Maternal vaccination: a review of current evidence and recommendations

Maternal vaccination is an effective means of protecting pregnant women, their fetuses and infants from vaccine-preventable infections. Despite the availability of sufficient safety data to support the use of vaccines during pregnancy, maternal immunization remains an underutilized method of disease prevention, often due to concerns from both healthcare providers and pregnant women about vaccine safety. Such concerns have been reflected in the low uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among pregnant women seen in many parts of the world, which is due to low vaccine confidence among pregnant women, uncertainty among healthcare professionals and poor access to COVID-19 vaccines. Here we present an update of the current recommendations for the use of vaccines during pregnancy, including the evidence supporting the use of novel vaccine platforms. We also provide an overview of the data supporting the use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy and an update of the status of vaccines that are currently under development for use in pregnant women.