Episode 16: Questions about coronavirus and pregnancy, fertility, pets, and kids.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Functional Gynecologist. I'm a board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, and Insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist, so welcome.

Okay, this week's been a little crazy, a little different, trying to Homeschool my children and not go crazy and see my patients through televisits, I have not had time to do anything extra.

Okay, I take that back.

I did a webinar late night with a bunch of my health expert friends in my Mindshare community, and we answered questions about coronavirus. So I'm going to play that for you today. As my question of the week episode, it's more like 5 or 6 questions, but they're good questions, just kind of going over coronavirus with pregnancy, fertility, and pets. So I hope you enjoy.

All right, next up we have Dr. Tabatha Barber. And okay, we had a really fun podcast interview the other day, and why I'm bringing Dr. Tabatha Barber on is because She's a functional gynecologist and I actually just with my husband, we were in the grocery store recently and getting some supplies as we all are and we ran into one of our friends, Viet, and his partner, Jadia, and she's due in a month and oh my gosh, I just, I really feel for women that are going through all this stress and unknowns while they're creating life and how can we support our reproductive system and even if you know people around you that are pregnant or have little ones, just, you know, being sensitive to that. So Dr. Tabatha Barber, thanks so much for joining us today. I think we froze a little bit. Just bear with us here. I think everyone's online right now. Oh, I just had a question come through here. Someone heard someone joking around about corona baby boom. Is it an ideal time to be reproducing when there is a new disease and we don't know the future state of hospitals? How busy hospitals will be and how safe it will be for a newborn. And I think this is a really interesting question that I would love to have Dr. Tabatha Barber answer for us. Perhaps she doesn't have her microphone on. Hey, you know what, we've gone an hour and 40 minutes with, with no glitches. Oh, I think I hear you, Dr. Barber.

Hi.

There you are.

Did you get my question? Thank you for having me. This is awesome.

Yeah.

That's actually a really good question. Should we be trying to get pregnant? So the data that we have is, you know, the limited information from out of China so far. You know, the women that have been pregnant in their first trimester, we have not seen any birth defects so far, but it's honestly too early to tell. Those babies Probably haven't even had their anatomy scan yet, and they've definitely not delivered. It's only been a couple months. We do know that there's been a small increase risk in miscarriages and preterm labor and delivery. So anytime you have any kind of febrile illness where you're having fevers and things, you run the risk of preterm birth and miscarriage. So coronavirus isn't special in that regard, but I would say it's too early to know if it's going to have any major effect like first trimester birth defects. We do know from the limited data coming out of China that it does have an effect in the third trimester, like I said, preterm birth, but the surprising data that we've seen is that it's not seeming to be passed to the babies if mom does have coronavirus and she's pregnant and delivers. So that's actually really good news. Even so, our society, American College of OB-GYNs, do recommend if you deliver while you have coronavirus that you should be isolated from your baby. So that's kind of heartbreaking, you know.

Wow.

I can't even imagine being away from my baby for the first week or 2 of their life, but if it's, you know, going to prevent them from getting the disease, that's the recommendation. So the data is limited so far, but as far as your pregnant friend, I would say she should self-quarantine. She should be really making an effort to make sure that she is not being exposed because it can take up to 14 days to have symptoms and Even though we don't think it causes birth defects and the risk of preterm birth is small, it can still make the mom sick. The mom's immune system is compromised during pregnancy. It's kind of shut down. You know, you have a baby growing inside of you that's half foreign DNA, so your immune system needs to be kind of shut down so it doesn't react to that. Foreign object growing inside of you. So it puts you at risk for illnesses, and you have decreased lung capacity, so you can't breathe as deeply. You're more prone to getting pneumonia and asthma-type illnesses. We know that influenza wipes out pregnant women a lot more. We haven't seen it yet with the coronavirus, but I just think that the data is not in yet. It's not worth that risk. Right. So I would say if you're pregnant, stay away. Just stay home, do your best. And, you know, if you know anybody who's pregnant, stay away from them. So—

What about for their partners who are maybe needing to go out and get some supplies for them, go out and then come back home? What should they be doing as soon as they get home?

As soon as they get home, you know, you should be washing your hands and your face.

Well, this is anyone in general. Oh, washing your hands and face.

Yeah, I would say because, you know, if you sneeze, even if you sneeze into the crook of your elbow, all of those droplets, respiratory droplets, are still landing all over your face and your hair and such, and those can live on inanimate objects for days, we know. And so I would say now is probably not the best time to be kissing your wife when you come home, that kind of thing, if you're trying to not possibly spread anything because you can be asymptomatic, you can be carrying this unfortunately and then pass it on. So I would say pregnant women, that would be where I'd be the most cautious.

And I'd say the grocery stores right now are kind of like the breeding grounds for everything.

Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I love the grocery delivery services. Those are wonderful. But you have to realize that person's been in contact with a lot of other people. So make it quick, you know, try not to touch them, that kind of thing.

All right, so I have a number of questions here aside from those ones. How can I explain this pandemic to my children or family, you know, so they don't worry but still relay important info?

