This article appeared in What to Expect. Read more here.
If you’re on social media, you’ve likely encountered misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, many of these rumors focus on miscarriage, with some viral posts claiming that the vaccine increases risk of pregnancy loss.
Miscarriage, the unexpected end of a pregnancy before 20 weeks, occurs in around 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies, and pregnancy loss is understandably one of the biggest things parents-to-be worry about. But if you’ve been holding off on getting a COVID-19 vaccine or booster due to concerns that the shot might increase your risk of miscarriage, you should feel reassured that the vaccines have been found to be safe and effective for pregnant women.
In fact, leading health officials and experts from groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM) strongly recommend that all pregnant people get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“[W]e all know that pregnancy, there is always a risk of a spontaneous miscarriage,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President, in an interview with What to Expect founder Heidi Murkoff. “However, when you look at the unvaccinated versus the vaccinated, there is absolutely no increased risk of that.”
See what the research shows here, and why you can feel confident getting the COVID-19 vaccine at any point during your pregnancy.