I couldn’t live with myself if it harmed my unborn baby

KATIE GARNETT, 37, has chosen not to have the vaccine. The marketing executive, f rom Guildford in Surrey, is 17 weeks pregnant with her second child. She said there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest the vaccine is safe for mums-to-be and she isn’t sure whether she will have it even after giving birth. She said: ‘From the beginning I was in two minds about it. I looked online and read up about it and tried to collect a balanced view. ‘I spoke to my midwife at my first appointment when I was eight weeks pregnant and her recommendation was if it was her, she wouldn’t have it, especially in my first trimester because the chances of things going wrong are heightened. She couldn’t give me a definitive answer at the time. ‘I don’t know if I will change my mind further down the line, but I am taking it a day at a time. ‘I do have a lot of friends who have had the vaccine and have gone on to have weird menstrual bleeding. And I looked into it and there are thousands of women who are reporting odd symptoms.

‘If these women are having odd effects to their periods and reproductive system, then what may it be doing to a foetus? Being a guinea pig doesn’t sit well with me.’

Miss Garnett, pictured left, said her friends and family were not on board with her decision not to get the vaccine.

She added: ‘I keep wondering if I could live with myself if my baby was born with an awful disability or something worse. I’d have to carry that around with me for the rest of my life.

‘My partner has admitted that he is scared for me and the impact Covid could have on our family. This new trial sounds like the thing that we need but it isn’t helpful to the women who are pregnant now.’