Rajeev Choudhury

All women have the right to a safe and positive pregnancy and childbirth experience and need high quality, respectful maternity care, the Director-General of the  World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while speaking to the media persons in Geneva on January 12, 2022.

Stressing that pregnant women are not at higher risk of contracting COVID19, but if they are infected, they remain at higher risk for severe disease, Dr Tedros said that it is vital that pregnant women in all countries have access to vaccines to protect their own lives and those of their babies.

“We also call for pregnant women to be included in clinical trials for new treatments and vaccines,” he added.

Allaying fears of mother to baby transmission of COVID19, the WHO DG informed that mother to baby transmission in utero or during birth is very rare, and no active virus has been identified in the breast milk as yet.

Terming the reports of the practices of separating mothers, who are infected with COVID19 with their newborns immediately after birth as “unnecessary”, Dr Tedros said that such separation “can be harmful to the health and well-being of newborns during the critical first days after birth.”