Updated: December 21, 2020 10:20:45 AM
“You should wait to get the COVID-19 vaccine if you are pregnant (you should wait until you have your baby) (and) if you are breast-feeding, you should wait until you stop breast-feeding,” she says. the NHS.
Women’s advocacy organizations in the UK have accused the government of forcing nursing mothers to choose between receiving the Covid-19 vaccine and continuing to feed their children the way they want.
The UK became the first country in the world to authorize emergency use for the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine earlier this month and has begun vaccinating the public.
What is the problem with the vaccine when breastfeeding?
The National Health Service (NHS), Britain’s national public health program, has stated that “the coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective” and that “it provides you with the best protection against coronavirus,” it has published a ” advice if you are of childbearing age, pregnant or breastfeeding ”.
The NHS says on its website:
“You should wait to get the COVID-19 vaccine if you are pregnant (you should wait until you have your baby) (and) if you are breastfeeding, you should wait until you stop breastfeeding.”
Also, “If you have the vaccine, you should not get pregnant for at least 2 months after taking the 2nd dose.”
So isn’t the vaccine safe for pregnant or nursing women?
A little confused, the NHS also says at the same time that “if you later find out you were pregnant when you got the COVID-19 vaccine, don’t worry. The vaccine cannot give COVID-19 to you or your baby ”; i,
“There is no evidence that she is unsure if she is pregnant or breastfeeding. But more testing is needed before the vaccine can be offered to you.”
On its website, the UK government stresses that the advice is preventive in nature and does not mean the vaccine is unsafe.
It says, “The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is a new type of vaccine that has been shown to be effective and has a good safety profile,” but “has not yet been evaluated during pregnancy, for which has advised that until more information is available, pregnant women should not have this vaccine. “
According to the government, it is “a standard practice to wait for this data on any drug, to avoid its use in those people who may become pregnant or who are breastfeeding.”
He adds: “This advice is a precaution until there is additional evidence to support the use of this vaccine during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is then possible to have the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Until that advice is changed, you may be able to get one of the other vaccines against COVID-19 that are expected. “
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How many women can be affected by this advice?
“Hundreds of thousands,” according to The Guardian. This would include approximately 20,000 front-line workers. Citing data from Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, The Guardian said that in 2018-19, around 46% of mothers in England were breastfeeding babies aged 6 to 8 weeks.
What have other countries advised?
In the United States, most members of a task force at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “agreed that breastfeeding would not be a contraindication to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.” In its report, the working group noted that there was “limited data on the expected pregnancy of the phase III trials” and that the “working group did not reach a consensus”. However, the report said that “most felt that if a woman is recommended to receive the vaccine at an early allocation stage, pregnancy should be a precaution, but not a contraindication to receiving a COVID- vaccine. 19 “.
There is still no specific advice on this aspect in India.
So what are the protesters in the UK arguing about?
The Guardian quoted Dr. Vicky Thomas of the Hospital Infant Feeding Network (HIFN) as stressing the fact that there was no evidence that the vaccine would be harmful to nursing mothers or their children. “Denying women the opportunity to protect themselves or forcing them to lose the health effects of breastfeeding for them and their children is one more example of how women have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, ”said Dr. .
The same report quoted Dr Hannah Barham Brown, the deputy director of the Party for Women’s Equality and a practicing doctor, as saying: “Insisting without any evidence that certain women should not have access to it is completely irresponsible, especially because women unless the regulatory bodies review their position, women will face an unacceptable choice between giving up breastfeeding or putting themselves and others at risk. people around them ”.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd