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pregnancy and swine flu - anyone had it while pregnant?

1K views 17 replies 14 participants last post by  tinkentinken 
#1 ·
We are trying to conceive and all the recent hype about the swine flu with repeated media reports of pregnant women having severe complications, hospitalization and heightened risk of death are not very helpful. Since we are not considering the vaccine, I would really love to hear from women who have had confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu and what their experience with this flu was. Ideally there would be statistics to show what percent of confirmed swine flu cases have been in pregnant women and which percentage of these required hospitalization or resulted in death.
Since it is unlikely that such statistics will become available, I would love to hear from any pregnant women out there who have had confirmed cases of swine flu but made it through and what they had to go through - also, at what stage in your pregnancy were you when you contracted the flu?
Thank you so much in advance.
 
#2 ·
I actually wanted to x-post this from the Health & Healing forum, but couldn't figure out how...
so here are the responses that were posted there:

Quote:

Originally Posted by lindberg99 View Post
I'm not pregnant but one of my friends just had swine flu at about 6 weeks pregnant. She did take tami-flu (or something like that). She was wiped out but recovered and just had an U/S showing a strong heart beat in her baby. She had a miscarriage a couple months ago so we are very excited by this!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by staceychev View Post
You might want to x-post this on the pregnancy board. A couple of women there have written about having had it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mom2M View Post
I had it when I was 19 weeks pregnant (spring) and it started out being a fairly mild flu. But after the regular flu symptoms were gone, I had "respiratory complications", I couldn't lie down at all because I couldn't breathe and I coughed so much it was horrible and ended up having a breathing treatment at the dr office and then using an inhaler for a while.
I never get sick so it was a big shock to have to go to the dr and do all that.
My DD had it at the same time and she did very well with it. For her, the fever/flu part was a couple extra days but she didn't go on to develop the respiratory stuff.

Deb
thank you for your responses.
Deb, I'm so glad you were able to recover well. Sounds like it was pretty serious for a flu.
Lindberg99, so glad your friend's baby seems to have fared well.

I would like to hear more if anyone else has been through this.
 
#3 ·
I had it at 8 weeks. I was pretty sick for a week, now at two weeks later I am still battling a sore throat, cough and low grade fever off and on. That being said, I never felt "life threatened". I didnt take tamiflu. I did do all the garlic, vit c, vit d, etc, etc. I felt like death for about 3 days, but slow improvement daily after that.
 
#4 ·
I had it at 35 or 36 weeks. Midwife wanted me to take Relenza, but insurance didn't cover it, so I took Tamiflu for two days. I would have just waited it out, but I had a fever that wouldn't respond to tylenol, and I was incapacitated in bed for two days with severe body aches and chills. Two days taking Tamiflu, and I was feeling much better, so I stopped taking it and just rested and drank lots of fluids. I did have some respiratory gunk, but it cleared up pretty quickly, thankfully. Overall, I would say I felt bad for about a week -- feeling the onset ickies for about 1 day, feeling really horrible 2 days, starting tamiflu on the 4th day, and was better by the 6th day, with some residual coughing up phlem for a couple days (which I treated with pulsatilla).
 
#5 ·
I had a suspected case (they won't do confirmation tests where I am). Fever, cough, severe muscles cramps, fatigue. Was 19 weeks pregnant. Husband and all 3 kids had too then. Took homeopathy (oscillo, belladonna, & influenzium, but heard afterwards that I should have taken nux vomica) and raw garlic and plenty of fluids. Tried to rest. Never took anything else. If your fever stays below 102, it's considered safe for the babe. Letting the fever do its thing helped kill of the bad stuff in my lungs and didn't put me as much at risk for secondary infections.
GL!
 
#6 ·
I had it at 17 weeks. I had fevers up to 104 (that was with taking Tylenol) for about 5 days, followed by 3 weeks of low grade fevers on and off. I had trouble breathing and had to sleep propped up. I also had terrible body aches, chills, nausea & vomiting, and a splitting headache for about 5 days. I was too sick to do things like sit up, check email, and read for about a week, and for a few days I needed help going to the bathroom from bed. My cough lasted about a month and touched off some stress incontinence. The doctors discussed putting me in the hospital when I was sickest and I had chest X-rays (with the baby shielded by lead) to look for secondary pneumonias, but in the end they decided I could be at home.
 
#7 ·
I had it at 31 weeks and it was ridiculously mild IMO.

I consider my self to be a very healthy person, I am active, I eat a good veggie diet full of whole grains and fruits and veggies. I take supplements like Vit C, Vit D, probiotics, prenatals, etc and I practice common sense hygiene. I caught it from my toddler who is in a daycare where the swine flu went rampant. It could have been worse if I wasn't being so proactive.
 
#8 ·
Thank you all so much for responding. I am so glad you are all either fully recovered or on the mend.
It sure sounds like this bug manifests as a pretty severe version of the flu. I've been wondering if we should wait out this flu season to try to get pregnant. It's so hard to say, because then who knows what bugs will be around, but this seems to be more contagious than others because of the lack of built up resistance. At any rate, hearing from you all reminds me to stock up on our natural immune boosters & rememdies to be sure to have them handy.
Thank you again.
 
