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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1415548
This article is part of the Research Topic Vaccine Education and Promotion View all 9 articles

Pregnant individuals perspectives towards receiving COVID-19 vaccination during their pregnancy: an in-depth qualitative study

Provisionally accepted
Sanne J. Zilver Sanne J. Zilver 1*Anna Rietveld Anna Rietveld 2Noralie Schonewille Noralie Schonewille 3Petra Bakker Petra Bakker 2Birit Broekman Birit Broekman 3Elisabeth Van Leeuwen Elisabeth Van Leeuwen 2Christianne de Groot Christianne de Groot 2
  • 1 VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 2 Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
  • 3 Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG), Amsterdam, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Pregnant individuals have an increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Vaccination is an effective strategy to prevent severe illness and complications for pregnant individuals. Pregnant individuals are often excluded from research and remain hesitant to receive vaccination against COVID-19. It is pivotal to study factors related to vaccine uptake and hesitancy among pregnant individuals. We studied barriers and facilitators for pregnant individuals choice and motivation regarding vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy to aid future pregnant individuals in their decision to vaccinate against various infectious agents. In this qualitative study, pregnant individuals were interviewed, between October 2021 and January 2022, using a semi-structured approach. A topic list was used to explore their feelings, perceptions and ideas regarding vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analyses was performed using MAX-QDA. After nine interviews, saturation was reached. Three main themes were identified that influenced pregnant individuals choice and motivation regarding vaccination: health consequences, ambiguity of information and societal motivation. Health consequences mainly concerned the effect for their offspring, and the unknown long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccination. The advice from the Dutch institute for Public Health and Environment changed from not vaccinating pregnant individuals after release of the developed vaccine, to routinely vaccinating all pregnant individuals after research data were available from the USA. This change of policy fueledfuelled doubt and confusion for vaccination. Arguments in favor of vaccination from the social perspective were specific behaviorbehaviour rules and restrictions due to the pandemic. E.g. without vaccination people were unable to travel abroad and having to take a COVID-19 test every time entering a public place.In conclusion, pregnant individuals need clear, unambiguous information concerning health consequences, short-and long-term, particularly for their offspring, in the decision-making process regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Additionally, the societal perspective needs to be addressed. Besides the aforementioned themes, general counselingcounselling should focus on misperceptions of vaccine safety and the role of misinformation which are also important in the non-pregnant population. This study underlines the importance of including pregnant individuals in research programs to obtain specific information targeted to their needs.

    Keywords: Pregnancy, Pregnant individuals, COVID-19, Vaccine hesitancy, SARS-CoV-2

    Received: 10 Apr 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zilver, Rietveld, Schonewille, Bakker, Broekman, Van Leeuwen and de Groot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sanne J. Zilver, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.