Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Vaccine in pregnancy

101 replies

Yorkymidge · 18/12/2021 18:41

Hello,
I am currently 10 weeks pregnant - a high risk pregnancy for multiple reasons so miscarriage risk is high. I have both my vaccinations early in the year and have been invited like everyone else for my booster.
Without wanting to open a can of worms, what is your opinion on taking the booster in pregnancy? I’m fully for vaccinations, as previously having the first 2 but i’m scared of the risks and complications that it may cause since there is little to no research on pregnant women. I feel like medical professionals only push for it without explaining the risks too and i would like to know both sides.

Thank you.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
carboverload · 21/12/2021 01:58

I absolutely will not be getting vaccinated personally. A few other posters literally telling you what to do and basically demanding you get it are wrong.. she asked for advice not 'just go and get it', 'do it asap', 'definitely get it' and the rest. No, only listen to the advisory posts and make your own decision x

PAFMO · 21/12/2021 05:51

@carboverload

I absolutely will not be getting vaccinated personally. A few other posters literally telling you what to do and basically demanding you get it are wrong.. she asked for advice not 'just go and get it', 'do it asap', 'definitely get it' and the rest. No, only listen to the advisory posts and make your own decision x
In fairness, if she, or you, asked a proper doctor they'd tell you the same.
mrssunshinexxx · 21/12/2021 05:53

If you're covered with first 2 I would wait for booster til baby is here

PAFMO · 21/12/2021 06:01

@twInkletoesbluesky
Your comparison is like saying "24 people died from Covid but 227 got run over. It's likely that had the 24 died from Covid therefore they'd have been run over"

Do you not see how ludicrous? And potentially dangerous? Trying to scare people into not being vaccinated?

RedRobin100 · 21/12/2021 06:19

I’m 22 weeks and had both jabs before i got pregnant.
I admit I have been hesitant about getting booster during pregnancy, but finally but the bullet yesterday and booked it for after Christmas.
As PPs say, getting Covid during pregnancy is risky and dangerous - so I obvs want to avoid that.
I also follow expert medical advice and haven’t seen or read any credible sources that have identified any possible particular risks to baby.

MimiDaisy11 · 21/12/2021 06:22

@amylou8

I'd avoid any medication in pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, unless absolutely necessary. If I was already double jabbed prior to pregnancy, and otherwise healthy, then I would decline the booster.
Pregnant women routinely get the flu vaccine in the first trimester.
MimiDaisy11 · 21/12/2021 06:25

I 100% agree with this. On the surface, baby may appear healthy at birth and in the months that follow but its impossible to know years into the future at this point. I hope there are no side effects but that's exactly what made me not take a 2nd dose and or booster

What side effects could come in years to come? What other medical case had hidden side effects from a vaccine that didn’t appear for years?

Festivemoose · 21/12/2021 06:29

@amylou8

I'd avoid any medication in pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, unless absolutely necessary. If I was already double jabbed prior to pregnancy, and otherwise healthy, then I would decline the booster.
What a stupidly dangerous thing to say.
RedRobin100 · 21/12/2021 06:31

Thanks for the post OP
Having booked my booster yesterday I needed the reassurance that lots of PPs have added above.

Festivemoose · 21/12/2021 06:34

[quote anonanonanon123]@PAFMO ah yes the same health professionals who also used to prescribe thalidomide for morning sickness as that was deemed safe. It wasn't recommended when it first came out due to not being able to be trialled as it's immoral, and "we've used it for a bit and it seems ok so now we'll recommend it" isn't good enough for me I'm afraid. I won't allow me and my child to be a guinea pig. I might get covid, but I might not. If I take the vax then I've definitely put that in my body and taken that risk. [/quote]
Wrong wrong wrong. Not a comparison at all, and also pretty damn offensive. Read up on your history, instead of getting your information from Facebook infographics made by random people sat in their basement, who have never picked up a book before.

