Confusion and covid vaccine delays for pregnant women Women receive little help from the Health and Safety Executive and are generally left to choose between unsafe working conditions, taking sick leave, taking early maternity leave, or resigning
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Updated May 7, 2021
Pregnant women trying to access their coronavirus vaccines have faced confusion, delays and wasted trips, according to the charity Maternity Action.
Now, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have also expressed their concern.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that it is “preferable” for pregnant women in the UK to be offered the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines where available. But the online booking system has not given pregnant women the option to specify what vaccine they want.
It means some are visiting vaccine centres, only to have to turn around at the door, with no idea when they’ll actually get vaccinated.
A letter sent to Priti Patel, seen exclusively by The Independent, has urged the Home Secretary not to implement plans that the government has described as ‘the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades’. The letter claims that the recently unveiled ‘New Plan for UK Immigration’ will have ‘devastating’ repercussions on women fleeing gender-based violence.
The letter described how women escaping ‘horrific’ abuse are already being failed by the current UK asylum system. The letter, signed by leading charities across the UK, states that women are forced to endure ‘disbelief, detention and destitution’ and that Patel’s plans would further exacerbate the situation.
It’s six years on from the introduction of shared parental leave (SPL) in the UK, yet uptake of what was meant to be progressive game-changing legislation to level out gender disparities remains stuck in low single-digit percentages. The paucity of those using SPL is such that campaigners, trade unionists and economists have united in calls to scrap what has been described as a “deeply flawed and chronically failing policy”. Among those seeking a complete overhaul are Maternity Action, the Fawcett Society, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Royal College of Midwives and the National Childbirth Trust (NCT). They and others are upping pressure on ministers to introduce a fairer “use it or lose it” policy of non-transferable paid leave for both parents in the upcoming Employment Bill. Similar policies in countries such as Sweden and Iceland have seen men’s uptake in the region of 90 per cent, versus current estimates of between 2% and 8% for SPL in the UK.