No evidence to suggest Covid-19 vaccines increase the risk of miscarriage or foetal abnormality

Singapore — According to specialists, there is no indication of higher hazards for pregnant women who receive the Covid-19 vaccination.

According to Professor Tan Hak Koon of KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, data from over 4,000 pregnant women in the United States revealed no increased risk of miscarriage, foetal abnormality, or pre-term labour.

Concerns expressed by five parents in a letter to KKH last week were addressed by Prof Tan, chief of the hospital’s division of obstetrics and gynaecology.

The letter, which was widely distributed online, requested proof of vaccination safety from controlled clinical studies. It said, among other things, that the chances of miscarriage and birth abnormalities were “of considerable concern.”

Prof Tan’s study included 3,958 pregnant women who were vaccinated between Dec 14 of last year and Feb 28 of this year. Fifty-four per cent received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while the remainder received the Moderna vaccine.

In April, the study was peer-reviewed and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Its findings suggest that there are no increased chances of negative consequences for moms and their children and that the vaccine is safe to take at any point in pregnancy.

He stated that since the formal start of immunisation for pregnant women at KKH on June 14, more than 80 bookings had been made.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said on May 31 that the Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination had examined data while inoculation was being pushed out to pregnant women throughout the world and found no evidence to suggest that there was a risk.

However, because the quantity of data obtained from this demographic group is still considerably lower than that from the overall population, the ministry recommended expecting women to consult their doctors.

The MOH stated that the vaccination was safe for nursing mothers and that there was no need for them to stop breastfeeding if they chose to obtain the shot.

The College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Singapore and the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Singapore said that there is published data showing that pregnant women who become infected with Covid-19 are at higher risk of developing severe illness.

As a result, they are more likely to require intensive care, mechanical ventilation, and oxygen treatment while at the same time, endangering their unborn babies.

While there have been no published clinical studies of Covid-19 vaccinations involving pregnant women, Pfizer and BioNTech conducted a developmental and reproductive toxicity study in animals that found no indication of fertility or reproductive damage.

/TISG