A new study has revealed first-time mums are more hesitant about childhood vaccinations compared to mothers with children, with one third reporting they did not get enough information on vaccines during pregnancy.
The study, led by RCH paediatrician and MCRI researcher Dr Margie Danchin, found that while overall support of childhood vaccines was high, nearly half of mothers pregnant with their first child had concerns about childhood vaccinations and less than three quarters had made a decision about childhood vaccinations.
Just 73 per cent had made a decision on vaccinating their child prior to delivery. This was compared to mothers who already had children where nearly 90 per cent said they had decided on vaccinations. A disturbing six per cent of first-time mothers reported that they had not heard about vaccinations at all.
Dr Danchin said the findings showed support for decision-making needed to be improved during pregnancy.
“Trusted healthcare providers play a very important role in discussing vaccination. It’s important to have this discussion early. This would help to reduce vaccine hesitancy for all mothers in pregnancy and post-delivery, particularly for first-time mothers, as pregnancy is a key vaccine decision-making time point,” Dr Danchin said.
The study aimed to determine whether vaccine information is received in pregnancy and post-delivery, mothers’ attitudes and concerns regarding childhood vaccination and maternal immunisation uptake.
Currently there is no mandated time point in Australia to discuss childhood vaccination with expectant parents.
The study found that the degree of vaccine hesitancy and belief that childhood vaccines are safe during pregnancy correlated with vaccine uptake post-delivery, allowing interventions in pregnancy to be tailored to these specific concerns.
“It is very clear that new interventions are needed to improve vaccine uptake and that they also need to sustain vaccine confidence in the longer term for parents. Successful interventions are likely to have multiple components, including making sure the vaccines are easily accessible, and include communication strategies. Information on vaccine alone is not enough,” Dr Danchin said.
New mum Agnieszka Sobocinska was vaccine hesitant when she was pregnant with three month old Maja. She recalls that vaccinations were mentioned very early on in her pregnancy but the subject didn’t come up again until near the end of her third trimester.
“When it was raised so late in my pregnancy I did decide to do some research online. This only succeeded in making me nervous about going ahead with the vaccinations because there were so many negative, uninformed stories and opinions online.
“Thinking through the issue rationally, I decided to go with the weight of evidence and expert advice and go ahead with vaccinations to protect Maja from disease but an earlier discussion would have been very welcome,” Agnieszka said.
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