RCM urging women to know their options around Covid-19 vaccines

A senior midwife says the majority of pregnant women are opting to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

Last month the JCVI said expectant mums should be offered the Pfizer or Moderna jab after the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) presented evidence to the JCVI.

It recommended offering vaccination to all pregnant women in line with priority groups.

This enables every pregnant woman to make an individual decision based on benefits and risks.

Up until this point, the COVID-19 vaccination has only been offered to pregnant women when their risk of exposure to the virus is high, such as health and social care workers, or if the woman has underlying conditions that place her at high risk of complications of COVID-19.

Clinical trials testing the vaccine in pregnant women are just starting, but data from the US – where around 90,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated mainly with mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – have not raised any safety concerns.

Therefore, the JCVI is advising that it is preferable for the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines to be offered to pregnant women in the UK, where available.

Birtie Harlev-Lam is an Executive Director Midwife at the Royal College of Midwives.

She said in her experience, most women are choosing to be vaccinated:

"It's ultimately the woman's choice whether to have the vaccine or not but what we want women to do is consider the risk and the benefits and have a conversation with their health professional, midwife, GP, obstetrician about what's right for them but it's a woman's choice."

She added: "The overall consensus is that most women, when they start finding the evidence and that's what they want to know is it safe for them and when you talk to them about their individual circumstances and the safety and what we know about the vaccine, certainly in my own experience, many find that they feel safe and they would like to have the vaccination."