The Government launched a campaign this month urging pregnant women to get vaccinated after uptake among this group remained significantly lower than the rest of the population despite a change in medical advice.
The Department for Health’s new-year drive highlights the serious risks of catching the virus for pregnant women and the benefits of vaccination to mothers and babies.
Experts told i last week that women had died and babies had been born prematurely due to “mixed” and “vague” Government messaging on vaccines during pregnancy.
But data shows that as of August 2021, just 22 per cent of women who gave birth that month had received at least one dose of the vaccine. More recent figures from Scotland showed only 32 per cent of women who gave birth in October 2021 were fully vaccinated.
The same study showed Covid-19 infection in pregnant women increased the risk of babies being stillborn, born prematurely or dying shortly after birth.
So why have vaccination levels remained so low among pregnant women?
Why were pregnant women not told to get vaccinated at the start of the roll-out?
Pregnant women were not initially advised to get vaccinated when the UK’s programme began at the start of December 2020, following approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.
At the time, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said there was no data on the safety the vaccines in pregnancy, either from human or animal studies.
It favoured a “precautionary approach” and did not advise vaccination in pregnancy at that point. Women who were planning a pregnancy within three months of the first dose were also not advised to come forward for the vaccine at that time.
The JCVI updated its advice at the end of that month to say pregnant women most at risk of contracting Covid-19, or women with underlying conditions, should be considered for the vaccine.
But although the JCVI said the available data indicated no safety concerns or potential harm to pregnancy from…