COVID-19 and pregnancy: New study shows risk of severe illness and stillbirths for unvaccinated pregnant women - CBS News

A study looking at health data across the entire population of Scotland found that pregnant women who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and caught the disease were much more likely to suffer severe complications — for themselves and their infants — than those who had been vaccinated and got COVID.

"This advice needs to go out to partners and parents and grandparents and friends, so people can recognize that vaccination in pregnancy is the safest and most effective way for pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies.".

Scientists from Scotland's public health agency and the University of Edinburgh looked at data on every recognized pregnancy in Scotland between March 2020 and October 2021 — 145,424 pregnancies — along with data on PCR test results and vaccinations.

Between December 2020, when it became more regular to test for COVID during maternity care in Scotland, and October 2021, there were 4,950 confirmed infections in pregnant women in the country.

The rate of perinatal deaths, meaning infant deaths in the later stages of pregnancy or shortly after birth, in women who got COVID while pregnant was much higher compared to the general population — 22.6 deaths per 1,000 births, versus a background rate of 5.6 per 1,000 births.

And according to the study, all of the perinatal deaths following COVID infection involved women who had not been vaccinated.

But despite these much better outcomes with vaccination, researchers found that, as of October, only 32% of pregnant women in Scotland had received two COVID vaccine doses by the time they gave birth, compared to 77% of non-pregnant women of childbearing age. .