Pregnant women are at particularly high risk for morbidity and mortality related to several vaccine-preventable diseases. Even though it's protective, only half of women get vaccinated with flu vaccine during pregnancy. What influences women from getting a flu vaccine? It’s the recommendation from their health care provider. Moms want her child to be better protected.
Two recent papers discussed the protective nature of flu vaccination in pregnancy. Why are Moms more vulnerable? The hypothesis says that when a woman is pregnant, her immune system changes in order to increase immunotolerance from the newly coming antigens and also the respiratory system changes during the second and third trimester when the uterus starts pushing against the diaphragm and cardiovascular changes as well. These overall changes increase their chances of getting infected. Therefore, women during pregnancy are…
