September 28, 2025
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with maternal or neonatal complications.
- Vaccination improved outcomes for mothers and babies.
DENVER — COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy provides significant protection for mothers and their babies with no associated increase in risk, according to data from more than 1.2 million pregnancies presented at the AAP’s annual meeting.
“COVID-19 vaccination reduced admission, mortality and pregnancy-specific complications,” Nikan Zargarzadeh, MD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the division of fetal medicine and surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, told reporters on Saturday. “On the neonatal side, it reduced NICU admission.”
COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy had positive outcomes for mothers and their babies, according to an umbrella review. Image: Adobe Stock
Recent federal efforts to overhaul COVID-19 vaccine recommendations have made it less clear who can and should get vaccinated. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, and the AAP recommends that all pregnant adolescents get one of the shots.
Those recommendations are at odds with the announcement in May that the CDC would stop recommending shots for healthy pregnant women. Despite that proclamation, the CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant or breastfeeding women on its website, calling it “safe and effective.” (Recently updated recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices say all patients who want a vaccine must consult with a clinician first.)
Zargarzadeh and colleagues conducted an umbrella review of 23 meta-analyses comprising more than 200 studies of 1.25 million pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy.
According to results summarized at the meeting, vaccination cut the risk for COVID-19 among pregnant women by more than half (RR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.3-0.57). Zargarzadeh noted that vaccination also reduced the risk for hospitalization for mothers.
Data suggested a “marginal” increased risk for cesarean section associated with COVID-19 vaccination, but it was not statistically significant, Zargarzadeh and colleagues reported. They found no other risks of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
Zargarzadeh noted that there was no evidence of harm to infants, and in some cases, vaccination improved outcomes, including a reduced risk for stillbirth (RR = 0.75; 95% CI 0.58-0.98) and preterm birth (RR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.99).
“Most strikingly, vaccination was associated with a one-third reduction in severe preterm birth before 28 weeks,” she said.
“This speaks directly to the question that families fear the most: ‘Does vaccination harm the baby?’” she said. “The answer is clear, and the evidence states clearly no, and in fact, they protect them.”
For more information:
Nikan Zargarzadeh, MD, can be reached at pediatrics@healio.com.
