Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) has encouraged pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers to go for Covid vaccination.

"We encourage pregnant women and their health care providers to not miss out on vaccines,” Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, the Director-General of RBC said in a podcast.

The message is the latest attempt to protect both the mother’s and baby’s lives in the wake of the escalating Delta variant of coronavirus.

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptomatic pregnant women are more likely to suffer severe illness, hospitalization and deaths when not vaccinated.

In a study done on Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality among pregnant women, those with Covid19 diagnosis had a lower rate of spontaneous initiation of labour but higher cesarean delivery rate, reflecting the higher rates of pregnancy complications.

However, CDC said that research shows that people who have received Covid-19 vaccines during pregnancy, mostly during their third trimester, have passed antibodies to their fetuses, which could help protect them after birth.

"Pregnant women have not reported side effects...after vaccination with mRNA vaccines,” Dr. Nsanzimana said, clarifying that the Covid-19 vaccines are not manufactured from the actual virus in a way that it can cause any disease.

"The vaccine does not fuse with blood vessels that a mother shares with a fetus,” he said.  

For lactating women, he continued; "Research has proven that the vaccine has no particular side effects on breastfeeding mothers and their infants.”

According to CDC, breastfeeding people who have received the Covid -19 vaccines have antibodies in their breast milk, which could help protect their babies.

However, it adds, more data are needed to determine what protection these antibodies may provide to the baby.

It is advised that mothers continue to wear masks and practice maximum hygiene when in contact with the baby.