{"id":19326,"date":"2021-12-17T14:27:35","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T19:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=19326"},"modified":"2021-12-17T14:27:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T19:27:36","slug":"cronkite-news-covid-19-vaccination-rate-lags-for-pregnant-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/12\/17\/cronkite-news-covid-19-vaccination-rate-lags-for-pregnant-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: COVID-19 vaccination rate lags for pregnant people"},"content":{"rendered":" <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/12\/17\/cronkite-news-covid-19-vaccination-rate-lags-for-pregnant-people\/pregnancy-vaccinations\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19329\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"749\" data-attachment-id=\"19329\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/12\/17\/cronkite-news-covid-19-vaccination-rate-lags-for-pregnant-people\/pregnancy-vaccinations\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/17\/ruthmelgar.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1000,749\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Pregnancy Vaccinations\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Ruth Melgar of Phoenix poses with her second son, born Aug. 25. (Photo courtesy of Ruth Melgar)&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/17\/ruthmelgar.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/17\/ruthmelgar.jpg\" alt=\"Pregnancy Vaccinations\"   class=\"size-full wp-image-19329\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"> Ruth Melgar of Phoenix poses with her second son, born August 25, 2021.  Photo courtesy of Ruth Melgar <\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Pregnant people aren\u2019t getting COVID vaccine, health providers worry<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Friday, December 17, 2021<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Karen Marroquin<\/div>\r\n<DIV class=source>Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n<DIV class=source-website><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nPHOENIX, Arizona &#8212; Giggles fill the room as Ruth Melgar tickles her infant son and gives him kisses. Her 3-year-old son stands by the bed and watches his little brother in amazement. But just a few months ago, with <a href=\/covid19\/>COVID-19 infections<\/a> surging again, Melgar worried about getting vaccinated while pregnant.<P><\/P>\r\nEight months into her pregnancy, at one of her prenatal visits, the Phoenix mom told her doctor she wanted to get vaccinated. The doctor didn\u2019t hesitate: It\u2019s completely fine to get the vaccine, he said.<P><\/P>\r\nMelgar left the clinic relieved, but at her local Walgreens, she was told she couldn\u2019t be vaccinated. <P><\/P>\r\n\u201cThe pharmacist told me they couldn\u2019t give me the vaccine because I was just a month away from delivering my baby, and since I was having it through a C-section I couldn\u2019t get the vaccine,\u201d Melgar recalled.<P><\/P>\r\nShe left the pharmacy scared and unvaccinated. Melgar is one of more than 50% of people in the U.S. who have hesitated to get vaccinated while pregnant, and experts say misinformation and lack of information are fueling this hesitancy.<P><\/P>\r\nDenise Link, a retired nurse practitioner and a clinical professor emerita at Arizona State University, doesn\u2019t understand why the pharmacist told Melgar she couldn\u2019t receive the vaccine, but she understands why the mother-to-be decided against it.<P><\/P>\r\n\u201cIf I&#8217;m saying it&#8217;s OK and two other people are saying it\u2019s not, what\u2019s the person going to do?\u201d Link said. \u201cIf I was pregnant I would probably say, \u2018You know what? I\u2019m just not going to take a chance.\u2019 And can you blame them?\u201d<P><\/P>\r\nCronkite News called several Walgreens around Arizona, and pharmacists said Melgar was eligible for vaccination. The Walgreens where Melgar went couldn\u2019t tell us why they denied her request.<P><\/P>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1179053185&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true&#038;visual=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/cronkitenews\" title=\"CRONKITENEWS\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">CRONKITENEWS<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/cronkitenews\/why-some-pregnant-women-are-reluctant-to-get-covid-vaccine\" title=\"Why some pregnant women are reluctant to get COVID vaccine\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">Why some pregnant women are reluctant to get COVID vaccine<\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Cronkite News Audio by Karen Marroquin: <a href=https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/cronkitenews\/why-some-pregnant-women-are-reluctant-to-get-covid-vaccine>Why some pregnant women are reluctant to get COVID vaccine<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">The repercussions<\/div>\r\nA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2021\/s0929-pregnancy-health-advisory.html\">study conducted<\/a> by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that pregnant people with symptomatic COVID-19 have a 70% greater chance of dying than symptomatic people who aren\u2019t pregnant. The study also indicated pregnant people with COVID-19 could face greater risks during pregnancy, including premature labor and death of the fetus.<P><\/P>\r\nOne of these risks is preeclampsia, Link said.<P><\/P>\r\n\u201cIt impacts the circulatory system, and that can have adverse effects on the fetus, affecting delivery (of) \u2026 not only oxygen but nutrients across the placenta because the vessels constrict,\u201d Link said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where the (mother\u2019s) blood pressure goes up because the heart is trying to pump against this resistance.\u201d<P><\/P>\r\nDespite the risks, however, the CDC reports that as of December 4, only 17.8% of pregnant people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated.<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">The guidance<\/div>\r\nScientists have studied the effects of the COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant people, said Roseanne Schuster who is an assistant research scientist at ASU\u2019s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. It\u2019s important for parents-to-be to know this information is readily available.<P><\/P>\r\n\u201cThe CDC, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine are all on the same page,\u201d Schuster said about pregnant people getting the COVID vaccine.<P><\/P>\r\nLink said it&#8217;s her job as a healthcare professional to recommend that pregnant people get vaccinated against a disease that has killed more than 790,000 Americans in less than two years.<P><\/P>\r\n\u201cBe willing to talk to them about it,\u201d Link said, \u201cand find out what their concerns are and see if I can\u2019t break down some of those myths for them and help them understand where some of these things are coming from.\u201d A main myth is that the vaccine is unsafe for pregnant people.<P><\/P>\r\nMeanwhile, Melgar said she plans to get vaccinated now that she\u2019s fully recovered from her C-section.<P><\/P>\r\n<STRONG>For more stories from Cronkite News, visit <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=client\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\n<HR><EM>Note: This story originally <a href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2021\/12\/17\/pregnant-people-mothers-not-getting-covid-vaccine-health-providers-worry\/\">appeared on Cronkite News<\/a>.  It  is published via a <A href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative  Commons license<\/A>. Cronkite News is produced by the <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkite.asu.edu\/\">Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication<\/A> at <A href=\"https:\/\/www.asu.edu\">Arizona State University<\/A>.<\/EM><HR>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of December 4, only 17.8% of pregnant people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[42,373,5,46,44,102],"class_list":["post-19326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-national","tag-arizona","tag-cdc","tag-coronavirus","tag-cronkite-news","tag-women","tag-youth","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/17\/ruthmelgar.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-51I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}