| Newborn baby dies in Baton Rouge
after Coronavirus positive mom
went into premature labor The newborn baby girl who died from coronavirus Monday morning at a Baton Rouge hospital was born prematurely because her mother's body went into preterm labor while trying to fight off the disease, the parish coroner said during a press conference. The child was born more than three months early, after 22 weeks gestation, officials said. Her mother remains hospitalized on a ventilator. East Baton Rouge Coroner Dr. Beau Clark said death investigators attributed the child's death to coronavirus because her mother likely wouldn't have gone into premature labor if she hadn't been experiencing severe impacts of COVID-19. Clark wasn't able to say whether the mother is expected to survive. He said experts haven't yet determined whether the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from mother to baby in the womb, something that's called vertical transmission and requires the virus to pass through the placenta. Investigators at the state and federal level are still investigating the baby's death, Clark said. The child has not tested positive for coronavirus, but that remains under investigation. Clark said this is the first case in Louisiana of a newborn child succumbing to the impacts of coronavirus, though other cases have occurred nationwide. The newborn's death was one of seven new deaths the parish coroner's office announced Monday morning, bringing the total number of East Baton Rouge residents killed from coronavirus to 27. | 