There is concern and confusion among pregnant women when it comes to if they should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It’s been a bumpy, weird trip, because COVID-19 is out here now and things are different,” says Jaritza Taveras, who is seven months pregnant.

Taveras is the office manager at Riverside Medical Group’s OBGYN office in Belleville. She is eligible to get the vaccine because of her job. But because she is pregnant with her first child, she says that it was an easy decision not to get the vaccine.

“I think because this is my first pregnancy, I should take more precautions. It’s a new vaccine out there,” she says.

OBGYN Dr. Decca Mohammed says that she agrees with the World Health Organization’s suggestion that pregnant women not get the vaccine unless they are at high risk for exposure.

“There aren’t a lot of studies that have been done with pregnant women,” she says. “We have limited data in terms of consequences of the virus.”

Mohammed says that the decision to get or not get the vaccine must be on the mother-to-be to make by considering their risk of exposure to the virus at home and work and any other health issues they may have.

“Considering all this and understanding individual patients. We have a conversation in the office and help her make a decision as to whether she wants to get the vaccine,” Mohammed says. “We are not recommending it, but we are not going to turn her away if she decides to get the vaccine.”

Health experts do recommend that everyone else who will be around the pregnant woman – such as the father and other family members – do get the vaccine.