COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — A Georgia woman is urging pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine amid the spread of the delta variant after suffering the ultimate loss.
Kyndal Nipper, of Columbus, was 36 weeks pregnant (40 is considered full-term) when she and her husband tested positive for COVID-19. She said their symptoms were so mild they would not have gotten tested if it weren’t for the loss of smell.
After several days of low-grade fevers and allergy-like symptoms, Nipper and her husband felt better, but that’s when she noticed something was wrong.
She said her baby was moving less than usual. She contacted doctors and followed their orders to monitor it for an hour and head to the emergency room if it didn’t get better.
“I just felt deep that something was wrong,” said Nipper. “So I went up to Piedmont, went straight to labor and delivery, and that’s where we found out that, unfortunately, our baby boy was no longer with us.”
“The virus is destroying the placental tissue and causing inflammation, which is what’s causing these stillbirths.”
Piedmont Columbus Regional OBGYN Dr. Timothy Villegas explained that further testing showed the stillbirth was a complication of COVID-19.
“We are finding that the placentas have been infected with COVID,” said Villegas. “And the virus is destroying the placental tissue and causing inflammation, which is what’s causing these stillbirths.”
Nipper, who was unvaccinated, said she wasn’t against the vaccine. She explained that she simply didn’t know enough about it, so she decided to get it after the baby was born.
“The vaccine was so new we decided to wait until after we had our son to get it,” said Nipper. “We didn’t really know much about it, but we just figured we would just wait until after he was born to get it.”
Now, Nipper says she wishes she could go back and have more in-depth conversations about the vaccine with her doctors and ultimately get it.
Villegas said what’s alarming is that Nipper’s situation is not an isolated case …
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Samantha Willis, a 35-year-old mother of three other children, died after choosing to wait for more information about the COVID-19 vaccine and pregnancy. Data now shows that the inoculation is completely safe to have whilst pregnant: but a dedicated misinformation campaign is trying to make people believe otherwise.
Samantha Willis’ husband Josh is now speaking out about the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. He told the Derry Journal:
“I can’t advise people to take it but I’m telling her story so they can make up their own mind,”
“I’ve heard stories since the weekend that people have made up their minds after hearing her story, I’m sure those thousands of people who got vaccinated on Saturday and Sunday, some of them saw my Facebook post on the Friday night and the news breaking and that was enough to tip them over the edge to go and get it.”
‘A lack of information was being filled with misinformation’
There is now a battle being waged for the hearts and minds of pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists claim COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous to unborn babies and pregnant mothers. Attempts to explain this misinformation can trigger a torrent of abuse … READ MORE.
