Vaccination on pregnant women: benefit outweighs risks

The Ministry of Health has just issued a guidance the screening before receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, which adds that pregnant women over 13 weeks old can receive the Covid-19 vaccine at a licensed medical facility providing obstetric care. This guidance is widely accepted and supported. However, many pregnant women still wonder about the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine on the fetus after vaccination.

A 36-year-old pregnant Dinh Thi Hang in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 8 has rarely gone out during her pregnancy. Recently, when she heard that the Ministry of Health allowed pregnant women over 13 weeks old to be vaccinated, Hang was very happy and planned to register for the vaccine. However, after researching, she worried that the vaccine would have bad effects on the pregnancy and the baby. Like Ms. Hang, pregnant Nguyen Yen Ngoc in District 4 who is 8 months pregnant is also quite confused about whether she should be vaccinated against Covid-19 or not.

Pregnant and recently pregnant people are more likely to get severely ill from Covid-19 compared to non-pregnant people, especially obese pregnant women and women with diabetes. Worse, pregnant women easily get serious breathing problems resulting in emergency treatment and they must be on life support from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)

Last but not least, women with Covid-19 in pregnancy will develop preeclampsia, premature birth; therefore, pregnant women should receive good consultations of benefits and risk of vaccination to decide themselves.

Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, Director of Hung Vuong Hospital, said that since the epidemic broke out widely, the number of pregnant women with Covid-19 began to increase rapidly. Under the direction of the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City, Hung Vuong Hospital has deployed a Covid-19 treatment unit for pregnant women. After being put into operation, approximately 180-200 pregnant women with Covid-19 have been transferred to treatment continuously.

According to the current vaccination guidelines of the Ministry of Health, all Covid-19 vaccines in Vietnam can be vaccinated for pregnant women, except for the Sputnik V vaccine. Regarding the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Dr. Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, many studies show that, when pregnant women receive the Covid-19 vaccine, they will create antibodies, antibodies pass through the umbilical cord blood, thereby the baby also receives Covid-19 antibodies.

Associate Professor Dr. Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan said that studies around the world show that pregnant women can receive vaccines like normal people and have not recorded the risk of abnormal problems for women and their babies. A study on over 30,000 pregnant women by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US showed that no side effects of the vaccine on pregnancy and fetus have been recorded.

However, because the Covid-19 vaccine is still quite new, it has only been put into use since December 2020 and there is still not enough data to assess its long-term safety. Therefore, pregnant women should consider the benefits and risks; they need to be examined and consulted carefully before injecting the Covid-19 vaccine," said Dr. Lan.

Medical workers have encouraged all pregnant people or people who are thinking about becoming pregnant, those who live in Covid-19-hit districts, and those breastfeeding to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the coronavirus.