The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends vaccination against COVID-19 for people who are pregnant.
The agency also recommends vaccination for people who are breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or might become pregnant in the future.
The CDC notes that the recommendations align with those from professional medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.
“Evidence about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy has been growing. These data suggest that the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any known or potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy,” the CDC said. In addition, “there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men.”
For example, the CDC said it released a report on the safety of receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, finding that early data from three safety monitoring systems did not find any safety concerns for pregnant people who were vaccinated or their babies. Another report looked at pregnant people enrolled in the v-safe pregnancy registry who were vaccinated before 20 weeks of pregnancy. Scientists did not find an increased risk for miscarriage among people who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.
The CDC said research also suggests that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is safe during pregnancy. Vaccines that use the same viral vector as is in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been given to pregnant people in all trimesters of pregnancy, including in a large-scale Ebola vaccination trial. No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, including adverse outcomes affecting the baby, were associated with vaccination in these trials.
