Photo Source: TaNefer Camara
Since the emergence of the pandemic earlier this year, there is a lot of uncertainty and confusion around how COVID-19 might affect pregnancy and birth outcomes. While studies are ongoing and there are still unanswered questions, researchers are identifying preliminary findings on the topic.
For our November Collaboratory, we discussed what we know, what we don’t, and what we still need to answer about COVID-19 and pregnancy, especially as it relates to preterm birth. Researchers from the PRIORITY study, EMBRACE study, SACRED Birth study, COVID-19 Hospital Restrictions study, and HOPE COVID-19 study share how their studies have shifted during the pandemic and insights they have developed into the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and preterm birth.
Special thank you to Loren Newman, PTBi's in-house graphic designer, who shared what it was like to have a hospital birth during the pandemic!
What attendees will take away from this:
- What researchers know about how COVID impacts pregnancy and preterm birth
- How COVID and pregnancy research has had to shift and adapt during the pandemic
- What researchers are still trying to learn about how COVID impacts pregnancy and preterm birth
Speakers
Brittany Chambers
SOLARS Study
Brittany Chamber is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research agenda is focused on understanding how racism impacts Black women’s reproductive health outcomes and identifying community-level interventions and policies to address them.
Rebecca Kriz
COVID-19 Hospital Restrictions study
Rebecca Kriz, RN, MS, is the Postnatal Program Manager at the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative where she leads projects related to improving outcomes for preterm babies and their families in the NICU. Previously she worked at UCSF ANSIRH where she directed studies evaluating the effects of state-level abortion restrictions on women and providers throughout the country. Ms. Kriz received her BA in Economic Theory from The American University and attended the MEPN program at the University of California, San Francisco where she became an RN and received an MS in Nursing with a focus in Health Policy. She leverages her clinical background and health policy training to focus her research on implementing practical interventions, using rigorous research methods, and centering the patient.
Miriam Kuppermann
Engaging Mothers and Babies—Reimagining Antenatal Care for Everyone (EMBRACE) Study
Miriam Kuppermann is a Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences (primary) and Epidemiology & Biostatistics (secondary). She is also Director of the Program in Clinical Perinatal and Comparative Effectiveness Research in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Director of Preconception and Prenatal Interventions and the Transdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative. Dr. Kuppermann has been conducting patient-centered outcomes research since joining the UCSF faculty in 1995, focusing on patient preferences and informed decision making among racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse women and designing and evaluating interventions to reduce disparities in adverse maternal and birth outcomes.
Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski
HOPE COVID-19 Study
Dr. Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski is a Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics in the UCSF School of Medicine and is the Director of Precision Health and Discovery with the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative. She serves as the Primary Investigator for the HOPE COVID-19 study which examines the impact of COVID-19 and pandemic-related hardship on adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. She is also a leader and founder of the HOPE Consortium, which includes investigators from across the US and world whose work focuses on uncovering causes of adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes and identifying in-roads for interventions.
Monica McLemore
PRIORITY: Pregnancy Coronavirus Outcomes Registry
Monica McLemore is an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department, an affiliated scientist with Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, and a member of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. She maintains clinical practice as a public health and staff nurse at Zuckerberg San Francisco General. Her program of research is focused on understanding reproductive health, rights, and justice.
Loren Newman
Experience Giving Birth During Covid
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Loren Newman is the Graphic Designer for PTBi. She began her art journey at The Art Institute of Houston in 2011, after a move to Texas with her family. True to her Bay Area roots she moved back to California after receiving her bachelor's degree in 2015. She did not return alone, her furry sidekick Coco came along for the ride. Upon her return to California, Loren found a love of designing for non-profit organizations. More specifically non-profit organizations that support reproductive justice and help Black and Brown women in her community. Oakland is rich with art and culture, Loren is happy to call it her home and design hub.
Karen Scott
SACRED Birth During COVID-19 Study
Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG, is a Reproductive. Justice (RJ) informed sexual, reproductive, and perinatal (SRP) epidemiologist and obstetric hospitalist whose work integrates the social sciences and humanities into participatory health services and quality improvement (QI) research. Dr. Scott is an Associate Clinical Professor and OBGYN Hospitalist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of the SACRED Birth Study at UCSF, funded by the California Health Care Foundation.
