COVID-19 vaccine is best safeguard while pregnant | News, Sports, Jobs

This graph shows the percentage of positive tests by age group during the past seven days in Webster County.

Source: state coronavirus website

Pregnant women and recently pregnant women are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 when compared with non-pregnant people, according to the Webster County Health Department. Severe illness includes illness that requires hospitalization, intensive care, need for a ventilator or special equipment to breathe, or illness that results in death.

Additionally, pregnant women with COVID-19 are at increased risk of preterm birth and might be at increased risk of other adverse pregnancy outcomes, compared with pregnant women without COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 12 years and older, including those who are pregnant. This vaccine recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. The benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any known or potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy.

• No safety concerns were found in studies in which animals received the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy, and no safety concerns were found in pregnant animals or their babies.

• No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes occurred in previous clinical trials that used the same vaccine platform as the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine: Vaccines that use the same viral vector have been given to pregnant women in all trimesters of pregnancy, including in a large-scale Ebola vaccination trial. No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, including adverse outcomes affecting the baby, were associated with vaccination in these trials.

• COVID-19 vaccines do not cause infection, including in pregnant women or their babies: None of the COVID-19 vaccines contain the live virus that causes COVID-19 so a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make anyone sick with COVID-19, including pregnant women or their babies.

• Early data suggest receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy reduces the risk for infection: A recent study from Israel compared pregnant women who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with those who did not. Scientists found that vaccination lowered the risk of infection from the virus that causes COVID-19.

• Vaccination of pregnant women builds antibodies that might protect their baby: When pregnant people receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, their bodies build antibodies against COVID-19, similar to non-pregnant people. Antibodies made after a pregnant person received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were found in umbilical cord blood. This means COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy might help protect babies against COVID-19. More data are needed to determine how these antibodies, similar to those produced with other vaccines, may provide protection to the baby.

Additional clinical trials that study the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and how well they work in pregnant women are underway or planned. Vaccine manufacturers are also collecting and reviewing data from people in the completed clinical trials who received a vaccine and became pregnant.

Women who are breastfeeding are also encouraged to be vaccinated against COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause infection in anyone, including the mother or the baby, and the vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 in people who are breastfeeding. Recent reports have shown that breastfeeding women who have received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have antibodies in their breast milk, which could help protect their babies.