Pregnant women weigh risks when deciding to get COVID-19 vaccine

PITTSBURGH — There has been a lot of debate around whether pregnant women should get the COVID-19 vaccine.

A doctor with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said it will be up the woman to decide.

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“The information that was agreed upon today at the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices), consistent with the FDA meeting yesterday, is that although we don’t have lots of data around pregnancy or breastfeeding women. The decision was made to allow these women to have access to this vaccine after informed decision-making in partnership with their care team. So this is a big piece of news,” said Dr. Richard Beigi, president of UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital.

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He said pregnant and breastfeeding health care workers will have the ability to make the decision that is best for them, of whether or not they should take the vaccine.

“The first wave of these vaccines are going to be targeted for health care workers,” Dr. Beigi said. “This is really dealing with pregnant and breastfeeding health care workers. That’s the first step and UPMC is going to be evaluating the language that was decided upon yesterday and today, and coming up with our own plan early in the week.”

Whatever their decision, it will be respected.

“Obviously they’ll be monitoring their symptoms. If they develop a fever, which has been a problem in a small portion of the adults who took the vaccine during the trial, then they’ll be advised to take Tylenol like any other fever they would get during pregnancy,” Dr. Beigi said. “The absolute risk remains very small for pregnant women, but it does look like it’s very slightly elevated compared to the other rest of the population.”

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