Over half of pregnant women have now had one or more doses of COVID-19 vaccines

This demonstrates the significant progress made in recent months, but the uptake remains lower amongst pregnant women compared to the general population of the same age groups.

Vaccine coverage has been increasing overall – in August 2021, 22.7% of women giving birth had received at least one dose of vaccine. This increased to 32.3% of women who gave birth in September; 41.6% in October 2021; 48.6% in November – and the latest data shows that it rose to 53.7% in December 2021.

Despite the overall increase in coverage in recent months, women of black ethnicity and women living in the most deprived areas in England were least likely to have been vaccinated in pregnancy. By the time of delivery, 24.9% of black women and 32.7% of women living in the most deprived areas of England had at least one vaccine dose – up from 13.3% and 18.3% respectively since February.

Despite the increase, these figures are still significantly lower than that of white women (51.4%) and Asian women (42.4%) – and those in the least deprived areas (64.7%).

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA said:

It is very encouraging to see that by December 2021, over half of pregnant women in England had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by the time of delivery. We urge all pregnant woman who has not yet been vaccinated to come forward for their jab.

COVID-19 vaccines used in the UK are highly effective at protecting against hospitalisation and our ongoing monitoring of the vaccine programme continues to reassure us on the safety of these vaccines with similar pregnancy outcomes for vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnant women.

Vaccinated women who gave birth between January and December 2021 had a very similar low risk of stillbirth, low birthweight and premature birth compared to women who were not vaccinated in pregnancy.

Positive birth outcomes were similar across all age groups in vaccinated and unvaccinated women.

Previous studies have shown the risk of being severely ill with COVID-19 is higher for unvaccinated women. Pregnant women who develop severe disease have increased rates of admission to intensive care, the need for invasive ventilation and pre-term delivery.