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Pregnant women with COVID-19 are at an increased risk for severe illness and death compared to people with COVID-19 who are not pregnant, and they experience preterm birth and pregnancy loss more frequently than do expecting moms who don’t catch the virus. In spite of these risks, there is no clear guidance available yet for vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19. But there is now some evidence that immunization could protect their newborns. For the first time, doctors report that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from a vaccinated mother can cross the placenta, pointing to a likely benefit for her fetus.
“It validates what we’ve always suspected . . . that mothers can be vaccinated during pregnancy and can provide some of that level of immunity to their unborn child,” says Chad Rudnick, a pediatrician at Florida Atlantic University and one of the authors of the study, which was ...
