Amandabelk05

I'm 25 weeks pregnant and I'm currently undecided as to whether to have the vaccine or not. My friend is 27 weeks pregnant and her father is a Dr and he advised her NOT to have the vaccine. If he's a Dr and advising his own daughter not to have it, it makes me wonder if I should get it. I've decided to wait until my next midwife appointment so I can explore all the avenues.
I also found a good article on The Guardian website and it gives you some good impartial advice.
I can't post the link though it won't let me - I just googled "is the swine flu jab safe in pregnancy"

I don't think we can make people do what they don't believe in or trust just as you strongly believe in having it others still believe that live vaccines (as the swine flu jab is) like the MMR jab cause autism although this is still to be proven (sourced from Wikipedia).

priddy

At my active birth class the other day the midwifes asked if anyone was going for the jab, they then told us no tests at all have been done on pregnant women which im sorry is to much of a gamble for me to take the risk with it.

Nix

Not sure if I misread but the swine flu jab is not a live vaccine its only the nose spray vaccine that is live. xx

Pussycat

But to be fair they don't really test anything on pregnant women, do they? I mean, it's not like there are many pregnant women who would answer an ad in the paper advertising for volunteers for some new clinical trial, and even if they did the drug companies probably wouldn't accept them.

Fact is, pregnant women have caught the H1N1 virus and some of them have died as a result. For me personally, that's where the gamble is and it's a bigger risk.

Nix, you're right, in the UK at least the vaccine is not live and so you can't actually catch swine flu from it.

Amandabelk05, do you know why your friend's father advised your friend not to have the vaccine? I'd be interested to know his reasons.

mummypeanut

yeah youre right - its illegal to test on pregnant women in medical trials (a decsion made after the thalidamide fiasco) which leave us in a difficult position because there is no evidence either way, good or bad.

I figure the virus is a confirmed risk where as the jab is a theoretical one. I'm gonna be going for the theoretical risk of the jab over the confirmed risk of swine flu.

Of course its all a personal decsion that needs to be made based on personal circumstance.

Babybug

I have had the vaccine and apart from an achey arm have felt fine since, some people get a bit achey and feel a bit unwell afterwards.

I based my decision on risk, I am a nurse and had already nursed several patients unknowingly who had the virus. All the doctors on my ward had it even the most senior ones.

I have read that the basic injection is exactly the same as the seasonal jab which is given to lots of pregnant women every year just with a different 'dead bug' in it, so the only un tried part is the bug itself ( I say tried rather than tested because nothing is properly tested on pregnant women, they can only deem things safe looking at things in retrospect which cannot be deemed a clinical trial) The seasonal jab is deemed safe in pregnancy.