Covid-19 vaccine uptake, sources of information and side effects reported by pregnant women in Western Australia: A cross-sectional cohort survey.

Background: Pregnant women are a priority group for COVID-19 vaccination due to their vulnerability as a high-risk cohort. However, the current pregnancy uptake rate for the COVID-19 vaccination in Western Australia remains largely unknown.

Objective: This study aimed to explore pregnant women's uptake rates, information sources and experience of vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy. We hypothesise that uptake of vaccination among pregnant women is higher than indicated in previous studies given different disease burden and different public health restrictions at time when data was collected.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered electronically to maternity patients at a single tertiary metropolitan hospital in Perth, Western Australia.

Results: Five hundred and two women participated in the study. Overall, antenatal COVID-19 vaccination rate was 79% [n=398]. One half [51%, n=256] of all the women felt well informed, and information was sourced primarily from their General Practitioner [GP] [60%, n=301], midwives [35%, n=174] and obstetric doctors [13%, n=64]. Women with non-Caucasian ethnicity [34%, n=170 vs. 66%, n=332, p=0.073] and 'country of birth outside Australia' [47%, n=235] reported lower rates of vaccine information provision by hospital staff [34%, n=22 vs 66%, n=42, P = 0.04].

Conclusions: The COVID-19 vaccine uptake was encouragingly high in our study with favourable attitudes and acceptance for the vaccine from majority of pregnant women. This self-reported study also identified opportunities for enhanced cultural competence and further education and training for hospital staff on COVID-19 vaccine information provision to ethnically diverse women. Further studies examining such interventions are warranted.

Clinicaltrial: