Lead midwife public health, Kate Large, who has taken the lead on the maternity flu campaign has been working towards increasing the number of pregnant women being vaccinated against seasonal flu... with huge success.

Our acute antenatal clinics/ antenatal day unit at CRH and HRI have been offering vaccination to pregnant women attending hospital appointments and they've tripled the takeup in a single year.

Kate said: "This year alone we have TREBLED the number of pregnant women we have vaccinated. There were 73 in total 2014-15, and we have vaccinated 240 so far 2015-16.

"These figures have been reported to the NHS England's West Yorkshire Seasonal Influenza Sub-Group who agree this has been a very successful campaign." 

Another very important arm of the campaign is through Community Midwives who promote flu immunisation to all pregnant women. This year uptake across Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield CCGs exceeds both the regional and national averages, building on the work they did last year where there was an 11% rise in the number of pregnant women having a flu vaccine.

Figures published by PH England on 24th December:

England 38.3%

West Yorkshire 38%

Calderdale CCG 46.4%

Greater Huddersfield 44%

The vaccine is accessible until the end of March 2016 as Swine Flu H1N1 is reported to be in circulation (low levels) by PH England.

Kate added: "I am very proud of all my colleagues for their positive attitude to the campaign and commitment to providing compassionate care to women."