By Miah Stringer
Staff Writer
At 36 weeks, a pregnant South Florida healthcare worker received her first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine. Three weeks later, before receiving her second dose, she gave birth to a healthy newborn — with COVID-19 antibodies.
This baby marks the first case of a baby born with COVID-19 antibodies within the U.S. This news is exciting, it means that a mother can pass on the antibodies that can help protect a newborn. Dr. Paul Gilbert and Dr. Chad Rudnick presented their findings in a preprint study, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed. “We have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies are detectable in a newborn’s cord blood sample after only a single dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine,” they noted. “Thus, there is potential for protection and infection risk reduction from Sars-CoV-2 with maternal vaccination.” However, the doctors did emphasize that more research needs to be conducted in order to verify the safety of the coronavirus vaccine during pregnancy. Other recent studies and findings do show promising results, and more trials are underway.
For this mother, they discovered that the antibodies were present at the time of delivery by analyzing blood taken from the umbilical cord. These results align the COVID vaccine with other common vaccines that are often taken by pregnant mothers, such as the flu vaccine. The doctors believe that these early results will give pregnant women more reason to consider receiving the vaccine.