Vaccination against COVID-19 among pregnant women seems to be protective for the infants, while those who were not vaccinated had higher risks of infection and severe complications, revealed a prospective study from Scotland.

Researchers noted that the perinatal mortality rate among births within 28 days of the diagnosis of COVID-19 was 22.6 per 1,000 births. This was over four-fold higher than the background rate of 5.6 per 1,000 in the general population. No perinatal deaths involved women who were vaccinated.

Out of a total of 4,950 confirmed COVID infections during pregnancy, 77.4% were noted in unvaccinated women. Around 90.9% of the infections requiring hospitalization and 98.1% requiring critical care admission were among the unvaccinated lot. A total of 2,364 infants were born to mothers with COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. There were 11 were stillbirths and 8 resulted in neonatal death, with an extended perinatal mortality rate of 8.0 per 1,000 births. The findings are published in Nature Medicine… (Medpage Today)