VAXBaby 23: The Rubella Vaccine

Another vaccine you child will be recommended at their 1-year checkup is for rubella. Rubella is the R in the MMR vaccine. Measles, mumps and Rubella. Rubella is also called German measles sometimes, because it looks so similar to regular old measles. It is another mild infection and often doesn’t even cause red spots to appear. Most people who got a rubella infection naturally don’t even realize they got it. The only reason a vaccine exists for rubella is because if you are pregnant and get rubella it can cause birth defects. This used to be a decent-sized problem. Not a HUGE problem, but it did have some issues, because occasionally a girl would make it through her childhood without catching rubella, only to catch it while she was in the first trimester of her pregnancy.