Pregnant women, from the second trimester of pregnancy, are invited to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, because they are considered fragile in the face of the disease. The National Institute of Health and Medical Research, INSERM, via its Detox channel, takes stock of the vaccination of pregnant women against Covid-19.

This is a question that all pregnant women can ask themselves: what are the risks with vaccination against Covid-19? In this regard, the recommendations of the World Health Organization have changed, since at the beginning of the year, the agency advised pregnant women not to be vaccinated. Then, only pregnant women at risk of developing a severe form were eligible for vaccination. Since April, all women, from the second trimester of pregnancy, can be injected with the serum. What can potentially be of concern is that pregnant women have not been included in clinical studies and therefore adverse effects on them or the unborn baby are not well known. It becomes difficult to make a choice.

Inserm has therefore gathered the existing scientific literature concerning women who contracted Covid-19 during their pregnancy and childbirth. The first study took place in November 2020 and was published in the journal BJOG. Out of 675 women, 71 were positive for Covid-19 during childbirth and 13% of them presented with postpartum complications. Another study claims that “ the risk of death during pregnancy and postpartum is 22 times higher in patients who have been infected with the coronavirus “. And to specify that this risk “ stay very low in absolute terms And that it is higher in patients with co-morbidities. In addition, two other studies claim that the risk of premature birth during and after infection or of developing complications in the infant is somewhat higher when the expectant mother has been infected. 

Researchers followed pregnant women who received the Covid-19 vaccine and assessed their immune response. The results were published in March 2021, in the American Journal of Obstetric and Gynecology and demonstrate “ that the antibody levels generated by the vaccine were similar in the two types of patients “. Also, it is likely that the antibodies also protect the baby, passing through the placenta. They concluded that “ vaccination allows the expectant mother to develop a robust immune response against the disease “. Regarding the side effects, they are not stronger in a pregnant woman than in a woman who is not, just like the risks of complications. Thereby, ” data on the benefits and risks of vaccination for pregnant women and their unborn child are therefore reassuring to date “. From these data, it seems that being infected during pregnancy is more risky than getting vaccinated.