Pregnancy complications spiked during the pandemic.

No one knows exactly why

 © 2022. Washington Post

Preeclampsia is a little understood complication of pregnancy that each year results in more than 70,000 maternal and 500,000 fetal deaths worldwide. During the pandemic, the number of case in the United States jumped according to doctors. No one knows why.

Lauren Phillips, a 32-year-old attorney from Brooklyn, had an easy pregnancy. Her vitals remained perfect, she felt great eating only vegan food, and was able to walk three miles a day throughout. The only blip was that despite being thrice vaccinated and meticulous about masking, she got infected with the coronavirus in her second trimester.

At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal — “just like a mild cold” — and her pregnancy proceeded without incident until she gave birth to a healthy eight-pound baby boy in April. The trouble began a few days later.

She was at home nursing her son when she felt what she called a “pulse” shake her body and by the time she made it to the emergency room, her blood pressure had rocketed to a dangerous 160/116. Phillips didn’t know it then, but she had preeclampsia, a little understood complication of pregnancy that each year results in more than 70,000 maternal and 500,000 fetal deaths worldwide. Rates of the illness had been rising steadily in the United States for years, but during the pandemic, the number of cases jumped, according to doctors. No one knows exactly why.

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Created October 11, 2022