Getting vaccinated during pregnancy could significantly improve the protection of the unborn baby against a severe form of Covid-19. In any case, this is the observation made by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a study made public Tuesday, February 15.
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The scientists analyzed data from 379 babies hospitalized, including 176 with Covid-19 between July 2021 and January 2022. They found that babies whose mothers had received two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines during their pregnancy had 61 % less risk of being hospitalized in the six months following their birth.
61% lower risk of hospitalization
Conversely, “84% of babies who were hospitalized because of Covid-19 were born to people who had not been vaccinated during pregnancy”said Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, head of the research and prevention branch of the CDC, during a press briefing.
Among the sickest babies (in intensive care), the percentage rises to 88% born to mothers who had not been vaccinated before or during pregnancy.
Antibody transfer
This protection would come, according to scientists, from a transfer of antibodies between the mother and her baby, via the placenta. “When a woman receives a messenger RNA vaccine during pregnancy, her body makes antibodies to protect her against Covid-19, and these antibodies have been found in umbilical cord blood,” explained the researcher.
While the antibody level decreases significantly in the months following the injection, this hypothesis could explain the higher protection rate among babies whose mothers were vaccinated late in their pregnancy.
The study emphasizes that it increases when vaccination takes place between twenty-one weeks and fourteen days before delivery. However, scientist Dana Meaney-Delman stressed the importance of vaccination at any stage of pregnancy.