Results of a study released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease indicate that when mothers are vaccinated for COVID-19 during pregnancy, their babies may also be protected against the virus.
Out of 176 infants younger than 6 months who were hospitalized with COVID-19, 148 (84 percent) were born to mothers who were not vaccinated during pregnancy, according to the study.
Data was collected from 20 pediatric hospitals in the U.S. from July of last year through this January, while the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19 were circulating.
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Due to the sample size for the study, it applies only to the two-dose primary series mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, not the impact of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine nor booster doses. Study co-author Dr. Manish Patel told NPR researchers plan to look at the effect of boosters in the future.
“Overall, these findings indicate that maternal vaccination during pregnancy might help protect against COVID-19 hospitalization among infants,” younger than 6 months, said the study.
Vaccination appeared to be 80% effective for infants when administered between 21 weeks gestation through 14 days before delivery compared to 32 percent effective when administered in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Additional research into the timing of vaccination before pregnancy compared with during pregnancy should be conducted, study authors added.
A study published in JAMA last week found “that the majority of infants born to COVID-vaccinated mothers had persistent anti-S antibodies at 6 months, compared with infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Dr. Andrea Edlow, a maternal fetal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School who co-authored the JAMA study, said that pregnant women should not wait to get vaccinated. People who contract COVID-19 while pregnant are at a higher risk for severe complications such as preeclampsia and postpartum hemorrhaging.
According to the CDC study, COVID-19 during pregnancy is also associated with preterm birth, stillbirth and maternal death. Currently, the centers recommend that women who are pregnant, are breastfeeding, are trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future get vaccinated as soon as possible and stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination.
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“COVID-19 vaccination is safe and effective when administered during pregnancy,” said the CDC study. “Receipt of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is associated with detectable maternal antibodies in maternal sera at delivery, breast milk, and infant sera indicating transfer of maternal antibodies.”
“The bottom line is that maternal vaccination is a really important way to help protect these young infants,” said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, chief of the CDC's Infant Outcome Monitoring, Research and Prevention branch.
Since Food and Drug Administration approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children under five years old was delayed this month, Meaney-Delman said this finding could be an important key to protecting babies younger than 6 months old.
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