Can COVID vaccines cause birth defects when given to pregnant women?

People on social media are making false claims — terrifying to prospective parents — that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine can cause changes in the DNA of a baby she is carrying and result in a "mutant baby" born with extra limbs or other deformities.

Non-contemporaneous photos of real children with birth defects who were born years before the mRNA COVID vaccines and in one case, a picture of a baby with a photoshopped tail, are being used alongside these false claims.

However, the mRNA in COVID vaccines does not enter the nucleus of human cells, where the DNA is, and does not alter the DNA of the mother or her unborn baby. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not identified any safety concerns for pregnant people who were vaccinated or for their babies.