Sounds a bit daft when the NHS website states the mercury free one is designed to be given to pregnant women. Anyways, the choice is yours but they should not be refusing to offer you a jab of the mercury free one IMO. They should at least be offering it, giving you the choice and letting you decide. Not letting you have the choice is wrong I feel. My nurse admitted she had never given a pregnant woman one of the mercury free jabs and had read up on it, and was happy to give it. She said the other practice nurses had however given them in the past.
The NHS site says
Is it safe to have the flu jab whilst pregnant or breastfeeding?
The Department of Health advises that it is safe for pregnant women to have the flu jab, but that they should have the thiomersal-free vaccine (mercury-free) wherever possible. It is considered that the benefits of having the vaccination outweigh the risks of exposure to thiomersal.
Some pregnant women have medical conditions (such as chronic disease of the heart, lungs, liver or kidneys) which suppress their immune systems, making a bout of flu more severe. Again, in these cases the benefits of having the jab are greater than any possible risks, and vaccination should take place before the flu season begins, regardless of the stage of pregnancy.
Clinical studies have shown no adverse effects from the flu jab on pregnant women (or their babies) or those who are breastfeeding, as the virus in the vaccine is inactivated.
The becatide inhaler is good and if lucky you won't need anything else. I found often last winter though I was max-ing out on the brown inhaler (you can only go up to 4 puffs twice a day) and had to have a course of steroids. Not nice.
I then switched and have a purple inhaler now, which is a combination of the brown and blue ones and don't use the brown one at all anymore and I've had less problems.
