Third trimester - how careful are you?

[housewifeathome]

Those of you in your third trimester: how careful are you and what precautions are you taking? I keep reading that over 28 weeks we are classified as "vulnerable" to Covid regardless of vaccination status.

I'm not vaccinated, however I have been exposed to Covid via DC2 in second trimester and didn't test positive or have any symptoms.

We have a number of school events coming up. I have always gone to every single event in the past. Would you attend school events / kids' parties?

@Fairywings86 haha thank you, yes, clearly it's best I sit at home with my tin foil hat doing lots of uneducated research 🔬 until baby arrives 😂 Thanks for your words of support xx

@housewifeathome no problem 😊 xx

I was pregnant last year when covid was much more rife and no one was vaccinated. I just carried on as normal, and so did everyone else I know that had babies last year.

To be fair though you started a thread asking what people were doing to protect themselves in the third trimester and the vast majority have said they're vaccinated. Then a fair few on top are doing other things as well. I'm sorry that doesn't tally up with what you were expecting/wanting but that's the thing about asking on an open forum isn't it, you will get a sense of the majority position and that it potentially differs from your own.

Many many people are doing differently to what you are, I'm not going to try to change your mind but I would say have a think about why the general consensus is different to what you thought it might be, were you expecting that?

Same as I would to anybody asking a question on here tbh, that's the nature of a discussion forum isn't it.

I’m 25 weeks and only meet people outside, wear an ffp3 mask for work, social distance and do go anywhere basically
Just reeeaaaallllyyy don’t want to get covid

Don’t go anywhere that was supposed to say

I’m stopping work completely at 28 weeks

Just had my baby a few weeks ago. I was unvaccinated and working from home after 28 weeks (teacher). I was so so careful, barely saw anyone (if I did it was outside), only went to restaurants if it was outside, cancelled my baby shower and basically isolated for weeks before the birth in fear of having to go in alone. I saw it as a small price to pay. I know a lot of people would argue you still have to live your life etc but I would of rather done that for a few weeks and got my baby here safely than risk anything happening

@housewifeathome I chose not to get the vaccine either, mainly because I wasn’t offered it until a month before I was due and just didn’t think any potential risk to my baby was worth it for the sake of a month when I could just lock myself away basically and be careful. Cases do seem to be higher now and if I was earlier on in my pregnancy I’d maybe of considered it but I still don’t think I’d take it in my third trimester just now. Everyone has their own opinion on it and it’s up to each individual to weigh up the risks of their own situation but I’d just be very careful until baby is here. I had my first jab a couple of weeks after he arrived

I could imagine being pregnant and not double vaxxed! Seems mad to me

Double vaccinated and 32 weeks. I'm being super careful.

My midwife told me there are several pregnant in our local icu at the moment. They're not vaccinated. There are a lot of unvaccinated pregnant women in America dying of it now. It can cause still.birth as well.

If I were you I'd shield and have no contact with anyone outside your house at all. You just need to Google it and you'll see how awful it can be 🥲

I’m still in my second trimester, have had one jab and will have had my second by my third trimester. I will still be really careful in my third trimester despite being vaccinated. For one thing I don’t want to test positive and have that impact on my care in labour or before.

I’m 31 weeks and unvaccinated, don’t plan to get the jab while pregnant, I also haven’t had the flu or whooping cough vaccines in this or my previous 2 pregnancies.

I have also found that anyone who has asked if I’m vaccinated have agreed they would not have gotten their jabs if pregnant due to the unknowns.

While I’m only out occasionally now I’m planning to isolate pretty much from the start of half term and DH will do the school runs once the older two are back at school. If numbers are really high at that point I may ask school if I can keep them home to avoid having to labour alone if one of them caught it.

I don’t judge anyone that has decide to vaccinate but I find it hard to understand that I’m not afforded that same understanding for choosing not to, at the end of the day we are all doing what we think is best for our situation and that of our baby.

@CosmicMonkey everyone I spoke to in real life while pregnant seemed to feel really strongly that they wouldn’t take the vaccine either while pregnant. A lot of my friends are pregnant just now and only one of them has had the vaccine. It seems to be on mumsnet though people are very much for the vaccine during pregnancy, which was the total opposite of what I found in real life.

Totally agree it’s such an individual choice and everyone’s just doing what they think is best. There’s no right or wrong answer just now until we know more years down the line

30 weeks and unvaccinated, I plan to get it straight after the birth. However, my circumstances mean I can shield at home until baby is born. Both me and DH work from home and we are not doing anything other than going to midwife appointments and even then we wear FFP3 masks. We only meet family outside. It’s not fun but I am fully aware of the risks of covid in the third trimester so do not want any chance of catching it. We also do not have any children already so no mixing with others at nursery’s/school. If that was the case or one of us was having to go into work I would probably reconsider the vaccine due to the risks.

@sarah13xx
@CosmicMonkey

Yes, in real life the vast majority I have spoken to have said they wouldn't get the Covid vaccine while pregnant and the other pregnant mums I know also have not been vaccinated.

I totally understand why a pregnant woman would get vaccinated though - it really depends on so many factors (infections in local area, medical conditions, front line workers etc) - and I'd never judge anyone for deciding to have it. It's just a risk I'm not prepared to take personally. I know a lot of people who have had quite horrific short time side effects too, especially women. I can't be dealing with that as well during pregnancy 😫 There's no right or wrong: either way we are taking a risk.

