There are no risks in getting the flu vaccine early in pregnancy

There are no risks in getting the flu vaccine in early pregnancy There are no risks in getting the flu vaccine in early pregnancy A new study finds that giving the flu vaccine to pregnant women is not associated with serious physical defects in the fetus...

There is no risk to getting the flu vaccine in early pregnancy There are no risks to getting the flu vaccine in early pregnancy A new study finds that giving the flu vaccine to pregnant women is not associated with serious physical defects in the fetus. According to Reuters Health, the study included nearly 9,000 pregnant women who had received influenza vaccinations. It was found that about 2% of these pregnant women gave birth to babies with serious defects. These serious defects include heart malformations or cleft lip. That's the same rate as the nearly 77,000 babies with malformations who were not vaccinated during pregnancy. In addition, the researchers found that pregnant women who received the vaccine had a lower chance of stillbirth than those who did not receive the vaccine: 0.3% vs. 0.6%. Furthermore, newborns born to pregnant women who received the vaccine had a lower mortality rate: 0.2% vs. 0.4%. But it's unclear whether these lower stillbirth and neonatal mortality rates are related to vaccination. But Dr. Sheffield, the study's lead researcher, said it was possible the vaccine prevented severe cases of the flu. Sheffield is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Can we be certain, she said, that this is a benefit of the vaccine? No. But she added that the findings at least suggest the vaccine is safe and may also be beneficial in protecting against stillbirths. Sheffield and colleagues report their findings in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other groups recommend that all pregnant women get the seasonal flu vaccine. This is because pregnant women are more likely to get a severe case of the flu or develop complications such as pneumonia than women of the same age who are not pregnant.