Thursday, December 10, 2009

H1N1 Vaccine?

Have any of you pregnant women out there had the H1N1 vaccine?

There's some controversy surrounding it. The CDC considers pregnant women a high risk group for this type of flu and recommends that all pregnant women get the vaccine at any time during their pregnancy. However, there have been a few reports of women having miscarriages after getting the vaccine. Of course there's a chance that these miscarriages weren't caused by the vaccine, and the timing was just coincidental.

It's hard to know what to do. My doctor recommended getting the vaccine, and after reading about how dangerous it could be for a pregnant woman to contract swine flu, I decided to get it this morning.

Of course, now I'm nervous about it. I just wanted to see if there are any pregnant women out there who have gotten the vaccine and and their unborn babies are fine. Please let me know if you're out there!

3 comments:

  1. I got the H1N1 vaccine about 7 weeks ago and I'm just fine. I was nervous too, but decided that the odds of complications from a serious flu were a much more realistic worry than anything else I read. In short, the medical literature didn't give me many reasons to be concerned, plus I trusted my doctors. At the end of the day, it's their expertise I ultimately rely on.

    As for women having miscarriages, don't worry yourself too much. Remember, some 15-20% of all pregnancies sadly end in miscarriage. (And the numbers are much higher for women in my category, the over-35 set.). So it's more realistic to assume those miscarriages were entirely unrelated to the vaccine.

    Anyway, everyone has to make the best decision for themselves, but honestly, I'd hope you wouldn't worry too much. You made the best decision you can to keep baby healthy. If you're like me, I'm sure that in general you'll just feel a lot better once you get past 12 weeks! I'm sure it'll be fine... :)

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  2. Yep, I got it in October a couple weeks after getting the regular seasonal flu shot, based on doc's recommendation - 30 weeks pregnant now and no problems.

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  3. I'm glad to hear some positive stories. I had the vaccine over a week ago and so far so good with me too.

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