Maternal COVID-19 vaccination not tied to poor infant outcomesA new study on outcomes among infants whose mothers received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine in pregnancy showed that no detrimental outcomes were associated with maternal vaccination, including preterm birth, small birth weight for gestational age (SGA), congenital malformations, and infant death.It was published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.The population-based cohort study, which included all singleton live births in March through September 2021, included women and infants seen within a large state-mandated healthcare organization in Israel.
A total of 24,288 eligible newborns were included, of whom 16,697 were expose in the first (2,134 infants) or second (9,364) trimester to maternal vaccination in utero.In January 2021, Israel officially recommended vaccination with the two-dose Pfizer vaccine for all pregnant women.
Women who were vaccinated in pregnancy tended to be older, more affluent, and have higher uptake of the seasonal influenza vaccine.The risk of any congenital malformation was not significantly different among exposed or unexposed infants, with a risk ratio (RR) of 0.69 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.44 to 1.04), similar to the RR for heart malformations of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.43 to 1.26).
The risk for major heart malformations was lower among the exposed group, with an RR of 0.46 (95% CI, 0.24 to 0.82), the authors found.