Rachel, 38, said she was discouraged from having the Covid vaccine in the early days of the rollout
encouraging expectant mothers to get vaccinated and boosted, after data had previously shown the vaccine to be safe in pregnancy.and Social Care cited statistics from the UK Obstetric Surveillance System which showed 96.
3% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid-19 symptoms between May and October were unvaccinated, a third of whom required respiratory support.after research showing they are vulnerable to more serious illness and pregnancy complications if they are infected with Covid-19. In November last year, experts warned that while uptake of the vaccine among pregnant women was improving, they were worried about some groups shunning the jabs, including younger women, those in the most deprived areas and women from black and minority ethnic communities. Rachel, who thanked staff at both New Cross hospital’s integrated critical care unit and Glenfield hospital in Leicester for their care, said it was “really important” everyone had their vaccines. “I would say take [the vaccine] – it’s a two-minute thing that can save months of agony if you end up like I was,” the bereaved mother said. Speaking about her loss, she said: “I didn’t actually know I had given birth. I was on drugs so they wanted to tell me when I wasn’t sedated, and the obstetrician informed me a few days later. “My emotions were disbelief – one minute you’re having a scan and a gender reveal, naming the baby and getting excited, and then there was this sudden loss. “I was only able to see him once. Normally I’d have been able to spend a lot more time with him and to hold him. But I didn’t get to do that because of the circumstances.”“We’re all devastated at our loss,” she said. “We were all very excited at this new life, then we were left with nothing.”