The Vaccine Education Center

The Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia provides complete, up-to-date and reliable information about vaccines to parents and healthcare professionals. We are a member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Vaccine Safety Net because our website meets the criteria for credibility and content as defined by the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. Learn more about the WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net. 1)

Needle Tips

2010 - For 15 years, we’ve printed and mailed Needle Tips to you twice a year, but in the future, you’ll receive issues more often because Needle Tips is now an online-only publication. Needle Tips will continue to bring you the same great content—Ask the Experts with answers written by CDC experts, Vaccine Highlights, ready-to-copy immunization educational materials, and more. This issue focuses on a single vaccine topic—influenza (both H1N1 and seasonal). Some future issues will also concentrate on a single topic; others will include a range of topics.

This issue includes not only materials developed by us at the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) but also excellent materials from three of our partners: an H1N1 influenza educational piece from the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a piece for pregnant women developed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical As- sociation. Like the rest of the content of Needle Tips, these pieces from our partners are copyright-free and ready for you to copy and distribute to others.

Here’s something you might not know about our Ask the Experts Q&As. In addition to the Q&As in this issue, you’ll find more than 1,000 posted for your use on the IAC website. To access them, go to www.immunize.org/askexperts. Pick the Q&As you find the most helpful. Feel free to copy and dis- tribute them widely, either in your newsletter or by other means. All we ask is that you cite IAC and CDC as the sources of these materials (for instructions on citing IAC, visit www.immunize.org/citeiac).

IAC publishes a free email news service (IAC Express) and two free periodicals (Needle Tips and Vaccinate Adults). To subscribe to any or all of them, go to www.immunize.org/subscribe. IAC, a 501©(3) charitable organization, publishes practical immunization information for health professionals to help increase immunization rates and prevent disease.

Needle Tips is also supported in part by sanofi pasteur • Merck & Co., Inc. GlaxoSmithKlineNovartis Vaccines Wyeth PharmaceuticalsCSL Biotherapies MedImmune, Inc. • Baxter Healthcare Corp. American Pharmacists Association Mark and Muriel Wexler Foundation Anonymous

IAC maintains strict editorial independence in its publications. IAC Board of Directors

Kristen Ehresmann, RN, MPH Minnesota Department of Health Neal Holtan, MD, MPH St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Anne Kuettel, PHN St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Cindy Uldrich UnitedHealthcare Corporation Deborah L. Wexler, MD Immunization Action Coalition

H1N1 2009 Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women

Safety of Flu Vaccines Some pregnant women are concerned about the safety of the 2009 H1N1 flu and seasonal flu vaccines. Both flu vaccines are safe. Vaccination is one of the most important things that you can do for yourself and your baby. Vaccination is safe for you and your baby.

Both shots protect your baby from getting the flu. Your baby cannot get the flu shot until 6 months of age. The seasonal flu vaccine has been given safely to millions of pregnant women over the past 45 years. Flu shots have not been shown to cause harm to pregnant women or their babies. The 2009 H1N1 fl u vaccine is made the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine.

The type of mercury used in some vaccines has not been shown to be harmful to a pregnant woman or her unborn baby. Mercury has not been found to cause autism. However, if you are still concerned, there is an H1N1 shot without mercury [may or may not be available in your area]. The risk for a pregnant woman and her unborn baby of getting sick with the flu is far greater than being vaccinated.

If you did not get the fl u vaccines during pregnancy, you should still get them even if you are breastfeeding. This will help prevent you and your baby from getting the flu. 2)

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