What Expectant Moms Need to Know About Newborn Hep B Shots

The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends newborns get the vaccine right after birth.

December 8, 2025

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You’ve probably heard by now about the uproar in the scientific community after the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACIP) voted to stop recommending the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. (If not, heads up.) The vaccine has been recommended for decades to protect newborns from hepatitis B, and the removal of that recommendation—which didn’t involve any new science—is a big deal. Now, the ACIP recommends the vaccine only for infants born to women who test positive for the virus or whose hepatitis B status isn’t known.

If you’re expecting or trying to become pregnant, it’s understandable to have questions about what this means for you and your baby. It’s important to get this out of the way now: Every major American medical association (with the exception of the CDC) has spoken out against removing this hepatitis B vaccine recommendation. Many pediatricians and ob-gyns are furious at the change, too, with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) calling this a “dangerous move that will harm children.”

“This vaccine is a safety net. The ACIP removed that safety net,” Paul A. Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells SELF. “This is an important thing to do to protect your child. Unfortunately, this is anti-vaccine science.” Eric Ascher, DO, family medicine physician at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital, agrees. "Our soon-to-be newborns deserve this layer of protection," he tells SELF.

The AAP still recommends that newborn babies get the hepatitis B vaccine after birth. But it’s fair to be fuzzy on why the medical community is so upset about this—as well as what this means for your own child. Here’s what doctors want you to know.

First, let’s go over some hepatitis B basics.

Hepatitis B isn’t as common as, say, the flu, making it understandable to be unsure why this is a virus you should be concerned about. Hepatitis B is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation and damage, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Hepatitis B can cause an acute infection that only lasts for a few weeks or months or a chronic infection that lingers. The odds of developing chronic hepatitis B is much greater if you were infected as a young child, per the NIDDK. (The agency notes that chronic infection develops in 90% of infected infants under the age of one.) Chronic hepatitis B can cause cirrhosis of the liver and even liver cancer. “There is no cure for hepatitis B,” Dr. Ascher says.

The hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended for newborns and children since 1991, which caused the number of acute infections to plummet 88.5% from 1982 to 2015. Many people with hepatitis B have no symptoms, per the NIDDK.

What does the shot do?

The hepatitis B vaccine is designed to protect a baby’s immune system when it’s most vulnerable, Arielle Effron, MD, an ob-gyn with GW Medical Faculty Associates, tells SELF. “The shot is a way to tell the body to create antibodies and immunity to a specific virus, such as hepatitis B, so that if someone were to contract that virus, the body is already prepared to fight the infection, making the infection less severe,” she says. “This is why sometimes people will get fevers or mild side effects, which is the body mounting that immunity. It does not cause an infection and is an inactivated viral vaccine.”

This is one of the vaccines that prevents cancer, Mark Hicar, MD, PhD, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in New York, tells SELF. “The vaccine is very good at protecting from the infection from hepatitis B virus,” Dr. Hicar says. “The hepatitis B virus can cause a chronic infection that leads to severe liver inflammation and to cancer.”

There’s a reason why doctors don’t like the downgraded recommendation.

Remember, the current ACIP recommendations say that the hepatitis B vaccine should only be given to babies born to moms who test positive for the virus. There are a few issues with this, according to doctors.

One is that the test for hepatitis B isn’t perfect, and some tests will give false results that say that a mom doesn’t have hepatitis B when she actually does. “People do fall through the cracks,” Dr. Offitt says. There are also some expectant moms who just don’t take the hepatitis B test during pregnancy, he points out.

But even if you know for sure that you don’t have hepatitis B, your child is still at risk of exposure to the virus. “The problem with hepatitis B is that you don’t necessarily know when you’re exposed, whether at daycare or out in the community,” G. Thomas Ruiz, MD, ob-gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, tells SELF. Meaning, a relative who comes to visit your baby could also unknowingly have hepatitis B and infect your baby, Dr. Hicar says. “It can also live on surfaces for up to a week,” he points out. And, if your baby becomes infected, you likely won’t know until the infection progresses to the point of causing liver disease.

“If you are unlucky enough to get hepatitis B and become a chronic carrier, there are serious consequences, whether liver failure as an adult or liver cancer,” Dr. Ruiz says.

Ultimately, it’s crucial to talk to your healthcare provider about your options.

Doctors say they will continue to recommend the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. “I absolutely plan to continue to recommend the hepatitis B vaccine to moms who are not immune, as well as to newborn babies,” Dr. Effron says. “As we move forward to the future, I anticipate recommendations coming from medical societies focused on pediatrics and infectious disease, and will follow their guidelines based on scientific evidence.”

"Most hospitals and providers will still offer the vaccine to newborns, as it is recommended by the AAP, and has a strong evidence base supporting its use in newborns," Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security tells SELF.

Ultimately, Dr. Hicar recommends talking to your child’s pediatrician when you meet before your child’s birth or, if you don’t have that visit, having a conversation with your healthcare provider during your pregnancy. “You can review the details of why this is strongly recommended by groups who know the science behind it,” Dr. Hicar says. “This will continue to be strongly recommended by public health officers, pediatric, and infectious disease physician groups.”