If you are pregnant, planning to be pregnant, or if you are breastfeeding, we strongly recommend getting vaccinated.
Jennifer A. McCoy, MDUnder its new leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has changed its recommendation that pregnant women should be vaccinated against COVID-19, to a suggestion that they may get vaccinated if they wish to do so. This change is a reversal of what women have been told by the federal government since COVID vaccines became available, and what most healthcare institutions still counsel pregnant patients to do.
“The COVID vaccine is very important for pregnant people,” said Jennifer A. McCoy, MD, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). “It can lower your risk of having a serious illness. It also protects your baby.”
In a newly released video, McCoy emphasizes the importance of protection against COVID for both mother and baby, afforded by the vaccine. She notes that while CDC has changed course, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine both recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all people planning pregnancy, as well as anyone who is pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding.
“When you get the COVID vaccine when you are pregnant, you will pass antibodies to your baby during your pregnancy,” McCoy said. “This will protect your baby in their first few months of life. Newborns depend on antibodies passed to them during pregnancy for protection from COVID.”
Pregnant women are more likely to get seriously ill from COVID, McCoy said, adding that unvaccinated pregnant women could suffer from breathing issues and require ICU admission. In fact, in 2021 an unvaccinated woman who gave birth while sick with COVID spent two months in a coma at DHMC, receiving round-the-clock blood-oxygenation treatment, unable to meet her baby until she woke up.
“The COVID vaccine is safe for everyone,” McCoy said, adding that large studies have shown no evidence of risks or safety concerns from the vaccine for pregnant women. “It is safe to get at any time in your pregnancy. If you are pregnant, planning to be pregnant, or if you are breastfeeding, we strongly recommend getting vaccinated.”
View the full video here:
Assignment Editor’s Note: A downloadable file of the video is available upon request, and is cleared for use on all digital and broadcast platforms with credit to Dartmouth Health.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.