Publication:

A cross sectional study on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and its safety, perinatal and neonatal outcomes in a tertiary care hospital

Background Pregnant women are more likely to suffer severe COVID-19 illness, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, there were increased pregnant cases of severe COVID-19. Following first wave due to the wild alpha variant, the vaccine efficacy was questioned during second wave caused by beta and omicron. When compared to receiving only two doses, a third dose (booster dose) that was given at least five months following the second dose significantly decreased the rate of COVID-19 symptoms and severe COVID-19 caused by all variants.

Methods A prospective hospital based cross-sectional study was undertaken at SSIMS AND RC, Davangere. This study was conducted on pregnant women visiting antenatal clinics and delivering at the department of OBG at S. S. hospital, Davangere.

Results The data was collected from Feb 2022 to April 2022 at our institute in women undergoing delivery with history of COVID 19 vaccination during pregnancy. A total of 188 cases were studied in the following duration, majority of the women belonged to the age group of 26 to 35 years. 54.8% of the cases were multiparous followed by 45.2% of the cases who were primigravida’s. The mean gestational age during admission and delivery of the patients involved in the study was 37.33 weeks, ranging from as early as 27 weeks of gestation to 40 weeks of gestation. There was no significant correlation between the neonatal and maternal complications seen in the study to the number of doses, gestational age and type of vaccine.

Conclusions Vaccinating everyone is the most effective method of battling the current COVID-19 outbreak. Despite the lack of sufficient clinical data on long-term side effects, the decline in the number of new cases, critically sick patients, and mortality in many nations suggests that vaccines will put an end to the pandemic.