Photo/Illutration Adachi Hospital Director Morio Sawada examines an expectant mother infected with the novel coronavirus. (Provided by Adachi Hospital)

KYOTO--A maternity hospital here opened a dedicated ward for expectant mothers who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Adachi Hospital opened the Maternity Support Center for COVID-19 on Aug. 8 to help pregnant women and their babies, who tend to be left behind amid a shortage of medical resources as the seventh wave of infections drags on.

The center has 16 private beds. Twenty-five patients had been hospitalized there as of Sept. 13.

“I was happy because I was accepted there when so many patients have to recuperate at home as the situation is beyond the capacity of the public health care system,” said a 31-year-old woman, who stayed at the hospital for 10 days.

The woman said she and her young child were infected with the novel coronavirus while they were visiting her parents' home in Kyoto Prefecture.

The hospital also provided treatment to her child in its pediatrics department. The woman and her child have since recovered.

“I was afraid I could have a premature delivery (because of COVID-19), but I felt at ease because hospital staff came to me every day to monitor the fetal heart rate,” she said. 

Childbirths at Adachi Hospital account for about one-fifth of all births in Kyoto. Founded in 1902, the hospital has set a goal of creating a society where women feel a desire to give birth and feel happy after delivering a baby.

By accepting pregnant women with mild symptoms from around Kyoto Prefecture, the hospital hopes to help make more beds available at other hospitals capable of taking in COVID-19 patients with more serious conditions.

“Expectant mothers worry more about whether their babies are alive than about their own health,” said Morio Sawada, the hospital’s director.

He said one woman taken to his hospital by ambulance shed tears of relief after learning her baby was safe. The woman said she had “felt forsaken” because many other hospitals had refused to admit her.

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Adachi Hospital’s Maternity Support Center for COVID-19 is housed in an old ward building in Kyoto’s Nakagyo Ward, which the hospital used before it relocated. (Ayaka Kibi)

The Maternity Support Center for COVID-19 is located in an old ward building that Adachi Hospital had stopped using after a new ward building was completed.

Pregnant women with mild symptoms who require hospitalization and examination are eligible to stay, regardless of whether they are regular patients at the hospital.

The hospital’s midwives are also providing phone counseling to pregnant women recuperating from COVID-19 at home so they can ask about their physical conditions.

The number of expectant mothers infected with the novel coronavirus surged amid the seventh wave.

Since mid-July, Adachi Hospital has received a growing number of reports from pregnant women who are regular patients at the hospital saying they had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Hospital staff also began receiving a flood of phone counseling requests about an absence of perceptible fetal movement and a bloated stomach, among other issues.

Perinatal care has been severely short-staffed since before the pandemic.

Many expectant mothers who tested positive for the novel coronavirus have lost opportunities to see doctors when the hospitals they were visiting took measures to prevent in-hospital infections.

More medical workers were infected under the seventh wave than ever before, which made it even more difficult to provide health care to pregnant women infected with the novel coronavirus.

“While it remains uncertain what things will be like in the weeks and months to come, I am determined to make sure we continue providing proper support to expectant mothers under the new setup,” Sawada said.

Adachi Hospital has divided workers between its new ward building and the Maternity Support Center for COVID-19 to prevent hospital-acquired infections. It enlisted the help of the prefectural associations of nurses and midwives as well as the “KISA2” squad of medical workers who provide support to COVID-19 patients recuperating at home.

The prefectural government’s hospitalization control center is handling the arrangements for stays in the maternity support center.

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Midwives check up on an expectant mother recuperating from COVID-19 at home via a phone call. (Provided by Adachi Hospital)

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