Health officials in Connecticut say pregnant women should take the CDC’s latest advice and get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I’ve seen pregnant women get COVID-19, get extremely sick, be in the hospital, be on a ventilator, and have very poor outcomes,” said Dr. Adam Borgida, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hartford Hospital.
Borgida says he talks to his patients about getting vaccinated.
“The number of patients we’ve had on ventilators in pregnancy in the last year and a half is more than I’ve seen in 20 years,” he said.
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“They’re about 3 times more likely to need an ICU or a ventilator when they’re pregnant,” Acting Public Health Commissioner Deidre Gifford said.
Gifford, who is also an OB/GYN, says they’re hearing of hesitancy among women who are of reproductive age. Nationally just 23% of pregnant women have received at least one shot of vaccine.
”There’s no scientific evidence whatsoever that the COVID vaccine, all three of them, can cause infertility,” Gifford said.
The new CDC guidance moves the agency away from its previously neutral stance.
”There’s no evidence of more preterm birth with the vaccine. There’s no evidence of stillbirth or birth defects. There’s no evidence of any adverse impact on the pregnancy,” Gifford said.
There could also be a benefit to your infant.
“Some studies have shown the antibodies that the mother produces have been found in the fetal umbilical cord blood,” she said.
This weekend, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the state would put in place federal recommendations for a third booster shot for immunocompromised individuals who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine.
There is no booster for Johnson & Johnson.
Gifford says that pregnancy is not an approved condition for a third booster shot.
