COVID during pregnancy: Contacting Your Care Team and Checking Current Guidance

Tell your midwife or maternity team if you have COVID or symptoms that could be COVID during pregnancy. They can help assess the illness and explain how to continue your pregnancy care. Guidance on testing, treatment access and vaccination changes, so use current local advice rather than an old isolation timetable.

Make the first call useful

Have your pregnancy stage, symptom start date and any test results available. Describe how you are breathing, whether you can drink and what medicines you take. Mention conditions or treatments that affect your immune system.

Ask whether an appointment should still take place in person or be rearranged. Do not simply miss scans or antenatal checks. If you are asked to attend, tell the service about respiratory symptoms before arriving so they can give practical instructions.

Ask whether treatment assessment applies

Some people at particularly high risk can receive antiviral treatment through local services. Eligibility depends on more than having a positive test, and pregnancy also matters when a clinician chooses a medicine. Do not use someone else’s prescription or assume every antiviral is suitable.

If you have already been told that you qualify for COVID treatment assessment, follow the testing and contact instructions promptly when symptoms begin. Treatment needs to start quickly to be useful. Bring a complete medicine list because interactions can affect the choice.

The pregnancy medicine review guide helps you prepare that list. For milder illness, rest and fluids may help, but check any symptom remedy with a pharmacist or maternity clinician.

Escalate changes without waiting

Call maternity care immediately for a raised temperature, breathlessness at rest, a persistent headache, vaginal bleeding or being unable to cope at home. A reduction or change in your baby’s usual movements also needs immediate contact, even overnight. If you cannot reach maternity care, use an urgent medical service.

Call emergency services for severe chest pain, collapse, confusion, suddenly worsening breathing or breathlessness that prevents short sentences at rest. Do not wait for another test or the next scheduled appointment. Explain that you are pregnant when asking for help.

Check the current vaccination offer

In England, the current NHS COVID vaccination programme does not make pregnancy alone an eligibility criterion. A weakened immune system from a condition or treatment may qualify you, and eligible pregnant people can usually be vaccinated. Other countries and future programmes may use different criteria.

Ask your team to check the current offer for you. The pregnancy vaccination guide also covers other vaccines, whose eligibility and timing differ. Keep the date and name of any vaccination in your maternity records so the team has an accurate history.