Pregnant women can pass covid antibodies to newborn babies

Illustration for the article entitled Were finally learning something about pregnancy and Covid

Photograph: Luis acosta (Getty Images)

The pandemic has been a terrible time for a pregnant person for about a million different reasons, but the main one must be the little information that exists about how greed interacts with pregnancy.

It was only in November that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were able to conclude that pregnant women were more likely to suffer serious complications of the virus. This finding contradicts the results of a previous study, requiring the CDC to include pregnancy in its list of conditions that can worsen the effects of greed for about eight months after the start of the pandemic. And when the vaccine became available in December, health officials said that while there was no reason to believe that there were specific risks for pregnant women, there were “very little data”To assess the ultimate safety of the vaccine for the group. Pregnant women were instructed to consult their doctors.

A recent discovery, however, can really be useful: growing evidence suggeststs that people who become greedy during pregnancy can transmit antibodies to your newborns, giving them natural immunity.

The last guarantee comes of a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, which also suggested that pregnant people transfer more antibodies to their fetuses if they contract the virus in early pregnancy. The study found that the specific type of antibodies detected in fetuses were antibodies to immunoglobulin G, the type that offers more long-term immunity against the virus, the scientists believe.

Scott E. Hensley, one of the study’s authors, said that while more research is still needed on how the vaccine affects pregnant women (as we know), the results suggest that it may be beneficial to vaccinate people in early pregnancy to maximize immunity to the fetus.

There are still some factors that require further investigation. According The New York Times, the researchers are not sure whether the antibodies are sufficient to prevent newborns from contracting covid, and are not sure whether premature babies reap the same benefits as those born at term. Still, it seems that this discovery at least gives pregnant women and their healthcare professionals some practical guidance on the benefits of the vaccine and the ideal time to obtain it.

Above all, it draws attention to the importance of continuing to learn more. Pregnant women were excluded from the first vaccine tests and including them could help bring all of these nebulous findings into focus.

“It is plausible that the Covid vaccine offers protection for pregnant mothers and their babies,” said Mark Turrentine, a member of the covid-19 specialist obstetrics working group at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology, while Times. “For me, this study highlights that the inclusion of pregnant women in clinical trials such as the covid-19 vaccine is essential, especially when the benefit of vaccination is greater than the potential risk of a life-threatening disease.”

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