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Swine flu and pregnancy

If you are pregnant, you are in one of the high-risk groups for swine flu. Find out what you can do to protect yourself and your baby.

This page explains why pregnant women are at greater risk from swine flu, what those risks are, the special precautions you should take and the safety information for swine flu treatments.

Why pregnant women are more at risk
In pregnancy, the immune system is naturally suppressed. This means that pregnant women are more likely to catch swine flu, and if they do catch it, they are more likely to develop complications (see below).

However, it is important not to panic: your immune system still functions and the risk of complications is still very small. The majority of pregnant women will only suffer mild symptoms.

Symptoms and risks
If you are pregnant and you catch swine flu, the symptoms are expected to be similar to those of regular human seasonal flu. Typical symptoms are fever and a cough, and sometimes also tiredness, headache, aching muscles, runny nose, sore throat, nausea or diarrhoea.

Most pregnant women will have only mild symptoms and recover within a week. However, there is evidence from previous flu pandemics that pregnant women are more likely to develop complications from flu.

Possible complications are pneumonia (an infection of the lungs), difficulty breathing and dehydration. In pregnant women, these are more likely to happen in the second and third trimester.

If a pregnant woman develops a complication of swine flu, such as pneumonia, there is a small chance this will lead to premature labour or miscarriage. There is not yet enough information to know precisely how likely these birth risks are.

It is therefore important to be well prepared and to take precautions against swine flu.

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