As an obstetrician, here's my advice to pregnant women: get your vaccine and stay safe | Lucy Chappell

New data from England shows that of those pregnant women in hospital with Covid, 98% are unvaccinated

• Lucy Chappell is the chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care

As an obstetrician, I know first-hand the highs and lows that women experience when having a baby. It can be hugely rewarding for many and a daunting experience for some. Over the past months, the pandemic has added a great deal of uncertainty to the experience of pregnant women and those considering becoming parents.

We know how dangerous the virus can be for pregnant women. The data published over recent months has been heartbreaking. Between July and October in England, one in five Covid patients receiving NHS treatment through a special lung-bypass machine were pregnant women who had not had their first jab. Around one in five women who are hospitalised with the virus need to be delivered preterm to help them recover – and one in five of their babies need care in the neonatal unit. New data from England shows that of those pregnant women in hospital with Covid, 98% are unvaccinated.

Lucy Chappell is a chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care and honorary consultant obstetrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

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An injection of hope for pregnant women | Letter

Molly Warrington welcomes the news that women at risk of miscarriage may now be helped by progesterone injections

I was delighted to read that some pregnant women may now be helped by progesterone injections (Women at higher risk of miscarriage to be offered hormone drug by NHS, 24 November).

Almost exactly 50 years ago, in 1972, after I’d endured the heartbreak of four miscarriages, my empathetic consultant prescribed weekly progesterone injections. Aided by those injections, I went on to give birth to two healthy daughters. In 1978, after moving to Cambridge, I was pregnant again and, following minor bleeding, my GP willingly prescribed hormone injections. I was, however, roundly criticised by the hospital consultant on my first antenatal visit, because such injections supposedly hindered, rather than helped. I was told, starkly, that my baby was dead. That baby is now a healthy 6ft man.
Molly Warrington
Cambridge

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UK health trusts suspend home birth services as midwives shortage deepens

‘Crisis’ in maternity care leaves expectant mothers facing difficult births in hospital or without support at home

A severe shortage of midwives has led to home birth services being closed or reduced by a number of hospital trusts across the UK, with pregnant women frequently left in limbo as to where they will be able to give birth.

The Observer has found more than 20 trusts that have had disrupted home birth services in the past three months. Eight confirmed their services remain suspended due to staff shortages. They include East Kent Hospitals, Swansea Bay University Health Board and NHS Dumfries and Galloway – all of which report that the situation is under constant review.

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Tanzania to lift ban on teenage mothers returning to school

Girls to have two years in which to return to school after giving birth, but will still be excluded whilst pregnant

The Tanzanian government has announced it will lift a controversial ban on teenage mothers continuing their education.

Girls will have two years in which to return to school after giving birth, the ministry of education said. However, the move is not legally binding and girls will continue to be banned from class while pregnant.

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Pregnant women urged to get Covid jab as data from England shows it is safe

Analysis finds vaccinated women no more likely than unvaccinated to suffer stillbirth or premature births

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Health leaders are urging thousands of unvaccinated pregnant women to get vaccinated after the first official data from England found Covid jabs are safe and effective.

The analysis of more than 350,000 deliveries by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows women who have had a Covid vaccine are no more likely than unvaccinated women to suffer stillbirth, premature birth or have babies with low birthweight. It reinforces international evidence that the jabs have a good safety record in pregnant women.

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UK Covid scheme indirectly discriminated against maternity leave takers, court rules

But ruling will not allow self-employed women whose income support was hit during pandemic to claim rebates

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Tens of thousands of self-employed women who took maternity leave were indirectly discriminated against by the UK government during the pandemic but will be unable to claim rebates, the court of appeal has ruled.

The speed at which civil servants had to create a safety net for workers justified their actions, three judges found.

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Labour’s Liz Kendall announces she is having baby through surrogacy

Shadow social care minister is expecting to be first serving MP to have child through surrogacy

The shadow social care minister, Liz Kendall, is expecting to be the first serving MP to have a child through surrogacy.

The Leicester West MP said the baby was due in the new year via a surrogate mother after she and her partner had struggled to start a family.

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Women at higher risk of miscarriage to be offered hormone drug by NHS

Charities say Nice’s decision to endorse progesterone for some cases in England will help save babies’ lives

Women at a higher risk of miscarriage in England are to be offered a hormone drug under new NHS guidelines.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has published updated guidance on miscarriage that says certain women can be offered progesterone to help prevent pregnancy loss.

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Samantha Willis was a beloved young pregnant mother. Did bad vaccine advice cost her her life?

When the UK’s jab programme began, expectant mothers were told to steer clear – so Samantha decided to wait until she had had her baby. Two weeks after giving birth, she died in hospital

It was typical of Samantha Willis that she bought the food for her baby shower herself. No fuss; she didn’t want other people to be put out. She even bought a cheese board, despite the fact that, because she was pregnant, she couldn’t eat half of it.

On 1 August, the care worker and mother of three from Derry was eight months pregnant with her third daughter. The weather was beautiful, so Samantha stood out in the sun, ironing clothes and getting everything organised for the baby.

