A study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine on Wednesday revealed that pregnant women who get mRNA vaccines are likely to pass high levels of antibodies to their babies.
One of the first studies to measure antibody levels in umbilical cord blood found that 36 newborns tested at birth had antibodies to protect against Covid-19 after their mothers were vaccinated with shots from Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc.
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Amid speculations pertaining to the safety of pregnant women against Covid vaccines, this data could help in encouraging more women to get vaccinated during their pregnancies. According to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only 30% of pregnant women ages 18 to 49 are vaccinated.
“We pushed this data out relatively early because it’s a unique finding and it has important implications for care,” Roman said. “Right now we’re recommending all pregnant women receive the vaccine for maternal benefit.”
However since the study was conducted on small sample size, the team is now working towards obtaining results from a larger group and is also studying how long immunization lasts for infants after birth.
Simultaneously, the National Institutes of Health have also begun a study called MOMI-VAX to measure how long antibodies against Covid-19 will last in people vaccinated during pregnancy. The researchers are also trying to assess the transfer of vaccine-induced antibodies to infants across the placenta and breast milk.
As per reports, Pfizer and BioNTech are also studying how their shots affect pregnant women and their babies.
The drugmakers “stopped enrollment in the U.S. because of recommendations encouraging vaccination of pregnant women,” Pfizer said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg after the Wall Street Journal reported the delay on Wednesday, citing concerns that women in the study might get a placebo.
The researchers studied the cord blood of 36 fully vaccinated women to look for antibodies. Among the 36 samples, the researchers looked at, 31 tested negative for antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein while the other five weren’t tested for nucleocapsid protein.
Following the positive results, researchers are encouraging the vaccination of pregnant women as they say there are rising cases of infections in infants and a higher level of antibodies can be the only mode to protect them against it.
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