Little Brian Eliot Tracy was born last week at 34 weeks gestation. Natasha Tracy, her mother, suffered from preeclampsia and bleeding, which doctors believe may have been derived from her with COVID-19 at 16 weeks. (Natasha Tracy)
SANDY: Data show that COVID-19 can cause devastating complications for both pregnant women and their babies. But many postpone vaccination for fear that they may become pregnant.
Medical experts say there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility and explain why online misinformation is false.
Natasha Tracy is now a mother of four. “Well, we’ve had our baby for eight days now!” she said.
Little Brian was born at 34 weeks and arrived at the newborn’s intensive care unit on Wednesday. At 16 weeks pregnant, Tracy was hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“There’s so much information and misinformation … I just wasn’t sure because a lot of people on the social media I interacted with didn’t trust me, so it was hard to get over it,” he said. “I wanted to talk to my doctor and I literally got it (COVID) five days before my scheduled appointment.”
He says it was a terrible experience. “I was sick in bed for three weeks, like I literally can’t get out of bed and I was short of breath and feeling miserable,” Tracy said.
Doctors fear that her COVID-19 infection may have caused a premature birth. She also suffered from severe preeclampsia, heart palpitations and postpartum hemorrhages, all symptoms she had not experienced during her first three pregnancies.
“It was really amazing for all my doctors and nurses to have it and make it so serious,” he said.
“If you get COVID, the risk of having a premature birth is higher,” said Dr. Sean Esplin, a maternal fetal medicine physician and senior medical director for women’s health at Intermountain Healthcare.
We now have enough data to say that this is safe during pregnancy, (which) does not cause problems during pregnancy, it does not cause infertility.
–Dr. Sean Esplin
Esplin said pregnancy is already a time that often causes anxiety for women. Understand why it can be a difficult decision. “I think it’s normal and it’s okay for people to be a little worried about that … they want to do what’s right for their baby, right? And that’s how I understand it,” she said. “Being pregnant during the pandemic only amplifies it.”
Still, it assures people that the vaccine is not only safe during pregnancy and can prevent complications, but it will also not prevent someone from getting pregnant.
“The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has made a very definitive statement saying there is no evidence that they cause infertility problems,” he said.
He said 22 organizations, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, met recently to recommend to women trying to conceive or already they are pregnant to be vaccinated.
“His whole job is to monitor and analyze the risks and benefits, take the data and synthesize it to make a recommendation about what is right,” he said. “We have enough data now to say that this is safe during pregnancy, (which) doesn’t cause problems during pregnancy, it doesn’t cause infertility.”
The misinformation circulating online erroneously suggests that the vaccine could cause infertility by mistakenly attacking syncytin-1, a placental protein that helps fix the placenta to the wall of the uterus. “This claim was made without any real evidence and since people have gone to look at these two proteins, there isn’t really much similarity,” he explained. “There is absolutely no reason to think that antibodies against spike protein affect syncytin-1.”
Esplin cited a recent ScienceDirect study of women undergoing IVF who had the vaccine, had a natural COVID-19 infection, or had no antibodies. “They went ahead and did the embryonic transfers to see if the implantation rate and the success of the pregnancy was the same. It was exactly the same in all three groups,” Esplin said.
Although Esplin acknowledged that there is not as much data on children, Esplin said it is safe. “There is also no documented risk of infertility in younger people,” he said, adding that hospitals are seeing more and more sick children. He said the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that eligible children and teens be vaccinated.
Tracy was vaccinated about three months after recovering from COVID-19 in July. “I could have avoided it, and that’s the sad part,” he said.
Don’t be afraid of the vaccine. It is much lighter than getting COVID.
“Natasha Tracy.”
If I could turn the clock back, I would. “I wish I had jumped on that vaccine when I first had the chance because I really think things would have been different,” he said.
Tracy urged other women to get the vaccine. “Don’t be afraid of the vaccine. It’s much softer than taking COVID,” he continued.
“If you want to do the best for your baby, get vaccinated,” Esplin added.
He said that with the recent rise in cases due to the delta variant, hospitals are seeing more severe cases of COVID-19 in pregnant women. “The baby is completely confident, obviously, in the mother’s ability to get oxygen, and when that is compromised, it can cause big problems for the baby,” she said.
“We don’t have people who deliver early because of the vaccine. We don’t have people who are in the ICU because of the vaccine,” Esplin added. “It’s the disease itself that causes these major risks and the best way to prevent it is to get vaccinated.”
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Aley Davis