Julie Steenhuysen and Manas Mishrira

(Reuters) – Vaccinating women who are pregnant against coronavirus could help to prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations for infants. This is especially true if these mothers received the shot later in pregnancy.

These findings revealed that vaccines can be given during pregnancy even to babies too young for them.

Children under 6 months of age were examined by researchers from several hospitals and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was conducted between January 2022 and July 2021.

Data from 379 children hospitalized for various reasons was analyzed. This study showed that COVID-19 vaccines are 61% more effective in preventing children from being hospitalized if their mothers had been vaccinated at birth.

The protection was 80% when mother were immunized 21 to 14 days before giving birth. For babies whose mothers had been vaccinated during pregnancy, vaccine effectiveness dropped to 32%

Because of the low sample size, study authors warn that it is important to interpret the results for pregnancy effectiveness early in pregnancy with caution.

“Right now we want to ensure that we are protecting both the mom and the infant,” CDC’s Dana Meaney-Delman told reporters. “As soon as pregnant women are willing to receive vaccines, they should.

The CDC states that pregnant women are more likely to develop severe COVID-19-related illness. Having COVID during pregnancy could increase preterm births, stillbirths, or other complications.

The CDC suggests that pregnant women, who are currently breastfeeding or are planning to become pregnant soon, get vaccinated.

Pregnancy COVID-19 vaccinations have never been linked to preterm deliveries or low birth weight babies, according to previous studies.