34wks pg, swine flu at DD's nursery, should I take her out?

[Catz]

ARGGHH! - Sitting here happily at 9am on first day of maternity leave planning what I need to do with the last few weeks, thinking about going to a nice gently aquanatal class, a bit of shopping and lunch out. DH has just phoned from DD's nursery to tell me that there was a confirmed case of swine flu in her class last week. Should I pull her out?

Details are: I'm 34 +3 pg - so peak stage for problems - but no other health issues. No vaccine yet, no idea when it's going to arrive and not 100% sure whether to take it anyway. DD is just over 2 and goes to nursery all day Mon/Tues. About 12 children in her class on any day, most full time. The ill child was in on Thurs when symptoms developed so could have infected other children who could be in with DD today but not yet fully showing symptoms. Child diagnosed on Fri.

A very large part of me just wants to get on with having time to myself and sorting things out especially as most cases are mild and it's impossible to avoid possibly ill people if you go to toddler groups etc. But then again there's no real need for her to be in nursery now I'm on ml and we are both in higher risk categories so it may be better not to take the small but serious risk....

What should I do?!?

I would take her out, although I do sympathise, I know how much I looked forward to a little bit of time to myself in late pregnancy.

Some people will say oh, it's in the community anyway, she could get it anywhere, but while that's true, her (and therefore your) chances of getting it will be much higher if she's at nursery than if she's not, and you want to reduce that chance of catching it as much as possible even if you can't get it down to absolutely zero. If I was pregnant that would make me want to take a child out (straight away, I wouldn't even wait for the end of the day), also because any bout of flu can be bad for the baby when you're pregnant - you don't need to be a really extreme case (like the woman sent to Sweden) for it still to be bad for the baby.

If you do get it you'll also have to face the decision of whether or not to take Relenza - something else to bear in mind perhaps, by putting yourself in a position where you're more likely to get it you're much more likely to end up having to take medication you wouldn't ideally want to take.

If I were in your position I would take her out, but I'm a very risk averse type.

Many thanks for the replies. I do agree that the general idea of avoiding exposing children to situations of known risk if there's no need is right. I'm just so looking forward to my Mondays and Tuesdays for the next few weeks so need telling!

I did go in early and get her today. The nursery staff said they'd been surprised by the diagnosis (it was an over phone not swab one) as the child hadn't had any real symptoms in nursery so I'm hoping that there isn't any real risk as it seems that people are most infectious when showing symptoms. None of the other children have yet shown symptoms either so hopefully it will be OK (though I think it can take a week to show). One of the difficult things with this remote diagnosis is knowing whether a child actually has swine flu or whether parents are overreacting over something else.

Thanks for the replies

Oh no Belgianbun, that sounds worse than my situation. Are you on ML now? Hope your DD is OK.

Has your DD had it? Agree, winter is not the time to be having babies. DD was July - much better planning (although we did end up stuck in the middle of flood waters when she was 2 days old so not that much better!)

Not pg, but sympathize with expecting a winter baby and nursery bugs - hope both of you are ok, your LOs too.

BelgianBun, am really posting because both my dds had high fever and vomiting bug a couple of weeks ago, not SF and no cold symptoms to speak of - and it only lasted 48 hours. Hoping for you its something unthreatening that leaves your ML in peace - that goes for both of you!