Overcoming non-patient and health professional's barriers to COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy

COVID-19 vaccines are recommended in pregnancy to protect against known risk of the infection, including admission to intensive care and premature birth of the baby [1]. Growing evidence about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy suggests that the benefits of receiving them outweigh any known or potential risks and or cause fertility problems in women [2]. That is the current recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [2]. The WHO has stated they do not have any reasons to believe there will be a specific risk that would outweigh the benefits because pregnant women are at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 vaccines are approved for use by pregnant women, those planning pregnancy and breastfeeding mothers [3]. Immunization is commended in consultation with health care providers, and the decision to have the vaccine is a personal choice. Vaccination efforts and compliance are met with mixed feelings, repeated arguments, hesitancy, and there are still many people who fear the vaccines [4]. It has created a major impediment to a comprehensive vaccine roll-out, and emerging patients and health providers barriers to COVID-19 vaccination of the pregnant population exist. Besides these barriers, other challenges occur outside the scope of patients and their caregivers, which must be identified, tackled and facilitators enhanced. This paper sought to identify those barriers and ways of overcoming them with emphasis on different countries and contexts from a review of recent published literature on the topic.