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SIHF Healthcare Talks About the COVID-19 Vaccine and Pregnancy
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on all of our lives in one way or another over the last year. Now, as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues nationwide, a combination of misinformation and false statements are leaving individuals confused and concerned about its administration.
One of the many statements that have emerged so far is that vaccines against the disease will cause infertility in women and should not be taken by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
“This is simply not true, the COVID-19 vaccines teach the body to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 and prevents getting sick in the future. There is no evidence that this immune response causes any problem for women who are trying to become or are currently pregnant and/or breastfeeding”, says Dr. Engeljohn, OB/GYN Physician at SIHF Healthcare. In fact, women who have recovered from COVID-19 and developed the same antibodies your body makes after the vaccine have become pregnant.
“The vaccine is our most important preventative step to protect ourselves and others from the virus that causes COVID-19, including pregnant woman and those considering pregnancy”, states Dr. Engeljohn.
Other additional concerns or questions that have arisen since the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine in regards to safety and pregnancy are discussed below:
If I don’t get vaccinated, what are the risks of contracting COVID-19 during pregnancy?
While the overall risk of experiencing a severe course of COVID-19 is low, if you’re pregnant you have an increased risk of getting severely ill if you contract COVID-19. That means you have an increased risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment and death.
And those individuals who experience severe COVID-19 symptoms have a higher risk of complications during and after pregnancy. Compared to asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, those with severe symptoms were at higher risk for cesarean delivery, preterm birth, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and postpartum hemorrhage. However, for some people, pregnancy isn’t their only health risk factor — they might be overweight or obese, have underlying high blood pressure or diabetes, or be part of a minority group that had more severe outcomes. So if you have questions or concerns, you should discuss them with your healthcare provider.
Have the COVID-19 vaccines been tested in pregnant or breastfeeding women?
Pregnant women were not specifically included in the clinical trials initially; this is due to historical restrictions on including those who are pregnant and the focused implementation on completing the first Phase 3 trials and distributing vaccines under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
However, Covid-19 vaccines and pregnancy were presented at the CDC’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices meeting on March 1. They demonstrated the safety of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in more than 30,000 patients with pregnancies. Data from the V-safe pregnancy registry, with nearly 2,000 participants, were also reassuring, with rates of miscarriage, stillbirth, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia or gestational hypertension, eclampsia, and intrauterine growth restriction lower among the V-safe pregnancy registry participants compared to national rates.
Do I need to delay getting pregnant or fertility treatments if I’m planning on getting vaccinated?
Current recommendations say there is no reason to delay conception. If you become pregnant after receiving your first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, you should not delay getting the second booster dose as scheduled.
If you are undergoing fertility treatments, the current recommendation is to continue the treatments and to get vaccinated. Speak with your physician and/or fertility specialists to make the decision that is best for you.
Can the vaccine affect my fetus during pregnancy or reach my baby through breastfeeding?
The mRNA vaccines work by presenting your body with a small set of genetic instructions for producing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Your body generates the protein and allows your immune system to learn what the protein looks like so it can recognize the protein if you should ever encounter the actual SARS-CoV-2 virus. It prepares an immune response to keep you from getting sick.
mRNA is extremely short-lived and easily degraded; this is why the vaccine must be stored at such cold temperatures and used quickly after preparation. Once the vaccine has been injected into your arm, your body either uses the instructions to make those spike proteins or it rapidly breaks down the small amount of mRNA that’s remaining. It is therefore extremely unlikely that any of the mRNA would be able to get into breast milk or into the fetus through the placenta. Additionally, because it’s so easily degraded, it cannot survive the acidic environment of your baby’s stomach.
Will breastfeeding pass immunity on to the baby?
If you are vaccinated during late pregnancy, it is likely that the antibodies your body produces in response to the vaccine will be passed to the fetus through the placenta and may provide some protection against COVID-19, the same way a flu vaccine can help protect your baby against the flu. It is uncertain if breastmilk will contain antibodies produced by vaccination and if that will help protect a breastfed infant. There is a very small preliminary report of significant levels of IgG and IgA (two antibodies) in the breastmilk of vaccinated people. However, we do not yet have any data on this point and it should be clarified in future studies.
At SIHF Healthcare we care about your health and safety, so by becoming more proactive in protecting your health and the health of others we can make life-saving differences during this pandemic together. For more information on SIHF Healthcare and the COVID-19 vaccine, please visit www.sihf.org or click here.
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