September - time to consider flu jabs!!!

[Binzy]

Thank you for higlighting this, if people don't push it, people like me are just not going to get round to it.
xx

 

[x_larlybelle_x]

I have my 16 week check a week on Monday so I will ask about it then.

Thank u princess and Laura_c for sharing your stories xxx

 

[hellywelly]

Thank you for sharing such personal information with us and I am so sorry for your losses. A few questions if that's ok.

a) are all pregnant women classed as higher risk? I have no other illnesses or any medical reason to get a flu jab and have never had one previously so can they refuse you? Want to be able to make a stand if they put up a fight!

b) I'm only 8 weeks and very concerned about any possible side effects. Obviously I know that getting the flu could possibly mean far worse happening, but if I can wait would it be better to get the jab after the first trimester after most of the major organs have formed? Wondered if anyone knew the science behind it all. I'm a bit concerned that my sister-in-law (a senior nurse on an ICU) refused the swine flu jab last year, as did a lot of the medical staff as they felt it hadn't been properly researched or tested.

I am seeing the midwife on Tue so will ask her then as well. Thank you!

 

[Princess81]

As far as I know pregnancy does lower all women's immune system to some degree. Also, as far as I know, all doctors surgeries should be making contact with their pregnant patients to offer them the flu jab.
Regarding the risk to the pregnancy during the early stages I'm not sure. You would need to discuuss this with the midwife. Lots of people do have it in the first trimester however other's decide not to, it's a pesonal choice and you must weigh up the pro's and con's in your own head before making your decision x

 

[Sleepy sue]

Thank you Laura and princess for sharing such personal stories to help others. I will be getting mine this year, I must admit I've never had it before but in dec last year my mom was in critical care and the amour of people in there on life support through swine flu was unbelievable and unfortunately I saw people go through what princess and her family went through on a daily basis

Your right princess in that we think it will never happen to us, unfortunately the people it happens too probably thought the same

Xxx

 

[Corrinne37]

Thank you for all the information ladies in this thread - I will definitely get myself vaccinated.
So sorry to hear your devastating stories Princess and Laura, really has shocked m and brought home how important this is. xxxxx

 

[MrsHakaxjdx]

i was offered the flu jab with the pregnancy i miscarried last year but not with this one. it is a concern but with only having a few weeks left i doubt id be priority.
Its a great issue to discuss though hunny x

 

[Laura_C]

I'm wondering weather I will be called in for a jab at all with this pregnancy, I do know though that all pregnant women should be offered one at the start of the flu season. It's quite new still though, I missed the boat with Ethan somehow! Actually I do know, my midwife was telling me she was not yet signed off to administer immunisations, as it's different from just simply taking blood so I think they were having to get other qualifies staff to so it at my surgery. I was never offered one anyway and I do wonder if I had it would I have got so ill in that November.

Not sure if I will get it this time either as I'm due to have baby mid to late October and I know my surgery does the flu jabs around October time?? I'll have to check!

 

[Princess81]

I guess all u can do is ask Hun. The only reason I know that our docs start in September is because MIL has asthma and gets called in for it.
I think if anyone is unsure then just phone your MW and ask. X

 

[knopk@]

It was my mw who told me to phone my surgery and tell them I am high risk so do ask your mw. I will ask mine as well at next app

 

[charlie26]

So sorry to hear your storeys Princess & Laura. I have just cried sitting and reading this. My son has asthma and last year i got a phone call asking to take him in for his jab. After speaking to my mum who works in a pharmacy & a few other people (who were all againts the jabs due to lack of research) i didnt take him for his jab. Reading this now i feel so stupid. Ill be ringing my doctors on tuesday, So sorry for both your losses & thank you for making us all awear of how dangerous not getting your jab can be, thank you xxxx

 

[BevG]

jabs are usually an innert dead form of the virus or something to make us form antibodies to it without us having to suffer it. regardless of how much research has gone into it they are pretty harmless. the possible benefits far outweigh the risks so to speak. id never refuse a vaccination against anything as id rather take a lil jab that might do nothing than catch a majorly nasty virus or disease.

 

[NinjaKitty]

This is the most amazing thread. Thank you Princess and Laura for being open and candid aboiut your experiences, it really is very selfless. I cannot tell you how much I respect that.

I'll be getting both jabs this year. I was waiting for September to come round. I too know someone who nearly lost there life to Swine Flu on New Years day. They are still recovering really after spending two weeks in ICU and more weeks in hospital after that. As someone else said the hospital was swamped with people very ill with swine flu. I'm due to give birth at that time of year so I'm not taking any chances.

 

[Princess81]

The nurses in the hospital were astounded that o/h and I had not had our jabs. Allegedly people between 14 and 40 (and particularly pregnant women) were highest at risk last year. That was coming from one of the top consultants in the UK - I heard him saying that myself.
Where were the reports on the news? All we heard was that it was the young and the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, and I guess at least they did mention pregnant women. However, none of us should ever feel that we are categorically not going to get it. Even if you are not prone to getting the flu. My sister never had the flu before in her life, the first strain she got killed her.
GP's and midwives should be able to offer details of the risks and benefits to the vaccination. I just feel that the media led us down the garden path over recent years - by categorising the people that would get it, and they were wrong x.

 

[BevG]

my gp's surgery advertised the jabs, they said to book in for one if you had a medical condition, were over 60 or preg. everyone else had to ask for one and would get it if there were enough so i never had one. i got flu quite bad when swine flu first came out and lots of ppl in my work then were off, some confined to their homes cos of it. luckily everyone i knew recovered just fine. will deffo get the jab now im pg as i know my immune system isnt what it was

 

[Princess81]

I went into boots in Kensington to get mine whilst my siste was sick, o/h came to get his as well. They were saying "well you know you aren't really at the AT RISK category - plus you look like you've got a cold anyway" so even then I had to argue my case, my response was "I haven't got a cold, my sister is dying of swine flu and I've been crying because we've just been told she's not going to make it" that was what convinced them to give it to me, but by that time the pharmacist was crying herself. Funnily enough, the next day, the entire shop front of boots in Kensington was an advert that the vaccine was available in-store.

 

[Princess81]

Here is a link to the nhs page about it, in case you want to read up x
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Flu-jab/Pages/Introduction.aspx

 

[positivity :)]

thank you both

brilliant thread. i'm going to ask my midwife about this too.

my mum asked the doctors about it for me when i was in hospital with glandulafever early on in pregnancy and he said that i would have given birth (December?!) by the time flu was around so i dont need it.

my mum is against it but knowing of your story princess and others there is no question in my mind. i'll be asking for it at my next appointment! thanks again for sharing, u may have just saved a life!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Princess81]

A doctor said giving birth in December means you wouldn't need it? That's mad. I think my sis contracted it sometime round 16 December and died on 30th so it is rife throughout December. That doc needs a boot in the arse for that comment! Seriously how daft! Not to mention, if a pregnant mother is given the vaccine it is also passed on to baby for that year so they are also safer x

 

[positivity :)]

it is awful because tbh i dont know much about it and could have beleived it but when i was in new york in early january this year i went with my best friend who was 5 months pregnant. 2 days after we got home she was rushed to hospital with suspected swine flu. the pain and worry for 48 hours was unbearable and i had said to her in new york 'have u had the swine flu jab' and she said, nope, no one has mentioned it to me!

so when we got home and that happend (oh btw it wasn't swine flu) i knew i would get it because i was angry with her when we were in new york for not being more aware of the dangers. i remember standing in the hotel room saying 'u do know how dangerous it is for pregnant women right' and she was just oblivious!!

xxx