A Missouri mother and registered nurse are urging pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after losing their own baby due to the virus.
Vanessa Alfermann, 33, was 22 weeks pregnant last November when she and her husband contracted COVID-19, but while her symptoms were mild, they caused a dangerous abrupt placenta that sent her to an early birth.
She soon gave birth to a baby boy named Axel, who at the premature age of 18 died almost immediately after birth.
Alfermann, who received the vaccination a month later, when the vaccine received emergency approval, now fights vaccine misinformation and warns other pregnant women to get the shot.
“There’s so much misinformation out there that it kills people and it’s frustrating,” he said. “I’m talking about this because of Axel’s legacy.”
Tragic: Vanessa Alfermann, 33, was 22 weeks pregnant last November when she and her husband contracted COVID-19
He had mild symptoms such as headache and loss of smell and taste. But after some back pain and cramps, she came in prematurely and gave birth to a baby who did not survive.
Alfermann, a Missouri-registered nurse Baptist Sullivan, has a son and a stepdaughter and was excitedly awaiting the arrival of another child last fall when she tested positive for the virus.
“My husband had symptoms and he tested positive and the next day I tested positive as well,” she told Good Morning America.
“I never had shortness of breath, but I was very tired,” she continued, adding that she also experienced headaches and loss of taste and smell.
But ten days after the positive test, he also began to experience back pain and cramps, and went to OBGYN for control.
The baby was fine [in an ultrasound] but my white blood cells were very high and they told me I had a COVID infection and they gave me an antibiotic and some muscle relaxants to go home, ”he recalled.
“The next day around 1:30 I woke up and realized I was in labor.”
COVID-19 had caused blood clots in the placenta, which caused a dangerous rupture of the placenta, which sent her to an early birth.
Alfermann had not been vaccinated because he was not yet available, but has since been shot
Alfermann was only 22 weeks pregnant, two shy weeks of the 24 weeks a fetus is considered viable.
With her husband isolated, Alfermann’s mother-in-law took her to the hospital, where she soon gave birth to baby Axel, who died almost immediately.
“Half an hour after I got there and got to the [labor and delivery] floor, Axel was born. I didn’t even get to grab it. The people at the NICU detained him and he took his breath away with them and then died, ”Alfermann said.
It was learned that blood clots in the placenta due to COVID had caused placental abruption, a condition in which the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus before birth.
The condition is dangerous for both the mother and the baby, as it can deprive the fetus of oxygen and the mother can also die.
“It was mind-boggling because you don’t think you’re going to get a blood clot in the placenta,” Alfermann said of possible symptoms of COVID.
Loud: urges pregnant women to get vaccinated
Campaign: The CDC recommends vaccinating pregnant women, but three out of four in the U.S. do not
‘[You think] they’ll put a fan on you because you can’t breathe. I went through all these emotions, but I also wondered if that would be what would come, what COVID does, it just scared me.
Alfermann continued to be vaccinated in December, saying that while he was happy to receive the shot, he had a broken heart that he had not been able to get before.
“I could still be waiting to have my baby,” she said. “It’s very bittersweet.”
He now urges other pregnant women, three out of four of whom in the United States are not vaccinated, to receive the shot as well.
The CDC has recommended the vaccine for pregnant women and noted that COVID-19 can be especially dangerous for them.
COVID-19 can cause premature birth in pregnant women and a doctor told GMA that her hospital has seen more deaths among COVID-positive pregnant patients.