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Pregnant women should not get the COVID-19 vaccines unless the benefits outweigh the risks, the WHO said.
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People in high-risk jobs and with underlying conditions, for example, can benefit.
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The vaccine is expected to be safe in pregnant women, but there is insufficient data to truly know its risks.
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Pregnant women should postpone obtaining Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine unless the benefits of protection outweigh the potential risks, the World Health Organization said in a provisional guidance released Monday.
For example, pregnant women at high risk of COVID-19, such as health professionals, or at high risk of serious complications of the disease, such as those with gestational diabetes, are good candidates for vaccination.
The organization issued the same advice for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on January 8.
Although the WHO’s position appears to be one of the strongest in opposition to the vaccine during pregnancy, it is not much different from what other professional and governmental organizations said, which is that pregnant women in eligible groups should have the option of getting the vaccine.
Those in high-risk situations or with a high-risk pregnancy should “take it seriously,” pediatrician and neonatologist Dr. Jessica Madden told Insider.
Read More: What pregnant women need to know about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine
Everyone else, however, may want to wait until more is known about the effects of vaccines during pregnancy – and due to the way the vaccine is being distributed, most will have to do so.
“For women who are pregnant now, but not in prioritized groups, when the vaccine is available, most will no longer be pregnant,” said Madden, who is also a medical director at Aeroflow Breastpumps.
“There should be much more information available on the vaccine’s safety in pregnancy when most of them are qualified to receive it.”
Pregnancy itself increases the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19, although the overall risk is low
If infected, pregnant women have a higher risk of admission to the intensive care unit, ventilation, life support and even death than patients who are not pregnant, although the overall risk is still low, a November report from the CDC found. They are also more likely to give birth prematurely.
Black pregnant women are particularly at risk of contracting the disease and suffering related complications.
Read More: No, the coronavirus vaccine will not make you infertile
Monica Ramirez is one of them. The school official near Los Angeles did not touch his daughter, Emiliana, until the child was six weeks old. Emiliana was delivered by emergency cesarean section, while Ramirez, who had an almost fatal case of COVID-19, was in an induced coma.
“I feel very blessed to have done this,” Ramirez told Insider earlier. “Not everyone has the same result.” If a vaccine were available and given to Ramirez when she was pregnant, her experience could have been very different.
Due to the way the vaccine is made, it must be safe in pregnancy
Researchers do not have good data on the risks for pregnant women, although health and public health professionals expect them to be low.
“Based on how the COVID vaccine works, there should be very little risk for a developing baby,” said Madden. That’s because, like the flu vaccine, coronavirus vaccines do not contain live viruses.
“The vaccine’s mRNA acts locally, on the muscle cells around the injection site,” she said. “It cannot enter the nucleus of cells, so it has no effect on DNA.” In addition, limited data from animal studies did not reveal any damage during pregnancy.
The few women who became pregnant while participating in clinical vaccine trials reported no complications. And, of the more than 100,000 pregnant women who have been vaccinated, “there has been no warning sign” regarding their safety so far, said infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, during a talk at the New York Press Club on Friday -market.
The vaccine can cause fever as a side effect, which can be problematic for the developing fetus in early pregnancy. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says it can be treated with Tylenol, which is safe in pregnancy and does not appear to affect the functioning of vaccines.
The decision must be influenced by your risk of exposure, rates in your community and health status
ACOG says that the decision to vaccinate during pregnancy should be informed by the rates of transmission in the community, as well as the individual risk of serious COVID-19 disease. A pregnant person’s occupation and pregnancy complications are also important, said Madden.
Whatever your choice, “you must feel that your decision is respected,” she added, “and know that if you decide not to get the vaccine now or in the future, everything is fine.”
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