Due to a lot of recent request regarding the vaccines during pregnancy and breastfeeding period, I decided too put here some general Information
together! Please be aware that it's not a medical advice, it's mainly to give you a quick overview!
Although the
overall risk of severe illness is low, pregnant people are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 when compared to non-pregnant people. Severe illness includes illness that
results in intensive care admission, mechanical ventilation, or death. Additionally, pregnant people with COVID-19 might be at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth,
compared with pregnant women without COVID-19.
Limited data are available about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people who are pregnant
Based on how these vaccines work in the body, experts believe they are unlikely to pose a specific risk for people who are pregnant. However, there are currently limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant people
- Clinical trials that look at the safety and how well the COVID-19 vaccines work in pregnant people are underway or planned. Vaccine manufacturers are also monitoring data from people in the clinical trials who received vaccine and became pregnant.
- Studies in animals receiving a Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy found no safety concerns.
CDC and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) have safety monitoring systems in place to gather information about vaccination during pregnancy and will closely monitor that information. Most of the pregnancies in these systems are ongoing, so we don’t yet have information on the outcomes of these pregnancies. We need to continue to follow pregnancies long-term to understand effects on pregnancy and infants.
The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are mRNA vaccines that do not contain the live virus that causes COVID-19 and, therefore, cannot give someone COVID-19. Additionally, mRNA vaccines do not interact with a person’s DNA or cause genetic changes because the mRNA does not enter the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept. Learn more about how COVID-19 mRNA vaccines work.
The J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine is a viral vector vaccine, meaning it uses a modified version of a different virus (the vector) to deliver important instructions to our cells. Viral vector
technology has been used by Janssen for other vaccine development programs. Vaccines that use the same viral vector have been given to pregnant people in all trimesters of pregnancy,
including in a large-scale Ebola vaccination trial. No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, including adverse outcomes that affected the infant, were associated with vaccination in these trials.
Learn more about how viral vector vaccines work.
Coronavac (also known as Sinovac, currently available in Cambodia), is an inactivated virus vaccine. There is no clinical data about pregnancy and breastfeeding. It can be assumed that it's okay
to take it in both stages of live, due that we know that usually these kind of vaccines are fine for the baby. BUT: Hongkong and China don't recommend to get the vaccine in Pregnancy! The main
reason is that there is no clinical data and it's unethical to recommend it. Israel is recommending it for pregnant woman, but they are the only ones.
I can't give here a clear advice if you should get the vaccine or not, but like I said before: usually we know that these kind of vaccines are "okay" and be aware that you are a high risk for a
more serious form of Covid-19 in pregnancy (which means mainly please avoid any additional risks!). However, the advice from most of the official resources is NOT to get the vaccine!
Here is a link to the lancet medical journal, where the data from the clinical trial is shown (general data, not pregnancy
related): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30843-4/fulltext
You are Breastfeeding?
Clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for use under an Emergency Use Authorization in the United States did not include people who are breastfeeding. Because the vaccines have not been studied on lactating people, there are no data available on:
- The safety of COVID-19 vaccines in lactating people
- The effects of vaccination on the breastfed infant
- The effects on milk production or excretion
The COVID-19 vaccines authorized now are non-replicating vaccines, meaning they are able to create an immune response but do not reproduce inside host cells. Because non-replicating vaccines pose no risk for lactating people or their infants, COVID-19 vaccines are also thought to not be a risk to the breastfeeding infant. Therefore, lactating people may choose to be vaccinated.