Pregnancy & Swine Flu

[TonyaW]

My husband showed me a segment on the news just now. He is worried and wants me to get vaxed. They said on the news that pregnant women especially in the 2nd & 3rd trimester are most affected by swine flu, which I will be in flu season. Apparantly, 15 out of 265 deaths were pregnant women. They also said 20 percent of the deaths from Swine Flu in Brazil were pregnant women. Of course they don't say anything about the health or status of these women. It is scary, and I wasn't worried at all until I saw this segment. Does anyone have any info or links I could look at.

[luminesce]

Personally, I'd be very worried about catching the swine flu while pregnant. Roughly 6% of swine flu related deaths have been in previously healthy pregnant women. Pregnant women only make up about 1% of the total population so this is pretty significant.

Despite being 36, having past infertility and wanting one more baby - I'm still going to wait at least a few months before trying.

If I were already pregnant, I'd probably not get the vaccination but try my best to not get infected by staying away from large public gatherings or any public place I didn't need to be. I'd also be very careful with personal hygiene and have my family be the same way. This would probably go a long way to protect and likely even more than the vaccine. The vaccine is completely untested with no safety data - very scary while pregnant!

[Tracy]

Even if I was open to the flu vax I have got to tell you I would never be pro vax is I was pregnant. Swine Flu or Purplepolkadot Flu...none of them worth it to me.


fwiw you can go up to vaccination archives and go to PERSONAL experiences--Search "flu"....

[newmum35]

I wouldn't let anyone scare me about this. There are over 6 million PREGNANT women in the U.S. alone each and every year. (http://www.guttmacher.org/in-the-know/index.html) This is a HUGE number... how many of those have died from the swine flu? In fact the total # of deaths from swine flu in general is only in the hundreds and that includes everyone!!

It is true that pregnant women ARE "MORE" at risk of complications from swine flu than other people with the virus. However, what they are NOT telling you is that the swine flu is not unique in this respect!

Pregnant women have ALWAYS been more susceptible to complications of the flu! Were you scared of being pregnant during flu season in years past? If not, then you probably needn't be overly concerned this flu season either!


Even healthy pregnant women can have medical complications from the flu. This has been known since at least 1998 when a study examined the effect of the flu on pregnant women during 17 previous influenza seasons.
http://www.pamf.org/flu/preg.html

The study found that during flu season, pregnant women in the third trimester were just as likely to be hospitalized for heart or lung problems as women with serious, chronic medical conditions who were not pregnant. The risk increased the farther along they were in their pregnancies. Healthy women at 37 to 42 weeks of gestation were almost five times as likely to be admitted to the hospital during the flu season for heart or lung problems as women who were one to six months postpartum. Pregnant women with asthma are at particularly high risk for hospitalization during flu season.

If I were pregnant this winter, I would be practicing normal common sense hygiene like I do each and every winter, including avoiding visiting friends or family members who are ill or recently ill, washing hands often after going out in public, etc.

I will NOT let the "media" or anyone else scare me and my unborn child into being human guinea pigs for this new vaccine.

[Ann-Marita]

I just saw this on ABCnews.com:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Politic...8199396&page=1

and came over here to post it.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

:

My MIL had abc news on this morning while I was dropping the kids off, and i saw a portion of it. Of what I saw angered me so deeply, I am still trying to recover. The fear mongering in that segment was so utterly apparent, It had me thinking twice, and I am pretty anti vaccine. The thought that millions of pregnant women are going to see that and run right out and get stuck makes me SICK. Doesn't anyone recall what happened last time they scared tons of people into getting a vaccine for this? Wonder if they mentioned the thousands of Guillian Barre Syndrom reports back in the 70s during this news clip. DOUBT IT!

I would do some serious research before injecting yourself with ANYTHING whlie you are pregnant.

[dinahx]

I'm not injecting myself with anything while pregnant that hasn't been extensively tested on pregnant women and fetuses. I agree with PPs, staying home is a WAY more effective strategy than using an untested, recently developed vaccine of questionable efficacy. You can get the disease FROM the shot (in a milder way) and you can get the disease despite the shot (happens with acellular Pertussis all the time). So it doesn't make a lot of sense to put all your eggs in the shot basket anyway. I will be being VERY careful, but for me careful does not include getting experimental meds while preggo.

[TonyaW]

I am the OP and certainly not considering the vaccine at this point. Although, my husband is seriously concerned. So what are some good immune boosting ideas? I will be using extra C, Zinc, possibly Sambucus Elderbery Extract if it is safe while pregnant and possibly Congaplex if it is safe during pregnancy. I won't go out and do as much for sure once flu season hits. But I do have to go to the grocery store and church and stuff like that.

[Marnica]

I agree with all previous posts.

This vaccine is being rushed through safety trials. There are several very short clinical trials which just began last week, None of them are on pregnant women. Do you really want to be injected with an experimental vaccine that is not adequately tested on anyone, but not tested at all on pregnant women? That is truly being a guinuea pig.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Thanks for asking the question! I never have/would get a flu shot but then I heard this. I was 99% "that's stupid" but I can't say there wasn't a flash though my mind about me being stupid.....

[Pirogi]

"We want to start re-engaging the American public and our state and local and health and private business partners in making sure we use these summer months well to prepare for what could be a serious outbreak," Sebelius said. "If it doesn't happen, we'll be fortunate and this planning won't go to waste."

