Thanks everyone for your input.

Roz, I am completely in agreement with your sentiment on this one. The crux of the problem is that I feel I have inadequate information at the moment to make any sort of sensible decision.

Brian, I also absolutely agree that 'just' asking this forum wouldn't be enough. However, I've already asked both my doctor and midwife, who confess they don't know much about the vaccine at the moment (most GPs only seem to know what the central authorities have told them, unless they have some sort of special interest in the area) so I'm trying to get info from anyone and everyone I can (ie, not just this forum), and am simultaneously carrying out as much personal research as I can, in the hope that I can be more informed before I inject an unknown (to me) substance into my body without knowing the short or longterm effects on either me or my unborn baby. I'd welcome a rational (or even heated!) debate on the pros and cons- if I'm wrong to be hesitant about the vaccine I will be happy to stand corrected!

Some other countries also seem to use a version of the vaccine that doesn't contain mercury, which makes me wonder why the UK version is different, especially since pregnant women are usually told to avoid mercury as far as possible (ie, by limiting tuna to no more than 3 cans a week, etc.). My guess is that the mercury is contained in the equivalent of the 'preservative' for the vaccine, so that we don't have to use an egg-based version and therefore the vaccines 'keep' for longer, but I have no medical training at all and I could be totally wrong about that.

In every other aspect of my pregnancy, I'm trying to avoid any artificial substances as far as possible, on the basis that I can't be certain of the potential side-effects on a growing fetus (eg, I've eliminated alcohol, all caffeine, E-numbers, and have switched to 'natural' deodordant, shampoo, cleaning products, etc, etc ...) so I guess I'm particularly sensitive re this issue. But, of course, I don't want to kill myself/my baby through contracting swine flu either! I think that, even if I were not pregnant, I would still be cautious about the vaccine given how quickly it has been rolled out. There's relatively little empirical evidence confirming its safety, unlike most other vaccinations we are recommended (eg, MMR, travel vacs, etc.).

I can see that it would be in the UK's interests as a whole for as many people as possible to be vaccinated- but I guess each person needs to weigh up the individual risks for them. My problem is that I still don't know what the risks are...