Pregnant women and influenza
INFORMATION VIDEOS FOR PREGNANT WOMEN
Summary
Flu in pregnant women is usually a mild to moderate disease, but pregnant women are at higher risk of severe disease.
- Get immunised, wash your hands regularly, and avoid people who are coughing or sneezing.
- Symptoms are similar whether it's caused by seasonal (regular) influenza or H1N1 influenza 09 (human swine flu).
- Call your doctor early if you get symptoms in case you need anti-influenza medicine.
Treat the fever and drink plenty of fluids.
What is the flu?
Influenza (or the flu) is an infection caused by a virus.
- It is spread by coughing or sneezing or on the hands of people who have influenza.
- It causes different symptoms in different people: it can be mild (just like a cold), but often causes fever, chills, sore throat, cough, tiredness, aches and pains and sometimes vomiting and diarrhoea.
- These symptoms are similar whether it's seasonal flu or H1N1 influenza 09.
- Most of the time pregnant women will have a mild to moderate illness.
How can I avoid the flu?
Wash your hands with soap and running water after touching another person who might have the flu or touching another person's tissues. Alcohol based hand rub can also be used to clean your hands but you don't need to use both.
- Get immunised against influenza if you will be in your 2nd or 3rd trimester of pregnancy during winter. Influenza vaccine is recommended and is safe in pregnancy even in the first trimester of pregnancy.
- Keep away from people who are coughing or sneezing.
- Ask people who are sick to keep away from you and remind them to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze and wash their hands regularly.
- Avoid large, crowded gatherings during influenza season.
What if I get symptoms?
Contact your doctor right away.
- If your doctor thinks you have the flu, then treatment with anti-influenza medicine can help stop you getting very sick. Influenza can be bad for both you and for your baby, so it's important to get treatment early.
- Take paracetamol to reduce the fever. The recommended dose is 2 x 500mg tablets every 4-6 hours, but no more than 8 tablets in a 24 hour period.
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- Anti-influenza medicine oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamavir (Relenza) reduces the severity of influenza. These medicines:
- are most important for women in the 2nd or 3rd trimesters because that's when pregnant women get the sickest
- can also help in the 1st trimester, especially if you have other risk factors for severe disease (like lung disease, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, immuno-suppression or are Aboriginal)
- are free from most GPs for patients meeting certain criteria, including pregnancy,
- come in different forms: Tamiflu is a capsule, and Relenza is a powder that you breath in using a special inhaler. Like all medicines, these drugs can have minor side effects. Tamiflu can sometimes cause nausea and vomiting; Relenza can sometimes cause nausea or breathing difficulties in the mother (especially if she has severe asthma or lung disease). Please discuss side effects with your doctor.
Ask your doctor to check on your baby.
Are the medicines safe in pregnancy?
The drugs have only been around for a few years, so there is not a lot of data on their effect in pregnancy. They have been used in many pregnant women, especially in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, and have not been found to harm mothers or their babies.
For more Information
• See our website: www.emergency.health.nsw.gov.au/swineflu
• Call the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing H1N1 Influenza 09 information hotline 1802007.
• Call MotherSafe, the NSW Medications in Pregnancy and Lactation Advisory Service, based at the Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick. An information service for women and their healthcare providers, open 9 am - 5 pm, 7 days a week during the current flu epidemic: 9382 6539 (Sydney metropolitan) or 1800 647 848 (NSW country).
Published by NSW Health - 24 July 2009