Health Officials Encourage Pregnant Women To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

Oklahoma health care officials are now encouraging pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine, saying this will not cause harm during pregnancy.

Here are a few things you should know:

1. Talk to your provider about having the vaccine while pregnant.
2. Officials do not recommend this vaccine to be a requirement for a pregnant woman to receive the vaccine.
3. They also do not recommend women to take a pregnancy test before getting the vaccine.

Right now, the state's plan does not contain a specific phase when pregnant women can get immunized, but health officials would like to see pregnant women get the vaccine soon.

"The types of vaccines we do not like to give to pregnant women are live or weaken viruses. That does not apply to the coronavirus vaccine. It is just a portion of the spike protein," said Dana Stone, an OBGYN with Lakeside Doctors Gynecology and Obstetrics.

They say pregnant women do have a higher risk of being hospitalized and/or die if they have COVID-19 during pregnancy and recommend pregnant women follow all of the COVID19 precautions.