Maternal immunization is not the same as immunization in pregnancy

Dear Editor,

I would like to congratulate Dres. Moniz and Beigi on their timely publication regarding “maternal immunization”, which prompted me to raise a terminology issue.¹ I believe the term “maternal immunization“ is frequently used in circumstances where the term “immunization in pregnancy” would be more appropriate to emphasize that the actual topic in fact is immunizing pregnant women, i.e., future mothers of the yet unborn child. In contrast to “immunization in pregnancy”, “maternal immunization” has a much broader sense and comprises a) bringing a woman's immunization status up-to-date before becoming pregnant, i.e. as part of family planning (such as MMR, varicella, diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis), b) immunizations during pregnancy (specifically those against influenza and pertussis, as discussed in the publication), and c) immunizations after delivery, if they are indicated and were missed before or during pregnancy (including the so called “cocooning” for pertussis, MMR and varicella).

I would appreciate if authors of future publications would adopt this terminology.