Engagement - News and Updates

Vaccinations

Vaccinations During Pregnancy

Pregnant women are at increased risk of viral infections due to changes in their immune system during pregnancy. Vaccinations – particularly for influenza (flu), pertussis (whooping cough) and Covid-19 – are therefore highly recommended.

 

If pregnant women choose not to have these vaccines, they not only put themselves at increased risk of disease, hospitalisation and death, but also prevent their baby from having increased protection from birth.

 

Despite the NHS and the WHO strongly recommending these vaccines in pregnancy, uptake remains low in the UK with only 51% of pregnant women having two doses of Covid-19 vaccine, 60% having the whooping cough vaccine and just 30% taking the flu jab.

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NHS England are funding engagement activity around vaccination uptake, with the specific purpose of reaching pregnant people in Somerset who may be considered as living in socio-economically deprived areas of Somerset, who may be included in Core20PLUS5 data as experiencing health inequalities, as well as diverse communities who are often referred to as ‘seldom heard’ or ‘harder to reach’. To read more about maternity as a particular clinical focus out of the '5' areas that require accelerated improvement, please see: NHS England » Core20PLUS5 (adults) – an approach to reducing healthcare inequalities

 

The Communications and Engagement Team is currently working collaboratively with community groups who support pregnant women and new mothers in three areas of the county. Our aim is to engage with individuals and groups to gain a better of understanding of:

 

• People’s knowledge and understanding of vaccination during pregnancy
• People’s experiences of getting those vaccinations
• How people currently access information about vaccinations
• How we can best adapt and develop our messaging so that it is accessible and suitable for the audiences we need to reach
• Any challenges that people face in attending vaccination appointments

 

We will provide more updates here on what we are hearing and learning, as our collaborative work with individuals and communities across Somerset develops. We will also be able to highlight how the feedback we gather is used to shape both strategy and communications, as part of our commitment to 'You Said, We Did'.