Why Aren’t Pregnant Women Getting Vaccinated?

There’s a lot of evidence that vaccines are safe and effective for pregnant women. Yet many of them still aren’t getting essential vaccines during their pregnancies.

These vaccines can protect mothers and babies from the flu, tetanus, diphtheria whooping cough and Covid-19. But without them, mothers and their babies are left unprotected from these serious — and possibly life-threatening — diseases.

So why aren’t pregnant women getting vaccinated? We conducted a survey to find out . We asked pregnant and postpartum women what their thoughts are about vaccines during pregnancy. And we asked healthcare providers who make recommendations about vaccines for their thoughts, too.

Our hope is to deepen our understanding of why so many pregnant people choose not to get vaccines and to use that understanding to help public health experts, policymakers — and women themselves — to change that.

The new survey results, summarized in an executive summary, build upon a white paper released in 2021, “Improving Maternal Immunization Status: Working Toward Solutions to the Policy, Data, and Implementation Challenges Driving Suboptimal U.S. Maternal Vaccination Rates.”

White paper authors include HealthyWomen, Adult Vaccine Access Coalition, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Public Health Association, AHIP, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses, Immunization Action Coalition, March of Dimes, National Association of Hispanic Nurses, National Black Nurses Association, National Coalition for Infant Health, National Minority Quality Forum, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Vaccinate Your Family.

Read the press release and access the survey executive summary, now also available in Spanish.

Learn more about maternal immunizations:

• “Improving Maternal Immunization Status: Working Toward Solutions to the Policy, Data, and Implementation Challenges Driving Suboptimal U.S. Maternal Vaccination Rates.”
• Three Vaccines You Need for Pregnancy (Spanish)
• When It Comes to Vaccines, Better Data Collection and Coordination of Education Efforts Will Help Close Lifesaving Maternal Immunization Gaps
• Why do pregnant moms skip recommended vaccines – and how can we improve access to prevention tools?