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The first, indispensable measure to take is talk to your gynecologist. Only those who are following the pregnant woman, on a case by case basis, can give the most correct indications to define whether to submit the pregnant woman to vaccination for the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
But, even if the doctor must always calculate the risk-benefit ratio for each specific case, there are general indications that are always updated: they come from the Italian Obstetric Surveillance System (ItOSS) of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), which studies what is happening in our and other countries on the subject.
What the experts advise
In general terms, according to what is reported in the document on the ISS website itself, it is necessary to start from a fixed point: in the studies that led to the availability of Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines pregnant women were not included and breastfeeding for which there are no specific data.
However, it must be said that up to now no mechanisms have emerged potentially capable of explaining any specific problems for pregnant women, who in any case are not currently a priority target of vaccination campaigns. In particular, as far as we know on the basis of the data relating to the first wave, pregnant women “present a low risk of serious maternal and perinatal outcomes and that previous comorbidities (ie other diseases) (hypertension, obesity) and citizenship do not Italian are significantly associated with a greater risk of serious complications from Covid-19 ”as stated in the document.
In any case, for women at high risk of serious complications, vaccination should be considered, in agreement with the healthcare provider. Again: if a vaccinated woman discovers that she is pregnant immediately after vaccination, at the moment nothing should suggest a possible termination of the pregnancy itself. And the ISS always reminds you that in case you discover that you are pregnant between the first dose and the second, the latter can be delayed, unless you are at high risk.
Get vaccinated during pregnancy when recommended
Moving on to the other vaccinations, always speaking in general terms, during pregnancy there are vaccines that may be recommended and others that must be avoided.
Experts, for example, recommend vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, considering that the latter can be very serious for the newborn. The protection passively conferred by mothers infected with pertussis bacillus or vaccinated for many years is certainly not safe.
Likewise, if a flu epidemic is ongoing, the expectant mother is often advised to get vaccinated for this infection in order to preserve the expectant mother and protect the fetus. On the other hand, the administration of vaccines containing live attenuated viruses, such as measles-mumps-rubella and chicken pox, is contraindicated during pregnancy.
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