does a flu shot protect the unborn child of a pregnant woman?
Flu shot in pregnancy protects newborns By Nathan Seppa November 8th, 2008; Vol.174 #10 (p. 18) Mothers-to-be impart antibodies to offspring that pay dividends later A pregnant woman who gets a flu shot passes protection on to her fetus that lessens the newborn’s likelihood of contracting the flu during the first months of life, researchers report in the Oct. 9 New England Journal of Medicine. Although the vaccine has been shown to be safe, no randomized trial has evaluated the shot’s effectiveness in a clinical setting — until now. “I think this will now make a difference,” says study coauthor Mark Steinhoff, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “If you want to protect the baby and be careful, maybe the vaccine is a way to do that. I think more women will ask for it,” he says. Vaccinating pregnant women against influenza is approved and even recommended by U.S. medical authorities and by the World Health Organiz
