Supporting women to make informed choices about their care is a fundamental element of being a midwife, and support around vaccination is an important part of that. Midwives are often the trusted professionals that pregnant women turn to for advice about vaccination, so ensuring you’ve got all the most up-to-date information is vital.
Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members can now catch up on our recent webinar about vaccinations in pregnancy – including latest guidance, evidence and advice about the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine rollout.
The RSV vaccine was rolled out in September last year, with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advising that the RSV vaccine is offered at 28 weeks of pregnancy. Uptake of the RSV vaccine is currently 53%, however data also shows that there is considerable variability in uptake by ethnic group. This ranges from 11% in women of mixed white and Black Caribbean ethnicity to over 50% white Irish and Chinese ethnic groups.
To help midwives feel confident in conversations about the RSV vaccine, the RCM recently held a webinar covering the latest evidence and guidance. A recording of the webinar is available on our website.
Speakers at the webinar included Dr Thomas Williams, Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh; Greta Hayward, Consultant Midwife at UKHSA Immunisation Programmes Division; and Trish Dyter, Senior Midwife and Vaccination Clinical Lead at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.
The RCM recognises the vaccine rollout comes at a time when midwives are already working under intense pressures. Our focus is ensuring midwives have access to clear, evidence-based information and support when discussing vaccinations with women.
Rachel Drain, the RCM’s Quality and Standards Advisor, said:
“Our profession plays a vital role in public health, providing care for women, their babies and families. When it comes to protecting health and promoting wellbeing, we are often the first point of contact for information and advice to women and birthing people, on a range of health issues including lifesaving vaccinations.
“Midwives are working incredibly hard and we know that additional expectations can feel challenging. We appreciate the RSV programme was rolled out at breakneck speed and we have been listening to our members and RCM reps about their concerns over workforce capacity, training availability to deliver new vaccinations at pace.”
