New research presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal, (23-26 April) found that most women who catch COVID-19 when pregnant pass antibodies to their unborn babies.

Antibodies to infections are known to be transferred from mother to baby during the last three months of pregnancy, providing the baby with some protection against that particular illness when they are born.

Little is known, however, about how well COVID antibodies are transferred from mother to child, either in vaccinated or unvaccinated populations.

This study focuses on pregnant women who caught COVID before vaccines were widely rolled out.

Dr. Liliana Gabrielli and colleagues at the IRCCS St. Orsola Polyclinic, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, studied more than 4,000 women who gave birth in Bologna between July 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

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