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Coronavirus is leaving pregnant woman with tough choices and bleaker outcomes
May 27, 2020
The strain COVID-19 is having on healthcare systems leaves women particularly vulnerable. Future mothers have to make the decision between fear of infection in a hospital and having a home birth, with limited medical equipment. The UN Population Fund measured the pandemic's possible impact on three key sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services.
Last month, Sheuly rushed into a Dhaka hospital in need of emergency treatment. The 25-year-old Bangladeshi woman had just given birth at home – thinking it a safer setting than the hospital during a pandemic. But as she began to suffer from post-partum hemorrhage – one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide – avoiding exposure to COVID-19 was the furthest thing from her mind. The same was true of Majufa Akter, the midwife who sprang into action and saved Sheuly’s life, despite not having yet received adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Giving birth is an intense moment in a woman’s life under any circumstances. Doing so during a pandemic imbues the experience with a new form of stress. Mothers do not know whether to go to hospitals – where they fear exposure to the coronavirus, personnel shortages, or separation from their partners – or to give birth at home, where medical complications often become far riskier. This is just one example of how the imperative of managing the COVID-19 pandemic is complicating the delivery of essential health services – and leaving women, in particular, highly vulnerable.
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