For example, egg-free flu shots are available for those with egg allergies. This includes recommended childhood immunizations for diseases like polio, tetanus and measles, as well as seasonal flu vaccinations for everyone 6 months and older. Getting a flu shot is easy. You just need to make a flu shot appointment. The vaccine is usually available in early September every year. But you may not know that pregnant women are also at higher risk for complications like pneumonia. Because changes to your body make it easier for you to get sick.
Even if you feel healthy and strong while pregnant, pregnancy affects your immune system, heart and lungs. This can make you more susceptible to the flu and can put you at higher risk of more serious illness. In addition to hospitalization, pregnant women with influenza are at increased risk of intensive care unit admission and adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes. In the United States, the influenza season typically occurs from October to May. Ideally, an influenza vaccination should be given before the end of October, but vaccination throughout the influenza season is encouraged to ensure protection during the period of circulation.
Any of the licensed, recommended, age-appropriate, inactivated influenza vaccines can be given safely during any trimester. Therefore, it is critically important that obstetrician—gynecologists and other obstetric care providers recommend and advocate for the influenza vaccine. Obstetrician—gynecologists are encouraged to stock and administer the influenza vaccine to their pregnant patients in their offices, and should get the influenza vaccine themselves every season.
If the influenza vaccine cannot be offered in a practice, obstetrician—gynecologists and obstetric care providers should refer patients to another health care provider, pharmacy, or community vaccination center. This updated Committee Opinion includes more recent data on the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccination during pregnancy and recommendations for treatment and postexposure chemoprophylaxis.
Maternal influenza immunization is an essential component of prenatal care for women and their newborns. Obstetrician—gynecologists and other health care providers should counsel pregnant women about the safety and benefits of influenza immunization for themselves and their fetuses and advocate for the benefits of passive immunity from maternal immunization for their newborns.
Obstetrician—gynecologists should strongly encourage their office staff to be vaccinated against influenza every season. Individuals with a history of egg allergy who have experienced only hives after exposure to egg can receive any licensed and recommended influenza vaccine that is otherwise appropriate for their age and health status.
In the case of allergic symptoms more serious than hives, the vaccine should be administered in an inpatient or outpatient medical setting including, but not necessarily limited to hospitals, clinics, health departments, and physician offices. Patients with flu-like illness should be treated with antiviral medications presumptively regardless of vaccination status. Health care providers should not rely on test results to initiate treatment and should treat patients presumptively based on clinical evaluation.
Because of the high potential for morbidity, the CDC and ACOG recommend that postexposure antiviral chemoprophylaxis 75 mg of oseltamivir once daily for 10 days be considered for pregnant women and women who are up to 2 weeks postpartum including pregnancy loss who have had close contact with someone likely to have been infected with influenza.
If oseltamivir is unavailable, zanamiver can be substituted, two inhalations once daily for 10 days. Published data continue to demonstrate the need for influenza vaccination during pregnancy as well as the importance of recommending and providing vaccination in the office 1 2 3 4. During the — influenza season, Although these numbers reflect significant progress, much room remains for improvement to meet the U.
Influenza vaccination is an essential element of prepregnancy, prenatal, and postpartum care because influenza can result in serious illness, including a higher chance of progressing to pneumonia, when it occurs during the antepartum or postpartum period. For example, a retrospective cohort study in Nova Scotia found that women hospitalized for respiratory illness during pregnancy especially during the third trimester were more likely to have an increased number of medical visits or an increased length of stay when compared with the number of visits the year before their pregnancy 7.
In this study, the association between pregnancy status and hospital admission was particularly striking for women with comorbidities 7. However, it is important to note that many studies, including the aforementioned study, were not able to confirm the influenza diagnosis with laboratory results, and more studies using confirmatory laboratory results are needed in pregnant women. In addition to hospitalization, pregnant women with influenza are at an increased risk of intensive care unit admission and adverse perinatal and neonatal outcomes 8 9 Finally, morbidity and mortality among pregnant women increases during influenza pandemics, including the H1N1 influenza pandemic 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Taken together, these data emphasize the importance of influenza vaccination as a vital intervention that all obstetrician—gynecologists and other obstetric care providers should recommend and administer.
Flu shots contain fragments of killed influenza virus, which stimulate your body to produce antibodies that protect you from the live virus. But the influenza virus in the flu shot is inactive, so it can't infect you. The nasal spray flu vaccine, Mist, contains live viruses, but they're weakened and can't survive the warm temperature in your lungs.
Still, as a precaution, it's recommended that you get the shot instead of the spray during pregnancy. The effectiveness of the flu shot can vary from year to year. That's because the vaccine which is reformulated each year needs to match the strains of flu viruses that are most common that season.
So a bit of predicting is involved. According to the CDC, when the vaccine is well-matched to the circulating viruses, the risk of flu illness is reduced by 40 to 60 percent among the overall population. Even if you get the flu, it's likely to be much less severe if you've been vaccinated. For pregnant people, the flu shot reduces the risk of hospitalization with flu by 40 percent and the risk of severe flu-associated lung infection by about half.
Yes, you need protection against both COVID and the flu, and it's important that you get both vaccines. You can get them both at the same time. Women who get COVID during pregnancy are at higher risk for severe illness and pregnancy complications than non-pregnant women.
You need a flu shot every year, even if you've had one in previous years because different strains of flu surface each year. No matter which trimester you're in, get the flu vaccine when it becomes available — preferably by the end of October, so you're protected before flu season begins. It takes about two weeks for your body to make the antibodies. But if you miss getting a shot in the fall, it's still worth getting vaccinated afterward because the flu season can last into May.
While you can most likely get the shot from your healthcare provider at a prenatal visit , pregnant women can safely get a flu shot anywhere it's offered to adults, including pharmacies and drive-through clinics.
If you can't find one, call your local health department to find out where the flu shot is available in your community. You don't need a referral or special permission from your healthcare provider to get a flu vaccine while you're pregnant.
Pharmacists must complete 20 hours of training and be certified to give vaccines. In some states, interns pharmacists in training and technicians pharmacy assistants can also give them if they're trained and working under a qualified pharmacist.
If you're concerned about spending time around other people at a pharmacy, two things can help cut the time you spend there: making an appointment and filling out your medical consent form ahead of time many pharmacies make this available online.
Staff wear masks and gloves, disinfect surfaces often, and space out customers to prevent crowding. You'll be expected to wear a mask, and when you arrive they may ask you COVID screening questions and take your temperature. You'll likely have your shot in a screened area for privacy. The vaccine does not contain any live viruses, so it cannot cause flu. Some people get a slightly raised temperature and aching muscles for a couple of days afterwards, and you may feel sore at the injection site.
Find out more about flu vaccine side effects. Yes, you can have the flu jab at the same time as the whooping cough vaccine, but do not delay your flu jab so you can have both at the same time. Pregnant women are at risk of severe illness from flu at any stage of pregnancy, so you need to have the flu vaccine as soon as possible.
The best time to get vaccinated against whooping cough is from 16 weeks up to 32 weeks of pregnancy. If you miss having the vaccine for any reason, you can still have it up until you go into labour. Find out more about the whooping cough vaccine in pregnancy. Talk to a GP as soon as possible. If you do have flu, there's a prescribed medicine you can take that might help, or reduce your risk of complications, but it needs to be taken very soon after symptoms appear.
Find out more about vaccines to protect you and your baby during pregnancy.
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