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Hi everyone
Hubby and I are going to start ttc next month, however I haven't updated my Rubella for ages and I know that's a big thing with pregnancy.
Just wondering if anyone knows how long before ttc you should get it done, or whether it doesn't really matter how long before?
Also, I'm not exactly sure exactly what it protects the pregnancy from?
Can anyone help?
Both pregs i was/am very low on my Rubella immunity (although I only just had a booster shot 14 months ago after the birth of my daughter....some people just don't retain it for some reason). My Dr has just said to be careful, especially for the first 12 weeks, to not be exposed to anyone with German measles (which is rather rare - but can cause a high incidence of abnormalities in babies if the mother is exposed). According to some research it recommends to be careful not to fall pregnant until 3 months after the shot.
Just go to your GP for a blood test and that will be able to tell you if you still have immunity. I don't recall having had a rubella shot for ages (10+yrs) and I still have immunity.
Yeah do that i went to mine and had one a few months ago and all was fine my last rubella was in 2000.. So check it then worry about it all.. Good luck with TTC..
The general advice is a 3 month gap between getting an MMR shot and starting to TTC. Although I have read some countries where its only 1-2 months but in Aus they say 3. The docs can get your rubella immunity measured with a blood test (rubella titre).
Mine was "equivocal" which mean somewhere between immune and not immune, so I had the MMR shot 3 months before TTC. Then I was retested 5 months later when I fell pregnant - and I was still equivocal... They will give me another one after this baby arrives but it might be normal for me to just always turn up equivocal no matter how many shots I have... everybody is different.
As another poster said, the first 12 weeks is the real danger period. I think from about 16 weeks the chances of an infection causing any problems are low because most organs have developed by then.