What Pregnancy Plus Swine Flu Looks Like

I’m a vaccine skeptic. Not that I don’t have them or I don’t vaccinate my children, but I do not follow the public health recommended schedule. I am pregnant and the swine flu does scare me (no vaccine available in my state as of yet.) It seems as if pregnant women are getting severe secondary complications, and it seems as if pg women from previous swine flu epidemics had children with higher rates of heart disease. But what bothers me: lack of research on the effects of the vaccine, even the regular flue vaccine, on the fetus. NO RESEARCH. NO FOLLOW UP. We don’t know if the flu vaccine is somehow hurting the unborn child, although we know asthma and many other chronic diseases are higher? Connection? I don’t know, but the lack of follow up really bothers me.

Amanda, I am so sorry for your loss. As for myself and my family, we are getting the vaccine once they receive it in my area. Not taking the chance.

Amanda - I’m so sorry for your loss. That’s awful.

Robyn - I also hear she ate meat occasionally! She deserves no sympathy and her points are obviously now without any merit!

I am not supposed to get the (regular) flu shot due to an allergy to a component - however, I have issues with medical professionals who refuse vaccines. They deal with a population that has a higher chance of having a compromised immune system (you know, sick people). They wouldn’t think of not scrubbing up before a procedure…

bettywu - what’s wrong with eating meat while pregnant???
anyway! I am 30 weeks pregnant, I have never taken the regular flu shots, I rarely get cold or flu symptoms; however I am not risking this time. I am due in the middle of the winter. Although I live in FL, which is pretty warm, December is high season - synonym for collection of virus and other health issues. I am nervous that my county has no scheduled date for the H1N1 shot availability whatsoever!

When I read this article this morning, my first thought was this woman was 27 and a swimmer? She looks really really old, like 20 years older. I wonder if that was the cigarettes or the H1N1.

My son is just now getting over H1N1 and it was a NASTY bug. I would have had us all vaccinated if it would have been available. I’m just waiting now for the rest of us to come down with it.. including our 7 month old!

Robyn, the article also points out that of 100 women known hospitalized of H1N1 in the US, 25 have died. That’s a pretty high fatality rate. It’s possible that they were all smokers, but the fact that Opdyke was pregnant in the first place is disadvantageous for her health in the first place.

I want the shot NOW, but our hospital doesn’t have it. I live in Chicago and I fail to understand how a major metro area like Chicago doesn’t have this available to pregnant women. I’m borderline angry about this. One of my sons also has respiratory issues, and I will die of worry and fear if he gets sick.

I agree with Robyn that the fact she smoked plays a big part in what happened. It’s being said time and again that those at the highest risk of complications of H1N1 are those with lung issues. Smoking = lung issues. I feel bad for her that her baby died, but she compromised herself and her child by smoking during pregnancy. Plenty of women stop smoking cold turkey when they find out they’re pregnant to help their child grow. Why didn’t she?

I have had several friends get H1N1, and have been fine. One is 38 weeks pregnant right now, and so far is fine. Of course, she doesn’t smoke or have a pre-existing lung condition. A friend’s little boy has asthma, but when he had H1N1 a couple of weeks ago he was okay with lots of rest and Tamiflu, and neither his mother or sister got it because they took precautions. My husband had H1N1 last month, and neither I or our son got it because my husband avoided physical contact and my son and I washed our hands constantly.

Yes, my son and I could still get H1N1 from another source, but we still won’t get the shot. Why? Because we’re healthy with no pre-existing lung conditions. The second any symptoms pop up in my son, off to the doctor we’ll go. We’ll practice strict hygiene rules of washing our hands often and not touching our faces. Additionally, there are those that truly need the shot more than we do, so two more will be available for those in the highest risk categories.

My husband and I have been doing our own research into the vaccine and the H1N1 flu since it popped up earlier this year. We read the good and the bad about H1N1 and the shot. We very pro-vaccine for the established vaccinations, but don’t feel that enough work has been done with the H1N1 vaccine yet.

I do feel for this woman and her husband and the hell she went through. However, I can’t have complete sympathy if her smoking habit put her at greater risk because she wouldn’t quit.

actually as for the smoking during pregnancy, i have been told by MDs that they will tell preg women not to quit cold turkey when they get preg because the withdrawel can be more harmfull then the smoking. Obviously you want to cut back as much as you can but quitting cold turkey will stress out the fetus. My girlfreind is 36 weeks preg and is on the fence about the shot for fear it will hurt the baby. but like i told her if she does’nt get the shot and gets H1N1 then they both could die. its all about risk vs reward. I would def rather if she did’nt have to get the shot but it beats the hell out watching my baby and Girlfreind die from the Flu.

I’m not pregnant, but I debated about getting the vaccine because my daughter just turned five on the 2nd and her dad lives with us and is asthmatic. It was more about him than us, really. Then my little girl got a nasty cold with a 100-degree temp the first day or two, and croup on the third or fourth day after never having gotten croup in her life. A few days after she got sick, I got sick, again like a nasty cold, but the symptoms felt different. I don’t have health insurance, and when she scared me gasping for breath and coughing and whooping at 3am, we took her to the ER and they said “oh it’s croup” and did. not. test. her. They aren’t testing anyone! They just assume you have or have not had it.

So I have a dilemma. I could go get the shot. She could go get the shot. But if we’ve already had it, we don’t need the shot. And that’s two less pregnant women, two less small children, or a combination thereof who could get the shot. It was late getting to my area and they are constantly running out of doses. This is nothing to play around with.

So what do you do? It’s so important everyone’s spreading stories about the special cases who die from it (I sympathize, but lots more people die from car accidents every year, including pregnant women and unborn kids, yet we all still drive), yet they won’t test us to see if we’ve had it “to avoid causing a panic,” so we don’t know if we’ve had it if we have had cold symptoms… and then we’re called stupid or bad if we say, “You know, maybe I shouldn’t get the shot.”

…What???

I don’t know what to think. The risk from this flu isn’t any worse than the seasonal, it just affects a different age range. (I don’t usually get *seasonal* flu shots.) But the government needs to start acting more like it is a real problem, if it is. Right now it’s looking more and more like a stimulus payment to Big Pharma. As if they need it.