COVID-19 starkly increases pregnancy complications, including stillbirths, among the unvaccinated, Scottish study shows


Source: Science Magazine


Two studies released yesterday delivered dire news about the dangers of COVID-19 to unvaccinated pregnant women and their babies. Perhaps the most disturbing data came from a first-of-its-kind analysis that tracked the tens of thousands of pregnancies in Scotland since vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 became available. It found that unvaccinated, coronavirus-infected women were far more likely than the general pregnant population to have a stillborn infant or one that dies in the first month of life. Among the infected women in the study, every one of the perinatal deaths occurred in the pregnancy of someone who was unvaccinated.

The unvaccinated mothers themselves were also more endangered: Nearly every pregnant person with a SARS-CoV-2 infection who required critical care was unvaccinated. Unvaccinated women also had a far higher rate of hospitalization than their vaccinated counterparts in the study of nearly 88,000 pregnant women.

Yet the study found that in October 2021, months after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, fewer than one-third of pregnant Scots delivering babies had been fully vaccinated. By contrast, more than 77% of adult women of childbearing age in the general Scottish population were, highlighting a disturbing vaccine hesitancy among the pregnant that is mirrored in many places around the world. “This should shake us up and really be a call to action,” says Yalda Afshar, a high-risk obstetrician at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center who was not involved with the study. “Vaccination is the clear action item to improve health for pregnant people and their babies.”

 

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LINK:
https://www.science.org/content/article/covid-19-starkly-increases-pregnancy-complications-including-stillbirths-among