After the questions about the risks of Covid-19 for pregnant women, come those on vaccination during pregnancy. Should pregnant women be vaccinated? For the Haute Autorité de Santé, the answer is no.

“Currently we do not have data on vaccines during pregnancy because by definition vaccine trials were done in women who were asked not to have a pregnancy during the trial, because RNA vaccines are new vaccines that we did not know at all. So there is always a caution when using new products in pregnant women because of the risk of toxicity in the fetus.”, Explains Pr Elisabeth Bouvet, president of the technical committee on vaccinations, to the High Authority for Health.

A risk of developing a serious form

Yet pregnant women, even without health problems, are at risk of developing a severe form of the disease in the third trimester of pregnancy. A reality observed in the field by Prof. Picone, obstetrician-gynecologist, at Louis-Mourier hospital, in the Paris region.

“For the past year, we have regularly had patients with severe forms of Covid-19, with hospitalizations in intensive care and intensive care, fortunately the outcome is favorable in most cases. But in some cases, it has been discussed to induce prematurity. So it’s something that is part of our daily life now to have women who are infected and sometimes severe forms”, He explains.

Waiting for new data

For Professor Picone, not vaccinating a population at risk is a paradox. He denounced it, along with other gynecologists, in a communicated, published in January.

“The current data that we have on how vaccines are made do not alarm us at all about the risks of vaccinating a pregnant woman. There are a bunch of vaccines that are allowed during pregnancy, the flu shot. Current vaccines as they are made, including the Messenger RNA vaccine, are of no concern to us. The Anglo-Saxon Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recommends vaccination for pregnant women”, He says.

The recommendations of the High Authority of Health may change in the coming months depending on new scientific data. In the meantime, to protect themselves, pregnant women must respect barrier gestures and favor teleworking.