Why getting the Covid vaccine during pregnancy can protect your baby from pneumonia and sepsis

A study has found that booster vaccination during pregnancy not only helps protect newborns from Covid, but also reduces the risk of them developing pneumonia or sepsis and dying early.

Researchers found that the vaccine reduced the risk of “serious health effects” – from breathing problems to seizures and the need for blood transfusions – by 12 percent in the first 28 days of life.

And this almost halved the risk of a child dying during this time.

Pregnant women will be eligible for a booster jab as part of this autumn’s NHS Covid vaccination programme. However, GPs have been urged to encourage expectant mothers to get vaccinated amid reports of low vaccination rates.

Just 2.2 percent of women under 20 received the vaccine during pregnancy between September 2022, when the fall shot was first offered last year, and June 2023.

Coverage rates increased with age, with 20 per cent of people over 35 vaccinated during pregnancy during this period, the latest level for which the government has data.

A separate analysis of 375 studies published in the British Medical Journal found that Covid vaccine uptake among pregnant women was low across all studies.

Getting a booster shot during pregnancy reduces a child’s chance of a serious illness early in life from 8.3 per cent to 7.3 per cent, a risk reduction of more than 10 per cent, says a study of more than 142,000 infants in Ontario. , Canada.

It also reduced the risk of sending a baby to the intensive care unit from 13.1 percent to 11.4 percent and the risk of death from 0.09 percent to 0.16 percent.

Research shows that pregnant women are less likely to be vaccinated than non-pregnant women of childbearing age, especially among younger women and those living in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation – largely due to uncertainty about the safety of the child.

But researchers have found that the vaccine is not only safe for the baby, but is actually very beneficial for the baby – it strengthens the immune system of both mother and baby, although how it works is still poorly understood.

“Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with adverse neonatal outcomes, but rather with a lower risk of serious health problems, neonatal mortality and the need for intensive care,” said Sarah Jorgensen, a pharmacist and doctoral student at the University of Toronto. .

“Severe Covid-19 disease during pregnancy is associated with pregnancy complications and damage to the fetus/newborn. By protecting the mother from severe Covid-19 disease, children born to vaccinated mothers are protected from the negative consequences that may occur if their mother contracts Covid-19 during pregnancy,” she shared. I.

“But when we excluded children born to mothers who had Covid during pregnancy, the results did not change significantly, suggesting that other mechanisms are at least partly responsible for the improved outcomes we observed.”

Ms Jorgensen said mothers vaccinated during pregnancy tended to have higher incomes and higher education, which are generally associated with healthier children – and this could have skewed the results.

“Although we used statistical methods to adjust for characteristics of unvaccinated and vaccinated mothers that may be associated with infant outcomes, we cannot rule out “remaining confounding,” she said.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick who was not involved in the study, said: “This study provides further evidence that Covid vaccination is safe at all stages of pregnancy as it has no adverse effects on newborns and infants.”

“This is further evidence of the positive effects of Covid vaccination during pregnancy for both mothers and their babies,” he said.

Vicky Male, from Imperial College London, said: “This study adds to the encouraging data we have on the safety of Covid vaccination during pregnancy.”

“Families who are vaccinated are likely to receive better health care overall, and this may partly explain the better outcomes for children of vaccinated mothers.”

“However, the research team used a range of approaches to account for access to healthcare, so it is likely that at least some of these represent a true protective effect of vaccination during pregnancy,” she said.

The researchers cautioned that the study was “observational in nature” – meaning it linked vaccinations to improved children’s health, rather than proving cause and effect. This means there may be another reason for the association.

However, they noted that the study included a large number of participants—and “we were able to statistically control for many variables that may be associated with maternal vaccine willingness and child health outcomes,” such as socioeconomic status.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.