Researchers Say Medical Personnel Should Wear PPE As Transmission Risks Rise During Childbirth

San Diego CA

20 September, 2021

5:50 PM

Description

By Editor, Times of San Diego September 20, 2021 Risks for COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases rise during labor due to patients' heavier breathing, according to a new study. A UCLA-led research team recommends that all health care providers in labor and delivery rooms have access to proper personal protective equipment to protect patients. Not all procedures require that health care providers have access to PPE, such as N95 masks. Vaginal delivery, for example, is not currently considered a high-risk or aerosol-generating procedure by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means N95 masks are not currently recommended for health care workers in all labor and delivery settings in health care. The study was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, involving faculty at UCLA Health's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. It's the first to show data describing respiratory emissions during labor and delivery and how those emissions can travel faster and potentially farther than even a simple cough. "The research shows how quickly and far the respiratory particles produced during labor and delivery can travel," said Dr. Rashmi Rao, a corresponding author of the study. Rao, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics-gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA said the research will continue. "In the next stage of research, we want to demonstrate that aerosols, which are infectious viral particles that can float or drift around in the air, are in fact present in these respiratory emissions," Rao said. Times of San Diego is an independent online news site covering the San Diego metropolitan area. Our journalists report on politics, crime, business, sports, education, arts, the military and everyday life in San Diego. No subscription is required, and you can sign up for a free daily newsletter with a summary of the latest news.