Vaccines During Pregnancy

Pregnancy impacts the human body in visible and invisible ways, including changes to a person’s immune system, lungs, and heart. These changes can put you at a higher risk for the more severe impacts of certain infectious diseases, even if you are young and healthy. Vaccination against four respiratory diseases (flu, whooping cough, COVID-19, and RSV) is one of the best ways you can protect yourself and your baby during pregnancy, with benefits that last well into the first days and weeks of your newborn’s life.

U.S. medical professionals recommend that you get vaccinated against four respiratory diseases during pregnancy: influenza (flu), pertussis (whooping cough), COVID-19, and RSV. These vaccines are especially important to receive from the fall to early spring, the period when respiratory infections tend to rise.

*Especially from fall to early spring when respiratory infections tend to rise.

**As with any medicine, talk with your provider to understand the very rare risks for severe allergic reaction, serious injury, or death.

Vaccines are held to extremely high scientific standards, undergoing extensive research, review, and testing before they are approved for use and recommended to the public. Vaccines are continuously monitored for safety to help identify even very rare side effects.

Pregnant people may have unique safety or side effect concerns about vaccines and other medications because they are concerned not just about themselves, but also their future child. Vaccines recommended during pregnancy must have met three required criteria:

• The infectious disease is determined to pose a significant risk to the life or health of the pregnant person, fetus, or newborn.

• The likelihood of infection, complications, and even death is high in the absence of vaccines.

• The vaccine targeting the disease is both safe and effective when delivered to pregnant people.

Mild discomfort like a sore arm or feeling tired after vaccination is a sign that your immune system is working to build protection. Severe complications from respiratory diseases far outweigh any temporary vaccine side effects.

Vaccination schedules are designed to give you and your baby the best protection possible. The Tdap and RSV vaccines are specifically recommended later in pregnancy to ensure that immunity passes to the baby, since whooping cough and RSV are particularly deadly to newborns. The flu and COVID-19 vaccines are recommended earlier to help prevent severe complications or death during pregnancy. The four vaccines can be administered together in one trip to the doctor’s office or pharmacy, or they can be received separately based on your preferences.

Human bodies and infectious diseases are complex, so many vaccines cannot guarantee 100% protection. This doesn’t mean that vaccines aren’t important and lifesaving: they can make symptoms of illness milder, lower or eliminate the risk of serious harm for you and your baby, and protect other family members.

Your clinician is talking about cocooning. Think of cocooning like an invisible bubble of protection. When someone is more vulnerable to infectious diseases (like newborns and during pregnancy), everyone in close contact can get vaccinated to help strengthen this protective bubble. Having partners, grandparents, siblings, babysitters, friends, and others up to date on their immunizations makes them less likely to spread respiratory illnesses to mom and baby.

Layering different protective measures such as handwashing with soap, wearing quality masks, using HEPA air filters, implementing a “no kissing baby” rule, and limiting contact with ill individuals, alongside vaccination further increases protection against respiratory diseases.

If you still have questions about getting vaccinated while pregnant, talking to a health care professional is the best way to ensure the conversation addresses your specific needs and concerns. Your obstetrician, pediatrician, primary care provider, nurse-midwife, or local pharmacist can give you evidence-based advice or direct you to additional resources.

Respected medical organizations like the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) regularly publish the latest facts about vaccines, and many health education organizations collect and amplify people’s stories. When sourced from trusted messengers, both additional evidence and personal stories can help us feel more informed and confident about vaccination during pregnancy.