Webinar #16 | VIRTUAL GRAND ROUNDS | COVID (-) Mother Gives Birth to a COVID (+) Baby
Channel: TVUP
Date: 2020-08-09

Webinar #16 | STOP COVID DEATHS: VIRTUAL GRAND ROUNDS | COVID (-) Mother Gives Birth to a COVID (+) Baby


The University of the Philippines in partnership with Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and UP Manila NIH National Telehealth Center in cooperation with UP Manila College of Medicine and UP Philippine General Hospital would like to invite you to join the Fight Against COVID-19!


The Webinar Series "STOP COVID DEATHS: VIRTUAL GRAND ROUNDS"
- the very first Online Medicine Grand Rounds in the Philippines-
is scheduled EVERY FRIDAY from 12nn to 2pm.


Webinar #16:
“COVID (-) Mother Gives Birth to a COVID (+) Baby”
Dr. Hannah Sombilla
Infectious Disease Division Fellow
Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology
UP College of Medicine, Philippine General Hospital
August 7, 2020 (Friday) 12nn

Reactors:
Dr. Sybil Bravo
Division Chief, Infectious Disease
 Clinical Associate Professor, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology
 UP College of Medicine
 Philippine General Hospital

Dr. Lourdes Ignacio
Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Psychiatry
UP College of Medicine
Philippine General Hospital

Dr. Marimel Pagcatipunan
COVID Management Team
Associate Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics
UP College of Medicine
Philippine General Hospital


CASE CAPSULE
 
A 27 year-old female, on her first pregnancy develops difficulty of breathing, cough and hemoptysis.  She has a history of a congenital heart defect and needs two pillows under her head to sleep and is out of breath when walking up two flights of stairs.
 
She consults at an emergency room of a hospital. The chest X-ray showed hazy densities in the right upper lung fields with a diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.  She is given medications and sent home.
 
Prior to admission, she has regular uterine contractions and a bloody show.  She is 30 weeks into her pregnancy. On admission her blood pressure was 170/110, heart rate 85, respiratory rate 24 with 02 saturation of 82%, which improved to 88% with administration of 10 ml oxygen via nasal cannula.

Every week, 4500 babies are born in the Philippines.  This translates to about 1.6 million births each year.

The maternal mortality rate in the Philippines is still unacceptably high and in 2018, 1,615 maternal deaths were recorded compared to 1,484 in 2017.

Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy from any causes related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it increasingly difficult for pregnant women to seek and secure pre-natal care.  Pre-natal care is critical in preventing complications and even death of mothers and their babies.

This case is about a first-time mother – who has a congenital heart defect – and is therefore a high-risk patient – who develops COVID-like symptoms and delivers her baby too soon. 

For Virtual Grand Rounds #2, we take a closer look at a mother-at-risk, her struggle to seek adequate medical care and how health workers must face and cope with the harsh realities of death in the time of a pandemic.