Doctors urge pregnant women to be vaccinated against COVID-19 because the risk of the virus itself is worse

In the 2021 era of COVID-19, vaccines will be widely available and severely pregnant patients will be admitted to the ICU. Dr. Gregory Goyert, a Detroit obstetrician and gynecologist, said they weren’t doing well, and the conversation was directed at whether they needed intubation, mechanical ventilation or other interventions.

“Always, the patient will look at us and say,’I wish I had been vaccinated.’ And the only thing you can tell them is,’We too.’ Said Goyert, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Henry Ford Health System.

Pregnant women are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19. You are also less likely to be vaccinated against this disease.

Concerned about the health of themselves and their developing babies, they continue to be sick of vaccines available to most people for months shorter than their gestation period.

The doctor is sympathetic. They understand the weight a woman feels to protect her baby, but say taking shots is safe and important.

Doctors recommend that pregnant women be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“The message I want to say loudly and clearly is to go and get vaccinated,” Goyert said.

Initially, there were questions about pregnant women and vaccines, and data are limited.

Early in the deployment, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said immunization was safe and should be allowed if women wished to be immunized. Michigan obstetrician recommended it.. As millions of people have been vaccinated and authorities have gathered more information, the promotion of vaccination of pregnant women has increased.

The CDC, the American Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society currently recommend all pregnant or lactating women to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Michael Tsimis, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine doctor at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, said pregnancy was not a reason to avoid vaccination.

The CDC has not found any safety concerns for women or their babies.

The CDC analyzed data from three safety surveillance systems to collect information about COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, but early data did not find any safety concerns for women or their babies. It was.

In addition, scientists have not found an increased risk of miscarriage among those who were vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer vaccines during pregnancy and registered with the established COVID-19 registry.

Doctors said the risk of COVID-19 during pregnancy is greater than the risk of vaccines.

“You never or always say. There is never zero risk in life,” Goyert said.

With that warning, he sees the risk of vaccines to mothers and babies as “negligible” and protection as “tremendous.”

According to the CDC, pregnant people do not report different side effects than non-pregnant people. Most commonly, according to doctors, patients experience arm pain, low-grade fever, body pain, or malaise.

Vaccination does not prevent all COVID infections. It protects people from illness, death and intubation, Goyert said. “That’s the only way out of this hell. The only way. And masking,” he said.

Pregnant women who are hesitant or uncertain are often vaccinated at a low rate.

Approximately 25% of pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 49 receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data collected from selected locations throughout the United States. About 31% are vaccinated before or during pregnancy.

Women are not happy with the new data on vaccines during pregnancy. Dr. Alyssa O’Hagan, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Grand Traverse Women’s Clinic and Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, said they felt vulnerable. I have a lot of fear and anxiety.

Lowell’s Ashley Collins, 27, gave birth to a healthy boy, Peter James Collins, on August 28, without complications. Her obstetrician once mentioned the recommended vaccine, but she declined the injection. She and her husband protected themselves, followed the rules and successfully avoided COVID-19 infection.

She said there wasn’t enough research and that immunization was not yet approved for infants.

“I think it was both a concern about how it would affect me and how it could affect him,” said her son being inoculated now when he was born. Collins, a major retailer buyer planning for, said.

Goyert said he was sympathetic to the concerns of pregnant women.

He does not give lectures, but talks with patients. Some people are worried about the effects on their babies and future births. (Doctors say there is no evidence to support the idea that vaccines affect male or female childbirth.) Some are victims of organized racism, from communities with a lack of trust. Come.

Not surprisingly, when a patient survives a pandemic, everything feels new, like an unknown territory, O’Hagan said.

She said overwhelming evidence favors the vaccine.

“You really want patients to make the right decisions for them and their families, but they are more based on the types of facts and guesses …”

Women vaccinated during pregnancy can give protection to their babies.

The advantage of being vaccinated during pregnancy is that protection is passed on to the baby, Goyert said.

According to the CDC, antibodies made after a pregnant person was vaccinated with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were found in cord blood. More data is needed to determine how these antibodies, like those produced by other vaccines, protect babies.

A study published this month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM collected cord blood from 36 deliveries to women who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine during pregnancy. Antibodies to spike proteins that allow these viruses to invade host cells were found in 100% of the coding specimens and in a study led by researchers at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

They saw the highest levels of antibody in the umbilical cord blood of a fully vaccinated mother in the second half of pregnancy.

“Our findings increase the list of important reasons why women should be vaccinated with COVID vaccine during pregnancy, showing the benefits of newborns and potential protection from COVID disease in the first day of life. The research letter concludes.

Future studies should focus, at least in part, on the endurance of antibody detection in infancy.

Goyert is pleased that patients have chosen to be vaccinated after childbirth, but it takes a long time for children to qualify themselves.

The Pfizer vaccine is currently available for children ages 12-17 and will be approved for children ages 5-11 within the next few months. According to Goyert, it will take years for the COVID-19 vaccine to become part of regular pediatric immunity.

Data on how much antibody crosses breast milk at best when a lactating woman is vaccinated are mixed, he said.

One study published in August in the journal PediatricsOf 98 Spanish women vaccinated with COVID-19 during breastfeeding, they found that they passed antibodies to their children through milk.

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