Study shows increase in pregnant women being mindful about vaccine choices

A 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that more American women are being mindful about their choices around receiving vaccinations during pregnancy.

The CDC now recommends four vaccines for pregnant women — flu, COVID, pertussis (whooping cough), and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). RSV was added in September of this year, making the list of vaccine recommendations in pregnancy the longest it has ever been. 

The report is based on a survey of close to 2,000 women who were pregnant during the 2022 cold and flu season up until April 2023. Nearly 25% of these women described themselves as being “very hesitant” about receiving the flu and Tdap vaccinations. This shows a considerable jump in caution around vaccines from 17.2% who expressed concerns during the same season in 2019-2020.

Maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UCLA Health Dr. Neil Silverman observes, “We are meeting more resistance than I ever remember. We didn't get this kind of pushback on this scale before the pandemic."

NBC News concurs, reporting that since the pandemic “skepticism about vaccines has ballooned and spread to common flu shots.”

Ob/Gyn and global health and immunization expert at the University of Washington Dr. Linda Eckert is seeing the same caution in her practice: “There's a bias that some patients have, more than they used to, about how they feel about a vaccine." She says that more pregnant women now don't even want to discuss it when she recommends a vaccine to them. 

Some health professionals affirm mothers' increasing mindfulness around vaccinations in pregnancy. Dr. Jodie Dionne, associate director of Global Health in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Women's Reproductive Health is encouraging: "That instinct [to question vaccine recommendations] is a good one. It's protective mothering. We actually want women to question what they're putting in their body."

In general, women are primed by healthcare providers, pregnancy resources, and society to be cautious about what they consume and are exposed to during pregnancy to safeguard the health of both mother and baby. Warnings against drugs, alcohol, certain foods and drinks, and environmental factors such as gasoline fumes, pesticides, and household cleaners are commonplace.