The NHS offers pregnant women vaccinations that help protect them and their babies during and after pregnancy.
Vaccines help the body’s natural defence system (the immune system) to develop protective antibodies.
Antibodies fight disease and produce longer term protection against a particular disease. So, if someone is vaccinated against a disease and they come into contact with it at a later date, their immune system will respond to that infection more quickly.
Vaccination can help prevent disease or make the illness less serious. Antibodies developed while pregnant pass to the unborn baby and help to protect them in their first few months of life.
You can read more about which vaccines are recommended and the best time to have them on the NHS website at https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/keeping-well/vaccinations/.
