Two unvaccinated mothers die of Covid within weeks of giving birth in the same hospital

The deaths late last year, which are being treated as “serious incidents”, have both been reported to the board of Royal Stoke University Hospital

Two unvaccinated women died in the same hospital just weeks after giving birth as they were both struck by the coronavirus.

The deaths late last year, which are being treated as “serious incidents”, have been reported to the board of Royal Stoke University Hospital.

One of the cases involved a young mother who died just 24 days after an emergency C-section at the Hartshill complex. StokeonTrentLive reports.

The mother was Covid positive and had not been vaccinated.

The other tragedy involved a second unvaccinated woman who died after contracting Covid just over two months after giving birth.

The woman was black and therefore may have been at higher risk of dying from Covid and in response to this case the hospital revised its ‘safety net’ recommendation to include increased risk factors such as ethnicity.

The latest figures show that 26.1 percent of pregnant women using the hospital’s maternity services are still unvaccinated – despite a high-profile public health campaign.

Midwifery Director Sarah Jamieson said: “Several actions have emerged from this very tragic case, such as a Covid surveillance trail for pregnant women who are Covid positive, including the development of a triage service for these women.”

Other measures include the implementation of an updated obstetrics Covid care plan and a new requirement that a consultant obstetrician screen at least daily all pregnant or recently pregnant inpatients with suspected or confirmed Covid, the hospital said.

Last month, the Mirror reported on a new study that found pregnant women who contracted Covid were twice as likely to develop serious complications and three times more likely to suffer a potentially fatal blood clot.

The coronavirus also doubles the risk of preterm birth, acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis, according to new research from California-based care consortium Kaiser Permanente.

Meanwhile in the UK, mothers-to-be who have not had a vaccine account for a fifth of the most ill patients in intensive care, data shows.

Scientists discovered that infected patients taking part in this latest study were three times more likely to develop a blood clot, medically known as thromboembolism.

A thromboembolism can cause a blockage in the main artery of the lungs or elsewhere and become life-threatening.

Overall, the coronavirus increased the risk of a serious illness in the mother by two and a half times, researchers found.