NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Prenatal visits may represent a ""missed opportunity"" to educate parents about the importance of childhood immunization, according to a report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

""Research shows that rates of vaccine refusal are increasing,"" Ann Marie Navar from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, told Reuters Health. Health care professionals may be able to reach parents who have concerns about immunizations during the prenatal visits.
Navar and colleagues used a telephone survey of 100 pediatric practices and 100 obstetric practices to investigate the proportion that provide pregnant women with infant immunization information; the willingness of obstetric practices to provide such information; and the proportion of first-time mothers who receive a pediatric prenatal visit.
Of the 71 obstetric practices that responded to the survey, most did not offer information regarding childhood immunizations to their obstetric patients, but did express a willingness to provide such information if it were given to their offices free of charge.
Over half of the practices (54 percent) that did not discuss immunizations with their patients did offer information on topics such as car seats, pets, and circumcision.
Four out of five responding hospitals provided information regarding routine childhood immunizations, the report indicates, and only two hospitals (4 percent) said they would be unwilling to incorporate information about immunizations into their prenatal classes.
""Pregnant women are a receptive audience for information related to child health,"" Navar said. ""The prenatal period may be an opportune time to educate new parents about vaccines.""
""Many parents have concerns about vaccine safety, and there is a lot of misinformation about vaccines,"" she added. ""Parents need to be equipped with factual information about vaccines in order to make informed decisions. We maintain a web site that has information about vaccines and vaccine safety issues for parents and providers.