A qualitative study of pregnant women's opinions on COVID-19 vaccines in Turkey.
Elif Uludağ, Pınar Serçekuş, Dicle Filiz Yıldırım and 1 others
PMID 36029559WHAT IT FOUND
Pregnant Turkish women described fear of catching COVID-19 as a reason to vaccinate, while fear of harming their baby, guilt, and conflicting vaccine information held them back.
Family, friend, and clinician support were described as important to confidence.
Key findings
01Fear of catching COVID-19 was reported by women without vaccine hesitancy, most of whom received a first or booster dose during pregnancy.
02Most women afraid of vaccines had not had a booster dose or were indecisive, and they feared effects on the baby, miscarriage or preterm birth.
03Half of the women without vaccine hesitancy said strong family and friend support was effective, and recommendations from health professionals were described as important to women's sense of security.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Sixteen women were recruited through snowball sampling from social media, so they are not representative of all pregnant women. The study reports women's opinions and reasons, not whether any intervention changed vaccination behaviour or outcomes. All participants had no contraindications to vaccination and were at least 12 weeks pregnant, so views of higher-risk pregnancies or those unable to be vaccinated are not covered. One researcher conducted the interviews and two researchers analysed the data, so the themes may reflect their interpretive choices. Interviews were phone conversations in Turkish, and the paper does not report participant validation of the final themes.
Declared interests
This research did not receive any specific grant funding, and the authors declared no known competing financial interests or personal relationships.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that family support or clinician reassurance will increase vaccination uptake. The study reports opinions and experiences from pregnant women recruited through social media, not tested interventions or vaccination outcomes.