So I have 2 9-year-olds and an 11-year-old that now I'm homeschooling. Michigan is pretty much on lockdown, and I didn't want them to freak out and worry that, you know, they're going to get sick and end up in the hospital because that's kind of the idea they were getting from the news. So I explained it to them that we are kind of Trying to think about other people. It's not about us. It's we could be a vehicle to pass this on to someone. We know that most kids aren't getting sick, but we're understanding now that they're most likely asymptomatic carriers and they're transmitting it to other people. So it's a really generous, nice thing for us to do to lock ourselves away for a few weeks so that we don't get people, you know, our teachers, our friends at church, the elderly people at church especially, that we aren't getting it and passing it on to them and getting them sick. So I, you know, reassured them that they're most likely not going to get sick and end up in the hospital, but we don't want their Nana in the hospital, you know, or someone else. So I think they kind of felt proud of themselves that they were actually doing something nice for their community, and it was just a nice way to Spin it and relieve their fears because, you know, they're worried and they don't want to think that their mom's gonna get sick or anybody else because that's scary to them.

So, so if you're listening to this or catching the replay, you know, if a listener is pregnant, what should they do right now?

So definitely speak to your specific physician in your specific area. Every area is different, but I would say it's super important to keep your prenatal appointments, and that might consist of doing a televisit, you know, over the internet like we're doing. You know, make sure baby's still moving every day, look for symptoms of COVID which would be fever, cough.

Or shortness of breath.

And just keep yourself healthy as you can. Eat your healthy greens, take your vitamins, get your rest. of thing and keep those stress levels down, as all our wonderful speakers already spoke to. That is, that's key right there.

Another question I've received is, you know, could this potentially be passed to an unborn baby?

So like I alluded to earlier, we don't think that it's going to be transmitted through a pregnant woman to her fetus. We don't have any record of babies being born having COVID virus. The few that have had it, we think were transmitted after birth, after delivery. So that's why they recommend isolation afterward. They haven't found the virus in breast milk or amniotic fluid. So as far as breastfeeding, if you've already delivered and you're concerned about passing it on to your baby, maybe you've had an exposure and you're not sure yet if you're getting it, Breastfeeding definitely confers immunity, so I would say keep breastfeeding. If you're highly suspicious that you might have it, you should probably pump and have someone else feed the baby and make sure you're washing your hands and all of that while you're doing it.

Another random question, but I think if you already understand and are in the know of You know, the latest information on pregnancy and women and passing it on to babies. Well, what about passing it on to pets?

Yeah, so that's actually a good question. There is some evidence that we do share coronavirus-type illnesses with our pets, and so if we have any concerns or symptoms that we might be carrying it, they do— the CDC does recommend that you not kiss and love on your pets and just kind of avoid all of that. Let someone else feed them and take care of them until you're— you either know you're not sick, your testing is negative, or your symptoms subside.

Because it's really funny, it's— we've seen these, these memes, WHO, as in the World Health Organization, who let the dogs out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some people are saying, oh, dogs can pass it on, humans can pass it on, dogs can't pass it on. So what's your take on that? Can dogs pass it to us, things like that?

The jury's still out on that. We don't know. We do not know. So that's why I think it's just better safe than sorry.

Yeah, I would agree with you. Would you say that COVID-19 could potentially affect fertility? And just an FYI, this whole talk is for educational informational purposes only. This is not medical advice. So you should always specifically ask your physician before making Any lifestyle choices. But in your opinion, do you think it could potentially affect fertility?

We don't believe so. You know, the evidence that we've seen from past coronaviruses and other illnesses that are like this, it has not affected fertility. It does affect, like I said, potential for miscarriage, so becoming pregnant but then losing it if you get a febrile illness. But there's no data to suggest that it has any bearing on being able to become pregnant. So the memes about, you know, the baby boomers coming in 9 or 10 months, and what are we going to call them, quarantines when they're in high school, that kind of thing. I think it's all a huge potential to happen. I think people are going to be at home having sex, enjoying their relationships, especially with our experts' advice. And we're going to see a little bit of a boom. We're going to have a lot of babies being born.

So funny. I know that one of our colleagues, Dr. Melissa VanderMeesen, she specializes in natural fertility and she likes to give the recommendation of keeping you and your partner's body ultra clean for 6 months preconception. So for me, what I think I might choose to do is like Wait until this all blows over. Would you kind of think that might be prudent?

Yes, I would definitely agree with you. I would not want to run the risk of getting pregnant and having this febrile illness in the first trimester and losing the pregnancy, you know, or, or worse. We don't know what the outcomes could be. So as it stands, like the Society for Reproductive Health has not issued a statement saying no more in vitro or anything, you know, getting people pregnant. But I think that's a personal decision, and I, I personally would put that on hold. But, you know, you should talk to your physician and work that out together. But definitely think twice.

All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your tips of wisdom here, Dr. Tabatha Barber. Where can people find you?

Well, on social media, I'm Dr. Tabatha, Dr. Tabatha, and on my website, drtabatha.com. So check me out. Oh, and the Functional Gynecologist Podcast, which Rachel was on last week. It was a beautiful episode, so you should check that out.

Great. Thanks so much. Have a great evening.

Yeah, thanks for doing this.

Okay, so if you want to listen to that webinar in its entirety, With the 15 health experts, we talk about how to build up your immune system and handle the stress of the coronavirus, how to manage emotional situations, homeschooling your kids, all of those pressures. It's a great listen. Just go to my YouTube channel, Dr. Tabatha, and you can watch it on there. So thanks for joining me today. Stay home and have a safe, wonderful week, and we're in this together. I'll see you soon.