“”Although the “efficiency and tolerance of all these vaccines are well established in pregnant women and the newborn, the corresponding vaccination rates remain very insufficient in France“, Note in a press release the academy, an institution which aims to give the consensus of the medical profession on a given subject.
Against respiratory diseases, several vaccines must theoretically be offered to all pregnant women: darling, covid and flu.
We can add the Abrysvo vaccine of Pfizer against the VRS, the main virus causing bronchiolitis in infants, even if the recommendation is less systematic and depends on the moment of the year.
These recommendations are not put into practices enough, according to the Academy of Medicine, which notably stresses that only 20% to 30% of pregnant women are vaccinated against flu, and that a third party is not against darling.
There are also “important disparities according to social classes and regions, in particular in the Antilles and in Guyana, where the coverage rates are extremely low“, she points out.
However, the diseases in question can harm both the mother and the child: “They are often severe in pregnant women, and can cause premature delivery and also severe infection of the newborn“Recalls the Academy.
As an explanation for insufficient vaccination, the institution evokes the distrust of certain pregnant women against the vaccines concerned, but especially the fact that these vaccines are not offered enough during the medical monitoring of pregnancy.
“”No consultation is today specifically dedicated to vaccination during pregnancy monitoring and the vaccination act depends on the motivation of the doctor or the midwife“, Note the academy.”It is therefore often postponed or forgotten. “
The institution issues several proposals. First, she wants health insurance to send, as soon as the pregnancy announces, the vouchers that allow full reimbursement of the vaccines concerned, accompanied by information “adapted and understandable“.
She also calls to open the possibility of vaccination in all places where a woman consults for her pregnancy: “maternity, doctor and midwife’s office, maternal and child protection (PMI), pharmacies“.
The Academy also recommends a better training of caregivers and an acceleration of clinical vaccine trials with pregnant women, to better understand the specific effects during pregnancy.