46°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

CDC urging pregnant women to get COVID vaccine

2 years 7 months 2 weeks ago Thursday, August 12 2021 Aug 12, 2021 August 12, 2021 10:41 PM August 12, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Doctors at Woman's Hospital have a renewed hope for a healthier future after the CDC released guidelines that strongly encourage the COVID-19 vaccine to be safe for pregnant women. 

"The fact that we have the support of the CDC in terms of strongly recommending the vaccine to our patients is so very helpful,” said Dr. Terrie Thomas, OBGYN at Woman's Hospital. 

As of July 31, only 23% of pregnant women have received one or more doses of the vaccine. In the wake of record-breaking numbers of hospitalizations and deaths from the Delta variant, doctors say the risk is not worth taking. 

“I totally get it that pregnant women are scared to endanger the lives of their children, but when we think about the science of it all and what we know, the risks of getting COVID far outweigh the side effects of the vaccine,” Dr. Thomas said. 

Data taken from tens of thousands of pregnant women shows side effects from the shot are no different than the usual effects anyone might experience. 

According to Dr. Thomas, women who get vaccinated while pregnant can also transfer immune chemicals to their fetus, which will help protect them against COVID once born. 

“By getting vaccinated not only are you not harming your baby, you’re actually doing something to help protect your infant once they are born,” Dr. Thomas said. 

Doctors are also confident the shot will not affect the fertility of men or women. They say the vaccine can be given to a woman at any point in her pregnancy. 

“At one point there was a lot of information on social media about it increasing miscarriages and certainly as a healthcare provider we would never want to do anything to endanger a person’s pregnancy or to cause a miscarriage," Dr. Thomas said. 

Click here for the latest CDC guidelines. 

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days