Study: Vaccine had no impact on placentas

CHICAGO — New data from researchers who studied women who were vaccinated while pregnant found no evidence that the vaccine affected their placentas.

The new findings, published Tuesday in the Obstetrics & Gynecology journal, may help switch the focus from whether the vaccine is safe during pregnancy to how getting vaccinated is a way to protect mo+m and baby.

Co-author Dr. Emily Miller, a Northwestern Medicine maternal fetal medicine physician, said the results were reassuring.

“We don’t see any signals that suggest the placenta is getting injured from the vaccine,” Miller said. “This builds on rapidly emerging data that emphasizes the vaccine is not dangerous during pregnancy.”

The Obstetrics & Gynecology study adds to growing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy, researchers said. It is also believed to be the first to examine any effect of COVID-19 vaccines on placentas, which can indicate potential risks and be an early sign of issues.

“The placenta is like the black box in an airplane,” co-author Dr. Jeffery Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement accompanying the research. “If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened.”

From what they saw, he added, “The COVID vaccine does not damage the placenta.”

Dr. Jessica O’Connell was one of the first to get vaccinated while pregnant, with her early eligibility as a Northwestern physician. She delivered her son at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital in January.

As a physician who understood the science behind the vaccine and was confident in her ability to weigh any risk-benefit scenario, “I never had a doubt,” about getting vaccinated, she said. Seeing this study reinforces her decision. “It’s always a relief to have actual data that supports your hypothesis,” she said.