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Both mother and fetus are in increased risk for complications of flu infection while pregnant. And prenatal health care providers say they’re advising women to get the flu vaccine, consistent with recommendations from various organizations. However, many women that are pregnant do not understand the importance of this advice-and do not get the vaccine.
Robert Arao, MPH, a biostatistician at Group Health Research Institute, did a statewide survey-the to begin its kind-to assess what doctors think and do about flu vaccines for women that are pregnant. Mr. Arao was at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) Public Health Division as he did this work. He e-published “Influenza vaccination of women that are pregnant: attitudes and behaviors of Oregon physician prenatal care providers” with Kenneth D. Rosenberg, MD, MPH and Katrina Hedberg, MD, MPH, of OHA’s? Public Health Division, and Shannon McWeeney, PhD, of OHSU, in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.
They discovered that most doctors who provide prenatal care in Oregon understood the importance of flu vaccination while pregnant and communicated it for their patients. The study team mailed market research to some random sample of more than 1,000 obstetricians and family physicians in Oregon. From the survey respondents who had provided prenatal care in the last year, nearly nine in 10 said they routinely recommended flu vaccine for their healthy pregnant patients. Doctors who have been younger, saw more pregnant patients, or both were much more likely to do so.
“Women comprehend the importance of not putting potential toxins, like alcohol and tobacco, to their body while pregnant,” Mr. Arao said, “But women need to comprehend that getting a flu vaccination during pregnancy protects both mother and the baby.”
Nationwide, only 1 / 2 of American women get flu vaccine while pregnant, and 75 % of women that are pregnant who get a recommendation from the clinician actually get the vaccine. As well as in the North american, rates for a lot of vaccinations tend to be less than those for that nation as a whole.
