CDC Urges Pregnant Women, Lactating Mothers to Have COVID-19 Vaccine to Avoid Severe Illness

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new plea for pregnant women to be vaccinated as the Delta strain spreads and more women become very ill.

The New York Times said that the new policy was the first time CDC expressed strong, explicit support for immunization during pregnancy, aligning it with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical specialty groups' recommendations.

Pregnant Women Should Be Vaccinated, CDC Says

According to NPR, the CDC urges all pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19, citing new data about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.

CDC said that the vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for people over the age of 12, including breastfeeding mothers, women who are attempting to conceive, and those who may become pregnant in the future.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's Principal Deputy Director, told the Senate in May per CNBC that the agency already had "reassuring evidence" on vaccinations for pregnant women in their third trimester.

CDC said that pregnant women are at a heightened risk of severe sickness. Time Magazine said that only 23% of expecting mothers have had at least one dose of the vaccination. USA Today, citing CDC, said that women who received the vaccination had no higher risk of miscarriage.

As we face the highly transmittable Delta variant and witness catastrophic COVID-19 outcomes among unvaccinated pregnant people, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said per Associated Press that it has never been more essential to promote immunizations.

Pregnant Women Getting COVID-19 in States With Poor Vaccination Rates Higher

Nationally, the increase in cases among pregnant women is lower than at the outbreak's winter peak, but the numbers are higher in several states with poor vaccination rates. Dr. Jane Martin, an obstetrician at New Orleans' Ochsner Baptist Medical Center, said per Arkansas Online that this is by far the worst case of the pandemic she experienced.

Martin noted that during the start of the epidemic, Ochsner had few pregnant patients who were ill, but that has changed today. She now claims that the hospital admits several severely sick pregnant patients every day.

Dr. Mark Turrentine, an obstetrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a WPRL that it was a perfect storm situation for them.

Turrentine discovered a highly contagious COVID-19 viral variant in a group of people, most of whom were not vaccinated. As a result, we have seen a lot of ill folks.

The professor also discussed the main dangers of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection among pregnant people. According to him, there is a three-fold rise in the likelihood of being admitted to intensive care, a two-and-a-half-fold increase in the probability of being placed on mechanical ventilation or bypass support, and a slightly more than one-and-a-half-fold increase in the possibility of dying.

Approximately 105,000 pregnant women have been infected, with 18,000 hospitalized, CDC (via WITN) said. Some of those admitted to the hospital required critical care, and 124 died as a result.

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