Grieving family vaccine plea for all mums-to-be

THE heartbroken family of an unvaccinated mum who died from Covid without meeting her newborn fifth daughter have begged all pregnant women to get jabbed.

Last night relatives released a picture of Saiqa Parveen, 37, fighting for her life in intensive care.

They also shared an image of baby Dua Maryam, who she never held. Saiqa’s brother, Qayoum Mughal, 54, urged others: “For God’s sake – get the vaccine. The family is completely broken. Her daughters ask, ‘When’s Mummy coming back?’ NHS data shows one in five of the most ill Covid patients is an unvaccinated mum-to-be. Saiqa, of Birmingham, was eight months pregnant when she caught the virus. She had been offered a jab but wanted to wait until after her baby was born before getting vaccinated.

After testing positive for Covid she developed breathing problems and was taken by ambulance to Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital. Saiqa was discharged six days later only to be admitted to Good Hope Hospital on September 24 with breathing issues. Placed in intensive care, she had an emergency caesarean at full term on September 26.

Qayoum said: “She was on oxygen and on September 25, she called my wife at 11pm and said she had signed documents saying that if her condition worsened, the doctors could operate to take the baby out.

“That was the last conversation with any of us. She never saw her daughter.”

By now Saiqa was battling sepsis and had a hole in both her lungs, pneumonia and other infections.

She died on November 1, leaving behind husband Majid Ghafur, 40, baby Dua and their other daughters Noor, 12, Imaan, 11, Hibbah, eight, and Ayesha, six.

Qayoum revealed Saiqa’s beloved kids had made a harrowing final FaceTime call to their stricken mum just an hour earlier.

“They said, ‘Get up Mummy, we are missing you, we love you, why are you leaving us behind’.”

Initially jabs were only offered to pregnant women in frontline health and care roles, or if they were highly vulnerable.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation updated its advice in April to say that all pregnant women should be offered one.

Good Morning Britain GP Amir Khan said: “There has been overwhelming real world evidence that the benefits of getting the Covid-19 vaccine in pregnancy outweigh the risks.”