COVID Vaccines Prevent Preterm Births in Study

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2023 (HealthDay News) — COVID vaccines saved the lives and health of countless babies by preventing their premature births, a new study shows.

COVID-19 initially caused an alarming rise in preterm birth rates, but they returned to pre-pandemic levels after the introduction of vaccines, researchers found.

These findings should help dispel vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women, said researcher Jenna Nobles, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The results here are compelling evidence that what will really harm the fetus is not getting vaccinated. That’s a message that professionals can share with concerned patients,” Nobles said in a university news release.

The COVID virus endangers pregnancies by triggering inflammation and immune responses that can damage the placenta, among other potentially harmful effects, the researchers explained in background notes.

In this study, Nobles and his collaborators analyzed California birth records of nearly 40 million people, from the early days of the pandemic to the introduction of COVID vaccines.

The researchers found that as the virus spread between July and November 2020, the likelihood that a COVID-infected mother-to-be in California would give birth more than three weeks before her due date was 5.4 percentage points higher than as expected: 12.3 percent instead of 6.9 percent.

But the excess risk of preterm birth fell slightly in early 2021 and then fell sharply in 2022, the researchers found. At that time, maternal COVID infection during pregnancy did not cause an excess risk of preterm birth.

By dividing the birth records geographically, the researchers determined that vaccines contributed to that decline.

“In ZIP codes with the highest vaccination rates, the excess risk of preterm birth is reduced much faster,” Nobles said. “By summer 2021, having COVID-19 during pregnancy had no effect on the risk of preterm birth in these communities. It will take almost another year for that to happen in ZIP codes with the lowest vaccine uptake.” .

“That highlights how protective the COVID vaccines have been,” Nobles added. “By building immunity faster, early acceptance of vaccination likely prevented thousands of premature births in the US.”

The findings were published in the Nov. 27 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Premature birth is a major contributor to infant mortality, and is also associated with a number of short- and long-term health problems for children. Being born even a few weeks early reduces a child’s educational attainment, health and expected savings as an adult, the researchers noted.

“This continues to be an evolving epidemic, and the rate of vaccine boosters among pregnant people right now is very low,” Nobles said. “The question is, how many more iterations of viral evolution does this need to escape the immunity we have? It’s miraculous and incredible that we’re now down to essentially zero additional preterm births, but it doesn’t indicate that it’s going to be that way in perpetuity.”

More information

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has more information on how COVID-19 affects pregnancy.

SOURCE: University of Wisconsin-Madison, news release, November 27, 2023

2023-11-28 23:16:00
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