Should pregnant women be vaccinated? Pregnant woman may be at higher risk of serious complications if they contract the virus. However, because the vaccines are new, there is little data available on their use by pregnant women.

Health experts recommend pregnant women consult their own doctors to decide whether or not the benefits outweigh the risks in their individual cases.

The World Health Organization website explains: “While pregnancy puts women at higher risk of severe COVID-19, very little data are available to assess vaccine safety in pregnancy. Nevertheless, based on what we know about this kind of vaccine, we don’t have any specific reason to believe there will be specific risks that would outweigh the benefits of vaccination for pregnant women. For this reason, those pregnant women at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 or who have comorbidities which add to their risk of severe disease, may be vaccinated in consultation with their health care provider.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) takes a similar stance: “Based on how these vaccines work in the body, experts believe they are unlikely to pose a specific risk for people who are pregnant. However, there are currently limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant people. Clinical trials that look at the safety and how well the COVID-19 vaccines work in pregnant people are underway or planned. Vaccine manufacturers are also monitoring data from people in the clinical trials who received vaccine and became pregnant.”