Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure unvaccinated pregnant women are aware of the risks of covid-19.

On 4 December, the Government released a video which features unvaccinated mothers who suffered COVID-19 during their pregnancies urging pregnant women to get the vaccine. The video can be found at the following link:

https://vimeo.com/652051805/e1d8993ac8

On 16 December, the Government, together with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), called all pregnant women to receive the vaccine as soon as possible in a press release, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pregnant-women-urged-to-come-forward-for-covid-19-vaccination).

Both of these recent appeals to unvaccinated pregnant women point out that COVID-19 can cause severe illness in pregnant women and currently there are a disproportionate number of unvaccinated pregnant women in intensive care.

On 16 December, the JCVI made pregnant women a priority group for vaccination, following research showing they are vulnerable to more serious illness and pregnancy complications if they are infected with COVID-19.