Arlene Loaeza with son Lucas at her home in Exton.
As the obstetrics coordinator and doctor-patient liaison for Penn Ob/Gyn in Chester County, Arlene Loaeza knows something about pregnant women. She was six months pregnant when the pandemic hit. Her office quickly closed, and Loaeza’s work went virtual. “I shared my patients’ anxiety about not knowing how COVID would affect us,” she says. “I talked to them about having the same fears.”
In the meantime, Chester County Hospital took immediate steps to treat COVID-19 infections and reduce exposure for patients and staff. But maternal-fetal transmission was an unknown. At first, Loaeza’s physician, Dr. Justin Sloane, and the rest of staff used extreme caution with COVID-positive moms, removing the baby and making the primary caregiver someone negative. That has since changed. “We’ve learned that it’s preferable to keep the baby with a COVID-positive mom as long as she’s asymptomatic,” says Sloane.