Covid: Unvaccinated pregnant woman says she feared her and the baby would die
"My husband was possibly going to lose both of us," Claire Bromley tells ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan
An unvaccinated mother-to-be who spent two weeks on a ventilator in intensive care with Covid-19 says she does not want other pregnant women to go through what her family endured.
Claire Bromley risked undergoing an emergency C-section weeks before her due date after she was put in a medically induced coma having contracted the virus.
She spent almost a month in hospital after being admitted to her local ward in Kent with breathing difficulties just a few days after testing positive for coronavirus.
Her plea comes as health officials urged expectant mothers to get their jabs.
Having initially being wary of the Covid vaccine, Ms Bromley had, on the advice of her midwife, booked herself in for a coronavirus jab, but came down with the virus the week of her appointment.
"It's traumatic and the truth is, my husband was possibly going to lose both of us, or he's going be a single dad, and that's the truth of it really, so I wouldn't wish that on anyone," she told ITV News.
The 33-year-old says she understands people's hesitancy but feels the risk of being unvaccinated “far outweighs any doubts” about getting a vaccination.
"I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that" Claire Bromley outlines what her and her family endured
Ms Bromley's condition has now improved and she was allowed home in early August, almost a month after first being admitted.
She's now recovering with her husband and their unborn child, who is doing well but her experience left her with PTSD as well as longterm side effects.
She said: “I completely understand the hesitation not to get vaccinated when you are growing a child inside you, and, after experiencing two miscarriages before the pandemic, the fear of being pregnant again with the worry of Covid was sending my anxiety through the roof.
“But, after what happened, I can honestly say that the risk of not having the Covid vaccine far outweighs any doubts about having it.”
Kelsie Routs, 23, gave birth to her son prematurely by emergency C-section after being taken to hospital with Covid-19.
She was put into a medically induced coma immediately after the birth and did not see her son for days.
Ms Routs was hesitant to get the vaccine as she was worried about long term side effects, and, as a 23-year-old, did not believe she was risk.
"Being 23 and not being in the vulnerable category, being one of the last ones (to be offered the vaccine).
"You don't think you're going to end up in a coma, with your baby premature," she told ITV News.
Kelsie didn't get to see her newborn baby as she lay in hospital being treated for Covid
Why health officials are urging pregnant women to get jabbed
Almost a fifth of the most critically ill coronavirus patients in England in recent months were unvaccinated pregnant women.
NHS England said that, between July 1 and September 30, 17% of Covid patients receiving treatment through a special lung-bypass machine were mothers-to-be who had not had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
NHS England said data also showed that pregnant women accounted for 32% of all females aged between 16 and 49 in intensive care on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – used when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by Covid that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels.
The organisation said this figure has risen from 6% at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
England’s chief midwife, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, said the data is “another stark reminder that the Covid-19 jab can keep you, your baby and your loved ones safe and out of hospital”.
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But the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) said the statistics are a “damning indictment of the lack of attention given to this vulnerable group as restrictions have eased”.
NHS England said data from more than 100,000 Covid vaccinations in pregnancy in England and Scotland, and a further 160,000 in the US, show there has been no subsequent harm to the foetus or infant.