Hackneyite

Practices not routinely offering the vaccination are the anomaly, rather than it being the other way around. Both flu and pertussis are part of the national vaccination programme rolled out by the Department of Health, and should be offered to all pregnant women; it's actually quite concerning that there are maternity providers that aren't routinely doing this. It might be worth feeding this back to King's, if your maternity care is mainly being provided in the community? As far as I'm aware, all hospital based maternity departments have a policy of advising women to have both vaccines. For example, when the pertussis vaccination programme started this autumn, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists emailed all its members to give us the scientific advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) so that we could counsel patients appropriately, and advise women to have the vaccination. So it isn't something that comes down to the personal opinion of your midwife or doctor, it should be as routine a part of your antenatal care as having blood tests at your booking appointment, or your ultrasound scans..... (both of which are as optional as taking up the vaccine, of course.....)

The health protection agency gives some good advice here: http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/SeasonalInfluenza/InformationForThePublic/influsw15vaccinationandpregnancyFAQ/ When you're pregnant the part of your immune system that fights viruses is weakened. This is unrelated to how healthy you are pre-, or during, pregnancy, or whether you've successfully fought viruses before; it's essentially a side effect of your immune system not fighting the baby inside you (50% of which is genetically different to you). As a result, pregnant women are particularly susceptible to the H1N1 virus, which is one of the strains of 'flu virus doing the rounds this year, and are more likely to get severe complications such as pneumonia. I know all this because I'm an obstetrician and gynaecologist. 2 years ago, during the epidemic, I saw a previously fit and healthy pregnant woman tragically die from complications from H1N1. Her baby, which we'd had to deliver extremely prematurely, in an attempt to save her life, also died. Because of effective vaccination programmes, we often forget, in this day and age, that viruses can be deadly. I am currently pregnant, and was first in the queue for both the 'flu, and later, the pertussis vaccines. I really urge all pregnant women to do the same.