Is the COVID vaccine safe for pregnant people? What about when you are breastfeeding?

Kristin Woodring discovered she was pregnant in the fall of 2020. A pharmacist at Strong Memorial Hospital in UR Medicine, she was eligible for a COVID vaccine a few months later. She was still in the early stages of her pregnancy – around 16 weeks – but the decision to get the vaccine was an easy one.

A pharmacist who works in emergency and intensive care (intensive care unit), Kristin has been in contact with patients with COVID throughout the pandemic. For her, getting the vaccine was a huge relief. She took all the necessary precautions while working in the hospital, including using the appropriate personal protective equipment, standing apart and washing her hands, but felt much better protected after being vaccinated.

“Everyone, including me, has reservations about taking or doing anything extraordinary while pregnant,” said Woodring, who gave birth to a healthy baby boy in May. latest. “But I knew I had to stay healthy to keep my baby healthy. I also wanted to continue working and supporting my team at the hospital during an extremely busy and stressful time. The vaccine helped me do both.

Kristin gave birth to Zachary at 39 weeks. She had no problems after the vaccination and Zachary was born healthy and without complications.

But even after hearing positive stories like Kristin’s, it can be difficult to make the decision to get the vaccine before or during pregnancy. Eva Pressman, MD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has heard the many concerns people have firsthand.

An expert in high-risk pregnancy, Pressman answers common questions she has received from patients and others throughout the pandemic:

Q: How do you know the vaccine is safe for pregnant or breastfeeding women when the vaccines have not been tested on them? Without data, how do you make an informed choice?

A: While it’s true that pregnant and breastfeeding women weren’t enrolled in any of the original studies, it turns out that many of the women who enrolled in these studies – several hundred, at least – were in fact pregnant and did not know at the time. . So we have original data from these women as well as ongoing studies specifically during pregnancy, and we have records of over 140,000 women who received the vaccine during pregnancy and reported information on their outcomes. We have all of this data on women who were pregnant and breastfeeding when they received the vaccine, which allows for a much more informed choice even though the original studies aimed not to study pregnant people.

Q: What do we know about the vaccine and fetal development or complications?

A: We now have information from hundreds of thousands of pregnancies that the COVID vaccine does not increase the risk of birth defects or pregnancy complications like preeclampsia or preterm labor. On the contrary, COVID infection has been associated with an increased risk of preterm labor, preeclampsia and miscarriage. We know that the vaccine is much safer during pregnancy than the disease itself.

Q: Does the vaccine increase the risk of miscarriage?

A: No. The data we have from the COVID vaccine is that it does not increase the risk of miscarriage. On the other hand, infection with COVID increases the risk. So getting the vaccine might actually lower your risk of miscarriage, as it would lower your risk of having a serious COVID infection.

Miscarriages are very common – they happen in 15-30% of pregnancies – and so when they do, many people fear that they did something that caused them. This is hardly ever the case. Any serious health complications during pregnancy put you at risk of miscarriage or premature labor, and preterm labor puts your baby at risk for health complications. So, preventing severe COVID disease during pregnancy is really essential, and that’s why I worry so much about women who think they are protecting their babies by not getting vaccinated; in fact, they could put their babies at risk by not getting the vaccine if they contract COVID during pregnancy.

Q: Is it safe for breastfeeding mothers to get the vaccine?

A: Yes. We’ve collected a lot of data and are doing some of the studies here on breastfeeding before and after vaccination. And it appears that the antibodies enter breast milk and are potentially protective for infants.