Booster (Hear me out - this is slightly different)

[ImmyMc]

I am not vaccine-hesitant in the slightest. I've been fully vaccinated with Moderna since March, and I'm now 32 weeks pregnant. I was vaccinated early because my husband is clinically vulnerable and the country I live in was vaccinating household contacts of the vulnerable.

The same country has just opened up the booster programme for pregnant women. I've been waiting for this to happen for ages and been pestering my OBGYN for ages to make her let me get it, but the government advice until now has been a no.

When my OBGYN two weeks ago said no, I went to my GP instead as he is American and I knew he'd be more open to the idea as the booster was being offered to pregnant women in America at that point. He told me he needed to check my immunity first. So he did a test that told me that, actually, I still have a pretty high antibody response from the vaccine, and he said I didn't need a booster (the government was only allowing those under 65 to get it then if there was a particular need - he said I didn't have a particular need).

Two weeks later, i.e. today, I find that the government are allowing pregnant women to get the booster, probably because of the Omicron variant. However, now I'm a bit worried, as clearly I already have a pretty good immune response. I'm just wondering if there might be harm to the baby if I get a booster to an already solid immune response. I know that the vaccine can't cross the placenta, but I'm a bit worried about the side effects like a fever etc. harming the baby, as the side effects the last time (when I didn't have many antibodies) were really intense for me!

I know nobody has any answers on this, but I'm just wondering, what would you do if it were you?

(No anti-vax comments, please. I'm not interested in those. I am definitely PRO vaccine. I just wonder about this specific issue).

I would have it

www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/pregnant-women-eligible-for-the-covid-19-booster-vaccine-urged-to-take-up-offer/

I would go for it because there isn't really an upper limit to antibodies. We know people who had 40,000 or 16,000 after their second shot, some had thousands and some in the hundreds. Antibody titres don't scale the same way as you imagine...so you can drop from ten-thousand to one thousand fairly quickly. It's basically an even scale that goes up by 10x because that's the dilution level of the titres.

On a practical level, it's probably easier to get vaccinated and deal with potential side effects while pregnant than with a newborn. You may be in a lot of discomfort after birth, combined with total sleep deprivation and/or BF schedules. The last thing anyone wants to deal with post-partum is getting floored by a booster. To be fully cautious in your position, I might wait another few weeks until the baby is almost to term (eg 36-37 wks) so in the very unlikely event something goes wrong then there won't be any harm in delivering right away.

I am pro vaccine and Vaccinated myself, but I def wouldnt have it. If your body has good antibodies and gp and obgyn say you don't need it why put more chemicals and risk into your body. You are 8 weeks away, maybe ask for another antibody test in 4 weeks and go from there. We don't nnow the impact on babies and won't know for quite some time.

I think on balance I would have it as you would pass some protection to your baby.

I was double jabbed before pregnancy and had the booster yesterday (22 weeks) I found the symptoms less than before, I didn't get a fever at all this time although I did both times before. Of course though, everyone's reaction is different.

Trying to consider the science with this one, also ignoring any reference to chemicals as the vaccine doesn’t contain any chemicals that your body doesn’t make itself or that you would be getting via other sources. The vaccine is basically just instructions for your body to make antibodies to a certain protein which is found on the covid-19 virus, the booster is just giving your body that same set of instructions as over time your antibodies made with the last set of instructions depletes. You wouldn’t “overdose” yourself with antibodies so to say, your body would limit itself at one point.

My only thought perhaps is that if you still have a significant amount of antibodies, your body will react to the vaccine quicker and it not be as effective? This is just some thinking as to why a doctor might not recommend, not even sure it’s accurate though, so anyone with better scientific knowledge might want to correct me there. If that was your worry though your side effects should be then less than your last vaccine too. Also I don’t think fevers at this point in your pregnancy are going to cause any issues.

I think I would opt to have it regardless. It won’t have any negative effect.

Please don't go off what strangers on the internet would do! Look up the RCOG guidance then make an informed decision.