A woman who returned from Maharashtra and tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday in Karnataka, gave birth to a child at the Wenlock hospital, the designated COVID-19 hospital in Mangaluru City. When she began experiencing labour pain, a team of expert doctors performed the delivery through the Caesarean section on Thursday. Both the woman and the newborn are safe and healthy, hospital sources said. The baby was a male who weighed 2.90 kilos at birth, doctors said.
The woman, who belongs to Kinnigoli in Dakshina Kannada district, had arrived in the city on Monday. The 30-year-old was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and was taken to another hospital the next day after she complained of weakness. As she came from Maharashtra on June 8, she was shifted to a separate ward at the Wenlock hospital and quarantined. She had tested positive for coronavirus, and was hence kept in the hospital for treatment. Her throat swab samples tested positive on Wednesday June 10, officials said.
District Health Officer (DHO) of Dakshina Kannada, Ramachandra Bairy told TNM that the mother and the child will not be separated though she is being treated for coronavirus. “There is no better food for a baby than a mother’s milk, so we are allowing the child to be with his mother. There have been no contraindications to allowing the child to breastfeed, as COVID-19 spreads through respiratory droplets and not through breastmilk.”
Besides, he said that there is every chance that the baby will not contract the virus due to maternal immunity. “It is the same concept of plasma therapy. The antibodies of the mother, created while her body is fighting the infection could protect her baby as they get passed on through the placenta.”
However, if the child does contract the virus, paediatric doses of medication would be given to treat the baby, the DHO added.
A COVID-19 test will be done on the baby after a few days, district health officer Ramachandra Bairy said.
Inputs from PTI