When they examined data from a study group of 379 hospitalized babies under age 6 months (176 with COVID-19, 203 without), researchers found that those born to mothers who were vaccinated had a 61 percent lower risk of being hospitalized than those delivered from unvaccinated mothers. The study authors noted that protection was even greater if mothers received their shots later in pregnancy (21 weeks through 14 days before delivery). Babies from these mothers were 80 percent less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19, while for babies born to mothers who received vaccines early on (during the first 20 weeks), hospitalization was just 32 percent less likely. Of the 176 infants infected with the virus, 148 (84 percent) were born to mothers who were not vaccinated during pregnancy. Scientists highlighted that of 43 case-infants admitted to the intensive care unit, 88 percent had mothers who were unvaccinated. The mothers of the one infant who required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO; a machine that pumps blood from a patient’s body to an oxygenator) and one baby who died were both unvaccinated. On the basis of prior evidence from other vaccine-preventable diseases, the research team believes that maternal immunization can provide protection to infants, especially during the high-risk first 6 months of life, by transferring through the placenta from mother to baby. This study adds to mounting evidence demonstrating the health benefits that vaccinations afford women and their young ones. An investigation funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published January 7 in JAMA Network Open found that of nearly 2,400 pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2, those with moderate to severe infection were more likely to have a cesarean delivery, to deliver preterm, to die around the time of birth, or to experience serious illness from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, or from infection other than SARS-CoV-2. They were also more likely to lose the pregnancy or to have an infant die during the newborn period. Mild or asymptomatic infection was not associated with increased pregnancy risks. “The findings underscore the need for women of childbearing age and pregnant individuals to be vaccinated and to take other precautions against becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2,” said Diana Bianchi, MD, the director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in a statement. “This is the best way to protect pregnant women and their babies.” A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2021 involving 4,521 women who had miscarriages discovered no evidence of an increased risk of early pregnancy loss after COVID-19 vaccination. “[The study] adds to the findings from other reports supporting COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy,” concluded the authors. The CDC’s director, Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, said in the release, “CDC encourages all pregnant people or people who are thinking about becoming pregnant and those breastfeeding to get vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID-19.”
