hi everyone .I had my swine flu jab today and after searching long and hard and talking to lots off health proffesionals and looking at data think I made the right decision .swine flu is at my sons nursery and a few pupils and teachers have been off i just cannt risk getting it and been really ill or worse .the swine flu jab has not been tested on pregnant women but as it says here
have the vaccines been trialled on pregnant women?
No. This has been seized upon by some to question their safety, and has spurred controversy. However, no vaccines are routinely tested on pregnant women. Vaccines are given to pregnant women when it is clinically necessary — such as polio, tetanus and seasonal flu vaccines. The safety of giving a particular vaccine is instead assessed from what is already known about its ingredients and the results of toxicity studies. Some non-pregnant women enrolled in trials do fall pregnant shortly after — these cases are followed up, with all information added to the assessment of possible risks. Any medication given to pregnant women is subject to extremely careful consideration on both clinical and ethical levels. The decision is made on a balance of benefit and risk. The Department of Health states that it has "no reason to believe there is a risk of harm from giving the swine flu vaccines in pregnancy".
another bit off info that may help
Your concern about your unborn baby is understandable, but the fl u shot will not harm the baby. In fact,
it protects your baby by protecting you. Pregnant women are at high risk for serious illness and death
from any infl uenza virus, but especially the H1N1 virus. That’s why the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention urges pregnant women (and many other groups of people) to get both the H1N1 and seasonal
fl u vaccines.
If you get the fl u, you have a higher-than-average risk of developing pneumonia, which lowers the amount
the oxygen in your blood. This means your fetus many not receive enough oxygen for normal development.
In addition, having the fl u during pregnancy increases your risk of a miscarriage or giving birth too
early. And women who have a fever early in their pregnancy are more likely to deliver a baby with a neural
tube defect, such as spina bifi da.
You can pass the protective antibodies you develop after receiving the vaccine to your fetus. That will help
protect your baby from the fl u after it’s born.
Some parents worry that thimerosal, a mercury-based substance in many vaccines that keeps them from
becoming contaminated with bacteria or other germs, might cause a development disorder called autism.
But the theory that thimerosal can cause autism has been studied thoroughly, and there is no credible
evidence of a link between them. Parents who remain concerned about thimerosal should opt for the
nasal spray vaccine, which does not contain the substance.
Even if you can’t remember the last time you had a cold, much less the fl u, you should still consider getting
the vaccines. Your ability to mount an effective immune response to viruses may have worked well in
the past, but that provides no guarantee of future health. And even though the H1N1 virus so far hasn’t
been more dangerous, on average, than seasonal fl u, it does seem to be more severe in children, healthy
young adults and people under age 50, including pregnant women. (People over age 50 seem to have some
immunity against H1N1, thanks to a related fl u virus that “made the rounds” decades ago.)
