• Fauzia A Malik, Juan Pedro Alonso, Lauren N Sanclemente, Alba Vilajeliu, Mariana Gutierrez, Ines Gonzalez-Casanova, Daniel Jones, Saad Omer, Alba-Maria Ropero, and María Belizán.
• Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States. Electronic address: fauzia.malik@yale.edu.
• Vaccine. 2021 Jul 30; 39 Suppl 2: B50-B54.

BackgroundAntenatal care providers have a key role in providing appropriate information and immunization recommendations to improve pregnant women's vaccine uptake. The objective of this study is to describe health care providers' perspectives and experience regarding the implementation of maternal immunization programs in Latin America.MethodsWe conducted 33 in-depth interviews of health care providers from Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru (6-7 per country). Qualitative data analysis was conducted using a combination of both manual techniques and the computer software program NVivo. We identified and coded main themes related to maternal immunization.ResultsThe main themes identified in this analysis were practices related to maternal immunization, knowledge and training, resource availability and interactions with pregnant women. Healthcare providers knew that recommendations exists but some did not know their content; they expressed concerns about insufficient training. Providers from all five countries expressed the need for additional human resources and supplies. They also expressed a desire for women to be more proactive and ask more questions during the health visits.ConclusionThis is the first multi-country study assessing the perspectives of health care providers about maternal immunization practices at the facility level in Latin America. Recommendations based on the results from this study include implementing additional trainings around maternal immunization, especially targeting obstetricians and midwives. These trainings should be conducted in coordination with improvements to supply chain and other structural issues.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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