--- title: When Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccine description: A study suggests that the best way to protect unvaccinated moms-to-be and their fetuses is to vaccinate in the first trimester, then boost in the third. canonical: https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-06-30T15:21:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T13:09:53.180Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccines As Soon As Possible og:description: A study suggests that the best way to protect unvaccinated moms-to-be and their fetuses is to vaccinate in the first trimester, then boost in the third. og:url: https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889a3af8198fc8bf/698a334adb29872f35267f5e/Pregnant-woman-vaccination.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6385 og:image:height: 3592 og:image:alt: The County of Los Angeles host a media event kicking off COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5-11 in Los Angeles County. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccines As Soon As Possible twitter:description: A study suggests that the best way to protect unvaccinated moms-to-be and their fetuses is to vaccinate in the first trimester, then boost in the third. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889a3af8198fc8bf/698a334adb29872f35267f5e/Pregnant-woman-vaccination.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccines As Soon As Possible > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/) and [Emily Barone](https://time.com/author/emily-barone/) Jun 30, 2022 3:21 PM UTC  Nicole Fahey, of Altadena, six months pregnant, receives a Pfizer vaccination booster shot from RN Veronique (cq) Vida (cq) at Eugene A. Obregon Park on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. Nicole Fahey, of Altadena, six months pregnant, receives a Pfizer vaccination booster shot from RN Veronique (cq) Vida (cq) at Eugene A. Obregon Park on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. Gary Coronado—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/) and [Emily Barone](https://time.com/author/emily-barone/) Jun 30, 2022 3:21 PM UTC COVID-19 poses health risks during pregnancy for everyone involved. Pregnant people are [at higher risk](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002937821009911) for severe disease, and the chances of negative outcomes for mother and baby—such as preeclampsia, preterm birth, and stillbirth—increase with infection. However, pregnant people were excluded from the original vaccine trials, so when the vaccines first became available, [many soon-to-be-mothers were unsure](https://time.com/6094069/covid-19-vaccine-pregnant-hesitancy/) about taking them. Thousands of pregnant people have now been vaccinated in the U.S., and an abundance of data show that [getting vaccinated during pregnancy is safe and protective](https://time.com/6148435/covid-19-vaccine-during-pregnancy/) for both mothers and babies, giving babies [anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788986) and, according to a study published in June, a [69% lower chance of being hospitalized](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2204399) with the disease in their first 6 months of life. Now, [research](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31169-8) published in the journal _Nature Communications_ on June 28 shows that getting the COVID-19 vaccine during any of the three trimesters of pregnancy confers measurable benefits to the mother and child, and there may be ways to optimize protection based on when the shots are given. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital analyzed the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies of 158 women who were vaccinated during their pregnancies. Most received either Pfizer-BioNTech’s or Moderna’s vaccine, which both generated a superior immune response compared to Johnson & Johnson-Janssen’s shot. Those who were vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine during either the first or third trimesters had the strongest immune responses to vaccination. Antibody levels generated during second-trimester vaccination were somewhat weaker, which may be because pregnant people’s immune systems are more active during the first and third trimesters, and therefore may generate a greater response to the vaccine, says Dr. Andrea Edlow, a maternal fetal medicine specialist and physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who co-authored the study. The researchers also tested the levels of antibodies in women’s umbilical cords at birth, a measure that suggests how well mothers are able to transfer protection to their fetuses. They found that the transfer of antibodies from mother to baby was most efficient during the first and third trimesters, which suggests that babies whose mothers are vaccinated early in their pregnancies receive vaccine-derived COVID-19 antibodies right away. However, the absolute number of antibodies transferred was highest if the mother was vaccinated during the second or third trimester, which may mean that babies whose mothers were vaccinated later in pregnancy were offered more protection—likely because mothers’ COVID-19 immunity waned over time. Overall, this evidence points to the third trimester as the optimal time to get a [COVID-19 booster](https://time.com/6110155/pregnant-people-covid-19-boosters/), Edlow says. (The third trimester is also when the CDC recommends pregnant people get the Tdap vaccine for whooping cough in order to give babies the highest levels of protection after birth.) Edlow says that while it’s important for unvaccinated women to get vaccinated as soon as possible, the study shows how to maximize the benefits for both mother and fetus. “If I were an unvaccinated pregnant person, I would definitely get vaccinated in the first trimester. But I would also probably use the opportunity then to be boosted in the third trimester,” says Edlow. (However, she emphasizes that during the pandemic, the priority is getting vaccinated as soon as possible, no matter what trimester you’re in.) The study was kept small so that scientists could use in-depth methods to analyze the quality of the antibody production, but its size means that it can’t give a complete picture of how vaccines work in pregnant women, Edlow says. However, now that scientists have accumulated a wealth of data showing that vaccination is safe and effective in pregnant people, studies like this can help scientists fine-tune their understanding of how COVID-19 antibodies and immunity work during pregnancy. In the long term, this research may inform future recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. “We can say with confidence to pregnant individuals at this point, it’s safe to be vaccinated in pregnancy, it doesn’t cause an increased risk of miscarriage, it doesn’t cause birth defects,” says Edlow. “It does protect the mother against severe disease and death, and it does protect against pregnancy complications.” The results of this study do not directly apply to pregnant people who are already fully vaccinated and boosted, as they were not included in the study. The CDC also does not currently recommend a second booster shot to most people who are pregnant, unless they are immunocompromised. But Edlow said that she suspects the guidance will change over time, as periodic boosting for COVID-19 is expected to become more routine. Vaccination rates among pregnant people have increased over time since the shots first became available, as more data showing the benefits have been published. As the charts below show, the vaccine gap between pregnant and non-pregnant people has closed over the last year. However, women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant are less likely to have received a booster shot than other women. If they choose to [get boosted during their pregnancy](https://time.com/6110155/pregnant-people-covid-19-boosters/), says Edlow, these women might have an opportunity to further protect themselves and their babies during the first months of life. (More research is needed to know for sure; the study did not include people who had received booster shots.) The CDC [recommends](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html#:~:text=CDC%20recommends%20that%20people%20who,it's%20time%20to%20get%20one.) that pregnant people get a booster shot when they are eligible, and Edlow says that doing so after 20 weeks of pregnancy may maximize protection for the baby. However, Edlow adds that mothers should also weigh their individual risk of severe illness when deciding whether to get a booster sooner—since a mother’s health is a top priority during pregnancy. “The important message for pregnant people is: by protecting yourself, you’re doing the best thing that you can do to protect your baby,” she says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/"},"headline":"Why Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccines As Soon As Possible","datePublished":"2022-06-30T15:21:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T13:09:53.180Z","description":"A study suggests that the best way to protect unvaccinated moms-to-be and their fetuses is to vaccinate in the first trimester, then boost in the third.","url":"https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889a3af8198fc8bf/698a334adb29872f35267f5e/Pregnant-woman-vaccination.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Emily Barone","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/emily-barone/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt889a3af8198fc8bf/698a334adb29872f35267f5e/Pregnant-woman-vaccination.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The County of Los Angeles host a media event kicking off COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5-11 in Los Angeles County.","caption":"The County of Los Angeles host a media event kicking off COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5-11 in Los Angeles County.","creditText":"Gary Coronado—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6192385/pregnant-covid-19-vaccine-timing-when-to-get/","name":"Why Pregnant People Should Get COVID-19 Vaccines As Soon As Possible"}}]}] ```