It is no secret that one of the main theses of antivaxers is that vaccination is supposedly extremely harmful to pregnant women. As a result, many women who are planning a baby or are already pregnant do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, fearing that vaccination could provoke a miscarriage. They are especially afraid of being vaccinated in the early stages of pregnancy: it is during this period that the tissues and organs of the fetus are laid, and any outside interference is perceived by many as a priori harmful.
Gynecologists also do not add confidence, many of whom not only spread rumors about the dangers of vaccinations for pregnant women, but also directly prohibit their patients from being vaccinated. Social media is full of examples like this. So, doctor Tatyana Vidrevich writes with surprise:
“I had a miracle yesterday: for the first time ever, a pregnant woman came with a desire to be vaccinated. Without a burdened history and a sufficiently low risk group. I was even numb from surprise for a moment. We discussed everything and came to a common denominator. Now she will have to convince those who examine before vaccination..."
And these remarks are left by bloggers living in different parts of the country:
- Today a woman in labor with covid died, 43 years old, on a ventilator, the child was saved, fortunately. Unfortunately, some gynecologists discourage them from vaccination to childbirth.
- My friend, a gynecologist in the Krasnodar Territory, explicitly forbade getting vaccinated against covid when planning a pregnancy.
- During lactation, our doctors do not give a referral for vaccination. Last week I watched a related hysteria: whether to take a one-year-old child with you to the "covidarium".
Meanwhile, in the latest issue of the scientific journal JAMA, an article was published, the authors of which assessed whether vaccination from the first trimester to the middle of the second could actually increase the risk of miscarriage. Scientists compared the frequency of spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) in women who received one or two doses of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna 28 days before, and those who did not vaccinate against the coronavirus. In total, the study assessed the outcomes of 105,446 pregnancies, 13,160 of which ended in miscarriages. The likelihood of miscarriage turned out to be in no way related to immunization: among women who had it, the proportion of those vaccinated was the same as among those whose pregnancy continued without complications. But the likelihood of miscarriage turned out to be related to age: among those whose pregnancy ended in spontaneous abortion, the proportion of women aged 35-49 was 38.7%. In the group of those whose pregnancy continued, the percentage of women in this age group was 22.3.
Molecular biologist and science journalist Irina Yakutenko comments on this publication:
“In other words, vaccination against coronavirus, even given in the first trimester, does not increase the risk of miscarriage. But the covid itself very much increases the chances that the pregnancy will end badly for both the mother and the baby. So, the probability of being in intensive care for pregnant women with covid is 5 times higher than for non-sick women, the probability of dying is 22 (!) Times higher. Babies born to mothers with covid are more than 2 times more likely to develop severe complications both in utero and shortly after birth than babies born to mothers with a negative test. Yes, women whom covid lead to serious consequences, often initially are at risk of pregnancy complications. Among them, many women are overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes - all of these conditions increase the risk of a poor prognosis in both covid and pregnancy.
But this fact means that it is especially important for such women to protect themselves and their child from the severe consequences of the coronavirus by getting vaccinated. It is ideal to do this before conception, but if it happened that the pregnancy occurred before the woman had time to vaccinate, there is no need to postpone the vaccination "until after birth", you need to find a doctor who follows the principles of evidence-based medicine and discuss the possible risks with him. Today, in all countries with developed medicine, pregnancy at any time and lactation are not contraindications for vaccination..."