This webinar will provide midwives and maternity support workers with essential, up-to-date information on vaccination in pregnancy and the postnatal period. Expert speakers will address common concerns raised by expectant parents and shared practical guidance on having confident, evidence-based conversations in clinical settings. Attendees will gain valuable insights to support informed decision-making and to promote trust and uptake of vaccines within maternity care.

UKHSA regularly commissions attitudinal surveys of different groups targeted by different vaccine programmes with the most recent survey of pregnant women and women who had recently given birth conducted between 9-24 July 2025. This was an online survey undertaken by IPSOS UK on our behalf with 800 women aged 18-45 years who completed the survey of whom 46% were pregnant and 54% had given birth in the last 12 months. For 34% of women this was their first child. Survey questions were designed to assess confidence and satisfaction with maternal immunisation services, identify any issues around availability and accessibility of services and obtain some early insights into women’s views and experiences of the RSV programme. Key findings from the survey will be shared about women’s views and the role that midwives can play in improving confidence around vaccination in pregnancy.

Topics

• Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B: What are they and why do we have targeted vaccination programmes in the UK.
• Rubella and why checking MMR vaccination status is important.

Speakers

Fernanda Aguilar Perez PhD, Policy and Research Manager, Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) . She has extensive experience in analysing government policy development, coordinating and designing research, and public health evidence gathering and evaluation. With a background in public health, Fe has worked in the vaccine space with diverse populations and age groups, as well as healthcare professionals.

Fe will introduce some findings from the Commission on Access to Vaccines. This project aims to analyse how to improve access to vaccination in the UK. The goal is to better understand the issues that service users, healthcare professionals, and system commissioners face when trying to access a vaccine or make it more accessible to people.  The Commission is also proposing solutions and ideas to support those who want a vaccine. The Commission on Access to Vaccines was developed as part of a collaborative working project between the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) and Pfizer Ltd. It is funded by Pfizer and is non-promotional. Pfizer will review associated materials for medical accuracy and to ensure compliance with regulations.

Dr Helen Campbell, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Immunisation and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Division

Helen Campbell is the Lead Clinical Scientist in the Bacterial Vaccines team who joined the UK Health security Agency in 2001 after working as a Senior Scientist at the Department of Health for nearly 10 years and as consultant research manager for Health Promotion England. She is the national scientific lead on invasive meningococcal disease and pertussis vaccine programmes, additionally supporting vaccination in pregnancy programmes. She provides scientific support for national surveys of attitudes to immunisation, and health professional training. The development of parental and health professional resources alongside teaching are also important areas of her work.

Helen Eley lead immunisation nurse specialist UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Immunisation Nursing, Midwifery and Pharmacy team, part of the Immunisation Programmes Division.

After gaining extensive experience in a variety of clinical environments (including acute infectious diseases settings, practice nursing, health protection and school aged immunisation nursing), Helen started with the UKHSA immunisation nursing team in 2023. Helen is part of the team responsible for supporting the implementation of the national immunisation programmes through training resources (such as training slide sets or eLearning modules), immunisation advice and writing or updating vaccine information and guidance (such as information for healthcare practitioner guidance).

Resources

i-learn module: Flu vaccination in pregnant women

MIDIRS Search Packs

• PN131 Infant vaccination
• PN188 Infant vaccination in the United Kingdom
• PN189 Measles vaccination in infants
• PN190 Polio vaccine in infants
• P201 Coronavirus (COVID-19) – vaccination in pregnancy
• P159 Vaccination during pregnancy