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Pregnancy Seasonal Vaccinations
Learn about the essential vaccinations during pregnancy, their benefits for both mother and baby, and key guidelines to ensure a healthy start to motherhood.
During pregnancy, your healthcare provider will recommend you have a selection of vaccinations to protect you and your baby from viruses such as flu, COVID19, or whooping cough. Some of these vaccines are seasonal, such as the flu vaccine, and may only be available during the autumn and winter period. However, all pregnant women are recommended to have the whooping cough vaccine and the RSV vaccine, both of which are designed to pass protection to the baby in utero and will be offered at specific stages during your pregnancy - more on that below.
Vaccines help protect both the mother and the baby. During pregnancy, your immune system is weakened and infections such as flu that would not normally be dangerous can have a more severe impact. While vaccinations won’t always prevent you catching an illness, they do help reduce the symptoms so that you can recover more quickly and without serious side-effects. Vaccinations given during pregnancy also help give your baby some protection until they can start having their immunisations from 8 weeks old.
If you’re travelling abroad, or need additional vaccines during pregnancy, make sure you talk to your healthcare provider, letting them know you are pregnant. Live vaccines (i.e. those which contain the live virus) are not generally recommended during pregnancy – unless the risk of infection is higher than the risk to your unborn baby. All the seasonal vaccines offered to pregnant women are inactive, so do not contain live viruses.
Is it safe to have vaccines during pregnancy?
All the vaccinations that are routinely offered during pregnancy have been approved for use in pregnant women. This includes flu, whooping cough, RSV and COVID-19. These vaccines are inactive, meaning they do not contain live viruses, so while you may experience some side effects – such as pain at the injection site, or a slight fever – you cannot catch the virus from the vaccination.
Some vaccines, such as MMR or Yellow Fever, which are not routine or seasonal vaccinations, do carry potential risks. If you think you need one of these vaccinations, speak with your healthcare provider.
Which vaccinations are recommended during pregnancy?
In the UK, there are four vaccines that are routinely offered during pregnancy, and which are recommended to protect both your health and the health of your unborn baby.
Flu can be a very nasty illness for vulnerable people – and when you’re pregnant, that includes you. Pregnant women are more likely to experience complications from the flu virus than women who are not pregnant. The flu vaccine helps support your immune system, so that you can fight off the virus and avoid these complications.
The flu vaccine is offered during flu season (autumn and winter). You can have it any point in your pregnancy.
Young babies are most at risk from whooping cough, so passing the antibodies to them during pregnancy helps give them high levels of protection when they are born and up until they can have their whooping cough vaccination at 8 weeks old. Whooping cough can be a very serious illness that requires treatment in hospital.
The whooping cough vaccine is offered from 20 weeks but can be given as early as 16 weeks. You are advised to have it before you reach 32 weeks pregnant.
RSV is a virus that causes coughs and colds, but in young babies it can sometimes cause serious lung infections and lead to hospitalisation. Like whooping cough, the RSV vaccine is given during pregnancy to offer protection to your newborn baby. The RSV vaccine should be offered at around the time of your 28-week antenatal appointment but can be given at any point up until you go into labour. It will provide some protection for your baby until they are around 6 months old.
Pregnant women are at greater risk of serious complications from the COVID-19 virus, which is why the COVID-19 vaccine is recommended to all pregnant women. Severe COVID-19 symptoms put both mother and baby at risk. The vaccine can be given at any stage of pregnancy and like the flu vaccine it supports your immune system to prevent serious illness.
Frequently asked questions on pregnancy vaccinations:
In the UK, pregnant women are offered flu, COVID-19, whooping cough and RSV vaccinations. These protect the mother and the baby from experiencing severe symptoms associated with these viruses.
The whooping cough vaccine is a 3-in-1 vaccine that protects against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus. You will usually be offered a vaccine called ADACEL.
Around 27 weeks of pregnancy you should book in your whooping cough vaccine if you haven’t already had it, and your RSV vaccine.
