals and cause disease in humans. There are still many coronaviruses that have not yet been transmitted to humans but have been detected in animals. Although it has not been clearly determined from which animal it is transmitted, the disease has spread rapidly due to its transmission from person to person. Everyone should comply with the warnings made by the Ministry of Health to the maximum extent in order to be protected from the disease, which is currently seen in Turkey.

"ADVICE SUITABLE FOR OUR LIFESTYLE, EXCEPT HUGGING AND KISSING"

Explanations and recommendations made as a precaution are actually things that are suitable for our lifestyle and should always be done. The majority of the measures recommended to us from coughing to sneezing, from hand hygiene to general hygiene are suitable for our lifestyle. We have only one shortcoming, our tradition of extreme intimacy, tight hugs and kisses. We need to suspend this throughout the process. Everyone needs to be more careful throughout the process.

“IT IS MORE SEVERE IN PREGNANCY”

Respiratory tract infections during pregnancy are more severe due to the physiology of pregnancy itself. However, this was not the case in pregnant women with coronavirus. According to the report of the World Health Organization, only 8 of the 150 pregnant women diagnosed so far have had a severe disease. Although the number of cases is not enough to speak for sure, it shows that there is no transmission from mother to baby, in the womb or at the time of birth, as no coronavirus has been detected in any of the babies born so far. Likewise, no virus was detected in breast milk. These results currently cover the late weeks of pregnancy, we do not yet know whether there will be a transmission if transmission occurs in the early weeks of pregnancy. But we will know when these pregnant women give birth. There is no clear recommendation on the mode of delivery. In the series, deliveries were mostly made by cesarean section. There is no evidence that vaginal secretion poses a risk of transmission to the baby. Epidural or spinal anesthesia should be preferred for anesthesia, general anesthesia is generally recommended to be avoided.

The fact that a mother with coronavirus is separated from her baby for 14 days when she gives birth is a situation that should be decided by making a profit-loss calculation with a multidisciplinary approach. Hands should be washed before touching your baby, bottles or pumps. A face mask should be worn when feeding the baby at the breast. Recommendations for cleaning the pumps after each use should be followed. Help should be sought from someone experienced in giving expressed milk to the baby. What pregnant women should do to protect themselves from the corona virus is the same as other people. In this process, it is necessary to act not with hearsay information, but with the information obtained from the experts themselves.