Healthcare workers answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Sara Whetstone, MD, MHS explains how she advises her pregnant patients about getting the COVID vaccines.
More FAQ Videos on pregnancy, fertility & the COVID Vaccine
It’s very clear that all professional organizations believe that pregnant women should have access to the vaccine, and that they should engage in sort of shared decision-making with their providers about whether the vaccine is the best decision for them.
Of course, individuals can get the vaccine without involving their providers because it’s always their individual and free choice. So what I tell my patients is that the vaccine is not made from a live virus—so it does not consist of a live virus— and so in that regard, we sort of use safety data that we have seen from non-pregnant individuals and believe that there are no significant safety risk with receiving the vaccine in pregnancy.
And, then there are lots of ways that individuals can reflect about sort of whether the vaccine in pregnancy is the right decision for them that takes into account their individual risks, their community-based risks, their occupational exposures, as well as the benefits, that really none, but really the risk of COVID-19 in pregnancy.
