Taking the seasonal flu vaccine during any stage of pregnancy is safe, a new Irish study has found.

Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Dublin's Rotunda Hospital examined maternity hospital data during a recent influenza pandemic and found no link between flu vaccination and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

In fact, women who were vaccinated against the flu during pregnancy were less likely to go on to have a premature delivery compared to women who were not vaccinated.

"Our study provides further reassurance to pregnant women on the safety of flu vaccination in pregnancy. Our findings support current recommendations from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre for all pregnant women to be vaccinated against seasonal influenza at any stage during pregnancy," commented the study's lead author, Prof Brian Cleary of the RCSI and Rotunda Hospital.

He said that any future public health campaigns should provide ‘clear information' on the safety of taking the flu vaccine during pregnancy.

The study also found that certain groups of women were less likely to get vaccinated during pregnancy, including younger women, women with a lower socioeconomic status, women who reported that the pregnancy was unplanned, women who availed of public maternity care and women from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

The findings were based on data from the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin. The researchers looked at women who had been pregnant before the December 2008-September 2009 period and during the influenza pandemic of December 2009-September 2010.

Pregnancy outcomes were assessed, such as prematurity, size for gestational age, the need for neonatal intensive care and perinatal death.

Almost 7,000 women were pregnant during the pandemic period and of these, 43% said they had been vaccinated during pregnancy.

Details of these findings are published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

For more information on pregnancy, see our Pregnancy Clinic here