Pregnancy and COVID: What We Now Know

Meagan Garibay, RN, BSN, CIC, an infection preventionist at Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma, received the COVID vaccine in December 2020, when she was 35 weeks pregnant. Photo courtesy of WAVE 3 News.

Few aspects of pregnancy and birth have been unaffected by the COVID pandemic. In the past year, pregnant people and their health care providers have had to alter everything from the way they assess risk to the manner in which care is accessed.

Although little information about pregnancy and COVID was available early in the pandemic, emerging evidence is providing a clearer picture. As a result, in the past year recommendations have shifted—sometimes radically so—for both women and their health care providers. Based on the latest available research, this month in AJN Reports we cover what we now know about COVID and maternal health, including guidance about risk and vaccination.

Higher risks for pregnant people with COVID.

As the articles explains, research suggests pregnant people who have COVID are at higher risk […]

2021-06-03T08:43:24-04:00June 3rd, 2021|COVID-19, infectious diseases, Public health|0 Comments
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Managing Cardiovascular Complications of Pregnancy

(click image to expand)

Over the past 30 years, the number of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. has more than doubled, from 7.2 women dying per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 16.9 women in 2016. By comparison, on average in high-income countries, 11 women die for every 100,000 live births.

CVD a leading cause of maternal mortality.

There are many reasons why more women die from pregnancy-related causes in the U.S. than in other developed countries; our dysfunctional health care system is, of course, a central problem. But is there more that nurses can do to ensure safe and healthy pregnancies?

“Cardiovascular diseases constitute a leading cause of maternal and fetal mortality in pregnant women… [In recent studies], inadequate peripartum follow-up—such as failure to evaluate new symptoms, reevaluate existing symptoms, or respond to changes without delay—was responsible for between one-quarter and two-thirds of deaths associated with pregnancy-specific cardiovascular diseases.”

That’s from “Gestational Hypertension, Preeclampsia, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy:  A Clinical Review,” in the November issue of AJN. In this CE feature article, Maheu-Cadotte and colleagues at the Université de Montréal provide an update on the current management of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and peripartum cardiomyopathy.

Risks before, […]

2019-11-08T12:09:08-05:00November 8th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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November Issue: Chronic Pain and Opioids, CVDs in Pregnancy, Preventing Patient Self-Harm, More

“[S]eeing this patient, his return, his presence, his enduring love, was a gift. Because some days in health care, you don’t really know what hope you are fighting for or for whom.”—Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, author of the November Reflections column, “Beholding the Returning Light”

The November issue of AJN is now live. Here’s what’s new:

CE: Implementing Guidelines for Treating Chronic Pain with Prescription Opioids

An overview of five tools outlined in the CDC’s 2016 opioid safety guideline—prescription opioid treatment agreements, urine drug screening, prescription drug monitoring program databases, calculation of morphine milligram equivalents, and naloxone kits—and their relevance to primary care nurses.

CE: Gestational Hypertension, Preeclampsia, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: A Clinical Review

The authors discuss three of the most common pregnancy-specific cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, prevention, assessment, and management.
[…]

2019-10-28T10:00:42-04:00October 28th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments
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Update on Preeclampsia: What Nurses Need to Know

Illustration by Sara Jarret.

Preeclampsia is the most common hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, yet there is still much we don’t know about why it develops and how to prevent it. It can present in different ways, from hard-to-ignore symptoms such as constant headache or severe right upper quadrant pain, to no symptoms at all before elevated blood pressure or urine protein is detected at a routine prenatal visit.

Did you know that:

  • despite a long list of known risk factors, most cases of preeclampsia are diagnosed in healthy nulliparous women?
  • both moms diagnosed with preeclampsia and infants exposed to it in utero are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease?

Update your knowledge by reading “Preeclampsia:  Current Approaches to Nursing Management” in the November issue of AJN. This CE article provides a helpful clinical update, including the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, diagnostic criteria, screening tests on the horizon, 2017 recommendations for pharmacologic management, optimal timing of delivery, and nursing management.

2017-11-06T09:49:41-05:00November 6th, 2017|Nursing, patient safety|0 Comments
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Zika Virus Update: Epidemiology, Sexual Transmission, Pregnancy

By Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC, clinical editor

A close view of a repellent product being sprayed on a person's hand in Brasilia, Brazil, 27 January 2016. The Brazilian government announced that repellent products will be given for free to pregnant women registered in the assistance programs to avoid Zika contagion. EPA/FERNANDO BIZERRA JR. Mosquito repellant being sprayed on a person’s hand in Brazil. EPA

Zika virus is now being actively transmitted in 42 countries, primarily in the Americas and on islands in the South Pacific. As of April 13th, there had been 358 travel-associated cases reported in the U.S., including 31 pregnant women.

While there are as yet no locally acquired U.S. cases, local transmission has been established in several U.S. territories (primarily, Puerto Rico). Travel-associated cases are expected to continue in the U.S., almost certainly leading to eventual limited local transmission.

Transmission. Most cases of Zika virus infection have been vector-borne—that is, they resulted from the bite of an infected mosquito. […]

2016-11-21T13:01:17-05:00April 20th, 2016|infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|11 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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