COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective for pregnant women, but do they pass on that protection to their growing babies? One study provides the data.
A study published September 21, 2021, in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology — Maternal-Fetal Medicine, wanted to find out if pregnant women who received the COVID-19 vaccine passed on any protection to their babies. So they set out to determine the presence of “transplacental antibody transmission and levels of detectable antibodies” by testing the umbilical cord blood in 36 newborns whose mothers got at least one dose while pregnant with an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. 35 of 36 mothers received two doses of the vaccines at delivery.
Researchers discovered that all 36 newborns received vaccines at birth had antibodies. “These findings demonstrate transplacental antibody transfer following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy with 100% of cord blood specimens having high levels of anti-S antibodies.”