Vaccine hesitancy in prenatal women and mothers of newborns

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a web-based, vaccine resource-directed, interactive communication intervention for vaccine-hesitant prenatal women and mothers of newborns/infants to make informed decisions based on scientific evidence about vaccinating themselves and their newborns/infants, respectively. METHODS: A prospective quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention for vaccine-hesitant prenatal women (stage 1) and for mothers of newborns (stage 2). A survey was administered to prenatal women to determine attitudes about vaccines for themselves during pregnancy. A survey on parental attitudes about vaccination for their children was administered to mothers of newborns. The surveys were administered to determine levels of vaccine acceptance. Vaccine acceptors and vaccine-hesitant individuals were included in the study as control and intervention group participants, respectively; vaccine refusers were eliminated from the study. RESULTS: Among prenatal vaccine-hesitant women, 82% had full prenatal vaccination coverage after receiving the intervention (χ2 = 7.2, P = .02). The majority of mothers of newborns/infants (74%) fully immunized their infants. DISCUSSION: The interventions for prenatal vaccine-hesitant women were effective in changing their status from hesitant to acceptors. The mothers of newborns/infants who were initially hesitant had vaccination rates that exceeded the comparison group comprised of vaccine acceptors.