#9 ·
Maybe by the time you conceive either a) most people already had it and are now immune, or b) they had the vaccine and should be immune. The vaccine around here is sold out as soon as it comes in and it seems like everyone else I know already had the actual disease
 
#10 ·
Just getting over it now at 40 and 3 days. I took tamiflu, which maybe helped, maybe not---it's hard to say since I don't know what it would have been like if I didn't. The cough has been the worst part for me--my midwife had me treat my temp at 100.0 but I responded very well to tylenol, but the body aches during the coughing were pretty bad.

I've been out--and just resting in bed for 5 days now and today was the first day I was really up and about. No signs of pneumonia though.
 
#11 ·
i had it. dp brought it hom from work. my 2 older brothers and their familys got it too. they both work there and see each other regularly. weeks later they happen in conversation to say the guy who had it originally had just got back from vacation from mexico, and had been very sick since coming home. this was around spring break time of yr 2009 i was early pregnant for dd. in hindsite i was due aug 20th. so you do the math. we had flu symptoms, we treated it like the flu. chicken coup with lots of broth, garlic and more garlic. water, gingerale, crackers, juicepops, etc. it sucked, but i took care of myself and took good care of the kids, and dp, and we each got over it one by one. I figure now, having been sick while pregnant, dd# 2 is covered, ds is covered bc he had it and nursed through it while i was pg, he's covered, dp is covered and dd is covered too. we're all set this round. And even if the virus has morphed we've got a better headstart on it than anyone who gets a vaccine. healthy ppl who get flu, any type, can fight it and get thru it. the body was indeed designed to heal itself. it did not come designed to need chemicals or drugs to survive.
 
#13 ·
I agree, it can be very serious for a pregnant woman, regardless of how healthy you are or how healthy you eat!
(I wrote earlier on this thread)
I am extremely healthy, very rarely get even a cold and eat healthy food and exercise.
I still got the respiratory complications that did require medical intervention.
My DD (3 at the time) did not.
The regular flu symptoms were fairly mild and easily treated. I think the difference between confirmed swine flu and regular flu or another virus is the way it affects the lungs during pregnancy.
There is even an antibody present in pregnancy that has been shown to cause this.

Deb
 
#15 ·
I had it early in my 2nd trimester. It wasn't bad, but the cough lingered a long time, at least 2 weeks. I can see how it causes pneumonia.

I know the worst outcomes are almost exclusively in the 3rd trimester, so in your case, that would be unlikely because you'd be past flu season, and since this illness has been circulating since April non-stop in the US, you'd be well past peak risk. Some areas of the country are already past the peak of infections.

According to my friend who is an ER pediatrician, the illness needs a strong and intact immune system to be really bad. That actually puts pregnant women in the 1st and 2nd trimester at much lower risk for bad outcome. Your immune system slows down a bit while you're pregnant so your body doesn't attack the fetus. The problem with 3rd trimester is decreased lung capacity.

I really think this is one of those things you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about. I had it, I'm ok, lots of women have had it, there are really relatively few serious outcomes in pregnant women. If you wanted to make sure you were getting adequate vitamin D (now shown to be key in fighting flu), then maybe you want to up your Vit. D intake to 1,000 or 2,000 IU daily through the winter months.

If you were to get the flu, rest and don't try to boost your immune system to fight it faster, because therein lies the danger with this particular flu. I took a combination of alternative and conventional treatments. I treated my fever because I was pregnant, and 102 was a little higher than I liked in that state. I treated my cough and congestion with conventional meds to try to keep mucus from building up in my lungs, and I took Oscillococcinum, the homeopathic flu remedy, which really helped a lot. I didn't do much beyond that because I didn't go anywhere and those are the things I had on hand. I didn't take tamiflu, my OB said it wasn't safe for pregnant women. I stayed home for about 5 days total.

Really, you'll be fine, try to ignore all the hype.
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by JudiAU View Post
The New York Times recently ran an article about a pregnant woman who contracted swine flue. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/he...nant.html?_r=1 She had to be placed into a coma for weeks and the babe did not survive. She barely survived at all. Very sad.

Swine flue, any flu, can be very, very serious for a pregnant woman.

That was sad. I wonder how much her being a smoker had to do with the severity that she experienced the swine flu, being respiratory and all. Her lungs collapsed 3 times. It doesn't sound like something common...

I wish there was a place that compiled comprehensive stats on the flu details. There is so much misinformation out there and I'm having a hard time weeding through it!
 
#18 ·
Thank you all very much for your responses and insight, I really appreciate it. I think, KoalaMommy, you are right. We will probably keep trying to conceive and just do our best not to expose ourselves to busy public places, continue with hand-washing and common sense good hygiene, eating well, exercising, and then I've just got to let the worry go and hope for the best.
 
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