Are vaccinations really necessary if you are planning to travel during pregnancy?


An important consideration to make is to consult with your doctor and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC if the vaccinations you are considering are safe during pregnancy. Certain vaccinations become a need when you are considering travel to third world countries but may not be safe during pregnancy. Generally all live virus vaccines such as MMR should not be given during the course of pregnancy but can be given before conception and after delivery. Others such as yellow fever may be given after the first trimester if there is a substantial risk of exposure.



In fact receiving vaccinations in the 2nd or 3rd trimester reduces theoretical concerns over the likely birth defects since fetus's organs would have been formed by that time. Information from the CDC shows that there is no concrete evidence to suggest that inactivated bacterial or viral vaccines such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, Tetanus-diphtheria toxoid etc pose risk to expecting mothers and therefore can be given if the need arises.