Qualitative Analysis of Mothers' Decision-Making About Vaccines for Infants: The Importance of Trust

Abstract

Trust or lack of trust and a relationship with a pediatrician or another influential person were pivotal for decision-making of new mothers about vaccinating their children. Attempts to work with mothers who are concerned about vaccinating their infants should focus not only on providing facts about vaccines but also on developing trusting and positive relationships.

Vaccine Rejecting Parents’ Engagement With Expert Systems That Inform Vaccination Programs

“…This finding echoes those of a number of other studies (Sobo 2015;Benin et al 2006;Brownlie and Howson 2005). The parents we interviewed saw the pharmaceutical industry as exerting a wide-ranging influence on vaccination research, the motives of health professionals, and the construction of government policy consensus.…”

“…However, the parents may also be drawing from media representations and/or shared cultural values of the institutions, rather than direct experience. Our results and previous research (Gaudino and Robison 2012;Benin et al 2006;Leask and Chapman 2002) depict competing expert systems at work, with allopathic healthcare (buttressed by scientific research, government and industry) challenged by the alternative epistemology of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Our aim is to understand what it is about allopathic healthcare-the expert system behind vaccination-that leads some parents to distrust both its "access points" (healthcare professionals in particular) and the system as a whole.…”

“…In a British study, parents of under-vaccinated children found it difficult to know where to place their trust and did not trust the government (Austin et al 2008). An American study identified trust as playing a key role in where parents were situated along the vaccine acceptance spectrum (Benin et al 2006). Another found that parents who sought exemptions from vaccination were more likely than other parents to report "little or no trust in health information provided by … government agencies, health provider groups or organizations and to distrust local doctors" (Gaudino andRobison 2012, 1135).…”

Prenatal vaccination education intervention improves both the mothers' knowledge and children's vaccination coverage: Evidence from randomized controlled trial from eastern China

“…8 Additionally, previous study had demonstrated that the decision to seek childhood vaccination service was made during pregnancy. 9 Although there are few studies on the comparison of the effectiveness between the pre-and the post-natal education interventions, we still consider the prenatal vaccination education have more advantages. First, every pregnant woman needs to receive 12-16 antenatal care visits in Zhejiang province which makes the vaccination education practice feasible; Second, the coverage of antenatal care is over 90% in China, 10 which ensures the prenatal vaccination education can cover the majority of pregnant women; Third, the prenatal care setting offers an opportunity to educate the prospective parents before the initiation of immunization series of their infants.…”

Vaccine hesitancy

“…Vaccinehesitant individuals may refuse some vaccines, but agree to others; they may delay vaccines or accept vaccines according to the recommended schedule, but be unsure in doing so. 26,31 Despite the growing number of articles referring to vaccine hesitancy published in recent years, [32][33][34][35][36][37] there are some discrepancies among publications about what exactly falls under the umbrella of "vaccine hesitancy." The expression can be used to refer to a "gap resistance, most focusing on parental decision-making.…”