evidence: But a new study of more than 46,000 pregnant women shows that COVID-19 vaccination does not increase the risk of delivering a premature baby or of having a baby born smaller than expected—both of which are linked to higher chances of infant death and disability. The study, which adds to existing evidence that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is safe, was published on Jan. 4, 2022, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Heather Lipkind, MD, a Yale Medicine obstetrician-gynecologist and high-risk pregnancy specialist, was its lead author. [...] This latest study examined 46,079 pregnancies that resulted in a live birth. It included 10,064 pregnant women who received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine between Dec. 15, 2020, and July 22, 2021. Most of the women received Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, and the majority were vaccinated during their second or third trimester.