Working with women to ensure compliance with
treatments is an important task for the midwife.
Women may have concerns about the wellbeing
of her baby when taking medication and often
reassurance is needed. Pneumococcal vaccines
are recommended in individuals with SCD and
at the booking appointment discussion of this by
the midwife is advisable; vaccines should include
the swine flu vaccination (Neville and Panepinto,
2011; Sharma, 2012). Encapsulated organisms such
as streptococcus pneumonia and heamophilus
influenza are common infections in SCD due
to hyposplenism. Most women with SCD will
already be taking prophylactic penicillin and this
has been found to be beneficial in reducing the
incidence of streptococcus pneumonia and must
be continued during pregnancy (RCOG, 2011).