Ashton mum urges pregnant women to get covid vaccine

The push comes after figures show that the majority of expectant mums who are hospitalised with the virus haven't had the jab.

Nazia Akhtar is from Ashton and works as a trainee advanced clinical practitioner in children’s community nursing.

Nazia made the decision to have the jab when she was pregnant with her daughter Fatima who was born at the beginning of June.

Nazia, said: "When I was pregnant there weren't many women having the vaccine at that time.

"There was a lot of uncertainty and not a lot of data, so originally I was a bit apprehensive.

"I was mainly concerned about how it could affect the health of the baby rather than me.

"But luckily I was working with a team of doctors who were able to answer a lot of the questions and address all the anxieties that I had.

"Having that information enabled me to make an informed decision about the vaccine."

If you have corona virus in pregnancy, you are twice as likely to have a stillbirth, and it is twice as likely that your baby will be born prematurely, which can affect their long-term health, according to national data.

In the last three months alone, one in three pregnant women in hospital with covid-19 in England required additional respiratory support (33%), with more than a third developing pneumonia (37%), and around one in seven needing intensive care (15%).

The data also shows that one in five women admitted to hospital with serious covid symptoms went on to give birth prematurely, and the likelihood of delivery by caesarean section doubled.

One in five babies born to mothers with covid symptoms were also admitted to neonatal units.

If you are expecting a baby and have questions or concerns about the vaccine you can speak to your GP, midwife, or obstetrician to get more information and advice.

Even if you are pregnant and have previously declined the vaccine, you can still book an appointment to get s jab on the NHS national booking service website or call 119 between 7am and 11pm.