Did anyone else go to www.wellbaby.org as mentioned in the letters section of this month's Mothering? There's a very interesting article about schizophrenia and autism and how they related to the immune system. The author has found evidence that an activated immune system (like when pg mom is exposed to the flu) affects brain development in fetus and makes schizophrenia and autism more likely. But the activated immune system is not only from being exposed to an illness, but also a vaccine, which is supposed to activate the immune system! Here's the link to the paper: http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/Ea.../patterson.pdfhttp://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/Ea.../patterson.pdf
Aren't pregnant moms still counseled to get a flu vax? Yikes!
(This paper is a very interesting read for anyone who's interested.)
is there more research than just the mouse study in the OP? sorry, i know so little about the vaccine in pregnant women. my OB didn't want me getting it so i never looked into it.
I think the concern is the paucity of research. Thanks to more recent research we now know that the mother's immune response to flu causes fetal brain damage. The vaccine obviously also stimulates an immune response against flu (it's supposed to do that). So do vaccine immune responses alter fetal brain in any way? No one knows because no one has looked. So we need specific research to determine the nature of maternal immune factors and how they harm the fetus. It's nuts to just assume the vaccine doesn't stimulate the same sort of damage as the infection. The vaccine is credited with stimulating a similar immune response to flu infection when it comes to preventing illness but somehow we're supposed to just assume that the immune response is different when it comes to considering harmful consequences. There is currently no evidence on which to base such an assumption (previously it was based on the erroneous assumption that active viral replication was necessary to cause brain damage). It's something that needs to be ruled out, not just assumed. Some longterm clinical trials would be nice, too, but that won't happen.
My dd's troubles began with the flu shot I had while pg. I'm almost certain of it.
See link in my siggy.
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