Vaccines in pregnancy: which vaccinations are suitable for future mothers?
Vaccines in pregnancy are important for defending the health of women and their future babies. Vaccinations such as the vaccine against whooping cough or against the flu do not pose a risk to the fetus and are, on the contrary, among the vaccinations recommended for pregnant women. Let's find out together, then, which are the vaccines recommended by the Ministry of Health for women in pregnancy. In the meantime, against the flu, take care of your diet as suggested by our video:
Vaccines in pregnancy: recommended vaccinations for women of childbearing age
According to the directives of the Ministry of Health, certain specific vaccinations are indicated for fertile women, namely vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and papilloma virus (HPV). These diseases, in fact, could negatively affect the fertility of a woman who is not already immune to them, or carry more than a risk for the baby if she were to become pregnant.
The World Health Organization (WHO), to which our Ministry of Health refers, underlines the importance of verifying that women of childbearing age are immune to measles, mumps and rubella. When they are not immunized to just one of the three diseases listed, it will be good to proceed with vaccination with two doses of MMR vaccine, with an interval of one month between one and the other.
To avoid the risk of possible complications during pregnancy, it is also important to evaluate immunity against chickenpox and, if necessary, proceed with the vaccine in two doses, also in this case at an interval of one month between the first and the second. .
Finally, the anti-HPV vaccination must be carried out at the age of 12: it is the best time for this vaccine, which, however, can be beneficial for the health of the woman even if administered at an older age than indicated, especially if before having had sexual intercourse. Vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis are also very important and their decennial recall should always be remembered (in these cases the immunity does not last for life).
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Vaccines recommended by the Ministry of Health in anticipation of pregnancy
Let's now move on to recommended vaccinations for women who are expecting a pregnancy. In these cases, women should be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and chicken pox. If you get chickenpox during pregnancy, the risk to the baby is very high, especially if the disease is contracted in the first few weeks of pregnancy. If the disease is contracted during the last trimester of pregnancy, just before the birth, the risk no longer concerns only the baby, but also the mother.
Both the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as well as the varicella vaccine are contraindicated during pregnancy: this is why they are vaccines that would be best done in anticipation of a future gestation, so that the future mother, at the beginning of pregnancy itself, has already been regularly vaccinated for at least a month.
What vaccinations to do during gestation?
Vaccines in pregnancy are a great act of responsibility on the part of the expectant mother to protect her own health and that of her future baby. The vaccinations recommended by the Ministry of Health are those against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (dTpa) and the flu vaccine, in case gestation occurs during the flu season. These vaccinations must be repeated for any pregnancy.
Vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis must be repeated, therefore, even if the future mother has already been vaccinated or has already carried out the decennial booster or - even - if she has already had pertussis herself. Whooping cough, if contracted by the newborn in the first months of life, can pose very serious risks to his health and, in some cases, even become fatal.
Vaccination against pertussis should be carried out between the 27th and 36th week of pregnancy, preferably around the 28th because antibodies can be produced in sufficient numbers and passed through the placenta to the future baby. The pertussis vaccine poses no risk to either the woman or the fetus.
The flu vaccine is also recommended: the flu in pregnant women can lead to a risk of premature birth, low weight of the unborn child or, in some cases, termination of pregnancy. Influenza vaccination can be done either in the first, second or third trimester of pregnancy.
