A new study shows that receiving an mRNA COVID vaccine during the first trimester of pregnancy does not lead to birth defects. From my standpoint, I didn’t even know that this was an issue, but we now have scientific evidence that pregnant women have fewer reasons to worry about the safety of the COVID vaccine.

We continue to receive overwhelming scientific evidence that the COVID mRNA vaccine helps both the mother and her developing baby in addition to its solid safety profile. There is almost no reason for a pregnant mother to avoid the vaccine.

This article will review the new data, ensuring that every mother can be assured that the COVID vaccine administered during the first trimester of pregnancy will not increase the risk of birth defects.

COVID vaccine and birth defects research

In a paper published on 1 October 2025 in JAMA Network Open, Mahmoud Zureik, MD, PhD, EPI-PHARE Scientific Interest Group in Epidemiology of Health Products, Saint-Denis, France, and colleagues, examined the medical records of nearly 500,000 infants to determine if fetal exposure to maternal COVID mRNA vaccines in the first trimester of pregnancy was linked to an increased risk of 75 major congenital malformations (MCMs).

The research team utilized data from the Mother-Child EPI-MERES Register, a part of France’s national health data system. They included all live-born infants of mothers aged 15 to 49 years at conception whose pregnancies began between April 2021 and January 2022. The investigators excluded the infants of mothers who used teratogenic drugs or had teratogenic infections.

Researchers included individuals who had primary exposure to a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine between the date of conception and day 91, the first trimester’s last day. The study excluded pregnant women who received non-mRNA COVID vaccines. The investigators searched for 72 MCMs in infants within 1 year after delivery, and assessed the incidence of three more, epispadias, hypospadias, and microcephaly, within 2 years after birth.

Here are the key results:

• There were 176.6 major congenital malformations (MCMs) per 10,000 infants exposed to first-trimester COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, compared with 179.4 per 10,000 infants not exposed to the vaccines. The difference was statistically insignificant.
• There were no associations between mRNA vaccine exposure and MCMs by organ system.
• There was no difference in the rate of stillbirths between pregnant women who received mRNA vaccines and those who didn’t (both 0.4%).

The authors concluded:

Our study confirms the fetal safety of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy, showing no increased risk of MCMs and reassuring the millions of women worldwide who received these vaccines early in pregnancy. Policymakers and healthcare practitioners should update vaccination guidelines to ensure that pregnant women are adequately informed about the safety of these vaccines.

Summary

Here we go, another research article that establishes the safety of the COVID mRNA vaccine for pregnant women and the developing fetus. And given the evidence that the vaccine protects the mother and baby, we should ignore what the CDC now recommends, and every mother should get the COVID vaccine during pregnancy.

COVID is still endemic, it has not disappeared. Getting COVID during pregnancy can lead to some worse outcomes for the mother and baby, so preventing it with the vaccine seems to be the best choice.

Citations

• Bernard C, Duchemin T, Marty L, Drouin J, Miranda S, Semenzato L, Botton J, Chouchana L, Dray-Spira R, Weill A, Zureik M. First-Trimester mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Risk of Major Congenital Anomalies. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Oct 1;8(10):e2538039. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.38039. PMID: 41091463.

Help the Skeptical Raptor keep writing about vaccines

There are four ways you can help contribute to keeping this website running at full speed:

1. GoFundMe.
2. Subscribing via Patreon.
3. Buying on Amazon.
4. Sharing this article on Social Media.