Wondering If You Should Get Vaccinated?

Andrea

An article that just dropped from the University of Alabama detailed what their ICU looks like right now and it doesn’t look good for pregnant women. This month, 10 pregnant women have been admitted their ICU, 7 of which are now on ventilators. Most of their babies have had to be delivered prematurely due to their severity of illness that has lead to low oxygen levels in the mothers’ blood.

“If a mom is not oxygenating her body well, she is not oxygenating the baby well either. That’s what may lead us to deliver the baby. And there are lots of risks associated with prematurity — long-term neurological or gastrointestinal complications, among others. It’s not just the acute risk of the COVID infection these babies are facing, but long-term, lifetime risk.”

The article goes on to say that 2 pregnant women have died so far in that hospital and another 6 have lost their babies - 3 of those in the third trimester - all due to COVID.

None of these women have been vaccinated.

I understand that it’s scary. I was vaccinated very early in my pregnancy right after the vaccine was available to me. I had a lot of questions about how it might affect my baby. But now we have the data to show that not only does it protect you, but when your baby is born, they’re protected, too.

A doctor and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the university says, “The good news is that we have a vaccine that has been tested on more humans than any other vaccine in history. The vaccine is safe for pregnant women regardless of the trimester they are in, and it is safe for breastfeeding moms. The data is convincing in this. You can put your faith in medicine that you are protecting yourself and your child based on the extensive data that has been collected. They are very hard decisions, but we have so much more data now than we did in December. We can definitively say, yes, these vaccines are safe for women and their babies.”

Please read the full article from the University of Alabama here: https://www.uab.edu/news/health/item/12238-uab-hospital-icu-population-includes-alarming-number-of-pregnant-women#vaccinations-pregnant-women

For information on the benefits of vaccination for your baby before and after birth, read this article from Harvard: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/study-shows-covid-19-vaccinated-mothers-pass-antibodies-to-newborns/