2nd trimester here, fully vaccinated, currently WFM and planning to avoid eating in restaurants and cafes inside during third trimester but for now being fairly relaxed (although don’t go out very much as I have a toddler). I wouldn’t feel comfortable not being vaccinated with a child in nursery.

I am unvaccinated and 37 weeks pregnant now. We are very outdoorsy with an 11 month lab pup so I would say we try to keep outside but i do have 2 DDs who i have taken swimming. If in a shop i will make more of an effort to keep my distance too.

With regards to covid and people being so pro vaccine i have to say I am on the fence. (I dont take my research from facebook either lol and have a 1st bsc hons degree) when the jab first came out i was breastfeeding so couldn't have it, then i got pregnant and they started to change the rules which made me not want it still. I have also been around covid people non masked indoors and not caught it and looked after covid patients too.

On the topic of mumsnet being very pro jab I originally planned to get the jab post birth whilst breastfeeding this new baby. But i am unsure, so many people are so pro jab, it does this and that.... but unvaccinated make up such a small minority of the population now and infections are still rife. Most of the people i know are double vaxxed and loads of them have caught covid and been unwell with it. A lot of people say 'imagine how much worse you would be unvaxxed' but i am skepticle.

My sisters and co workers caught it pre vaccines and wernt badly affected. If you also look at the stats for the yellow card reporting and the deaths from covid vaccine vs other vaccines and the fact we dont know so much about it. Originally they said it would reduce tranmission, now they say a vax person holds the same viral load as an unvax person. You just know if covid stays rife they will say that a vaccine resistant strain has taken over.... i just dont see why i should put myself at risk of the side effects of the iab when i may not be able to protect myself from covid anyway. Thats my thought processes atm. Im not brsin washed or anti vax but i also do not just take everything that is written in the media as gosspel.

Take an article from the daily mail for example, headline 'unvaccinated make up majority of covid deaths' but reading into the article they were including months and months where no one was vaxxed and then they only count you as double vax 14 days after your second dose. And when you broke the stats down further, in july 80% of desths had received at least one vaccination... people will say duh! Its not perfect, almost everyone is vaccinated but im reserved to think or maybe they are just not working well as the government hoped. Who knows. I wish you luck in the rest of your pregnancy

To me too you can still catch it and spread it vaxxed and unvaxxed, also read "so and so is in hospital and double jabbed" I don't try trust all the figures are true either tbh, there say one thing then the next say something else completely different, guinea pig comes to mind for me, I personally have no intention to have the jab now, with blood clots etc, what are they really hiding from us? but I know my views are different to many many others and that's fine too, I'm not anti vax, most of my family are double jabbed, theres just something about the covid jab that I don't trust, very very skeptical too!

There's no right or wrong: either way we are taking a risk.

Patent nonsense.

We also do not have any children already so no mixing with others at nursery’s/school. If that was the case or one of us was having to go into work I would probably reconsider the vaccine due to the risks.

I think it’s right that it’s a very different decision if you already have a child. As you say they increase your risk of exposure if they go to school or nursery. I also think it changes your risk tolerance - I absolutely didn’t feel I could take any risk, however small, of dying of Covid and leaving my existing son motherless.

There's no right or wrong: either way we are taking a risk.

this comment is factually wrong, risk is about statistics and statistically the.difference between being vaccinated and not being vaccinated when pregnant is very different

peddling this type of sentence is dangerous as the person writing it doesn't understand the value of risk

@ivykaty44

There's no right or wrong: either way we are taking a risk.

this comment is factually wrong, risk is about statistics and statistically the.difference between being vaccinated and not being vaccinated when pregnant is very different

peddling this type of sentence is dangerous as the person writing it doesn't understand the value of risk

I disagree; there is a risk of taking the vaccine, and you cannot deny that as there have been deaths and vaccine injuries. And that is before we factor in long term effects, which are not yet known as not enough time has elapsed.

There is also of course a risk of catching Covid 19 and becoming unwell, even seriously, with it.

So I stand by my statement: there is a risk either way.

OP, you quite clearly don’t understand the concept of risk

All risks are not equal

Literally everything has risk, most of it is quantifiable/measurable

Some things are higher risk than others

Driving without a seatbelt is more risky than wearing one
Driving on a motorway at 90mph is more risky than driving at 70mph

You are basically saying that it’s fine to drive at 90mph with a seatbelt because you’ve seen people killed at 70mph not wearing one
You could obviously drive at 70mph with a seatbelt a reduce the risk

You’re not minimising your risk… you’re just reducing it slightly, instead of reducing it massively

I really really wish risk analysis is was routinely taught as part of maths/statistics

The ignorance of so many people is shocking, and actually dangerous because they can’t wrap their head around how to interpret basic information

Have you seen the vaccine injury register op?
Some of the complaints have been that their pet has died.

Children have had complications from their baby jabs too, you going to avoid those?

Did you get the flu and whooping cough vaccine?

Yes there is a risk either way op. The risks of catching COVID far greater than any risk the vaccine would impose on you.

stillbirth being quite a heavy consequence for some women, or the loss of their own life. The risk of both being higher than any risk the vaccine would have.