To be worried about the Indian variant whilst pregnant?

[pearlsandpetals]

Hi all,
So I'm currently almost 9 weeks pregnant (first pregnancy and experiencing a lot of anxiety at the moment). I'm worrying myself so much recently about the new Indian variant of COVID in the UK and what this may mean for people like myself who are currently pregnant. I heard today that a local school has shut because over 20 children and a number of staff have caught the virus. My partner has shared custody arrangements with his ex partner and I worry about his son catching the virus at school and me catching it. I hope I am worrying unnecessarily but just wanted to hear others thoughts on this.

I'm 22 weeks pregnant and anxious about it. I'm going to get the vaccine in a couple of weeks but want to wait until baby is viable outside of the womb as I'm so scared of getting the vaccine too. I'm keeping as safe as I can - only socialising outdoors, working from home etc. It is a worry though as if pregnancy doesn't have enough stress involved!

Sensationalism sells, I really wouldn't give the generic news reports too much thought. I was advised by my therapist early on in the Pandemic to limit my intake of news if I found it was causing me anxiety. I'd definitely recommend the same to you.

With respect to this new variant specifically, the response has been very cautious and very public. But the more that is learnt the more positive things look. Also as a general rule this type of virus doesn't tend to mutate that quickly so vaccines should (in theory) give us really good protection for a decent number of variants.

I would also highly recommend asking for a referral to your local perinatal mental health team and they should hopefully be able to help give you tools to manage your anxiety longer term.

Finally, if you haven't already then I'd start doing a bit of research into getting vaccinated whilst pregnant and see if you'd feel comfortable having the Covid vaccine once your time comes (assuming you haven't had it yet).

1. The Indian variant is no worse than any of the others
2. If you are worried, get vaccinated. It's recommended during pregnancy now.
3. Getting covid while pregnant does not put you at increased risk until the third trimester. So if you are only 9 weeks now, we will probably be several variants further on by the time you are far along enough to be at a (very slight) increased risk.

P.s. I had covid while pregnant and it was no worse than an average cold