Over the past three years, it’s become more and more clear just how much COVID can ravage the body. For pregnant people in particular, the consequences of infection can be long-lasting and serious. COVID can damage the placenta, can potentially lead to a higher risk of miscarriage, and has been linked to a higher chance of preterm birth when contracted late in pregnancy. Now, a broad new study is providing even more evidence that not only does COVID significantly increase the chances of preterm birth, but that the vaccine makes that excess risk all but disappear.
The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked at California birth records from 2014 to 2023 to determine how the pandemic impacted preterm births. Overall, the researchers found that maternal COVID infection increased the risk of preterm births by 1.2 percentage points since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase that the study authors say is significant.
“To move the needle on preterm birth that much is akin to a disastrous environmental exposure, like weeks of breathing intense wildfire smoke,” explained Jenna Nobles, co-author of the study and sociology professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a press release.
However, the effect was even larger in the first two years of the pandemic. From July to November 2020, the likelihood that an expecting mom in California with COVID-19 would experience a preterm birth (defined giving birth more than three weeks before the due date) was 5.4 percent higher than expected, increasing from a 6.9 percent risk to 12.3 percent. Of itself, that’s a 78 percent increase in risk, the study noted.
As COVID vaccines rolled out in 2021, the excess, COVID-related risk for preterm birth began to decline, eventually dropping steeply in 2022 — a decrease that researchers say has everything to do with the vaccine.
Looking at vaccination rates by ZIP code, the researchers found that in areas with higher vaccination rates, “the excess risk of preterm birth declines much faster,” Nobles said. “By summer 2021, having COVID-19 in pregnancy had no effect on preterm birth risk in these communities.” It took “almost a year longer” for ZIP codes with lowest vaccine rates to catch up.
Preterm births can lead to mild or serious health problems, including small size, trouble breathing, and feeding problems, according to Mayo Clinic. Some complications, including behavior and mental health problems, difficulty hearing, and other ongoing health issues, can last for years. Preterm births can also be expensive, incurring costs of over $80,000 per baby, per studies.
With those factors in mind, anything that can cut down on the excess risk of preterm birth as substantially as the COVID vaccine is significant. “By increasing immunity faster, early vaccination uptake likely prevented thousands of preterm births in the US,” Nobles explained.
The huge swing in preterm birth risk from COVID and the subsequent disappearance of that risk thanks to the vaccine shows a few things. For one, it underscores how harmful COVID can be for pregnant people. On the flip side, the study also shows how protective the vaccine can be when it comes to avoiding a preterm birth, and how essential it is to continue encouraging pregnant people to get vaccinated.
“Vaccine avoidance is higher in pregnancy than in the general public,” the study notes, with surveys showing that “the main barrier to vaccination is concerns about adverse consequences for the fetus.” This study provides even more evidence that the vaccine can actually protect the fetus, when it comes to preterm births, and that COVID itself is what can cause harm.
With that in mind, and as the pandemic continues, it’s more important than ever to stay up to date on your COVID vaccine and boosters, especially if you’re expecting.
Before you go, shop our favorite products to keep you comfortable during pregnancy:
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