Safety of Tdap vaccine in pregnant women: an observational study

Petousis-Harris, Helen; Walls, Tony; Watson, Donna; Paynter, Janine; Graham, Patricia; Turner, Nikki

Twenty-four general practices out of 34 invited (70.6%) and three invited DHB maternity clinics were recruited to the Northern arm. Twenty-one of the practices recruited participants. Practices which declined said they were too busy or had too few patients who met the required criteria. In the Canterbury arm, claim forms for financial reimbursement of delivery of the vaccine for 1212 women were received. Attempts to contact women within 2 weeks of their claim form being received by the study team meant 710 women were In total, there were 793 participants across both arms, predominantly of NZ European ethnicity (73.5%). The mean age was 32, with 61.4% of participants aged between 25 and 35 years. Just over one-quarter (27.9%) were co-administered influenza vaccine. A range of preexisting conditions were present among 18% of participants, including pregnancy-related conditions (2.0%) including pre-eclamptic toxemia (PET), symphysis pubis dysfunction, low lying placenta, shortening cervix and poor fetal growth. Participant demographics are presented in table 1.