Key Takeaways
The COVID vaccine can protect pregnanciesWomen who got the jab were less likely to suffer a preterm birthThey also had a lower risk of hospitalization
TUESDAY, Dec. 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Pregnant women who get the COVID-19 vaccine are less likely to have a preterm birth, a new study says.
Vaccination was also strongly associated with lower risk of hospitalization or intensive care treatment among expecting mothers, researchers reported Dec. 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Our findings provide clear, population-level evidence that COVID-19 vaccination protects pregnant people and their babies from serious complications,” said senior researcher Dr. Deborah Money, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
“Even as the virus evolved, vaccination continued to offer substantial benefits for both mother and child,” Money said in a news release.
In May, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer recommend routine COVID shots for U.S. pregnant women.
However, medical societies like the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) continue to recommend that pregnant women receive a COVID vaccine or booster.
“Looking closely at the full body of data clearly shows that the COVID-19 vaccines are not only completely safe for use during pregnancy but also protective both during pregnancy and after the infant is born,” Dr. Mark Turrentine, one of the authors of an August ACOG practice advisory on vaccination, said in a news release.
“I know that my patients do all that they can to make decisions that will help them have a healthy baby, and choosing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is one decision that I encourage them all to make,” Turrentine added.
For the new study, researchers tracked pregnant women in Canada who’d become infected with COVID between April 2021 and December 2022. They compared how the women and their babies fared, based on whether the expecting mom had gotten the COVID jab.
Overall, the study included outcomes for nearly 20,000 pregnancies, researchers said.
Results showed that vaccination reduced the risk of preterm birth by 20% during the Delta wave of the COVID pandemic and 36% during the Omicron wave.
Women vaccinated during pregnancy, rather than before pregnancy, had even lower rates of preterm birth, researchers said.
They also had lower rates of stillbirth — 0.17% for those vaccinated during pregnancy versus 0.47% for those vaccinated prior to pregnancy, the study says.
“There is never a bad time to be vaccinated — whether you’re currently pregnant or planning a pregnancy,” lead researcher Elisabeth McClymont, an assistant professor in UBC’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said in a news release. “But our data suggest there may be added benefits to receiving the vaccine during pregnancy.”
The women were also 60% less likely to be hospitalized and 90% less likely to wind up in an ICU, results showed.
“The body of evidence is overwhelmingly clear: COVID-19 vaccination is safe and effective in pregnancy,” Money said. “These latest findings provide critical information for pregnant women and their care providers and strongly support public health guidance that recommends vaccination during pregnancy.”
More information
The American Pregnancy Association has more on COVID vaccines and pregnancy.
SOURCE: University of British Columbia, news release, Dec. 15, 2025
What This Means For You
Medical societies continue to recommend that pregnant women get the COVID vaccine, to protect both themselves and their baby.
