COVID-19 Vaccines Using mRNA Appear Safe and Effective in Pregnant People

• Preliminary data finds there appears to be no increased risk of major pregnancy complications in people who’ve received the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.
• Researchers said there was no increased risk of preterm birth, low-birth weight, miscarriage, or neonatal death in infants born to people who had mRNA vaccines.
• Experts say that pregnant people should be vaccinated due to the high risk of complications from COVID-19.

As COVID-19 vaccine campaigns roll out across the country, many pregnant people have approached their doctors with questions and concerns about vaccine safety.

A new report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) may help address some of these questions and concerns.

According to preliminary data from the v-safe COVID-19 Vaccine Pregnancy Registry, there appears to be no increased risk of preterm birth, low-birth weight, miscarriage, or neonatal death in infants born to people who’ve received the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

“I think that this is a very reassuring study,” Dr. Eran Bornstein, the director of the Center for Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, New York, told Healthline.

“In the adverse outcomes that they looked at, there was no signal to show an increased risk compared to historical controls. There was no signal of an abnormal outcome that stands out compared to what is expected in pregnancy,” he said.