Flu jab-to have or not

[Koba88]

I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant and have been advised to have my flu jab next week at my doctors surgery. To my recollection I have never had flu and usually get one cold per winter, when I asked my midwife what she would advise she said 'well it is what the NHS do advise so I have to go from that standpoint and advise you'. My friend is 32 weeks and was very ill after having her jab. I have no clue what to do! If I get sick and have to take time off work there are threats of me being performance managed as I was off for a while at start of pregnancy with HG.....

Researchers studying the flu vaccine in pregnancy have found a hint of a possible link between miscarriage early in pregnancy and the flu vaccine in women who received a certain version of the vaccine two years in a row.

It’s the first study to identify a potential link between miscarriage and the flu vaccine and the first to assess the effect of repeat influenza vaccination and risk of miscarriage. The findings suggest an association, not a causal link, and the research is too weak and preliminary, experts said, to change the advice, which is based on a multitude of previous studies, that pregnant women should get a flu vaccine to protect them from influenza, a deadly disease that may cause serious birth defects and miscarriage.

Certainly something to keep an eye on but doesn't change the advice to get a flu shot.

Also the numbers are v v small in that study Luna. 17 women in the miscarriage group had had flu vaccine two years running compared with 4 women in the control group - so that's a) a really biased sample where most women don't have flu vaccine and b) a small effect. Also c) doesn't mention controlling for repeated miscarriages esp given these are miscarriages at

Seems to me that the NHS is really pushing the flu jab this year. I recon it's over kill, they just don't want people (kids & adults) clogging up hospitals this winter. I recon that 4 out of 5 people who have the flu jab wouldn't have got the flu anyway.

I've not read the whole thread as I usually would as it seemed to get in to the vax/anti vax debate and I want nothing to do with that.

I have the flu jab every year as I'm asthmatic but had it on Wednesday at 37+6 weeks. I've never had a problem with it and this years was even less so than other years. Honestly taking off the plaster hurt more, and the only tenderness I noticed was lying on that arm to sleep.

In my mind, if I got the flu either whilst pregnant or after and couldn't care for my child properly, or worse, didn't pass down that immunity and my baby caught (the particularly nasty) flu and I knew there was something I could have done but didn't, that's not something I could live with. It is my responsibility to take every step to care for my child and for my health and the flu jab is one of them.

End of the day its your decision but I fall firmly into one side. That's my opinion.

Slickster: Most of the hospitals in my city spent weeks on alert last winter - continued deliberate underfunding (plus the huge numbers of unfilled vacancies) means the normal extra winter load comes along and they have to shut their doors because they just cannot cope. A worse than normal flu season will not be good.

So yeah - having fewer emergency admissions for pneumonia and other complications is a pretty big motivator for them! I guess it's even more so for newborns as there aren't so many paediatric intensive care beds (when we were in for an emergency a couple of winters ago there were parents travelling 60 miles to visit).

Just seen that a pp said that healthy people who look after themselves don't get 'flu. That is absolute bollocks. Dh runs, runs marathons, rides a bike and, at the time he caught the flu a few years ago in his late 20s, played rugby. He was completly floored by it, was delerious with a fever and even when he was over it was prescribed an inhaler from GP as it left him with a chest infection which took a very long time to clear.

I’ve just had the jab at 27 weeks. Absolutely fine. Had it with my other two as well without problems. Flu is supposed to be nasty this year so I’d say do it.

Find people who are suggesting you should ‘research’ it irritating. What they mean is google it and unless you are a professional researcher I’m not sure how any conclusion would be better than the evidenced based approach taken by the nhs.

Abraid - the majority of people who died in the Spanish flu pandemic died from pneumonia. There were no antibiotics back then. Those 'healthy young men' had also just come back from the trenches.

Koba, it's a tough decision. Just make the one you feel most comfortable with.

Bubbleymummy they had antibiotics for the recent swune flu epidemic, young peoplr still died.
Why is it better to treat with antibiotics than to prevent in the first place, did you not see the news last night.

Two years ago in my trust, a young pregnant woman died of influenza, her baby still inside her. A potentially avoidable tragedy.

I didn't say anything about it being 'better to treat with antibiotics' - I was pointing out the reason for the high mortality rate in the Spanish flu epidemic.

It wasnt just young men who had come back from the trenches, there was an unpresidented peak in women between the age of 20 and 40 dying as well

There were many flu cases in my local hospital last winter, actually, with a higher than usual mortality rate & also higher morbidity (long term complications). No reason identified why.

I will never have the flu vaccine.