The risks of catching covid-19, or being vaccinated against it, during pregnancy have been debated throughout the pandemic, with research now overwhelmingly supporting that pregnant people get vaccinated
The participants, from seven Canadian provinces, self-reported any health issues they may have experienced in the seven days after they received the first or second dose of a Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The team did not include people who received modified adenovirus vaccines, such as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as only a relatively small number of pregnant people in Canada were immunised with this vaccine type.
“This study was looking at whether there were any complications associated with [the coronavirus] vaccine doses during pregnancy,” saysat the University of Toronto, a co-author of the study. This study does not ask whether the vaccine protects pregnant people from severe covid-19, which is supported by other research, she says.
For comparison, the researchers assessed the hospitalisation rate of the non-pregnant but vaccinated participants. Of these, just 0.6 per cent were admitted for any reason in the seven days after their first vaccine dose. “It is very reassuring that there is no evidence of any safety concerns associated with vaccination in pregnancy, especially as high levels of vaccination hesitancy in pregnancy persist,” saysThe team also found that just 4 per cent of pregnant people reported less serious health issues, such as muscle pain and headaches in the seven days following their first vaccine dose, rising to 7.5 per cent in the week after a second dose.