Vaccine and Pregnancy
Protect your and your baby's health against a preventable disease by getting the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.
During pregnancy, your body is hard at work for you and your baby. Because of this, being pregnant puts you at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19. This illness could also cause complications for your pregnancy or your developing child.
Fortunately, evidence finds COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective before, during and after pregnancy. The vaccines are recommended by the CDC, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Recent studies also show that vaccinated moms pass antibodies to their developing baby in the womb — so baby is born with protection from day one.
Questions? Keep reading or talk with your doctor about protecting yourself and your pregnancy from COVID-19.
See FAQs
The COVID-19 vaccine joins many others that are recommended during pregnancy
Flu. Tdap. Hepatitis A/B. The COVID-19 vaccine joins several other vaccines that are recommended during pregnancy.
Consult with your doctor to determine the best time for each. The flu vaccine is typically recommended by the end of October (in advance of flu season) and Tdap is recommended during the 27th through 36th week of each pregnancy.
See the CDC recommended schedule
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Where to get your COVID-19 Vaccine
Pregnant women may receive a COVID-19 vaccine wherever they are available, including at local pharmacies, Public Health clinics, and mobile clinics in SLO County. The dose is the same as for someone who is not pregnant.
Find a location near you
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Resources about pregnancy and the COVID-19 vaccine
Get answers to the questions you have about pregnancy and the COVID-19 vaccine from local doctors and the field's top experts.
Websites
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides regular updates around the COVID-19 pandemic. For the latest information from CDC, see their page, here.
- California Department of Public Health (CDPH) offers great resources on vaccination while pregnant, breastfeeding, and more. For the latest information from CDPH, see their page, here.
- MotherToBaby is an organization that has been actively involved in research about the vaccine and pregnancy. For the latest information from MotherToBaby, see their page, here.
Videos
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Research
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes! COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause COVID-19 in anyone, including pregnant people and their babies. None of the COVID-19 vaccines contain live virus. COVID-19 vaccines were developed using science that has been around for decades and they meet the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality. Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines, which are monitored by the most intense safety monitoring activities in U.S. history.
People who are pregnant are more likely to get severely ill with COVID-19 compared with those who are not pregnant. Your baby can also have serious, even fatal, health problems from COVID-19 if you are infected during your pregnancy. For example, COVID-19 during pregnancy increases the risk of delivering a preterm or stillborn infant. (Adverse maternal, fetal, and newborn outcomes among pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection: an individual participant data meta-analysis).
Evidence continues to build showing that COVID-19 vaccination before and during pregnancy is safe, effective, and beneficial to both the pregnant person and the baby. Data on the safety of receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech), before and during pregnancy are reassuring. The benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy. (Source: CDC)
Vaccination helps prevent COVID-19 infection and protects against severe illness, the kind that could harm your baby before birth. By preventing severe illness, the vaccine helps you give your baby a healthy start in life.
Vaccination during pregnancy also builds antibodies that can help protect your baby after birth. A recent small study found that at 6 months old, the majority (57%) of infants born to pregnant people who were vaccinated during pregnancy had detectable antibodies against COVID-19, compared with 8% of infants born to pregnant people who had COVID-19 illness during pregnancy. Another study found that receiving a booster dose with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy significantly increased the levels of antibodies found in umbilical cord blood. This means that getting a COVID-19 booster during pregnancy can help further protect babies against COVID-19.
Yes! If you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant now, or plan to become pregnant in the future, you should strongly consider getting vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Getting vaccinated helps protect your reproductive health which could potentially be adversely affected by severe infections from viruses. There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes any problems with fertility or pregnancy. No vaccine in the history of vaccines has ever been linked to fertility issues -- for men or for women.
Watch this short video in which Dr. Paul Offit discusses COVID-19, the vaccines and infertility.
Read more about fertility and COVID-19 vaccines in this article from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center.
Vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 in people who are breastfeeding. There has been no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines are harmful to either people who have received a vaccine and are breastfeeding or to their babies. Recent reports have shown that breastfeeding people who have received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have antibodies in their breastmilk, which could help protect their babies. More data is needed to determine what level of protection these antibodies might provide to the baby.
The first thing to consider is whether you have received all the recommended doses of COVID vaccine, including your booster dose. It is very important that people who have recently been pregnant are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines. People who were recently pregnant are at a higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness (Source: CDC).
As the parent of a newborn, you will play an important role in keeping them safe. Having completed all of your COVID vaccines makes it more likely that you will stay healthy and not expose your baby to the virus. At the age of 6 months, your baby can begin the COVID vaccination series. In the meantime, consider breastfeeding your baby.
Yes! Contact your medical provider to let them know you have COVID-19. Based on your individual situation, they may recommend that you begin treatment with Paxlovid, an anti-viral medication which has shown no adverse maternal/fetal outcomes in recent smaller studies (see research links below). The 5-day treatment course of PAXLOVID should be initiated as soon as possible after a diagnosis of COVID-19 and within 5 days of symptom onset.
Short-term Pregnancy Outcomes After Nirmatrelvir–Ritonavir Treatment for Mild-to-Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - PMC
Analysis of Clinical Outcomes of Pregnant Patients Treated With Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir for Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection - PubMed
For ongoing research information about all aspects of maternal and fetal medicine, visit: https://www.smfm.org/covidclinical