Pregnant women who were not vaccinated and contracted COVID-19 before delivery suffered five times more loss of the baby than vaccinated women
Scottish researchers have found that women who contract the virus near the end of pregnancy are more vulnerable to complications related to childbirth, and the risk of death of the baby is much higher.
These are the results of a Scotland -wide study of data from thousands of births. Of these, 273 babies were stillborn, 179 died after delivery, and 80,183 were born alive. Although infant mortality is very low, as is the case in most advanced countries, unvaccinated women who contracted COVID-19 in the 28 days before delivery suffered a mortality of 22.6 cases per 1,000, compared to 4 .3 in vaccinated women, five times more.
The research team involved scientists from the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Strathclyde and St Andrews, along with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
98% of pregnant women admitted to ICUs with covid were not vaccinated.
The scientists found that preterm births also increased by the same proportion among unvaccinated pregnant women who contracted covid. In total, 98% of pregnant women admitted to UK intensive care units with coronavirus symptoms were unvaccinated.
VACCINE REFUSAL AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN
The study looked at data from all pregnant women in Scotland between the start of vaccination in December 2020 and October 2021. Uptake of vaccination was lower in pregnant women during the study period.
Only 32% of women who gave birth in October 2021 were fully vaccinated, compared to 77% of the general female population aged 18-44 in the country. The data shows that vaccination during pregnancy does not increase possible complications, but COVID-19 does.
REFERENCE
SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination rates in pregnant women in Scotland