FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo (KMOX) - A Missouri nurse is sharing her tragic story to hopefully prevent other expecting mothers from losing a child due to COVID-19. She was battling the virus while pregnant and lost her baby just minutes after he was born last year.
Vanessa Alfermann is a registered nurse from Franklin County. She was vaccinated in December but lost her baby about a month earlier before the vaccine was available to her.
"I just want his story to change the narrative where someone can save themselves before they are asking us to save them," ALfermann says.
The 32-year-old mother told Good Morning America she was 22 weeks pregnant with Axel when she tested positive for COVID-19. Ten days later she went into emergency labor.
Her husband also had tested positive, so he had to stay quarantined and her mother-in-law drove her to Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. She was at the hospital for only 30 minutes before Axle was born.
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"I didn’t even get to hold him. The NICU people held him and he took his breath with them and then he passed away," Alfermann says.
He died due to a placental abruption that happens when the placenta separates from the uterus during pregnancy. She's lucky she also didn't lose her life. Doctors say it was caused by COVID-19.
She says she broke down crying after she was able to get vaccinated about a month later.
"I was so happy because I was protecting everybody else but I went upstairs to our bathroom and just cried because I thought 'what if.' What if five or six weeks earlier I could have gotten the shot? I could still be waiting to have my baby boy," she says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data this month about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine for women who are pregnant. A study of 2,500 pregnant women found no increase in the rate of miscarriages.
“CDC encourages all pregnant people or people who are thinking about becoming pregnant and those breastfeeding to get vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID-19,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “The vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible Delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people.”
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