Southampton's hospital is calling for pregnant women to join a Covid vaccine study to discover the most effective use of booster vaccines during pregnancy.

The 'Preg-CoV' study is seeking low-risk, pregnant women aged 18 to 45 who are carrying a single baby and are between 13 to 36 weeks.

The research aims to determine the best vaccine schedules and doses to protect women and their babies against Covid.

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) has around 300 pregnant women taking part nationally and now hopes to gather more from the South.

READ MORE: Four million Covid vaccines given in Hampshire

Dr Chrissie Jones, Southampton study lead and honorary consultant in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at UHS, said the study will find the "best ways" to protect pregnant women. 

She said: “The COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy has been proven to be safe in hundreds of thousands of women and protects them against severe infection.

“This study will give us important information about the spacing of vaccines in pregnancy whether a half dose of the booster is as good as the full dose of booster."

The study will involve around 700 pregnant women in total at sites across England.

Professor Paul Heath, chief investigator, and professor of paediatric infectious diseases at St George’s, University of London, said: “We need even more pregnant women across the country to participate.

“They will help shape future guidelines and protect pregnant women in the future. It is a really worthwhile, helpful thing to do.”

Current UK guidance says Covid vaccination should be offered to pregnant women at the same time as the rest of the population.

Participants will receive monitoring and additional support through study visits compared to those who receive their vaccine outside of the study.

All participants and their babies will be followed up until one year after delivery.

Find out more by visiting the study’s website.

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