Researchers from Northwestern Medicine have studied the placentas from patients who received the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy and found no evidence of damage
Researchers examined placentas from 84 vaccinated patients and 116 unvaccinated patients who delivered at Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago.
Dr Jeffery Goldstein, corresponding author, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine pathologist said:
“The placenta is like the black box in an airplane. If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened. From what we can tell, the COVID vaccine does not damage the placenta.”
COVID-19 vaccine
“The Internet has amplified a concern that the vaccine might trigger an immunological response that causes the mother to reject the fetus, but these findings lead us to believe that doesn’t happen.”
“Until infants can get vaccinated, the only way for them to get COVID antibodies is from their mother.”
Study co-author Dr. Emily Miller, Northwestern Medicine maternal-fetal medicine physician and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg, said:
“We have reached a stage in vaccine distribution where we are seeing vaccine hesitancy, and this hesitancy is pronounced for pregnant people. Our team hopes these data, albeit preliminary, can reduce concerns about the risk of the vaccine to the pregnancy.”
“We are beginning to move to a framework of protecting fetuses through vaccination, rather than from vaccination.”
In April, the scientists published a study showing pregnant women make COVID antibodies after vaccination and successfully transfer them to their fetuses. Pregnant patients who want to get vaccinated to avoid contracting the disease should feel safe doing so, Miller added.
The study has been published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