Pompom2367 · 21/12/2021 06:38

I had all three of mine and my baby is a healthy one week old

Justbecause88 · 21/12/2021 06:40

I'm 28 weeks and having my booster today, had my second dose at 11 weeks. I purposely don't read anything on social media or forums. Too many people have unsolicited opinions on what pregnant women should or shouldn't do with their bodies. Read and trust the science.

Skybooks · 21/12/2021 06:41

I had both vaccines pre pregnancy, #on day of ovulation. And booster at 30 weeks.

Vaccine in pregnancy
Scirocco · 21/12/2021 06:52

@Yorkymidge

Some good sources of information are the Medical Royal Colleges, including the RCOG (obstetrics and gynecology). They have the current clinical guidance available on their websites. If you're looking for clinical papers/publications, PubMedCentral is a free online resource for these, although it doesn't provide critical appraisal of the papers so you need to do that bit yourself.

The available clinical evidence indicates that vaccination is safe in pregnancy and protects against severe illness, hospitalisation, pregnancy loss and death from COVID. When thinking about risks, it's important to consider both the likelihood of an event occurring and the severity of the event - in this case, the likelihood of those things occurring is fairly low overall (although increased by being pregnant) but the potential severity is huge. COVID infection also significantly increases your individual risk in comparison with your 'background' risk (what your individual risk would be without it).

The side effects documented from the vaccines have indicated that they're generally well tolerated and don't look to have any impact on risks of pregnancy complications.

The vaccines themselves are 'non-live', meaning that they don't contain any actual virus - how they work varies somewhat between the different types, but the basic principle is that they show your immune system a 'blueprint' of a recognisable bit of the virus, so that your immune system recognises it as foreign and can be prepared to defend against it if it's encountered again. Non-live vaccines have been used in pregnancy for many years now (eg. whooping cough).

We don't have 10/20 year follow-up studies because COVID hasn't been around for that long. What does exist, though, is a huge amount of real-world clinical data looking at safety in pregnancy. Looking at the mechanisms of action of the vaccines (which are well-studied), there have been no identified mechanisms by which they could cause longer-term harm to a developing baby.

We also have a lot of data about how the complications of COVID (eg. increased risk of blood clots) can cause harm to mother and baby. While COVID is still a relatively new virus, things like blood clots have been studied for many years - we know how these develop and what the potential consequences are.

No decision is 100% risk-free. For me, it's about weighing up the pros and cons to find a decision we can live with. On one side, there are the known (and unknown) risks of COVID - while the likelihood of the severe complications is still quite low, it's significantly increased from your baseline and the potential consequences can be devastating. On the other side are the known (and unknown) risks of vaccination - where we know that the risks of short-term complications are very, very low, and there aren't any known mechanisms by which we would consider there to be significant risks to longer-term development. On both sides of the question, there are still "unknown unknowns" - the things we don't know that we don't yet know about.

Whatever you decide, stay safe and good luck with your pregnancy.

anon12345678901 · 21/12/2021 06:55

[quote anonanonanon123]@PAFMO ah yes the same health professionals who also used to prescribe thalidomide for morning sickness as that was deemed safe. It wasn't recommended when it first came out due to not being able to be trialled as it's immoral, and "we've used it for a bit and it seems ok so now we'll recommend it" isn't good enough for me I'm afraid. I won't allow me and my child to be a guinea pig. I might get covid, but I might not. If I take the vax then I've definitely put that in my body and taken that risk. [/quote]
You're an idiot. You clearly know nothing about thalidomide and what happened, and the rigorous measures put in place following that tragedy.

twoofusburningmatches · 21/12/2021 08:05

Op, I understand your worries. I got my first jab at 14 weeks, shortly after the advice changed to vaccinate pregnant women. I didn’t find it an easy decision, especially as the advice had only recently changed. But I read as much as I could from medical organisations and the scientific papers that were available at the time. Since then, there has been lots more research around the vaccine and pregnancy - some of it linked in the thread. It is worth reading this. It might also be worth checking out Pregnant then Screwed, who did amazing work around the vaccine and pregnancy earlier this year.

