Whooping cough is widespread, highly contagious and serious for new-born babies. A safe and effective vaccine is available and is recommended for all pregnant women to protect their babies from birth. However, 30 per cent of pregnant women in our country do not receive the vaccine, leading to avoidable illness and death. Vaccine uptake is highly variable across different regions and across different demographic groups, with women from ethnic minority backgrounds less likely to receive theirs. We do not know why this is the case. The Covid-19 pandemic also seems to be having a negative impact on routine vaccine coverage.

A Health Psychologist by background with over twelve years' experience in pragmatic NHS research studies and trials, Emma brings a behavioural science approach to the issue. Her project will explore the relative influences of vaccine hesitancy, communication and organisational factors to identify how maternity services can best be supported to improve vaccination delivery to maximise the protection of women and their babies. Emma is especially interested in finding ways to improve equity of vaccine coverage across demographic groups and geographical areas. She says:

"I hope this research will help increase the number of pregnant women receiving the whooping cough vaccine and inform other mother and child vaccine programmes. Finding ways to maximise the effectiveness of vaccination programmes is even more important in the wake of Covid-19. Tackling inequality is vital so that everyone can be protected."

The research will also explore the link between mothers' uptake of vaccines in pregnancy and later for their infants. Emma states, "We do not know if mothers who are not vaccinated in pregnancy are less likely to vaccinate their children. It is possible that improving pregnancy vaccination rates may increase child vaccination rates."

The Maternal vaccination in the NHS (MAVIS) study runs from January 2021 to December 2024 and is jointly based in the Centre for Academic Child Health and the Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation within Bristol Medical School.