Can pregnant women take the COVID-19 vaccine? Can menstruating women take the jab? Do covid vaccines affect fertility or the overall health of a pregnant woman? The queries are endless and so are the speculations that can lead to misinformation. Soon-to-be mom Dia Mirza recently shared why her doctor has advised her not to take the vaccines available in India until further clinical trials prove they are safe for pregnant women.
Responding to a user who raised concerns over a surge in maternal deaths due to COVID-19, Dia tweeted, “This is really important. Must read and also note that none of the vaccinations currently being used in India have been tested on pregnant and lactating mothers. My doctor says we cannot take these vaccines until required clinical trials have been done.”
The user wrote, “I’d like to reiterate the need to protect pregnant women from new infections by following all COVID appropriate behaviour, the need to continue a push for effective vaccination amongst pregnant women, the need to defer fertility treatments when infections are surging.”
Image Credit: iStock
Now let’s see what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA and the World Health Organisation have to say about vaccine safety and pregnant women. According to a report published in UChicagoMachine, CDC suggests pregnant women weigh “The individual risk of acquiring the virus (both to community transmission and your occupation). The potential damaging health outcomes of contracting COVID-19 while you’re pregnant. The side effects that they may experience after receiving the vaccine. The safety and efficacy data currently available.”
Stressing on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, the WHO suggests, “While pregnancy puts women at higher risk of severe COVID-19, very little data are available to assess vaccine safety in pregnancy. Pregnant women may receive the vaccine if the benefit of vaccinating a pregnant woman outweighs the potential vaccine risks. For this reason, pregnant women at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. health workers) or who have comorbidities which add to their risk of severe disease, may be vaccinated in consultation with their health care provider.”
Image Credit: iStock
In a statement released by The Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI), their Chairperson Dr Alpesh Gandhi said, “This protection should extend to pregnant and lactating women. The very real benefits of vaccinating pregnant and lactating women seem to far outweigh any theoretical and remote risks of vaccination.”
He continued, “Lactating women should also be considered as COVID vaccine candidates as there are no known adverse effects on the neonate who is breastfeeding. In fact, there is a passage of protective antibodies to the child, which may be a beneficial effect. The method of administering and monitoring the vaccine and the schedule of vaccination should be the same for pregnant and lactating women as for the general population.”
Another study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology states that COVID-19 vaccine does not damage the placenta in pregnant women. Corresponding author Dr Jeffery Goldstein said, “The placenta is like the black box in an airplane. If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened. From what we can tell, the Covid vaccine does not damage the placenta.”
We understand that processing so many varying opinions can get a tad confusing. Hence, we recommend you consult your doctor and make an informed decision.
Lead Image Credit: Dia Mirza, Instagram and iStock
