COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus that emerged

in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (2020)

described the causative virus as “severe acute respiratory syndrome

coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” and considered it a pandemic. Common

symptoms include cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath or difficulty

breathing, muscle pain, sore throat, loss of sense of taste or smell, headache,

nausea, or vomiting and might appear in an individual for approximately 2-

14 days after the virus's exposure (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention [CDC], 2020). A person is infected through droplets when

another person talks, coughs, and sneezes without covering the mouth. Also,

touching the face using hands that have come in contact with contaminated

objects could get someone infected with the said virus. Hence, washing

hands using soap and clean water or disinfecting it with alcohol is a must.

There is still no vaccine and treatment available so the best option for now is

prevention. Based on the data from WHO Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19)

Dashboard, the total deaths worldwide are already 1.2 million and an

estimated confirmed case of 45.6 million. In the Philippines, there are

approximately 7,000 deaths and an estimated confirmed cases of 385,000.

The sudden emergence of this global health crisis of this time, COVID-19,

led the world to a dramatic loss of human life and faced an unprecedented
challenge to socioeconomic crisis and public health. Having normality back

is still uncertain because this pandemic will most likely be with us for the

foreseeable future.

A high-risk pregnancy is a stressful and complicated process, to say the

least, yet, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) brings the

challenges to a higher level. A pregnancy is to be considered as high-risk

when there are possible complications that could affect the health of the

mother, the baby, or both. This type of pregnancy highly requires

management by a specialist to ensure the best outcome for both lives.

Pregnant women who are older, overweight, and have pre-existing medical

conditions, including diabetes and hypertension, seem to have a great risk of

health complications due to COVID-19 disease (Shriver, 6 October). An

issue on access to prenatal check-ups and management, fetal safety, and the

possibility of vertical transmission (mother to fetus) became a significant

interest and concern due to the community efforts in managing and

containing the spread of the virus.

According to World Health Organization [WHO] (2020, August 8), a

rise in the proportion of stillbirths of Pregnant women- considered one of the

vulnerable groups, is anticipated because of lockdown restrictions and

disruptions in health care. The Overall risk may be low; still, those who got
infected by the virus are more likely to develop respiratory complications for

the reason that Pregnant women experience immunologic and physiologic

changes which made them susceptible to the virus in which require intensive

care than women who are not pregnant (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020).

Moreover, WHO (2020, September 1) stated that pregnant women

hospitalized with coronavirus were 70% more likely to need ventilators,

even though they were far more likely to die. According to the study, there is

an increased prevalence of anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic among

high-risk pregnant mothers compared to pregnancies with less risk factors.

Concerning this, the study is undertaken to determine the challenges

that high-risk pregnant women face, given the fact that their immune system

is more compromised and that this virus is new and relatively unstudied. It

has the potential complications that can jeopardize both lives of the mother

and the fetus. Furthermore, stress or feeling extra anxiety is inevitable

because there are many things to be considered— mother’s health, the

growing baby, and the family's plans, affecting blood pressure, pulse,

hormones, and every aspect of the well-being. Additional factors that are

putting pregnant mothers at great risk for perinatal and maternal mortality

during pandemic include (1) hesitancy in approaching maternities and

caregivers due to the fear of acquiring the virus: (2) poverty and limited
access to transportation due to the community restriction measures being

done to manage the spread of the virus; (4) reduction of obstetrical care

facilities, lack of skilled birth health care providers as a result of

redistribution in the health system concerning the pandemic may prevent the

pregnant mothers from receiving optimal obstetrical care promptly (Green et

al. 2020). Researchers would also like to know how maternal isolation

helped or worsen the situation, especially that high-risk pregnant mothers

need close monitoring by the doctor. Concerns, problems, and attitudes of

this susceptible population to the whole process will be discussed and

determined in detail based on their individual experience, thus, increasing

awareness in the nursing field.

The findings will be used as a basis for a proposed program as an

intervention plan to help high-risk pregnant mothers deal with the challenges

brought by the prevalence of the COVID-19 effectively.

References:

Green, L., Fateen, D., Gupta, D., McHale, T., Nelson, T., & Mishori, R. (2020). Providing

women’s health care during COVID‐19: Personal and professional challenges faced by

health workers. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. 151(1).

https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.13313

https://covid19.who.int/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html