Pregnant Northland women can get free flu and whooping cough vaccinations from this week to help them and their babies to avoid catching the illnesses.
The Northland District Health Board (NDHB) says whooping cough is at almost epidemic levels along with nasty strains of flu, and NDHB midwives are launching free whooping cough and flu immunisation for pregnant mums before winter chills and bugs bite.
Whooping cough (also known as pertussis) is an infectious bacterial infection spread by coughing and sneezing.
Newborn infants can be susceptible to severe symptoms and complications within the first weeks of life, making it important to start their immunisation at six weeks old. "When a baby is born it has a very low immunity, so with mum being immunised during pregnancy she passes on a passive immunity to her baby and this helps baby build up resistance to infections such as whooping cough," NDHB midwife Sam Harris said.
"Because of the current epidemic in Northland, people are more likely to get whooping cough, which means your baby is more likely to catch it from those around him or her. Also with the flu season about to start if you catch the flu when pregnant you are more likely to become very unwell, and may even need to be admitted to hospital. The best protection is to get the flu immunisation to protect yourself and your baby."