A small study indicates that babies born to mothers who were vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy are more likely to have antibodies against the virus in their blood at six months of age than babies born to unvaccinated mothers who were infected while pregnant.
Researchers published a study in JAMA on Monday that included 28 six-month-old infants born to women who were vaccinated with two doses of an mRNA vaccine between 20 and 32 weeks' gestation, when transfer of maternal antibodies to the fetus via the placenta is at its peak, and 12 babies of the same age whose mothers were infected during the same time period.
They discovered detectable levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most common antibody in the blood, in 57 percent of vaccinated mothers' newborns but just 8% of infected, unvaccinated mothers' babies.