Based on a new study, women during pregnancy in their third trimester who are infected with COVID-19 appear to not pass the said virus to their newborn baby.
The study was done from April to June 2020 with women who came from three Boston area hospitals either for treatment of COVID-19 or for delivery.
The result of the study
From those 127 pregnant women, none of their newborn babies tested positive for COVID-19. 64 of those women during pregnancy even have different levels of illness from the virus and still, their newborn baby did not contract it.
Dr. Andrea Edlow, the author of the study said that the reason behind this may be due to the reason that for patient women who have the COVID-19 during pregnancy, there is a low chance that their newborn baby will have active COVID-19.
The women in the study
The study where patient women during pregnancy were part of and were tested positive for COVID-19 consists of 36% who showed no symptoms, 34% who had mild disease, 11% who had moderate disease, 16% with severe and serious disease, and 3% with critical disease.
The same study also involved 63 patient women during pregnancy who tested negative of the COVID-19 and 11 women who were not pregnant, to provide a contrast for the said study.
The coronavirus
Authors and the experts of the study measured the levels of virus in blood and tissue samples.
Aside from this, they also looked for the growth of antibodies or blood protein, and how well those things passed through the placenta to the fetus and tested its tissue.
They found levels of the virus in the woman's saliva, nasal, and throat discharge. But, they found no virus in the bloodstream or the placenta.
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The newborn babies
Although in this study none of the newborn babies have the COVID-19, their risk of having it is not zero. Other studies have shown the range is quite low, but, much lower than in other viruses as well as Zika or other viruses.
Another major finding from the study is that the experts found the women during pregnancy who have the virus did make antibodies or blood proteins to the virus but did not transfer them across as much as would be expected.
In other viruses or vaccines, antibodies like these tend to be transferred at much higher levels, because babies can't develop their blood proteins until they are 6 months old.
Vaccines on pregnant women
The other author of the study, Dr. Denise Jamieson, said that their findings raise questions about whether the blood proteins of mothers from COVID-19 vaccines are going to help protect the baby the way they see them like other virus vaccines.
Their findings highlight the need of making sure that pregnant women are involved in the research. This is because experts need to better grasp how vaccines work mainly in pregnant women.
The authors of the study also hope to follow up with the women from this study and their children in future research. They also said that there are more subtle effects that they will need years to test it out.
