Chicken pox, pregnancy, vaccination.

[ikeaismylocal]

I am newly pregnant and have a 14 month old ds, my mother can't remember if I have had chicken pox

Would I be being overly health anxious to vaccinate ds against chicken pox to avoid the possibility of him catching it and giving it to me (if I have infact not had it) I wouldn't consider vaccinating ds if I wasn't pregnant, the chance of the vaccine wearing out when he is older and at greater risk of complications from chicken pox worries me.

Ds is starting nursery this month so he will be in contact with lots of other children and germs.

As an aside do you think the midwife or my Dr would do a blood test to see if I have infact had chicken pox?

Both my boys had chicken pox when I was pregnant with their younger siblings. I never caught it. On NHS website theirs a 0.3% risk of catching it when pregnant. I think you can have a serum test to see if your immune.

They would do the blood test if you (or presumably DS too) were exposed to chicken pox. I have a friend who hasn't had chicken pox (to her knowledge) and she asked her dr for a blood test but because she isn't pregnant they wouldn't do it (inferring from that if you were pregnant they would).

I'll ask my midwife about the test at my booking in appointment, chicken pox seems to be going around locally so I think there is a high chance ds will come into contact with it once he starts nursery.

Probably a good idea to get your antibodies tested (blood test) to actually see if you are immune before you consider vaccination?

It's perfectly reasonable to vaccinate your children against CP whether you're pregnant or not. IMO it's kinder not to make them go through having CP.

I got myself vaccinated and its not too bad a jab. It's just pricey - around 200 these days.

It would have been a wiser choice to vaccinate myself rather than ds, I wish I had thought of that before I got pregnant!

My sister had chicken pox at twenty, and was sick as a dog. Vaccination for chicken pox and everything else is wise.

if you haven't had it and come into contact they can do a blood test which tells you whether you have any antibodies. I have never outwardly had it but have built up enough antibodies to not require a vaccination. The dr I spoke to to get blood test results said I might have had it very mildly and no one noticed.

If you don't have the antibodies they can give you the antiviral a