The majority of vaccines are safe to take while you’re breastfeeding!

The breastfeeding network states that there is no risk to breastfed babies after administration of inactivated vaccines. Generally live vaccines are also safe other than a few exceptions!

Your common flu and covid vaccine are likely SAFE to take this winter. You CANNOT pass covid or the flu to your baby through your milk. Also, some amazing research suggests that if you have the covid vaccine when you’re breastfeeding, protective factors will pass through your breastmilk, possibly giving your baby some immunity! (Muacevic &Adler 2023).

One exception is the yellow fever vaccine which should be avoided when breastfeeding if possible. There have been some rare cases of infant brain swelling through breast milk transmission after a mother has taken the vaccine. Although this sounds terrifying the chance of this happening is VERY unlikely – so if the mum/baby is likely to be exposed to yellow fever – the benefits of receiving the vaccine might outweigh the risks… the older the baby the lower the risk.

When I travelled through South America I actually was faced with the conundrum of whether I should get the yellow fever vaccine or not! After extensive research.. I decided that although it was highly unlikely that Poppy would be affected by the vaccine, because she was only 6 months at the time-it would be safer for us to avoid all the countries that were high risk for yellow fever. If we HAD to spend time in a country which was high risk for yellow fever I would have taken the vaccine as getting yellow fever can be dangerous, particularly for babies! Disclaimer: always let your healthcare professional know before having ANY vaccine