Vaccine debate

I am trying to decided whether or not to vaccinate. I guess I should mention that this has to do with me, not my son. :) I know its a raging hot topic nowadays whether or not to vaccinate your children due to the suspicion that vaccines may cause Autism. For the record, Robbie and I believe that vaccines are wonderful and essential to providing a safe and healthy environment for everyone. The risk is too great not to vaccinate, and there are so many diseases that have been eradicated because of them. Those children who may have developed Autism from vaccines have been determined to be genetically pre-disposed to the disease, so there is no way of knowing what actually triggered the condition.

Anywho, back to me. I work in a public school, so I'm often bombarded with the latest sickness going around. Although, this year has been pretty good (knock on wood) as far as getting colds and the flu. Last school year was awful, I've never been so sick, that frequently before. Hopefully my body is building up a super duper immune system. With that said, the H1N1 vaccines are about to be released to the general public. As a pregnant woman, I am numero uno on the CDC's priority list for the vaccine...but I'm still deciding on whether or not to get it.

The only reason I hesitate to get the vaccine is because its only been developed and tested in clinical trials for several months (rather than years). And from the researching I did, no trials were conducted on pregnant women. Obviously doctors hesitate to enlist pregnant women in drug trials, which unfortunately leaves a large data void to fill with any drug.

From my research I did learn many things that encourage me to get the vaccine. First, the H1N1 flu strain is obviously a derivative of the hundreds of flu strains out there...so the vaccine is very similar to the typical flu shot given out every season...and that vaccine has been proven safe for pregnant women.

When given to a pregnant woman, the baby is born with the immunity created by the vaccine. This is good for me because my son will be born in the midst of the flu season, and I'm at a higher risk for getting the flu/spreading the flu because I work in a school. And if you read any headlines about the H1N1 virus, 9 times out of 10 the school is where it breaks out.

So will I get the vaccine? Probably...it seems like the benefits of protecting myself and my baby outweigh the risks.



With that said, I did learn this week that I am Rh negative. I've heard about the Rh factor before, but wasn't quite sure what it was about. Basically, I'm at a risk for my body attacking my baby. If my baby is Rh positive (which is highly likely since only 15% of the population is Rh neg) my blood will work to create antibodies to attack my baby's blood if they were to come in contact with one another (most likely during delivery, but possible in utero). If untreated, this can cause serious birth defects and possibly become fatal for the baby. Lots of "ifs" would need to happen, but fortunately this condition can be treated with a couple shots.

The biggest concern is for second and subsequent pregnancies. By the time another baby would come along, my body has had plenty of time to create hundreds of thousands of antibodies looking to destroy Rh positive blood cells. So again, the shots come into play. The drug tricks my blood cells into thinking everything is okay, that there's no need to attack other blood cells. Why do I picture a cheesy cartoon where one blood cell is dressed as a security guard, and another blood cell is disguised in some funny costume?

I found out that my mom is also Rh negative, so that must be where I got it from. She told me that she had the injections done with all 3 of her pregnancies. I turned out fine, didn't I? :)