The association between coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination during pregnancy and neonatal health outcomes

Pregnant women have a higher risk of severe illness or complications due to a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. To reduce these risks, pregnant women are advised to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Continued monitoring of the safety of maternal COVID-19 vaccination remains important.

To evaluate the association between maternal COVID-19 vaccination and neonatal health.

Data from the Dutch Pregnancy Drug Register were used. In this prospective cohort study, pregnant women self-reported COVID-19 vaccination and neonatal health outcomes. We included women with a due date between January 15, 2021, and May 15, 2022, and a singleton live birth after at least 24 weeks gestation. Using log-binomial regression analysis we studied the association between COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and the health outcomes; small for gestational age (SGA), large for gestational age (LGA), and neonatal health problems. We corrected for potential confounders using inverse probability of treatment weighting.

In total, 3655 participants were included (92.1% COVID-19 vaccinated during pregnancy). Of all participants, 8.9% reported SGA, 11.1% reported LGA, and 16.4% reported neonatal health problems. Maternal COVID-19 vaccination was not statistically significantly associated with SGA (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR]: 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-1.36), LGA (aPR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.70-1.63), or neonatal health problems (aPR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.63-1.11).

This study indicates that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is not associated with self-reported adverse neonatal health outcomes. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence on the safety of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.