Vaccinated mothers have newborns with high antibodies against COVID-19

A small research revealed that newborns to mothers who received COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy are highly probable to have antibodies against the virus in their blood at six months of age than babies born to unvaccinated mothers who were contracted while pregnant.

Researchers published a study in JAMA on Monday that included 28 six-month-old babies born to women who were immunized with two doses of an mRNA vaccine between 20 and 32 weeks of pregnancy , when the transfer of maternal antibodies to the fetus through the placenta is at its peak, and 12 babies about the same age whose mothers were exposed to the virus over the same time period. They found detectable levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most common antibody in blood, in 57% of babies born to vaccinated mothers but in only 8% of the babies of infected, unvaccinated mothers. It is unclear how high antibody levels is necessary to defend against contagion, and antibodies are not the body's only form of defense. But "many interested parties from parents to pediatricians want to know how long maternal antibodies persist in infants after vaccination, and now we can provide some answers," Dr. Andrea Edlow of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a statement. "We hope these findings will provide further incentive for pregnant people to get vaccinated." According to new research, contracting COVID-19 late term of gestation increases the risk of complications during pregnancy. Between 14,104 women who gave birth before vaccines were accessible, the 586 who had mild or life threatening COVID-19 during delivery or within 6 weeks beforehand were more prone to require cesarean deliveries, deliver pre-term, die around the point of birth, or experience severe illness from high blood pressure, bleeding, or infections other than SARS-CoV-2.

The cumulative rate of these events was 9.2 percent in uninfected women versus 26.1 percent in women with recent or current moderate or severe COVID-19, according to a study published in JAMA on Monday. After monitoring for other risks, the chances of developing at least one of these complications were over double in the moderate/severe COVID-19 group. Women in that category were also more likely to miscarry or have a baby die during the first year of life. As shown in the research, mild or asymptomatic infection was not linked to increase in risks. Because their research was conducted prior to the virus's Delta and Omicron variants discovery, and none of the women had been vaccinated, the findings cannot foresee what might occur under present circumstances. However, they "underscore the need for women of childbearing age and pregnant individuals to be vaccinated and to take other precautions" against COVID-19, said Dr. Diana Bianchi of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study. According to the researchers, higher-risk patients might have problems accessing the multiple steps needed to take the drugs administered in healthcare facilities or infusion centers, from proper diagnosis to referral and scheduling an infusion within 10 days. These drugs "should first go to patients at the highest risk of death from COVID-19, but the opposite happened - the healthiest patients were the most likely to get treatment," study leader Michael Barnett of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said in a statement.