aibu (and overly pfb) to ask my anti vaccination family to vaccinate themselfs against whooping cough before they come and visit my new baby at christmas?

[honeytea]

I'm wondering if I am being completely over the top. I don't live in tge UK, the country where I live don't habe a whooping cough problem so they are not offering tge vaccine to pregnant women. I went ti my Dr this morning to ask him if I could have the vaccine as we plan to travel to tge UK before the baby has his 1st vaccinations (3 months here) the Dr said there is no way for me to get tge vaccination here in Sweden even privately.

I think we will just wait to come to tge UK till after the baby's first vaccinations.

My family, parents and siblings (one of my siblings is a child) are coming to visit us at christmas, the baby will be only a week or two old. My family are anti vaccinations, the sibling who is a child has not been vaccinated I'm not sure about everyone else.

I have the option of traveling to tge UK and getting the vaccine myself, this would be costly and hard work as I'm heavily pregnant.

I've missed this whole whooping cough thing. Can anyone tell me who is at risk and who needs to get vaccinated?

honeytea I know first hand what it's like and I can well believe that a child was refused. However, those doing the refusing were in the wrong. As the dependent of an EU citizen, legally resident in Sweden your child is covered by the Swedish NHS from day 1. He is not covered by the UK NHS at all. His European Health Card will be issued by Försäkringskassan.

When I first moved to Sweden I needed to see a doctor before I got my personal number. They tried to make me pay. They tried to make the UK NHS pay. In the end, they had to back down and follow European Community law and cough up.

They won't get vaccinated just because you ask them to (they might say they did though)! You can't change someone's very strong beliefs just by asking! But you can tell them they can't visit until baby is 4 months and has had all of his jabs. It's up to you to weigh up the risks and benefits of it, yanb reasonable or unreasonable about it, it's a very personal decision to make.

Its just new born babies. Pregnant women have been advise to get jabbed before 38 weeks of pregnancy but I am 38 weeks and can't get a straight answer from my local pct.
Midwife is coming today so going to ask her.

Thank you!

Can adults just go and get vaccinated though? I thought it was only pg women (and of course children when they get their vax course). Genuine question btw!

Wilson I very much doubt they could, unless there was a medical reason (high risk, asthma etc)
I presume all reserves will be kept for pregnant woman & high risk groups only.

It would be more sensible to ask anyone who is unwell to stay away from a newborn baby; there is no need to ask them to be vaccinated against something they may not catch anyway.

And they wouldn't receive pertussis vaccination anyway as it isn't given routinely to adults (the child would receive it).

Thanks monkeys.

I think if you have never been vaccinated against certain things you have the right to gave those vaccinations as an adult but it's really hard to get a Dr to organise them for you. It's really unfair in my opinion because those unfortunate kids who's parents choose not to vaccinate them have to get the vaccinations they are entitled to just because their parents refused them on tge child's behalf.

Monkeys, there is a thread over in Pregnancy about this. The vaccine is being given to women 38- in order to give antibodies time to cross the placenta. However you may well be able to get the vaccine at 38+, in order to protect yourself from WC, and so that you can pass antibodies on via breast milk. Theres also always a chance that you might go overdue, providing extra time.
The news reports were released before the doctors etc were notified, but all should have now been told what will be happening.
Pop over and have a look.

thanks saggy will have a look xx

I didn't know that there is a whooping cough vaccine now; but glad there is. As a 7 year old I was seriously ill with whooping cough for 6 weeks, maybe it was longer?

If you can't catch it again then that's fine, if you can then i'd have that vaccine.

OP Re: adults & children who come into contact with your baby - the best thing is what i'd do & ask if any of them have had diarrhoea &/or vomiting in the last 48 hours; or if they share a home / have had close contact with an individual who's had diarrhoea & vomiting in the past 48 hours.

You could apply the same criteria to other infectious illnesses too.

If you are really concerned; get people (politely, somehow) to wash their hands before touching your baby.

Asking them to have vaccinations is understandable but not practical.

Choosing not to vaccinate (as opposed to not being able to) has a bigger public health impact than bottle feeding. Unlike formular feeding, not vaccinating has a direct impact on other people.

But we had this argument discussion just the other day didn't we.

Yes an unimmunised adult or child is able to approach their GP and request to be vaccinated at any age. We often offer routine vaccines to people with no record of their immunisations, or who have never received them as a child.

HOWEVER vaccines are given as needed by age - so an older adult would not be offered pertussis, Meningitis C, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine etc as they are considered very low risk by virtue of their age and thus their susceptibility to those diseases.

The vaccines recommended as "catch up" would depend on age and any previous vaccinations received.

Whether the UK schedule is adjusted bearing in mind the recent increase in transmission of pertussis in the adult population is still under investigation; it's possible that teens may be offered pertussis in their school leavers booster for example, to give longer lasting protection.

The current pregnancy recommendations are that women are offered pertussis vaccination at 28-38 weeks as of yesterday. We have been told to prioritise getting in women 38-40 weeks so they can be immunised before delivery even though it's not as optimal a response as some protection is better than none.

"You have no right to demand others have themselves injected with sometihng they object to."

She has the right to tell them not to come to visit the baby if they don't want to get vaccinated though.

Leonie - your children are not healthier than other children because they have not been vaccinated. Do you really think the population of this country would be 'healthier' without the vaccination campaigns?

I don't think what you are asking is practical. You'll have to stay indoors for three months to guarantee that you won't come into contact with anyone who hasn't been vaccinated.

And what's the point in asking a family who you know are against it to be vaccinated?

In your shoes I would either asked them not to come until your dc is vaccinated or to come when planned, but only if they are healthy.

So tell me then, how many babies have died in the last few weeks as a result of other people choosing to bottle feed their own offspring?

vs

How many babies have died in the last few weeks as a result of lack of vaccination in the general population against whooping cough?

Stupid, stupid, stupid comment Leonie

It's not a lack of vaccination so much as the vaccinations not always being effective.