nurse refused to give me the flu jab this am, because im 2 months pregnant, and she won't do it in the 1st trimester

[CarrieInAnotherBabi]

midwife on monday told me to get booked in for the flu jab, dr on tue nagged me why haven't i had it yet, told him i was booked in for thu.
and he still went on and on anout how its really important i have it blah blah.

struggled to get the surgery this am, as ive got bad sickness, then the nurse said that althought the nhs guidelines say to give the jab at any stage during pregnancy, she doesn't want to do it, as its her head on the line and in the manufactuers instructions [leaflet] it says not to be given in first trimemester.

anyway, of course i ont want to be given it if its unwise, but i dont want to catch flu on the next month, im 2 months g atm,

what would you do?

I have heard that it isn't recommended during the first trimester too. Personally I wouldn't have it. If I did have a miscarriage, even if it wasn't because of the flu jab, I would always wonder and feel guilty. The risk of flu, while slightly higher in pregnancy, is still quite small and, iirc, tends to be greater later on in the pregnancy when the bump is putting a bit of strain on your lungs/ pushing on them a bit. At this stage I would probably just stick to hand washing and other precautions. There's a very good chance you're already immune anyway considering that it's been around for a few years now and quite a large number of cases are mild or completely asymptomatic.

The manufacturer could be covering their own arse because they haven't tested it, but that's why the descision on whether you have the vaccine now or wait a while should be made by you, in consultation with someone who is better trained to understand these things than the nurse.

I think the nurse definately did the right thing.

Carrie, they probably are covering themselves because it hasn't been tested on pregnant women. Well, technically it has been now because it's being given to them! The problem is that if anything like a miscarriage does occur then it will more than likely just be labelled as 'one of those things' rather than being attributed to the vaccine so I'm not really sure how anyone can say that it is 'safe' in the first trimester.

I'd wait 4 weeks as per recommended guidelines

In fact in my 3 pregnancies I didn't have any vaccinations as a precaution, particularly a many of them contail thiomersal, a mercury compound

Sorry for hijack, but does anyone know about mercury in flu vaccines and which brands contain it?

befuzzle i don't know what you mean by "particularly a many of them contail thiomersal, a mercury compound"

does that mean they contain mercury and thiomersal?
ive not heard of thiomersal before.

i am hand washing a\lot, i dont normally use anti bacterial wash but i am now im pg.

the nurses refuse to do it at my local surgery, a doctor has to come out to inject you.

I think the nurse did the right thing, but it would have been better if she could have phoned through to your GP and got clarification whilst you were still there. So that the GP could have given you the jab him/herself if that was the right decision.....though I expect at that point you would probably be nervous about it.

I am not a nurse, so may have got this wrong but it was my understanding that they were not supposed to just provide drugs/vaccinations even if they had been prescribed without checking if there seemed to be an inconsistency, to protect patients if a dr has made a mistake. In the same way a pharmacist would check dosages/interactions.

It irritates me that the nhs provides vaccinations without providing the possible/common side effects leaflets. I have had many jabs, as have my kids in several PCTs but never have received an honest leaflet mentioning the side effects the manufacturers publish. I do get many health promotion type leaflets instead which gloss over any possible problems.

I had mine at 6 weeks. Scan at 12 weeks fine.

All jabs carry a mininmal risk, but, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives.

My good friend spent last Xmas in intensive care battling for her life pregnant with swine flu.

As we are well and truly In the flu season the effects of flu on a pregnant woman are proven... There is no credible links to suggest any problems in timing of jab.

Hello. We've moved this to 'Pregnancy', as we think it's the best place for it.

I think there's so much confusion and mis-information, but if I was in my 1st trimester I'd want the jab (I'm 35wks and had it couple of weeks ago).

I got preg in Dec last year, tried to book in for flu jab but couldn't get it until after Christmas. Unfortunately we all got flu over Christmas and I couldn't get my temp to stay down with just paracetamol. I thought all would be ok, it didn't even cross my mind that it wouldn't tbh. But 3 wks later I had some pinkish discharge and mw sent me to epu. Unfortunately there was no hb, and baby had died at 7wks which was when I had the flu. I know there are lots of reasons why, plus I had another mc in March, but for me it was just too coincidental and a high temp is a known cause of mc.

oh! thats a bit cheeky!

harrassed, so sorry for your loss, must be horrible to sort of have a feeling why you lost a baby

i do feel a bit worried as dd is full of a cold, andits prime flu time atm.

when did this years flu jab become avalible?
perhaps i shouldhave paid to have a private jab before ttc, but we started ttc in july, so perhaps it wasn'teven avalible then.

This is the guidance from NHS :

Here Who should have it
Advice for Pregnant Women
We are offering vaccinations to all pregnant women visiting our Trust, no matter what stage of pregnancy.
Contracting the actual flu in early pregnancy is linked to miscarriage, but this is more likely to be related to the high temperatures you get with the flu.

The vaccine is not live by the way, so getting the jab will not give you flu.
You don't build up your antibodies for 10 to 14 days though, so you could still contract the flu after getting the vaccination if exposed.

yes i know that nhs guidelines , theres a massive posterup in the surgery saying the guidelines, even the nurse pointed it out to me.