Pregnant women should get COVID vaccine, Kansas City doctors urge as delta on the rise
Physicians in the Kansas City area urged pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week released new data showing it was safe.
The delta variant is likely the cause of more babies becoming ill with COVID-19 and facing more severe sickness, said Dena Hubbard, a Kansas City neonatologist and public policy chair of the Kansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“This year we are seeing really sick babies with COVID which is a big change,” she said during a phone interview Friday.
“So I’m very excited about the recommendations that pregnant women not only have the option of getting the vaccine, so not that they could — but that they should.”
Symptoms in babies are similar to adults including coughing, fever and respiratory distress. Infants may also be lethargic or not feeding normally.
The CDC said about 22% of pregnant women in the United States have been vaccinated. The overall national rate is about 50%.
“Anything we can do to keep mom healthy is going to be better not only for mom, but also for the baby so I definitely strongly recommend that any pregnant individual get the COVID-19 vaccine,” Hubbard said. “It’s the best tool that we have.”
Hubbard said the pandemic this year is different because of the delta variant, which is more transmissible. More babies are contracting the disease after they have been born.
Nearly 4.3 million children in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
That includes more than 15,600 cases in children age zero to nine in Kansas and more than 24,100 in that same age group in Missouri.
Hubbard also encouraged people to wear masks to protect those who aren’t vaccinated, including children under age 12.
“Having to discharge babies home without their mom who’s died of COVID or worrying that a baby with COVID is not going to survive — I would wear a mask every day if it would help prevent that,” she said.
The CDC’s study found there was no change in the miscarriage rate when pregnant women got the vaccine.
The agency’s announcement this week was based on data showing the vaccine was safe for pregnant women, said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System.
Pregnant women are at a slightly higher risk of more severe disease, he said.
“We are also getting more information that you do have some transfer of antibodies from mom to baby through the placenta prior to giving birth which is important,” he said.
Information about accessing a vaccine can be found at vaccines.gov.
This story was originally published August 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
