21/10/2021
This is a hard decision for most of the women I'm caring for at the moment. Everywhere you read, you are told that the vaccine is safe to do while you're pregnant. But then I get asked 'how do they really know that when it's so new?'
And yes, I agree... obviously there's no long term studies that can reassure you. However, the evidence regarding the consequences for UNVACCINATED pregnant women who get Covid is pretty scary and you can't argue with the statistics from things that have actually happened! Covid is known to cause premature labour - babies born weeks before they are due, which can mean a lifetime of chronic health problems. Or the possibility that your child might grow up without a mother if you died from the infection. Or...you have a stillborn baby. Nobody wants to go through that 😥
Yesterday I read some stats that have just come out of the UK, which show that 20% of Covid positive patients, who are the sickest - requiring hospitalization, often intensive care - are pregnant women. That's one out of every 5 people!! This virus is no longer mostly picking on elderly or 'high-risk' people, more and more younger people are getting seriously sick or dying from contracting this virus, particularly the Delta variant. And now it's here, in the Waikato, right in our backyard. Case numbers are currently going up every day, today the highest number of new infections we've ever had. Delta is out there. It's not going to go away, we are going to have to learn to live with it. Yes, you can still get Covid if you are vaccinated, but you will get it in a much milder way, because your body already knows what to do to fight it. For pregnant women, you are not only protecting yourself, but you are passing on that protection to your baby. When you get the vaccine, your body makes antibodies to fight Covid and this is what you pass on to bubs - not the vaccine itself. Just the protection that has been made by your body, passed to your baby via the blood flow through the placenta. Same goes for breastfeeding women, research now shows that you pass on antibodies to bubs through your milk as well.
To me, our number one job as parents is to protect our children to the best of our ability. I am fully vaccinated myself - I made the decision to have the jabs for a whole lot of reasons...not wanting to put my clients and their babies at risk if I got it... the fact that there has not been any lockdown for me, I have been out there every day since the beginning, obviously making me the biggest risk factor for those around me...
But the most important factor in my jab decision was my own family. My kids. My grandson. My partner. I want to be around for a fair few years yet, so damn straight I'll do everything I can to be safe!!
She initially debated whether she would get the vaccine while pregnant or after the birth.
