While carrying a child for nine months should be a happy and exciting time for pregnant mothers, the pandemic has given rise to additional stressors and worries because of issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccines.
Claims shared on various social media platforms alluded that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underreported the findings of one study on pregnant women published in The New England Journal of Medicine in June 2021. It indicated that the number of women who suffered a miscarriage was 82 percent, even as the study stated that it's just 12.6 percent.
The CDC conducted the study between Dec. 14, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021, among pregnant women injected with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. Of these women, 104 did have a miscarriage, but the experts said the percentage or proportion is what's usually expected during the delicate period of pregnancy in the first trimester, whether the moms have been vaccinated or not.
It implied that the vaccines had no serious or worrying impact during pregnancies, allowing the CDC to inform the public that pregnant mothers should consider vaccination.
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CDC Safety Data on Pregnant Moms
The CDC released another safety data on Aug. 9, 2021, involving 2,500 pregnant women who didn't have an increased risk for miscarriage after one dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. They were injected sometime before their 20th week of pregnancy, where 13 percent suffered a miscarriage.
As with the previous study, the experts noted that 13 percent is within the normal range of miscarriages that typically occur during the early weeks of the pregnancy term. Thus, through Director Rochelle Walensky, the CDC issued a statement urging all mothers who have been thinking of getting vaccinated to go ahead and protect themselves from the deadly virus.
"The vaccines are safe and effective," Walensky said. "It has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people."
The CDC's recommendation aligns with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. These professional groups issued a joint letter to advocate for vaccination for pregnant women.
More Risks for Unvaccinated Pregnant Moms
Outside of the U.S., a study in Israel among 7,530 vaccinated pregnant moms, and 7,530 pregnant women who did not go for the vaccine showed a significant disparity in their COVID-19 infection rates. Of these women, 202 unvaccinated mothers suffered worrying symptoms of the virus, while 118 contracted the illness without any severe effects.
Among the vaccinated, 68 said that they experienced the usual side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines, such as headache, body pain, or pain on the injection site. The study reported no untoward pregnancy outcomes, such as a miscarriage.
As of May 2021, fully vaccinated pregnant individuals in the U.S. have reached 11 percent. Healthcare workers said that the outcome is still low, and they have been having a hard time convincing the mothers because of these false reports.
At various hospitals in the U.S., doctors have been seeing the reality of dealing with COVID-19 while pregnant, especially with the presence of the more dominant and highly transmissible Delta variant. One doctor in Alabama said that the unvaccinated mothers are oftentimes intubated at the ICU, and they have to keep tabs on two people's prognosis -- the mom and the baby inside her womb.
