Vaccinating Pregnant Mothers Against Influenza Is Safe for Their Children

Despite guidelines advocating universal influenza vaccination during pregnancy, only half of pregnant U.S. women received the vaccine in the 2014­–2015 season, and concerns about safety continue to drive refusal. Swedish investigators analyzed data on perinatal and pediatric mortality in >275,000 births to >137,000 women with or without immunization with Pandemrix (an adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine used in Sweden) during pregnancy.

For the 41,000 children born to vaccinated women compared with the 234,000 born to unvaccinated women (and for the 39,000 control siblings born to the same mother during an unvaccinated pregnancy), no safety concerns were detected. Rates of stillbirth, neonatal death (within 6 days), or later death (within 4.6 years) did…