ATLANTA (CNN) – Pfizer / BioNTech and Modern COVID-19 vaccines are effective in pregnant and lactating women, who can transmit protective antibodies to newborns, according to research published Thursday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women Hospital, and Ragon Institute from MGH, MIT, and Harvard examined 131 women who received the Pfizer / BioNTech or Modern COVID-19 vaccine. Among the participants, 84 were pregnant, 31 were lactating and 16 were not. Samples were collected between December 17, 2020 and March 2, 2021.
Vaccine-induced antibody levels were equivalent in pregnant and lactating women, compared with nonpregnant women. Antibody levels were “surprisingly higher” than those resulting from coronavirus infection during pregnancy, the team noted.
“These vaccines seem to work incredibly effectively in these women,” said one of the researchers, Galit Alter, a professor of medicine at the Ragon Institute.
In addition, the team found that women transmitted protective antibodies to their babies, measured in breast milk and placenta.
“Almost all mothers received a fairly decent level of antibodies against their babies,” said Alter, who added that further research is needed to understand the duration of these protective antibodies in newborns.
Participants used the V-safe tool from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which allows people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine to track their reaction. Alter said they found no evidence of more side effects or more intense side effects in pregnant and lactating women than in the general population.
Although the team found similar levels of antibodies in women vaccinated with the two vaccines, Alter said they found higher levels of IgA antibodies in pregnant women who received the Modern vaccine. He said this particular type of antibody could be transferred more efficiently to babies over a longer period of time.
“There are some reasons to think that having higher levels of immunity to IgA may be more protective,” Alter noted. He said further research on this finding could help inform policy decisions about which vaccines are used for pregnant populations.
Recent research has similarly found that mRNA vaccines cause antibodies in pregnant women that can be transferred to their babies, although this is the largest study on vaccines in pregnant women to date. Pregnant and lactating women were not included in the initial clinical trials of the vaccines.
This is an urgent need, as we not only protect one person in this vaccination effort, but we protect two people at a time.
–Galit Alter, professor of medicine at the Ragon Institute
With no data to look for to help inform pregnant women’s decisions about COVID-19 vaccination, Alter said researchers and young, pregnant mothers, particularly health workers, stepped up. the process to fill the void.
“MGH and Brigham started talking to vaccination-eligible health workers, who were also pregnant, and set up a study to empower pregnant women with the ability to track their responses, but also to develop data. that they could help everyone is approaching vaccination and pregnancy in this collective way for the first time.
“It was really just a force to be reckoned with, both from the OB-GYN / supplier perspective, as well as from the community,” Alter said. “It was inspiring.”
According to the CDC, people with COVID-19 are at higher risk for serious illness and may be at increased risk for adverse effects, such as premature birth. The CDC says it expects to study vaccine safety in approximately 13,000 pregnant women for each of the three authorized coronavirus vaccines. The agency will use a specific V-safe pregnancy registry, which had enrolled some 3,612 pregnant women as of March 22nd.
“This is an urgent need, because we not only protect one person in this vaccination effort, but we protect two people at the same time,” Alter said.
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