What to Expect from COVID-19 and from COVID-19 Vaccine for Expecting or Lactating Women

COVID-19 Vaccination and Reproductive Health: a Comprehensive Review for Healthcare Providers

With all the current misinformation on social media platforms about the COVID-19 vaccine and its potential effects on fertility, it is essential for healthcare providers to have evidenced-based research to educate their patients, especially those who are trying to conceive, of the risks to mothers and fetuses of being unvaccinated. It is well known that COVID-19 infection puts pregnant women at higher risk of complications, including ICU admission, placentitis, stillbirth, and death. In February of 2021, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) released a statement denying any link between COVID vaccination and infertility. ASRM later confirmed and stated that "everyone, including pregnant women and those seeking to become pregnant, should get a COVID-19 vaccine". In this review, we aim to provide a compilation of data that denies any link between vaccination and infertility for healthcare providers to be able to educate their patients based on evidence-based medicine. We also reviewed the effect of COVID-19 virus and vaccination on various parameters and processes that are essential to obtaining a successful pregnancy.

Evaluating COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among parents in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review examining attitudes, hesitancy, and intentions

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic, affecting adults and children equally, has caused significant disruption to countries worldwide, including Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, the fast preventative measures and mass vaccine enrollment were vital to contain the devastating impact of the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy, especially among parents toward vaccinating their children, was a significant obstacle to vaccine uptake.

Methods

This systematic review followed PRISMA guidelines to assess parental willingness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, determine the key determinants influencing such intention and attitudes, and underline the significant concerns and misconceptions regarding the vaccine among parents. The Joanne Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for prevalence studies was used to assess included studies for risk of bias.

Results

Twenty-three studies were included in this systematic review, representing a total of 20,926 participants, with over 66% of them were female. Over 37% of the participants were willing to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Parents' age, gender, level of education, and income were the main determinants of their intention to vaccinate their children. The parents' main concerns were the potential vaccine side effects, safety, and efficacy. Major misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccine included it being dangerous to children and that children are at lower risk of severe infection; hence, vaccines were not needed.

Discussion

This seminal review provides insights to public health policymakers, which should be considered and taken together in light of other studies addressing parental vaccine hesitancy.

An investigation of the relationship between the general vaccination attitudes of pregnant women and their attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the attitudes of pregnant women toward general vaccines based on the Health Belief Model and their attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. The study, which was designed as a descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational study, was conducted with 348 pregnant women in three public hospitals in Northern Cyprus between June 24 and November 28, 2022. Data were collected using the "Participant Information Form," "Public Attitude Toward Vaccination Scale-Health Belief Model" (PAVS-HBM), and "Attitudes Toward the COVID-19 Vaccine" (ATV-COVID-19). The COVID-19 vaccination rate among pregnant women was quite high. Pregnant women have a high perception of sensitivity, importance, benefit, and health responsibility for routine vaccines and vaccination programs based on the HBM, and a low perception of barriers to vaccination. These results showed that pregnant women have a determined and positive attitude toward the acceptance of vaccines in general. On the other hand, the attitude of pregnant women toward the COVID-19 vaccine was moderately negative. Despite the reservations about the COVID-19 vaccine, a determined and positive attitude toward vaccines in general has increased acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Action is needed to tackle the clinical, psychological and socioeconomic impact of perinatal COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned perinatal healthcare into a worldwide public health challenge. Although initial data did not demonstrate pregnancy as a more susceptible period to adverse outcomes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, an increasing number of reports now certify maternal illness as a high-risk condition for the development of maternal-fetal complications. Despite the rarity of SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission, severe maternal illness might induce adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes. Additionally, perinatal COVID-19 data may raise concerns about long-term harmful consequences to the offspring in the framework of non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organization, as well as scientific literature, consider the protection of the maternal-fetal dyad against COVID-19 as a critical issue and, therefore, strongly promote and encourage vaccination of pregnant and lactating women. Furthermore, the pandemic has triggered an unprecedented recession, leading to historic levels of unemployment and deprivation, while health, societal, economic and gender inequities particularly affecting low-income and middle-income countries, have increased. This mini-review provides an updated brief report on historical, clinical, psychological and socioeconomic aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic based on 10 lectures presented at the 9^th Maria-Delivoria-Papadopoulos Perinatal Symposium, held virtually on 19 March 2022.