As a wellness professional, you need to interact with all types of people in all stages of life at your wellness events. That includes pregnant women.

It’s a great thing to come across pregnant participants at wellness events. These women should be more in tune with their health than the average person because the healthier they are, the better their pregnancy will be. Attending a wellness event is a great step for a pregnant woman to learn more about her health, and how her pregnancy is impacting her health.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when offering wellness services to pregnant women. First of all—regardless of the service—remember that these ladies are likely going to their doctor more often than most participants. If not, they probably should be. So be willing to chat with them about what their doctor has said and to encourage that relationship rather than trying to overstep it.

Biometric Screenings

If you’re working with a pregnant biometric screening participant, there are a few things to keep in mind. The most important is that the participant’s biometric results might not be an accurate predictor of her health.

The results you’re reading are correct in that moment. But pregnancy affects the body in lots of different ways, so high readings might not be an indicator of poor health habits. Rather, they’re an indicator of that woman’s pregnancy.

Along the same lines, many pregnant women adopt different eating, sleeping and activity habits than when they’re not pregnant. The biometric numbers might be skewed by that change in habits as well.

Finally (and hopefully obviously), some physical measures like weight, waist circumference and BMI will be very misleading. These types of static measure don’t take pregnancy into account, so if the participant chooses to opt out, that’s completely fine.

Ultimately, pregnant women should be monitoring their health with their doctors. It can be beneficial to attend a screening while pregnant just to check in. Some women attend their screening to meet a wellness program requirement, and the screening date happens to fall within their pregnancy.

Regardless of their motivation for participating, be willing to work and communicate with pregnant women at biometric screenings so they can understand what their results mean right now—and what that means in the overall picture of their health.

Flu Shot Clinics

Experts consider the flu shot not only safe, but recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women. In some states, however, there are concerns as to the type of vaccines that can be given to pregnant women.

The concern surrounds the preservative, thimerosal. Multi-dose vials of vaccine contain that preservative. Manufacturer-filled syringes, however, do not.

Again, experts have not linked thimerosal to any significant risk for pregnant women. It’s out of an abundance of caution that some states have required preservative-free, manufacturer-filled syringes for pregnant women.

Because TotalWellness does events in so many states, we standardized our policy across the board. We will vaccinate pregnant women at flu shot events. However, to make your job easier and avoid any issues in states with strict vaccine laws, we only vaccinate pregnant women with preservative-free, manufacturer-filled syringes.

Clients who expect pregnant women to attend their event will have ordered these filled syringes. If they’ve ordered them, they’ll be included in your shipment. If your shipment contains both filled syringes and multi-dose vials, the syringes are intended for pregnant women. All other participants should receive vaccine drawn up from the vials.

If you do not have any manufacturer-filled syringes at your event, and a pregnant woman asks to receive a flu shot, you cannot administer a flu shot to her. We do not allow pregnant women to receive vaccines drawn up from a multi-dose vial. Please direct those women to their doctors to receive their flu shot.

Again, working with a pregnant woman at a wellness event is an excellent sign that she’s taking her health seriously in this important season of her life. It also might be due to a combination of bad timing and wellness requirements.

There are certain considerations to take when working with pregnant women at events, but the most important is to communicate clearly with her about the procedures you’re doing. Let her know how pregnancy might impact her results, why it’s great that she’s there, and how she can continue to make healthy choices throughout her pregnancy.

What experiences have you had with pregnant women at wellness events?