Unvaccinated mum never got to meet her newborn baby after dying of Covid

Saiqa Parveen wanted to wait until after she gave birth to have the jab

The devastated family of a mum-of-five who died after she caught coronavirus while eight months pregnant have urged others who are expecting a baby to get vaccinated.

Saiqa Parveen, 37, never got to meet her youngest daughter, who was born by emergency Caesarian while she was in Intensive Care.

She had been offered a jab to protect against Covid-19, but wanted to wait until after her baby was born before having it.

Her brother Qayoum Mughal, 54, has now urged others: ‘For God’s sake – get the vaccine. The family is completely broken. Her daughters ask, “When’s Mummy coming back?”

A lack of initial information on safety at the start of the pandemic may have contributed to vaccine hesitancy, with the vaccine not offered to pregnant women until April this year as they had not been included in trials.

Now, the evidence shows that Covid-19 is dangerous for those who are pregnant, and that they should protect themselves by getting vaccinated.

Between July 1 and September 30, almost a fifth (17%) of those who required intensive treatment through a lung-bypass machine after catching coronavirus were unvaccinated pregnant women.

Last night relatives released a picture of Saiqa fighting for her life in hospital, along with an image of baby Dua Maryam, who she never held.

Saiqa, from Birmingham, developed breathing problems after testing positive for Covid in her third trimester and was taken by ambulance to the city’s Heartlands Hospital.

She was discharged six days later, only to be admitted to Good Hope Hospital soon afterwards with breathing issues again.

Placed in intensive care, she had an emergency Caesarean at full term on September 26.

Qayoum said: ‘She was on oxygen and on September 25, she called my wife at 11pm and said she had signed documents saying that if her condition worsened, the doctors could operate to take the baby out.

‘That was the last conversation with any of us. She never saw her daughter.’

Saiqa was treated in Intensive Care but could not be saved

By then Saiqa was battling sepsis and had a hole in both her lungs, pneumonia and other infections.

She died on November 1, leaving behind husband Majid Ghafur, 40, baby Dua and their other daughters Noor, 12, Imaan, 11, Hibbah, eight, and Ayesha, six.

Qayoum revealed Saiqa’s beloved kids had made a harrowing final FaceTime call to their stricken mum just an hour earlier.

He said they told her: ‘Get up Mummy, we are missing you, we love you, why are you leaving us behind’.

Initially jabs were only offered to pregnant women in frontline health and care roles, or if they were highly vulnerable.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation updated its advice in April to say that all pregnant women should be offered one.

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