According to a study pre-published Thursday ahead of its upcoming publication in theAmerican Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,mothers-to-be who get vaccinated against covid-19 with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines transmit antibodies to their babies. The researchers of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston (USA) followed 131 women who received one of the two vaccines between December and March, some were pregnant and others had just given birth and were breastfeeding their babies. As no pregnant women were included in the clinical trials of the vaccines, the researchers wanted to support their knowledge of the protection of newborns.
By testing umbilical cord blood and the placenta, they found that babies born to women who had received the vaccine had “remarkably higher” levels of antibodies than babies born to women who had contracted covid.
Baby born with antibodies in Florida
In Florida, a mother-to-be who received the first injection of the Moderna vaccine against covid-19 when she was in her 36th week of pregnancy, gave birth three weeks later to a healthy baby girl, with antibodies against the coronavirus. These antibodies were detected in umbilical cord blood that had been taken to determine the baby’s blood type, the doctors explained. on the British medical journal.
Last November, a first baby was already born with antibodies, after his mother contracted covid-19 during her pregnancy. During a trip to Europe, this 31-year-old Singaporean had contracted the coronavirus. As she was then 10 weeks pregnant, her pregnancy had been closely monitored by doctors, on the lookout for the possible effects of the virus on the smooth running of the pregnancy. “But I had no real fear for the health of my future baby because I read that the risk of transmission from mother to fetus is very low,” she said. at the Straits Times from Singapore.
When the baby was born, on November 7, 2020, the blood tests reassured the mother since her little boy was not a carrier of the coronavirus. But the analyzes have, on the other hand, shown that the infant already had antibodies against Covid-19, while his mother, however infected a few months earlier, no longer had any. “It seems that my antibodies were transferred to the baby during pregnancy” explains the young mother.
Covid-19: what are the risks during pregnancy?
“Unlike the flu, associated with a higher mortality rate during pregnancy, pregnant women infected with the coronavirus are not at greater risk of serious complications”, explains Pr Deruelle, gynecologist and secretary general of the CNGOF (National College French Gynecologists and Obstetricians). However, as a precaution, women who are in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy have been placed on the list of people most vulnerable to the risk of a serious form of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Sources:
- COVID-19 vaccine response in pregnant and lactating women: a cohort study, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, March 2021
- Newborn Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 detected in cord blood after maternal vaccinationBMJ Yale, February 2021
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