A recent study published in PLoS Medicine had claimed that vaccinated pregnant women are less susceptible to deliver a baby with low birth weight and further notified that any encounter with respiratory infections, during the pregnancy, have a greater influence on the higher risk of premature deliveries and infants with low birth rates.

Expecting mothers who had availed their jabs against such infections including flu or influenza related pneumonia are 40% less likely to deliver premature babies during the flu season as compared to those women who did not availed any vaccination, it explained further.

During the course of the study, the researchers have analyzed around 4,168 pregnant women who had their babies between June 2004 and September 2006 and examined carefully whether the flu vaccine had any effect on the risk of premature birth and low birth weight.

“When faced with the decision to receive the influenza vaccine in pregnancy, women often focus on perceived risks of the vaccine to the fetus and do not consider benefits... In this paper, for the first time, we document a protective effect of the vaccine on the fetus and the newborn”, explained the lead researcher of the study, Saad B. Omer and suggested the pregnant women to have their flu vaccines.