Pregnancy vax protects babies

The paper appeared in Pediatrics on March 20, 2026 and was led by Helena N. Eide and coauthors from the University of Oslo using national registry data. (publications.aap.org) The cohort included 146,031 live-born infants in Norway between March 2021 and December 2023, of whom 37,013 (25%) were born to mothers who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy. (publications.aap.org) Protection against COVID‑related hospital contact declined with age: adjusted hazard ratios were 0.48 (95% CI, 0.40–0.56) for 0–2 months, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.60–0.98) for 3–5 months, 1.13 (95% CI, 0.82–1.56) for 6–11 months and 1.14 (95% CI, 0.72–1.79) after 12 months. (publications.aap.org) Analyses found no difference in risk of any infection requiring specialist care (adjusted HR 0.99) and a small increase in primary‑care infection registrations (adjusted HR 1.05) that disappeared after excluding children whose mothers remained unvaccinated at study end. (publications.aap.org) The team used nationwide register‑based methods and Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios across age strata, allowing the paper to report age‑specific waning of protection through the first year. (publications.aap.org) Professional guidance has tracked with accumulating evidence: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reaffirmed a strong recommendation for COVID‑19 vaccination during pregnancy in March 2026. (acog.org) The Pediatrics findings add a large, population‑level complement to prior NIAID research showing mRNA vaccination or boosting during pregnancy confers robust infant protection for roughly the first six months of life. (niaid.nih.gov) Major outlets including NPR summarized the study’s scope and timing when reporting the results on March 25, 2026. (kunm.org)