Maternal instincts
New study looks into vaccine knowledge in maternity care .
By Conor Burke
Vaccination has been a tricky topic of late . The global race to find a way to get our lives back to some semblance of normality has caused concern among some as to the efficacy and safety of the vaccine options available .
Surveys have found that willingness to take a vaccine has fallen over the last four months , from 74.4 per cent in October 2020 to 66.2 per cent in February 2021 . Meanwhile , the percentage of people who said they would not take the vaccine rose in the same period from 12 per cent in October 2020 to 19.4 per cent in early February 2021 .
More recently , the Guardian reported on April 27 that a poll of 1,090 people found that “ just 46 per cent of those over the age of 50 said they were willing to take either the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer vaccine ”.
The poll also found that nearly a third of people would only be willing to get the Pfizer jab , while 14 per cent of people didn ’ t want either jab .
But what of those involved in maternity care ? Pregnant women have not been included in COVID-19 vaccine trials and
12 | nursingreview . com . au this has made some people nervous . But there is also a lack of peer reviewed data on the general knowledge , the attitudes and intentions of women of child-bearing age and their partners , along with midwives , midwifery students and doctors involved in maternity care in Australia toward the COVID vaccine .
“ When we ’ re dealing with vulnerable populations , which pregnant women do fall into , the concern is not only for their own health clearly but also for the health of their baby . And it ’ s really important that we support these people who are pregnant to make informed decisions for them and for their families , and for their own health ,” says Dr Zoe Bradfield from Curtin ’ s School of Nursing .
Bradfield and her team are looking to fill that knowledge void on the back of their previous look at how the pandemic has affected the maternity experience .
Through a national survey of 3701 women , their partners , midwives , medical practitioners and midwifery students who had received or provided maternity care from March 2020 , the researchers found that anxiety related to the pandemic was understandably high . However , each group had different anxieties .
“ It ’ s really important that we support these people who are pregnant to make informed decisions for them and for their families .
“ Pregnant women and new mothers were most concerned about the general threat of COVID to them , their babies and their families but less concerned about exposure to the virus through medical or health settings than the doctors and midwives working in these environments ,” said Bradfield .
“ Patients ’ partners and midwifery students were more likely to feel isolated because of the changes to the way maternity care was provided due to the pandemic .”
Bradfield now wants to survey the same groups about their vaccine knowledge .
“ We really want it to be able to produce some peer reviewed evidence , because there is that anecdotal data , and that ’ s really useful to do those pulse check surveys , but we really need some peer reviewed evidence to be able to guide public health messaging , and also provide information for people to be able to make informed decisions for themselves ,” said Bradfield . ■