Should Pregnant Women Get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

Should pregnant women get the COVID-19 vaccine? Here’s what the pregnancy experts are saying. Infertility specialists (like us) work closely with Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists. We work to help you become pregnant and they work to maintain a healthy Mother-fetus and Mother-infant. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) released a position statement on December 1, 2020. Here is what the experts say (a summary and interpretation):

Should Pregnant Women Get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

SMFM recommends that health care workers be offered the vaccine if pregnant. The health care worker umbrella covers all members of the health care community who are involved in patient care and/or in their work, are potentially exposed to the virus.  High-risk workers in any health facilities and first responders should be amongst the first for vaccination. Susceptible pregnant and lactating women are eligible and should be afforded opportunity for the vaccine.

What We Know About COVID-19 and Pregnancy So Far

• Pregnancy can be merited as a higher-risk condition for severe COVID-19. Advanced maternal age, elevated BMI (body mass index) and pre-existing conditions increase risk. However, pregnant women were specifically excluded from vaccination trials as were lactating women.
• There are 130 vaccines currently under investigation, 13 are in the last stage of clinical trials (humans) and 6 have been approved for emergent or limited-use. The three candidate drugs use a deactivated-type virus to enter the cells and prepare for the potential siege of SARS-COV-2, should an attempted infection occur. Why not use fire to fight fire? They are novel, but they are not new. In fact, a skeleton of precedent exists for these DNA-type vaccines recently.

Pregnant Women and Vaccinations

Recall the Ebola virus? A similar vector science was used in Sierra Leone to combat Ebola. In this trial named STRIVE, pregnant woman were initially excluded, but some women who received the vaccine were either newly pregnant or became pregnant within 60 days of vaccination. The first comparison was live births in women vaccinated when unknowingly pregnant or those impregnated within 14 days of vaccination. Proportion of live birth rate and loss rate were comparable to unvaccinated counterparts. Now the population was small, the DNA type delivery system different but the promise is great.

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