system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do vaccines also inoculate the fetus of a pregnant woman?
gpt
Yes and no. The vaccines stimulate the mother’s immune system and her immune system memory is transferred to the baby via antibodies. However this isn’t true for all vaccines and the immunity is transient. The vaccine itself does not induce immunity in the baby for 2 reasons... 1) the placenta prevents the immunologic aspects of of the vaccine of making it to the baby and 2) the baby’s immune system, depending on gestational age, is not mature enough to respond meaningfully to the vaccine even if it were exposed.