Getting a flu shot during pregnancy is not only safe for mother and child, but actually provides unexpected benefits to the baby, a surprising new study has found.
Researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute determined women who received a swine-flu vaccine during the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic had significantly lower risks of stillbirth, preterm birth and extremely small babies at birth.
The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is based on data from Ontario's birth record database involving 55,570 single-child births.
Researchers found that, compared to pregnant women who were not immunized against swine flu, mothers who received the H1N1 vaccination were:
• 34 percent less likely to have a stillbirth;
• 28 percent less likely to deliver before 32 weeks; and
• 19 percent less likely to give birth to a low-birth-weight child.
The study also found no increase in negative health effects for H1N1-vaccinated mothers and their babies.
"These are all significant results, but especially interesting is the finding that the vaccinated mothers were one-third less likely to have a stillborn child," said lead researcher Deshayne Fell, an epidemiologist for BORN Ontario. "This is one of the only studies large enough to evaluate the association between maternal flu vaccination and stillbirth — a very rare event."