Those of you who read this column regularly know that I have written several articles during the Covid-19 pandemic focusing on the benefit of vaccination to women of childbearing years. Vaccination against Covid-19 offers substantial and documented benefit and protection for pregnant women. Covid-19 during pregnancy is associated with severe illness, hospitalizations, and death as well as an increased risk of complications of the pregnancy and neonatal complications.
What young mothers to be need to know is that their vaccination and the antibodies that result from it provide additional safety for their infant. A study looking at infants at 6 months of age has found that infants from vaccinated mothers have significant amounts of antibodies against Covid-19. Specifically, it was found that anti-spike antibodies persisted through the first 6 months of life and were higher than the antibodies from mothers that had natural occurring antibodies from a Covid-19 infection during pregnancy. Keep in mind that Covid-19 vaccination is not approved for children younger than 6 months of age.
The infants whose data was used in this multicenter study and developed a Covid-19 infection had severe disease, 29% were admitted to the ICU and 17% had critical illness. Covid-19 effectiveness was 70% overall against admission to the ICU and over 90% of the infant ICU admission were from women who had not been vaccinated.
If you are pregnant or plan to get pregnant think about the help vaccination may provide to your infant
