Immunizing the pregnant woman to protect both the mother and her infant from infection has
been utilized increasingly over the last decade. New outbreaks of pandemic influenza and
the resurgence of pertussis have resulted in policy changes and shifts in health authority
recommendations for a number of vaccines aimed to protect both pregnant women and their
infants in the first months of life. The ability of maternal immunoglobulin IgG antibodies to be
transported readily across the healthy intact placenta depends on many different factors�…