SPANISH study shows that pregnant women with the virus don’t bass Covid to their babies
A new scientific study in Spain has given a ray of hope to pregnant women across the world after it revealed that in the vast majority of cases, they don’t in fact transmit coronavirus to their unborn babies, even if they themselves are infected. On the contrary: it actually passes on “protection” to the foetus as antibodies are transferred from mum to baby.
Marisa Navarro, a paediatric infectologist at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, which led the study, told Spanish daily La Sexta, that the chances of a baby being born with Covid antibodies depend on when the expectant mother is infected, and the severity of the infection. If the pregnant woman contracts coronavirus early on in her pregnancy, the level of protection she will pass to the baby is low; if the infection occurs later in the pregnancy, more antibodies will have developed.
It can also occur that a mum-to-be who developed Covid very late in her pregnancy hasn’t had an opportunity to develop her own antibodies by the time of delivery, in which case it is possible that the virus is passed on to the unborn child. This, however, is exceptionally rare, according to the scientists.
With regard to vaccines, the Antequera Hospital will become the only one in Andalucía allowed to test the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine on children and pregnant women. According to reports, the trial will begin soon, in May, and will be carried out using volunteers who will receive two doses of the vaccine in three weeks.
The Antequera Hospital (Málaga) is one of only five hospitals selected at the national level, and the only one in Andalucía, that will participate in a clinical trial evaluating the Pfizer vaccine in pregnant women and children from six months to 12 years old.