Health care facilities around the state are setting up H1N1 vaccination clinics for pregnant women, considered to be some of the most at risk for serious complications and hospitalization. But for some of those women, getting vaccinated is a difficult decision to make. Some fear the consequences of introducing the new vaccine to their body.

The state Center for Disease Control says it's important for pregnant woman to receive the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine as well as a seasonal influenza vaccine. Pregnant women are at the top of the federal Centers for Disease Control's list of priority groups to receive the initial doses of H1N1 vaccine, and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor has held three H1N1 vaccine clinics for pregnant women. About 100 women have come in for shots.

"Even if they don't come down with the illness, when they're the caregiver of a newborn, the newborn can't be vaccinated, so it's only protection is for the caregivers to be vaccinated," says Dana Hunter, Operations Manager of the Eastern Maine Medical Center Pharmacy.

Hunter says says he's aware that some pregnant women are wary of getting vaccinated. "People need to know that the H1N1 vaccine is made exactly the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine. It uses the same technique, the same materials, the same equipment. The only thing that differs between those two vaccines is the source of the virus, which is the antigen that causes the immune response," he says.

Doctors in the area have varying opinions about whether pregnant women need to get vaccinated. Thirty-six-year-old Dorene Paradis of Hampden says her doctor encouraged her to be vaccinated. She's 15-and-a-half weeks into her pregnancy. "I did have concerns and I did talk to my doctor and she assured me that it's perfectly safe, perfectly fine, so I thought, 'Great, I'll get it.' Better safe than sorry."

And Hunter also agrees that it's safer to get vaccinated than to end up in the hospital with H1N1. But not all pregnant women are convinced the vaccine will benefit them or their babies, and some are afraid of the various chemicals contained in the vaccine.

"All the doctors I spoke to, they weren't able to give me a definitive, 'Yes you should have this shot and this is why, or no this isn't a good idea and this is why,'" says Bekka Brodie, a 29-year-old chemist from Orono. She's 27 weeks along in her pregnancy and has decided not to get the H1N1 vaccine. She says it hasn't been an easy decision.

"When I googled this topic, and I didn't necessarily want to know why not, I wanted to know why should I? Give me some really good information, what kind of testing has been done, how is this testing different than the 1976 pandemic and how is it different? How do I know that we've learned from the neurological disorders that the shot caused back then? And I couldn't come up with anything."

The federal Centers for Disease Control has recommended that pregnant women not get H1N1 vaccines that contain thimersol, which is a preservative that keeps the vaccine free of germs. There is a theory that thimersol is linked to autism, but it has yet to be confirmed, the CDC says.

"The CDC for legal reasons and not medical or scientific reasons, has declined to recommend that preservative-containing vaccine for pregnant women," says Dana Hunter of Eastern Maine Medical Center.

A number of clinical trials which test 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in healthy children and adults are underway. These studies are being conducted by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. Studies of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in pregnant women are expected to begin in September, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.