(WYTV)- The Centers for Disease Control is now recommending that pregnant women take the first vaccine we’ve developed for respiratory syncytial virus, RSV.
It will protect their babies, and the moms, too.
RSV puts more infants in the hospital than any other virus and it can be nasty, too, a severe, lower respiratory tract infection, and it can affect their immune systems. Getting the vaccine will allow mothers to transfer some of their immunity to their unborn child
Here’s the recommendation: get the RSV vaccine between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. It will cut in half the chance your baby will get RSV after birth and have to go to the hospital in the first six months. RSV season usually starts right now and peaks around winter.
“From what we know, mothers will develop antibodies that they can transfer to the unborn child and protect their baby before the baby can receive their own vaccines,” said Dr. Toje of the Cleveland Clinic.
The CDC also recently recommended a new RSV immunization for babies under eight months of age if the mom hadn’t taken it when she was pregnant. If you’re pregnant, your obstetrician should bring this up is she doesn’t, you bring it up.
