As an ob-gyn, I like to give patients advice that I would follow myself.
This approach took on new meaning when I got pregnant with my first child in 2023. Now I can offer my personal experience when talking with my patients. And lately, we’ve been talking a lot about the vaccines you should get during pregnancy.
The recommended vaccines protect against four serious illnesses: flu, COVID-19, whooping cough, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). These vaccines can keep you healthy and help protect your baby after birth.
I wanted to protect my health. Anyone can get sick from flu and COVID-19, but you’re at higher risk for serious illness when you’re pregnant. As an ob-gyn, I have seen firsthand how severe these diseases can be for my pregnant patients. Complications can include hospitalization, preterm labor, preterm birth, and even death. The risk of these can be greatly reduced with vaccination.
I wanted to do everything possible to stay healthy during my pregnancy and childbirth. So getting the seasonal flu vaccine and updated COVID-19 shots was an easy decision for me.
I wanted to protect my baby’s health. Once I got pregnant, I wanted to do everything possible for my baby too. When you get a vaccine, your body makes antibodies to protect you against that illness. When you’re pregnant, those antibodies are passed to your fetus, giving them protection from the moment they are born.
When it comes to RSV and whooping cough, babies and young children can get much sicker than adults. In fact, RSV is the number one reason infants are hospitalized in the United States. And babies younger than 3 months have the highest risk of severe disease and death from whooping cough, also known as pertussis. (You’ll hear this shot called Tdap, which is short for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.)
Many friends have shared their families’ experiences with whooping cough and RSV on social media. After reading their posts, I knew I didn’t want that to happen to my family. Their stories of seeing their babies seriously ill and in the hospital gave me extra motivation to get vaccinated.
I wanted my baby to be protected from birth. Babies can’t get their version of the whooping cough vaccine until they are 2 months old. For COVID-19 and flu, it’s 6 months old. But getting a vaccine during pregnancy means your baby will be born with antibodies that will protect them from getting seriously ill from these diseases. I liked knowing my child would be protected right away.
RSV is a little different—infants can receive an injection called nirsevimab at birth. This is not a vaccine, but it takes about 2 weeks to work like many vaccines do. That leaves babies 2 weeks without full protection. For this reason, I decided to go with the maternal RSV vaccine.
Timing also played a part in my vaccine decision-making. I was due to give birth in winter—the peak season for many of these respiratory illnesses.
Most of the shots weren’t new to me. I get my seasonal flu shot every fall, and I have been following the guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines since the moment they were released. And like most people who grow up in this country, I got my first whooping cough vaccine in childhood. So I first got these shots long before getting pregnant, and I saw no reason to stop.
I got all my shots during my second and third trimesters and had only mild side effects. The flu and COVID-19 shots are considered safe at any time in pregnancy, so I got them as soon as flu season started, and an updated COVID-19 vaccine was recommended by my doctor. I got my Tdap shot after week 27 of my pregnancy, as recommended for each pregnancy if you are between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. And I got my RSV shot as soon as I was eligible. ACOG recommends the Pfizer RSV vaccine if you are 32 to 36 weeks pregnant between September and January. Most parts of the United States see the most RSV between these months.
My husband also got his Tdap booster. We checked that our parents—the baby’s grandparents—were up to date with their vaccines as well. This way the people who planned to spend the most time with our newborn could stay healthy and avoid spreading illness.
Research assures me that these vaccines are safe. As an ob-gyn, I am familiar with the research on vaccine safety for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Once I got pregnant myself, I read it again. I looked at the difference in outcomes for people who get vaccinated, compared with those who don’t. I read the studies for pregnancy complications, such as preterm birth. I also considered vaccine side effects that could be dangerous during pregnancy, such as high fever. There are no real differences for women who get vaccinated with these vaccines during pregnancy—that is, aside from being less likely to get serious illness.
After all my reading, I felt even more confident that getting my shots during pregnancy was the right choice. Scientists release vaccines only after careful study and testing. We have years, even decades, of data to support their safety.
I also like to think about vaccines in terms of chances. Adverse effects from vaccines are very rare. But a pregnant woman getting seriously ill from COVID-19, or a baby ending up in the hospital with RSV, is unfortunately common.
The power of prevention
For me, getting vaccinated while pregnant was an easy call to make. I’m proud to tell people and my patients, “I got these vaccines, and you should too.”
I know women give these decisions a lot of thought, especially if they are already managing a high-risk pregnancy like many of my patients are. If you’re pregnant, talk with your ob-gyn about which vaccines you should get and when. You may need shots in addition to the ones I have mentioned, based on your health history, vaccine records, and risk factors.
Post a Comment