Approved COVID vaccines are safe and recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women

 The Department of Health and Social Care has reiterated that 

"Covid vaccines are safe and highly effective both for pregnant women and for those who are breastfeeding.

"This is backed by extensive real-world data, including global analysis outside of clinical trials and in healthcare settings."

Some social media posts to the contrary are fake news based on selective and misleading quotes from out-of-date documents published at the time of approval based on the original clinical trials which did not specifically include pregnant women.

However, the UK's Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has confirmed that since then new data bas become available which supports current NHS advice in favour of vaccinating pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The NHS's Health Research Authority explains it is quite usual not to include pregnant women in the first clinical trials for a new drug as doctors are extra cautious about doing anything that could affect a developing foetus.

However, some participants in the clinical trials became accidentally pregnant and, once the vaccine became publicly available, some women received it without knowing they were pregnant.

This gave researchers a group of women they could study, who had the jab during pregnancy.

They did not seem any more likely to have miscarriages or other issues.

Then more research took place.

In 27 studies, across eight countries, involving 316,470 women vaccinated while pregnant, no increased risk of miscarriage, still-birth, premature birth, low birth weight or babies with abnormalities was detected.

The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said it also used evidence from the US's V-Safe study, which followed more than 20,000 people vaccinated during pregnancy and found no safety concerns.

Overwhelming evidence suggests that there is NO sign of any higher risk of stillbirth or complications as a result of the COVID-19 vaccines, but there IS a higher risk of stillbirth or premature birth as a result of catching COVID.

If you have any concerns about the safety of vaccination or any other medical treatment for yourself or any member of your family, please discuss them with an appropriately qualified medical professional.