Best Practices for Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy Among Pregnant Women
By Sarai Rodriguez
New research highlights the benefits of affirmative messaging focused on vaccine safety and the protection of the baby in terms of overcoming vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women. The study, conducted by researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, sought to understand the effects of vaccine messaging on pregnant women's ideas about vaccination during pregnancy. For the study, 28 pregnant women aged 18-40 years were asked to list what information was the most important to them when thinking about whether to get vaccinated against influenza and pertussis. Most of the women had positive attitudes about vaccination and had received routine vaccinations, according to the researchers. The participants said they had received vaccine messaging from several sources but considered their healthcare providers trusted sources for such information. "Participants felt that the most important messages to encourage maternal vaccination were that maternal vaccination protects the baby after birth and maternal vaccination is safe for both mother and baby," said corresponding author Rebecca Perkins, MD. "They also found messages about the severe disease among pregnant individuals to be frightening and less motivating than information about safety and protecting their babies." The researchers found that fear-based messaging was not considered as influential for the participants. They noted that many vaccine education and public health initiatives emphasize how sick a pregnant person could become if she did not receive a particular vaccine, and they called for more positive messaging for immunization efforts, both in one-on-one discussions and for public health campaigns.
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