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Irish government agrees €800m package for mother and baby home survivors

About 34,000 people thought to be eligible for compensation, including those born in church-run homes

Ireland has confronted one of the most painful chapters in its history and agreed an €800m compensation package to thousands of unmarried mothers shunned by society and hidden away in church-run mother and baby homes.

The redress scheme was agreed by the government cabinet on Tuesday and will offer up to €65,000 each to survivors of a practice, widely condemned as a shameful and cruel, that spanned almost 80 years of the country’s 100-year history.

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No 10 plans booster jab requirement for people to obtain Covid pass

Currently, only two shots are needed for someone to qualify as having fully vaccinated status

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Ministers are set to require three vaccinations from those eligible for booster jabs in order to qualify as being fully vaccinated in areas where people must prove their status, such as travel or avoiding mandatory isolation.

Downing Street sources said the intention was to end up in a place where three jabs, rather than two, was the requirement to obtain a Covid pass showing full vaccination – though currently only over-40s are eligible for the booster.

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Flights from concord: the joys versus climate goals

Travel | Recipes | Kids’ quiz | Boriscard | Christmas puddings

Adjacent articles online – Fear, panic and chaos: the joy of flying from the UK to New York again (Emma Brockes, 12 November) and How can Britain cut emissions when the Tory party fetishises travel? (Andy Beckett, 12 November). Not only Tories…
Eddie Dougall
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

• I apologise for the delay in sending this letter, but I have been busy for the past few days scouring supermarkets for mulberry pekmez (From gözleme to pekmez: Yotam Ottolenghi’s Turkish-inspired recipes, 13 November).
John Crawshaw
Wakefield, West Yorkshire

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The agony of choosing termination for my baby who had foetal anomaly

There is a silence around the death of a baby, and a greater hush around the issue of termination for foetal anomaly. Laura Doward shares her life-changing experience

I’m looking at my name, handwritten in capital letters, neat as a button. Considering asking for another form to rewrite it, make it shakier.

“Foeticide,” the doctor is saying.

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Black women in UK four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth

As new data released, campaigners ask why racial disparity in maternal mortality rates is so persistent

Black women are still four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, according to new data that has reignited calls to tackle racial inequality in maternal healthcare.

The findings show a slight drop in the maternal mortality rate for black women, but remained the same for mixed ethnicity women and Asian women, which was two times higher and almost twice as high, respectively.

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California women gave birth to each other’s babies after IVF mix-up

Couples to sue clinic after raising girls for months that were not theirs, says lawsuit, before babies were swapped back

Two California couples gave birth to each other’s babies after a mix-up at a fertility clinic and spent months raising children that were not theirs before swapping the infants, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.

Daphna Cardinale said she and her husband, Alexander, had immediate suspicions that the girl she gave birth to in late 2019 was not theirs due to the child’s darker complexion.

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Nice has failed parents with its U-turn on induced labour | Letter

Catherine Roy, Susanna Haddon and Dr Ruth-Ann Harpur are deeply concerned by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s revised guidance

Lobbying maternity organisations have convinced the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) to remove the choice for patients to consider induction of labour from 39 weeks gestation. Nice has also downgraded an offer to induce labour at 41 weeks gestation to a “discussion” (Watchdog U-turns on recommendation to induce pregnant women at 41 weeks, 4 November).

This is deeply concerning. The evidence shows that inducing labour at 39 weeks gestation reduces the chance of a caesarean birth and may lead to an easier birth (Arrive trial). There is also evidence that stillbirth increases after 41 weeks of gestation (Swepis and Index trials).

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‘Get the vaccine’: family of Covid victim’s plea to pregnant women

Saiqa Parveen planned to have jab after giving birth but died from disease after daughter was delivered by emergency caesarean

She was eight months pregnant and weeks from welcoming her fifth daughter to the world, but Saiqa Parveen died of Covid after putting off getting the coronavirus jab. Her family have now issued an emotional plea for pregnant women to get vaccinated.

Parveen, 37, had planned to delay having the jab until her baby was born, her family said, but she was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties in September and put on a ventilator.

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Fears for Australia’s pregnant women as vaccination rates lag far behind general population

Risk of severe outcomes from Covid are significantly higher for pregnant women and their unborn baby

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Obstetricians are alarmed by the number of pregnant women still not vaccinated against Covid-19, and say they are concerned misinformation is wrongly leading them to believe the vaccine is not safe during pregnancy.

The clinical director of women’s and children’s health at St George hospital in Sydney, Prof Michael Chapman, said six weeks ago he surveyed the 22 women in the hospital’s postnatal ward who had just given birth. Just three were fully vaccinated, while 14 women had received one dose.

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Thousands of adverse birth outcomes in England down to ‘alarming’ inequality

Study reveals scale of impact that poverty, racism and discrimination has on women and babies

Thousands of babies in England are being born prematurely, smaller than expected or stillborn because of “alarming” and “devastating” socioeconomic and racial inequalities across the country, a landmark study has suggested.

Both are known risk factors for poor pregnancy outcomes. However, until now, little has been known about the scale of their “heartbreaking” impact on women and babies.

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