Resources for New Moms

Vaccines: MMRV

Your baby is almost one year old! Give a powerful birthday present: the MMRV vaccine. MMRV vaccine protects against four diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox). Your baby will get their first dose of the MMRV vaccine at the 12-month (or possibly 15-month) checkup. They will get a second dose between the ages of 4 and 6 years old. 

More about  MMRV 

MMRV vaccine can prevent measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella.  

  • MEASLES (M) can cause fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes, commonly followed by a rash that covers the whole body. It can lead to seizures (often associated with fever), ear infections, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Rarely, measles can cause brain damage or death. 
  • MUMPS (M) can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite, and swollen and tender salivary glands under the ears. It can lead to deafness, swelling of the brain and/or spinal cord covering, painful swelling of the testicles or ovaries, and, very rarely, death. 
  • RUBELLA (R) can cause fever, sore throat, rash, headache, and eye irritation. It can cause arthritis in up to half of teenage and adult women. If a woman gets rubella while she is pregnant, she could have a miscarriage, or her baby could be born with serious birth defects. 
  • VARICELLA (V), also called chickenpox, can cause an itchy rash, in addition to fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, and headache. It can lead to skin infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the blood vessels, swelling of the brain and/or spinal cord covering, and infection of the blood, bones, or joints. Some people who get chickenpox get a painful rash called shingles (also known as herpes zoster) years later.

Most people who are vaccinated with MMRV will be protected for life. Vaccines and high rates of vaccination have made these diseases much less common in the United States. 

Visit the CDC for more information about MMRV.