Irish Examiner view: Support pregnant women 

Of all the groups who have suffered in the pandemic, pregnant women have cause for greater anger than most.

There is worldwide concern, almost two years after the first outbreak, about the numbers of unvaccinated pregnant women in ICUs.

The pandemic could not be planned for. It took the scientific community time to garner evidence as to how Covid-19 attacked the body and public policy shifted in every country in the world as our knowledge of the virus evolved.

But the pandemic has also exposed attitudes to maternity care that are no longer acceptable.

There is worldwide concern today, almost two years after the first outbreak, about the numbers of unvaccinated pregnant women in ICUs.

In the US, just one in four pregnant women have been vaccinated with at least one dose. In the UK, one in six patients requiring the NHS’s highest form of life-saving care are unvaccinated pregnant women with Covid.

Here, there is now a “disproportionate” number of pregnant women who are hospitalised with Covid-19 entering the ICU, according to HSE chief clinical officer Colm Henry.

Cliona Murphy, chairwoman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has said more must be done to reach unvaccinated pregnant women.

She said: “People think the pandemic is over, it’s not over. It’s not over for this subset of the population” The drive for vaccinations has been, in most instances, driven by a twin-pronged desire to protect ourselves from illness and death, but also a want for ‘things to return to normal’. In doing so, the specialised needs and specific concerns of pregnant women — including through the ongoing and traumatising maternity restrictions – have been too much of an afterthought.

Pregnant women should be at the top of the list when it comes to resources, community support and medical advice so they can make informed decisions, be it via a helpline or targeted GP outreach at a local level.

A lesson of the pandemic must be that this subset of the population never feel like an afterthought again.