A new study led by investigators at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and BC Children’s Hospital found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy, and that pregnant people experienced lower rates of health events post-vaccination than similarly aged, non-pregnant vaccinated people.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is one of the first to compare vaccine side effects between a group of vaccinated pregnant people, an unvaccinated pregnant group, and a vaccinated non-pregnant group.
“In the early stages of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, there was low vaccine uptake among pregnant people due to concerns about data availability and vaccine safety. This large study helps us better understand the safety of COVID-19 vaccines by looking at changes in health for a large number of pregnant people and comparing that to similar vaccinated and vaccinated groups.” says the paper’s first author Dr. Manish Sadarangani, an associate professor of pediatrics at UBC and investigator at BC Children’s Hospital. “This study adds to the growing body of evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe during pregnancy.”
