Infants born to mothers who received a Covid-19 vaccine in pregnancy had a lower risk of severe neonatal morbidity, neonatal death and admission to a neonatal intensive care unit, according to a new study from the University of Toronto and the non-profit ICES Institute. published in the journal “JAMA Pediatrics”.

The researchers analyzed health records for more than 142,000 infants in Ontario, 60% of whose mothers had received an mRNA vaccine during pregnancy. The babies were born between May 1, 2021 and September 2, 2022.

Women who were vaccinated during pregnancy were more likely to be over 30 years of age, to have their first child, to have had a flu shot during one of the two previous flu seasons, and to live in urban areas and areas with higher income.

They found that vaccine-exposed infants had a lower risk of serious health problems (7.3% vs. 8.3% for non-vaccine-exposed infants), neonatal death (0.0% vs. 0.16%), and admission to the unit intensive care (11.4% vs. 13.1%). There was also no increase in hospital admissions by six months of age or readmissions.

It is clarified that the analyzes were of live births, so any effects of vaccination on miscarriages and stillbirths were not observed in this study. However, other studies have not reported an increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth in women vaccinated against Covid-19 during pregnancy. Conversely, some studies found a reduced risk of stillbirth.