CHESAPEAKE, Va. — It's a full household for Krissy Finch and her husband. She gave birth to her third child three months ago.
"She's beautiful. She's thriving. She's very much a mama's girl," Finch said.
During her pregnancy, Krissy got a series of vaccines, including the T-DAP and flu shots—decisions she took seriously with the help of her doctor.
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"He is actually phenomenal at describing different side effects and what I may experience even though I had already been through pregnancy twice," Finch told News 3's Jay Greene.
While Krissy decided to get vaccinated, a recently released report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a growing number of pregnant women are hesitant to get vaccines.
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Dr. Renee Morales, an OB/GYN on staff at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said misinformation about possible complications is the biggest reason for that hesitancy.
In March and April of 2023, the CDC surveyed 2,000 expecting moms with nearly a quarter saying they were very hesitant about getting a flu shot. That's a 17% increase from the year before, according to the report.
"Hesitancy, in general, is common," Dr. Morales told Greene. "Hesitancy among pregnant women is more common."
Dr. Morales said there's concern that hesitancy could put mothers and their babies at risk.
"We do know that a lot of diseases that we may get—infections, viruses that women get in pregnancy can pass through their pregnancy and cause complications like preterm labor, stillbirth or intrauterine growth restriction," Dr. Morales said. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Finch said, that with so much chatter online about vaccines, it's hard to find credible information and it's no surprise why some parents might be concerned.
"So you do think, you question. 'Oh my gosh, is that mom right?' or 'Is that story legitimate?'" Finch said. "I do think that through my own self-research, I was able to kind of squash some of those fears."
If you have any questions about the right plan for you, experts say to ask your doctor.