Is it glaringly obvious to anyone else that this is the whole point? This is just another test run, stepped up this time, to mass produce a vaccine to an artificially generated virus within a short time of its "appearance"?

http://drtenpenny.com/a_plan_comes_together.aspx

"In 2005, Congress allocated $3.8 billion to developers with the stated goal of being able to "distribute a vaccine to every American within six months of the onset of a pandemic." In 2006, our elected representatives went even further to ensure we are vaccinated: They created incentives for manufacturers by funding the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005, nicknamed BioShield II."

The real question that is more terrifying than this mild virus or even the vaccine that is being hurried through testing and bullied onto scared pregnant women is, why? What is the end game here?

[nicolebeth]

Originally Posted by TonyaW

I am the OP and certainly not considering the vaccine at this point. Although, my husband is seriously concerned. So what are some good immune boosting ideas? I will be using extra C, Zinc, possibly Sambucus Elderbery Extract if it is safe while pregnant and possibly Congaplex if it is safe during pregnancy. I won't go out and do as much for sure once flu season hits. But I do have to go to the grocery store and church and stuff like that.

Here's a site you might be interested in reading: http://www.the-health-gazette.com/he...ral-antivirals

This has to do with H5N1, however, and not H1N1. Elderberry (according to this site, anyway) was contraindicated with H5N1.

[TonyaW]

Hmmm, that is an interesting site. Do you think and Elderberry contraindication would be true for H1N1 too? I wonder how I would find out?

[Emmeline II]

Pregnant women are more susceptible to everything.

In one month (while pregnant) I caught:

• what I believe was the Norovirus. The hospital did not name the virus; I only went to the hospital because I had been eating cold ham and thought it may by listeria.
• Strep. My niece, whom I was living with at the time, had strep.
• Pertussis; despite being current on the vaccine (military). I did not go to the doctor for this one, but after I did not get better by two weeks (and had some strange non-cold/flu like symptoms), I looked up the symptoms for pertussis and could check off nearly every one.

I'd actually been healthy that pregnancy, but then my father died and I flew home with my toddler for the funeral (NY in February), and stayed in a crowded home with two school aged children.

I rather quarantine myself than get vaccinated with a rushed vaccine that could have unknown health consequences for myself and my child. Does he know what happened with the 1976 swine flu vaccine? Here is an interesting 60 minutes video link.

[Lilcrunchie]

and now all of the news stories are pushing antivirals for pregnant women if they think they may have h1n1. Category c, and at least one thing I read said teratogenic. But supposedly the "risks outweigh the benefits" and they are encouraging antiviral use.

Blech.

would anyone here go the antiviral route if they actually became infected? I know they are nasty, nasty, nasty and not much is known in preggo women, but wondering if anyone would bite on the "risks outweigh the benefits" *if* they contracted H1N1? Obviously prevention would be the best bet, but once you had it, would you do an antiviral while preggo?

eta: i had a horrible respiratory thing at the end of my pregnancy with DD...I kept wondering if it was pertussis...I could not shake it. My cough was very productive however, so I don't think it was pertussis. I think w/ being pregnant, and having a short torso, DD was just really pressing into my diaphragm/lungs and making it hard to shake what I had. I was coughing up phlegm for more than a month. I finally shook it not long before she was born.

[mountainsun]

Originally Posted by nicolebeth

Here's a site you might be interested in reading: http://www.the-health-gazette.com/he...ral-antivirals

This has to do with H5N1, however, and not H1N1. Elderberry (according to this site, anyway) was contraindicated with H5N1.

From what I have read, both Elderberry & echinacea are contraindicated due to "cytokine storms."

[nicolebeth]

I think Vitamins C and D are still ok to take (and don't, as far as I know, produce cytokine storms).

As far as vaccinating while pregnant: I'm really bothered by all the scare tactics out there (I read an article on Salon that seemed to say the same thing everyone else is posting). I can't answer this question personally, not being pregnant. It just seems like desperation (i.e., an inability to know what the virus will do and a lack of time in creating a vaccine) doesn't mean rush to experiment on vulnerable populations. Recommending staying away and using Vitamin D and C would make a lot more sense.

[amyandelle]

Didn't we all see this coming? They scared us in the spring with the day and night media coverage of the mysterious "swine flu" that was killing at a rapid rate. Now they are gearing up for their vaccine campaign for the fall. They want to scare everyone into getting the vaccine. It looks to me like a lot of people stand to make a ton of money this fall when the sheeple get in line for their vaccine.

Now I am not trying to downplay the swine flu. I think that personal hygiene is very important and we will be as vigilant with it as we always are. We will not be getting vaccinated.

A brand new vax with little to no studies especially long term studies is just too much of a risk for anyone IMO. Who know's what type of side effects will come from this vaccine? I don't even want to imagine.

I don't like it one bit

Amy

[mountainsun]

They did a piece on it on NPR tonight. This whole thing has me on edge (and I am not even pg, though my sister is). How can they recommend this not even testing for safety on pg women and unborn babies? I just cannot believe it.

I wish this would just go away

[amnesiac]

Please remember to remain focused on vaccine related issues in this forum & continue any conversations about other treatments etc in Health & Healing. Thank you all!