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Pregnant women are more susceptible to life-threatening complications if they contract the flu, which makes the results of a new survey showing that only half of pregnant women get vaccinated so disturbingly.
It is recommended to vaccinate all women who are or could become pregnant during the influenza season. The vaccine is safe for mothers and their unborn children. But in addition to the influenza vaccine, pregnant women should also be vaccinated against whooping cough, also called whooping cough.
The pertussis vaccine is combined with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines in a combination vaccine called Tdap, and pregnant women are advised to receive it once between the 27th and 36th week of pregnancy (even during pregnancy ). past.
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The survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aimed to determine the prevalence of influenza vaccination during the 2017-2018 influenza season by asking about 1,700 women to complete a survey. Women were pregnant during the peak flu season between October and January, and about 700 of them were sufficiently advanced to be eligible for the Tdap vaccine.
Some women who submitted the survey had to be excluded because they did not remember if they had received the vaccines – a common problem in studies where participants are asked to remember something that has happened, like this. But among those who remembered, their demographics were about the same as [who in the US?].
Surprisingly, only about half of women (49%) received an influenza vaccine before or during pregnancy. A slightly higher number of women received Tdap (54%). But for those who received both, only 33% responded
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There were many explanations for which they had not been vaccinated. Many women who skipped Tdap stated that they did not know they needed to receive it during pregnancy. There were also many women who expressed concerns about the safety of these vaccines and how they will affect their babies. Women who skipped the flu vaccine said they did not think it was effective – an assertion that is not true.
The CDC has extracted other interesting information from the survey. For example, it was found that women with health care providers who offered the vaccine were the most likely to receive them. Even women who were referred somewhere outside their office received the vaccines at higher rates than those who were not referred.
The results of the survey may be discouraging for doctors and public health officials, who know the importance of these vaccines for the protection of pregnant women. These results can also be surprising for physicians who take the time to talk about vaccines and who may assume that patients are following their advice. That said, studies have shown that there may be poor communication between doctors and their patients about how vaccines work and why they should be taken.
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Although there are several factors that cause women to ignore vaccines during pregnancy, including health literacy and the underlying personal and cultural beliefs. However, it is reassuring to note that getting vaccines and referring patients to where they can find them seems to improve vaccination rates.
In trying to ensure that all women and their future children are protected against preventable diseases, especially in the run-up to the flu season, doctors could just say, "Here's where you can get vaccinated ".
Amisha Ahuja is a Resident in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
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