OB/GYN urges pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccination

Dr. Justin Shelton was recently featured at a press conference held by Rogue Valley doctors, surgeons, and nurses to address a local surge of COVID-19 cases.

During the press conference, he shared information on a massive study of 870,000 pregnancies that found women who caught the COVID-19 virus were five times more likely to require intensive care, 14 times more likely to be put on a ventilator, and 15 times more likely to die.

Shelton said vaccination can significantly lessen those risks. He said COVID-19 vaccination doesn’t increase the risk of premature labor or harm future fertility.

“Any claims that have been made that the vaccine affects your fertility or ability to become pregnant in the future are false and not founded in science,” Shelton said. “And another benefit of vaccination is that you’re also protecting your baby as well. When you do get vaccinated, the antibodies that you create during pregnancy actually pass through the placenta and the baby holds on to them for the first couple months of life.”

Those antibodies are especially important given that newborn babies have vulnerable lungs and lack a developed immune system of their own to protect themselves, he said.

“By getting vaccinated as a pregnant patient, you’re actually doing one of the best things you can for your newborn child to protect them.”

See the full article and video from the Mail Tribune