Despite higher COVID risk, most pregnant Americans remain unvaccinated

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Pregnant women in the U.S. are still reluctant to get COVID shots. Two-thirds of them are unvaccinated, despite data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the shots are safe for them and their babies. The CDC is urging vaccinations and warning that complications from COVID can be deadly. Some families are sharing their stories in hopes of changing minds. South Carolina Public Radio's Victoria Hansen reports.

VICTORIA HANSEN, BYLINE: Thirty-six-year-old Kimberly Grice needed a walker during her final month of pregnancy just to get down the hall of her home near Myrtle Beach to a lavender nursery.

KIMBERLY GRICE: This is her room here. Our family - our sister-in-law, brother-in-law - painted it for her.

HANSEN: Kimberly struggled to hang up tiny clothes or organize a changing table. She had been hospitalized and on a ventilator. This after a trip to the emergency room in late July for what turned out to be COVID-19 pneumonia. Kimberly wasn't vaccinated. She feared it might hurt the baby. But doctors now insist it is safe. Kimberly's husband, Tory, shares the story she can't remember, including the question he was repeatedly asked in case of complications.

TORY GRICE: What life would you want us to save first? And I'm like, huh?

HANSEN: Doctors wanted to know, if something went wrong, whose life should they prioritize? Kimberly's or the baby's?

T GRICE: What you want to say is, like, both of them, but that can't be the answer.

HANSEN: Kimberly's liver appeared to be failing. Doctors considered an emergency C-section but decided not to deliver the baby nine weeks early. When Kimberly came to, it was nearly September, and she was confused. How did she wind up in a Charleston hospital? And who were the doctors and nurses now in her room?

K GRICE: And they're like, I just need to see you. They're like, you were so sick. They're like, you're a miracle.

HANSEN: Kimberly's body was worn out, but she has since given birth to a healthy baby girl.

REBECCA WINELAND: The risk of putting your life at risk, your unborn child's life at risk is not worth it.

HANSEN: Dr. Rebecca Wineland is the director of labor and delivery at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has seen firsthand what the CDC warns - expecting mothers infected with the fast-spreading Delta variant are twice as likely to be admitted to the ICU and have a 70% increased risk of death. Dr. Wineland understands the reluctance of pregnant women like Kimberly to get the vaccine, admitting there hasn't been a clear message about its safety for both mother and baby until now.

WINELAND: It will absolutely save your life and decrease your risk of hospitalization if you were to get COVID.

HANSEN: But that message came too late for Scott Baisley and his 2-month-old son, Sullivan.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)

SCOTT BAISLEY: It's OK - gotcha.

HANSEN: Scott's wife, Clair, was 33 weeks pregnant when she collapsed on the floor within days of being diagnosed with COVID. She was quickly hospitalized with double pneumonia. A week later, doctors decided they had to deliver Sullivan by C-section. Clair was put on a ventilator and given a 10% chance to live. Less than a month after her diagnosis, doctors were desperately trying to save Clair.

BAISLEY: But that was it. That was - I just watched her numbers drop. I watched her blood oxygen continue to go down. I watched her heart rate increase.

HANSEN: Suddenly, Clair was gone. She never got to hold Sullivan.

BAISLEY: Having a son without a mother has been one the most painful things I've ever experienced.

HANSEN: A pain Scott doesn't want anyone else to have to endure. For NPR news, I'm Victoria Hansen in Charleston, S.C. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.