In the end I got both vaccines during pregnancy. My baby is now five weeks old. She is physically perfect and is the sweetest little person. I am breastfeeding and got the booster the moment I could - I am happy she’s getting antibodies.

Good luck with your pregnancy.

nadgersbadgers · 21/12/2021 08:06

@Yorkymidge I'm 10 weeks too, congratulations - I had mine at the weekend. Good luck with what ever you decide x

nadgersbadgers · 21/12/2021 08:08

OP i would like to add, I'm a paramedic and I've been to some pregnant women with COVID who have been really really unwell - who most likely went on to either die or lose their baby due to them being so unwell themselves.

SW1amp · 21/12/2021 08:43

@anonanonanon123

I'm not jabbed and won't be getting any while pregnant. People saying "I got mine and currently 16 weeks with a healthy baby" - you can't possibly know that your baby is healthy till they are born and start to develop surely?
I had my baby last week after having the 2nd jab at 12 weeks and booster at 36 weeks, so I can say with total confidence I’ve got a healthy baby…

I can also tell you that I was under the care of specialist Fetal medicine consultants because of a complication in a previous pregnancy - the absolute experts at high risk pregnancy care - and their clear advice throughout was to get jabbed

This team takes absolutely no chances with anything. I was scanned fortnightly, had blood tests fortnightly. They wanted to know what brand my multi vitamins were, they checked every aspect of my pregnancy all the time. And they were unwavering in their advice to get jabbed

Because of the previous pregnancy complications, this baby was checked by neonatal consultants at birth, 12 hours, and 24 hours, and I was talking to them while we waited for some test results to come back, asking how busy they are etc

The lead doctor said they are incredibly busy in the NICU at the moment because of very sad cases of babies being born to women with covid. Those babies are being born very premature because the mums are so ill they have to do emergency sections and get the babies out
And other babies are being born really ill because covid causes blood clots in the placenta which starves babies of oxygen
She said every one of these babies is born to unvaccinated women.
Every one.

I honestly cannot understand how anyone can read the stats of what’s happening to pregnant women and babies when they catch covid without being jabbed, and still somehow think there is more risk from getting the vaccine.

There are now hundreds of thousands of pregnant women jabbed, and no evidence of risk. None at all.
And plenty of babies being born after vaccinated pregnancies who are perfectly healthy showing there is no risk there either.

amc8583 · 21/12/2021 09:06

For those who choose not to get vaccinated, do you think the over run hospitals should look after you and your unborn baby if you got covid?

Derbee · 21/12/2021 09:16

@amc8583

For those who choose not to get vaccinated, do you think the over run hospitals should look after you and your unborn baby if you got covid?
Of course they do. If they contract Covid, they’ll also be ok with having their babies born early by c-section, whilst being pumped full of steroids, and experimental drugs. It’s utter madness
sheusesmagazines · 21/12/2021 09:35

I will just say that the anxiety, especially as pregnancy progresses, of being unvaccinated is REAL. I delayed mine until 13 weeks because I was worried about miscarriage and I was SO worried whilst waiting the 8 weeks for my second jab (this was during the summer unlocking). I felt real regret that I hadn't just gotten it earlier. I also can't describe the pure relief I felt when I got the booster.

I've had 3 doses in pregnancy now and I'm 38+6 and everything ok so far. I know that's just antecdotal.

Skybooks · 21/12/2021 10:12

This! Please protect you and your baby.

There is no data of vaccines travelling through placenta and harming babies. There are actual pregnant women in ICU and babies in NICU due to early birth complications.

Skybooks · 21/12/2021 10:13

I tried to quote this but it disappeared

Skybooks · 21/12/2021 10:14

:16Derbee

amc8583

For those who choose not to get vaccinated, do you think the over run hospitals should look after you and your unborn baby if you got covid?

Of course they do. If they contract Covid, they’ll also be ok with having their babies born early by c-section, whilst being pumped full of steroids, and experimental drugs. It’s utter madness

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