Pregnant women are advised not to indulge in vices such as drinking and smoking because it can harm the baby. But what if you could pass GOOD things on to a baby? According to a recent CNBC article, the FDA says you can. The agency just approved Boostrix, a vaccine that is intended for pregnant women in their third trimester to protect newborns from whooping cough. This is the first vaccine approved by the FDA to prevent infant disease by administering it to the mother during pregnancy.
The shot, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, is administered as a single dose and is 78% effective. No side effects were observed for the pregnancy, fetus, or newborn and just pain at the injection site, headache, and fatigue for the mother. Boostrix had previously been approved to protect mothers from disease, but it had not been cleared specifically for preventing whooping cough in newborns.
