to take covid vaccine or not?

[Alizeex]

I'm very struggling whether to take the vaccine or not, particularly given that there is not enough evidence for pregnancy. On the other hand, I'm quite concerned if I caught it near due date in October (autumn/winter!) which can be very dangerous to the newborn and me.
It's hard to weigh up the risks on both hands and make right decisions. Can anyone give me some advice :( please thank you

New from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists:

www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/covid-unlocking-will-create-perfect-storm-for-pregnant-women-say-maternity-colleges/

More than 100 pregnant women have been admitted to hospital in each of the last two weeks with COVID-19. Vaccination remains the best way to protect against the known risks of COVID-19 in pregnancy for both mother and baby, including admission to intensive care and premature birth. No pregnant women who have received both doses of vaccine have been admitted to hospital since the vaccination programme began. Most of those admitted recently have been unvaccinated, with only five women admitted who had received a single vaccine dose. I would urge women and health professionals to follow the RCOG/RCM guidance and discuss taking up the offer of a vaccine.

@Lucidas

New from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists:

www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/covid-unlocking-will-create-perfect-storm-for-pregnant-women-say-maternity-colleges/

More than 100 pregnant women have been admitted to hospital in each of the last two weeks with COVID-19. Vaccination remains the best way to protect against the known risks of COVID-19 in pregnancy for both mother and baby, including admission to intensive care and premature birth. No pregnant women who have received both doses of vaccine have been admitted to hospital since the vaccination programme began. Most of those admitted recently have been unvaccinated, with only five women admitted who had received a single vaccine dose. I would urge women and health professionals to follow the RCOG/RCM guidance and discuss taking up the offer of a vaccine.

wow, seems it's really urgent to get double jabbed ASAP before the storm. I will receive my second dose in September (35wks), which is 8 weeks apart from the first one. wondering if I can get it earlier so that to allow more time for the immunity to build up.

I got my first vaccine today, I am 7 weeks pregnant. I have been so Inbetween before pregnancy and even up until yesterday. Took the plunge today after speaking with the fetal medicine team at my hospital for advice ☺️

I’ve just booked mine. I wasn’t going to have it initially but when I a) read about the risks of catching Covid and b) saw that cases are at January levels and we haven’t even reached ‘Freedom Day’ yet, I changed my mind.

I'm almost 25 weeks and at the moment I have no intention of having it whilst pregnant, however I understand why others do. It's just my personal choice, I'm working from home anyway so I'm able to distance myself and will continue to do so.
I have just come across this though... it's on the daily mail though so I would always second guess anything they report! However I've found it on other sites too, so it makes you wonder! It's impossible to know what to do for the best isn't it 😩

Please don't read articles, they can be so midleading. I would speak to your GP, midwife and fetal medicine and anyone who is in the medical field and make your decision on what they say and how you feel x

@lockdownbabyx

That headline from the DM has been heavily criticised - it’s really misleading clickbait. There’s no new information that suggests these vaccines cause birth defects or whatever - they wouldn’t be allowed to start a clinical trial on pregnant women if there was any suspicion that that was a risk.

Moderna is now starting clinical trials in pregnant women (and Pfizer started one ages ago) so that they’ll then have clinical data (as opposed to real world data, which is what we have now) about the safety of the vaccine in pregnancy.

Pregnant Then Screwed on Instagram wrote a post about it today - www.instagram.com/p/CRWH79_jvG9/?utm_medium=copy_link

I’m having my first jab tomorrow. I had my 20wk scan today.

My reasoning for waiting until this point has been that I wanted to wait for more development to have occurred in the baby (as a precautionary measure rather than based on evidence; 20wks was chosen a bit arbitrarily, I suppose after the scan - rcog mention that 13weeks could be a time people wish to wait until). I wfh and kids don’t go to school and cases were low until recently, so my exposure was low. I have a past medical issue that may be a minor risk factor for covid complications, but no ongoing medical problems.

My reasoning for taking the vaccine tomorrow is the data that women who test positive for covid around delivery are at higher risk of complications: severe covid, pre-term delivery, stillbirth. Cases are going up as well. I will be able to have my 2nd dose at around the start of 3rd trimester (slightly late perhaps, given time is needed for immunity to build).

As pp have said: rcog website is helpful. www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/coronavirus-covid-19-pregnancy-and-womens-health/covid-19-vaccines-and-pregnancy/covid-19-vaccines-pregnancy-and-breastfeeding/

There may also be other reasonable courses of action (eg not being vaccinated but isolating/taking more precautions or being vaccinated earlier). Each person’s risk/exposure will be different and may change as the population case rate changes. More data may come in too. So it’s fine to reassess at different points and re-discuss with medical professionals.

@lockdownbabyx that headline is so misleading is appalling. Yes they will be looking at rates of those things, along with rates of healthy birth compared to without the vaccine. Please ignore it at look at the RCOG guidelines.

Wait. Moderna are just starting a research project on the effects of the vaccine on pregnancy.

I had my first Pfizer vaccine 2 months ago, and have reluctantly had my 2nd today at 5 weeks gestation. I'm very nervous because I'm at high risk of miscarriage and this is my miracle first/only baby (multiple IUI's and IVF's), but cases are rising rapidly here and I also read that a single dose only gives about 30% protection against symptoms for the Delta variant, so you need both doses asap if you can.

My thoughts were that the Pfizer/Moderna apparently uses the same mechanism as the common Flu vaccine that pregnant women have been given for a long time with no real issues that they know of. But getting Covid has been known to sometimes cause significant problems in pregnancy (because of potential high fever, or breathing problems and placenta issues).

So it's known problems (Covid) vs potential problem (vaccine without lots of studies on pregnant women) imo. If it helps, if I was in my second or third trimester I wouldn't have even hesitated OP

I'm 26+6 and due end of Oct. I haven't had the vaccine. I have been backwards and forwards but what I'm worried about is thr lack of long-term research. We know that babies born to women who have had it seem fine but currently there is no data on their development through early milestones, etc. It's unlikely to cause issues but I'd never forgive myself if it did. Instead, I have asked to work from home (my alternative was taking mat leave early to avoid face to face working) and I plan to stay at home until it's go time. I'll have the jabs after she's born.

I have had advice from two consultants. They both stress that its very important as Covid can be very serious in late pregnancy but they caveat that with there is not sufficient data to confidently say there are no long term affects on the baby. There hasn't been enough time passed to establish this. It is a tough decision, is there anyway you can increase social distancing and isolate a bit?

Unless you can stay at home and completely isolate until 10 weeks after your baby is born then there isn't a zero risk scenario.
We know covid can be devastating in the third trimester. I would take a jab now and start getting some protection.
Had my first in my first trimester and 2nd jab in second trimester.