Doctors from UW Medicine encouraging boosters for pregnancy
Tri-Cities Wash. — Doctors at UW Medicine are making a case for Covid-19 boosters during pregnancy.
Doctors and health leaders encourage women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to consider increasing their protection from covid-19 with a Bivalent booster shot.
Doctors say there is a misconception that you are protected if you have received your vaccine. Health leaders from UW say that immunity like in all cases, fades over time. They say the booster is especially important with new variants of the virus are seen.
Doctors say about 70% of women have received the vaccine, but say only about 19% have had a booster.
UW Doctors say complications from covid-19 can be serious and say with a normal vaccine you can reduce risks by about 70%, while having a booster can help reduce the risk of these complications by 90%.
Dr. Michael Gravett, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine says. "Unfortunately, there's a much increased risk of death if you are infected with covid-19 during pregnancy. The increased risk of death ranges from ten to twenty fold, and in the most recent analysis just published last week, it was about an eight fold increase of death if you're pregnant. It's a really significant problem during pregnancy."
You can read more about the study from UW Medicine on covid-19 and pregnancies here.
