Pregnant MNers - The Guardian wants your swine-flu thoughts

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We're having a leetle techy problem with our Media Requests Topic at the moment, so I'm posting this Media Request from The Guardian's Caroline Davies below...

"I am looking to talk to pregnant Mumsnet members about the latest NHS guidance over swine flu for pregnant women. i.e avoiding crowds and unnecessary travel.

"Anyone willing to share their thoughts, confusion or alarm, please contact me at [email protected] with a telephone number and I will call you back. Many thanks."

Am interested in Sophie! She lives jsut up the road from me. Of course now no one will identify themselves.

Hello pooka .

Just in the interests of clarity, I wasn't seriously questioning whether I should stay in my house and not see friends... and I don't really think I need to know exactly when my normal immunity will be restored... Though now everyone will think I am COMPLETELY PARANOID and panicking about swine flu. Whoops.

I like the idea of 'monitoring' MN though. Now I can stop calling it 'wasting time surfing'.

OOh Sophie, you are due around the same time as me. Are we on any of the same threads ????

I love the idea of "monitoring" mumsnet. SOunds so much better than just time wasting.

I anticipate that your full immunity will be restored on 10th October 2009 at 21.24. Hope that helps Until then of course you must remain inside behind air lock doors.

I think everyone managed to sound very sane and unhysterical, in the face of frankly pretty extreme provocation from the press reportage. So sterling work there.

Am I to take it from your middle para that you've just had it Lenin? Are you (all) okay? When are you booked for?

oh fgs- she wants some hysterical comments (presumably from the "too worried to go out pregnant" brigade) to look flashy in her article.

There are people out there worrying unnecessarily about swine flu, who are busy clogging up national helplines and medical services. Given the relative lack of severity of SF so far, these are apparently mostly the "worried well", whether pregnant or non-pregnant. They are presumably worrying due to the alarmist tosh they are being fed by the media.

So 27 people have died so far. How many of those had underlying health problems, were leading extremely unhealthy lifestyles, or were malnourished on a diet of junk food? A fair few, I'll wager.

I think the advice to take precautions against this flu only if you have serious underlying health problems, in which case "ordinary" flu could be a threat to you in any year anyway, would be a far more sensible and responsible approach for all the media to adopt.

FWIW my daughter's class had about 1/3 of its cohort (about 6 out of 17) missing in the last week of term due to SF. My daughter did not get it, and neither did anybody in our house (to our knowledge- although now you mention it, daughter 1 did have that "cold" a few weeks ago, yikes!), including me at 30 odd weeks pregnant.

article's already published duchesse!

And how can you be 30 weeks already?

Actually I'm 36 weeks today EachPeach- due on 17th August. It's fair flown by.

I do not believe this Swine Flu is for real, Depression has the same symtoms, and I feel were all being drugged, maybe murdered by injectig ourselve's with the N1H1 Virus in the first place; a lot of reversed psychology used in making us paranoid about our own Immune system's; don't you trust your's!

Oh my word- that has flown by... but my ex-bump is 5mo already!

Lenin- glad you all had it mildly.

pmsl @ amerika.

Does depression really have the same symptoms though?

Would love to know where you got that insight

Amerika - cogent first post.

Find another forum to post your idiocies to, there's a dear.

[counts misplaced apostrophes]
[struggles with misconceptions]
[tries to apply logic]
[thinks of explaining the science in small words]

[gives up and eats pizza]

It's all so confusing and totally impractical.
Pregnant women ( I'm 17 weeks ) told to avoid crowds and travelling. What about the husbands of all pregnant women: do they have to avoid crowds and the rush hour too, as they could catch it and bring it home?
Keep older children indoors - how exactly?!
It's scare-mongering on a grand scale and I'm starting to get really worried about giving birth this winter when it's meant to get worse.
Will there by any midwives left?
The government should think carefully about issuing advice and figures of " 65,000 could die " and stop spreading panic, then telling people not to panic.As should the media.