Public Service Announcement: Get Your Flu Shot

In my memories of flu shots from childhood, only the over-protective parents made their kids get them. My parents were diligent about taking my brother and me to yearly check-ups and other health care appointments, but I don't think flu shots were ever recommended by our doctors, because maybe we would have otherwise gotten them. I don't remember walk-in clinics set up smack between the greeting card section and check-out lines of the grocery stores, or recall my parents saying they were offered vaccinations through work.

As a healthy kid whose only missed days from school were due to the chicken pox in second grade, getting sick and staying home from school was a fantasy for me. By grad school, I finally understood that the real flu (and not the, I have a bad cold, I must have the "flu") can leave you bedridden for a week and since I didn't have time for that anymore, I willingly signed myself up for my first flu shot and have been getting them ever since. Because once out in the working world, I also didn't have time to miss a week of work. Now that I'm about to be a mom, I really don't have time to be sick. And since I'm pregnant, I also fall into a high-risk category, something I wouldn't have considered myself in since that label also applies to the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions. But more important than my time is protecting my baby from an illness he or she won't be able to receive an immunization for until flu season has passed.

I've done my part to protect myself against the flu, but protecting my child doesn't stop with me. Once I'd received my flu shot* from a nurse at my prenatal appointment, her eyes immediately turned to Chris, who was informed that he, too, needed to be vaccinated too in order to protect the baby. Ha! And he thought as the male counterpart in this pregnancy, he could get away without any poking or prodding. The nurse was satisfied when he said he'd be getting the shot through work in two weeks. I wonder if I can get a note from his boss.

And again, it doesn't even stop with Chris. Flu shots are recommended for anyone who will be in contact with a newborn, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings of the newborn and any caregivers. I look at receiving a flu shot as not only protecting yourself, (against health complications, loss of school or work, or leisure activities) but also your family and community.

I'm not posting this reminder and request as a paranoid mother-to-be. I worry about enough other things, and fear of contracting the flu or the "swine flu" has barely registered with me. When pictures of Mexico City residents wearing surgical masks appeared in the paper and Chris's company issued an official statement regarding the illness on the company website, we both rolled our eyes. While I understood that swine flu is a special concern for its potential to infect larger segments of the population at a more rapid pace, it seemed like hysteria was building for an illness that we can't combat any differently than we have learned to do for the seasonal flu: wash your hands regularly, stay home if you're sick and get your flu shot every year.


* I received the vaccination to prevent seasonal influenza, and not the novel 2009 H1N1 virus, which requires a separate shot and won't be available until some time in October.