Flu Jab...talk me down!!

[EmmaHealy23]

So I've had my whooping cough vaccine and am booked in this Thursday for my flu jab. I'm 24 weeks at the mo.

A lady I work with just told me not to get it, her father had a stroke afterwards, and it's my baby I'm hurting by being so uneducated.

I'm literally lost for words, I feel so panicked! My midwife told me it was safe but now thanks to this colleagues 'advice' of 'how could you live with yourself etc etc' it's made me feel so worried.

Please talk me down, she's prone to being a complete overreactor in normal life and usually I'd take anything she said with a massive pinch of salt, but it's my first baby...ugh...wish she'd kept her horror stories to herself

From the NHS page about the flu vaccine it says There is also evidence to suggest that the flu jab can reduce your risk of having a stroke.

The woman you work with is not a clinician, or any kind of specialist in risk statistics. I am sorry about her dad, but it is entirely irrelevant to your situation.

She sounds like an utter douchebag. I had both those vaccines x 2 pregnancies. So did everyone I know!

The flu vaccine does not cause strokes. Correlation does not equal causation so the stroke would be unrelated.

Your colleague has been so unhelpful telling you that! Go with your original plan and protect yourself and baby.

Junk. I got it done whilst pregnant and considered doing it to be best way to protect me and my baby. You know yourself it's fucking mental to trust a random in your office (who you acknowledge does no even have a good track record) over the collective (and considered) medical opinion of the NHS. Give no more head space to this!

Your colleague is talking complete bolocks - the flu jab is safe. Vaccinations are one of the best things about the modern world. It's there to protect you and your baby.

Don't let scaremongering stop you protecting your baby. Midwives wouldn't recommend them if they were dangerous.

What job does your colleague do which means she is more qualified to give advice than your midwife/ gp/ the nhs?

I had the flu jab while pregnant in September and won a bottle of wine in a raffle afterwards. The flu jab causes wine!

Your colleague should be ashamed of herself for worrying you unnecessarily.

I come from a family which has had probable complications with vaccines, to the point my DM was advised by GP and consultant not to have any vaccines including flu vaccine. These are very rare complications and I can't see any reason they would apply in your case. You are more likely to benefit from the vaccine and honestly you shouldn't worry any more about your colleagues comments, extensive research has gone into showing that the jab is a good idea for you at this point.

Flu jab causing a stroke?! I've heard it all now. Not even a live vaccine.

I had mine around 24 weeks and got a sore arm and achy thighs. Better than getting the flu!

Her father was probably going to have the stroke regardless. I’ve had the flu 3 times and you certainly don’t want it during pregnancy. It will be ok.

That's sad for her father but if she can prove a link to the flu vaccine, she'd have to be some amazing researcher. It would be coincidental timing, nothing more.

Actual doctors recommend it because the effects of flu on your baby are v nasty. Listen to them, they are the experts, not your colleague with an anecdote.

Try not to worry. You're doing your best!

As I always say in these posts, I nearly died last pregnancy because I had the flu. It’s a different ball game to flu when not pregnant... just get the jab imo

Oh please ignore her. It's safe. Plus having flu when pregnant is really not something you want to happen.

Your colleague reminds me of someone I know, who felt that orange juice caused shaking and memory loss. Her husband drank vodka and orange all day, so orange juice must be the problem

Flu when you’re pregnant can be fatal, the NHS wouldn’t be paying to vaccinate us all if there were risks. Your colleague is an idiot and needs to keep her ill-informed opinions to herself

Absolutely no risk with the flu jab at all and it's the best way to protect yourself and your baby. I had mine on Friday last week, 11 weeks pregnant and would never not have it! Don't listen to your colleague, she is irrational and uneducated and you're doing the best for you and your baby by having the jab! All it caused me was an achey arm :) which is way better than flu, especially whilst pregnant!

Using the same logic as your colleague, the day I had my flu jab, someone scraped my car, so I could say 'don't have it in case it causes a car crash'

Sometimes things happen at the same time as other things. It doesn't mean one causes the other.

The flu jab is given to pregnant women on a huge scale so if there was any evidence of it causing harm, they would have a huge data set. But there isn't because it is safe. Very very safe.

Ffs!

The effects of flu on a pregnant woman are horrendous.
Lungs full of fluid
Heart racing
Kidneys struggling
Liver ok
We think we have her on time....

That is what my family was told when I got flu at 36 weeks. I spent the week on oxygen getting all sorts of antibiotics and antiviral fired into me.
Lucky for me I responded and LO was ok. But they did consider emergency section to reduce the pressure on my body.

The risk of getting extremely ill with flu is far greater than the non existent risk of having a stroke after the jab.

Millions of vaccines must have been given, if this was a thing I'm sure it would be well known by now. Being pregnant is probably making you overthink it and worry unnecessarily!

OP, can you please come back and reassure us all that you will get your flu shot? The woman is a crackpot.

Risk of flu for you and risks for baby is very real. I had the jab when pregnant and my dm has it every year, there is a bit of aching for a week sometimes but that's all. I got a bad cold when pregnant which progressed to my chest and was hospitalised, I'd hate to have had the flu.

Yes, it's totally possible to have a bad reaction to any sort of medical intervention. Yes, he could have had a stroke afterwards. Of course, he could have had a stroke anyway, and there was absolutely no connection to the flu jab. I do know a few people who have developed bells palsy after a jab (which actually can seem a lot like a stroke, so she may not actually know what she's talking about anyway). But I also know someone who was in hospital for like two months after getting the flu while pregnant and nearly lost her baby.

Ignore her (and try not to punch her in the face). I get the flu jab every year and in all these years I've never had so much as a swollen arm. I've had it in pregnancy twice now. The flu can be really serious and I wouldn't listen to someone's crazy talk.

Thanks for this ladies, I don't known why it panicked me so much...she's got an opinion for everything and in normal life I don't pay it blind bit of attention. I think it was the ferocity with which she spat out these 'facts' it made me feel stupid for not knowing these incredible 'dangers' and if I didn't know this, what sort of mother was I expecting to be?

She's told me a fair few birth horror stories too, I'll just have to ignore her....and as pp said try not to punch her in the face!!

My flu jab will be going ahead as planned