Mom deaths, sick infants, more stillbirths: COVID-19 affects Idaho pregnancies

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho doctors say they’re seeing alarming trends tied to COVID-19 cases in pregnant women, including maternal deaths, increased incidence of stillbirths and neonatal intensive care unit patients that are sicker than usual.

In a news conference Wednesday, several Treasure Valley doctors specializing in pediatrics and neonatal care echoed what other Idaho health care providers have shared in recent days: Idaho’s most recent COVID-19 surge is taking a toll on infants and pregnant women.

Officials said they’ve seen a spike in Covid-related pregnancy complications, as well as an increased need to deliver babies prematurely as pregnant women become incredibly sick with the disease.

Dr. Stacy Seyb, who works at St. Luke’s Magic Valley as a specialist in high-risk pregnancies, told the Idaho Statesman in a video interview that his team is seeing an increase in “very sick moms, both during the pregnancy as well as after.”

Seyb said that pregnant women are considered high risk for COVID-19 and are about five times as likely to be hospitalized as nonpregnant women the same age. He said there have been as many as five pregnant COVID-19 patients hospitalized at any time in recent weeks, and two pregnant women in the ICU with COVID-19 most of the time.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Seyb said. “For us as obstetricians ... the last two months I’ve learned more about COVID than in the last (year) because there’s so many more patients.”

Seyb said a positive diagnosis in a mother complicates things. He said moderate to severe cases occur primarily, if not exclusively, in women who haven’t been vaccinated. Even in mild cases, it means additional precautions are necessary during delivery. Seyb said the hospital recommends that mom and baby be separated after birth to avoid the possibility of the infant contracting COVID-19.

“That’s a tough thing to ask a mom to do,” he said.

Seyb noted at least one instance in which a Covid-19-positive mother died. He declined to comment further on the case, saying only that the baby is doing “fine.”

During Wednesday’s news conference, St. Luke’s Perinatal Health Director Dr. Lauren Miller echoed Seyb’s experience, saying Idaho health care providers have witnessed “losses of moms” with COVID-19. Citing “the relative rarity of these cases” and privacy law, Miller declined to give details beyond stating that the women who died were “severely ill with specific COVID complications, requiring ... significant respiratory support.”