Safety of maternal pertussis vaccination on pregnancy and birth
outcomes: A prospective cohort study
Abstract
Abstract Objective To evaluate the safety of maternal pertussis
vaccination on pregnancy and birth outcomes. Design Prospective,
multicentre cohort study. Setting Two major materiality hospitals in
South Australia. Population A total of 1364 low-risk nulliparous women
with a singleton pregnancy recruited at 9–16 weeks’ gestation between
2015 to 2018. Methods Participants were followed prospectively, with
vaccination (confirmed by medical records), extensive amounts of
pregnancy and birth outcome data collected by research midwives.
Adjusted relative risks (aRRs) and hazard ratios (aHRs) were estimated
accounting for time-varying vaccine exposure and the temporal nature of
each outcome. Main Outcome Measures Pregnancy and birth outcomes.
Results Of the 1272 women included in this study, 80.1% (n=1019)
received maternal pertussis vaccination. Vaccinated women had an average
0.22 weeks (95% CI 0.001, 0.44) longer gestation at delivery compared
to unvaccinated women. Maternal pertussis vaccination was not associated
with chorioamnionitis (aRR 0.71, 95% CI 0.27,1.82), gestational
hypertension (aHR 1.24, 95% CI, 0.66, 2.30), preeclampsia (aHR 0.75,
95% CI 0.47, 1.18) nor preterm birth (aHR 0.99, 95% CI 0.47, 2.07).
Neither risk of low birth weight (aHR 0.72, 95% CI 0.41, 1.27) nor
small for gestational age infants (aHR 0.67,95% CI 0.29, 1.55) were
increased following maternal pertussis vaccination. No associations
between pertussis vaccination during pregnancy and adverse birth
outcomes including admission to the neonatal care unit, low Apgar
scores, and mechanical ventilation were observed. Conclusions Our study
provides reassuring evidence of the safety of maternal pertussis
vaccination with no increased risk of adverse pregnancy and birth
outcomes.