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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to not have the whooping cough vaccine

48 replies

gabcat · 21/03/2014 12:15

I am 30 weeks pregnant . I have declined the vaccine.

I've been looking at the baby centre forums and the general consensus is that women who opt out of the vaccine are selfish, stupid , naive and I even read one post which said the women who didn't have it didn't deserve their baby (WTF???!!)

I don't really want to get into my reasons as to why I'm not having it as I've been accused of scaremongering.
AIBU to not have it?
AIBU in thinking some of the comments on baby centre were a bit unfair ?
AIBU in thinking 'each to their own?'

OP posts:

Seeline · 21/03/2014 13:17

I wasn't able to be vaccinated as a baby for medical reasons. I went through the whole of my childhood without catching it, mainly I presume because the vast majority of other children were vaccinated, and whooping cough barely existed.
I caught whooping cough when I was 6 months pregnant, it was horrendous. I was lucky in that I gave birth to a healthy DS at 9 months, but I was worries all the way through the rest of my pregnancy - partly due to the feared impact of the drugs I had had to take, and partly because no-one seemed to know what impact the disease could have had on the unborn baby.
My sympathies with anyone who contracts the disease whilst pregnant.

zirca · 21/03/2014 13:28

If you were to be still immune as an adult, would you need the vaccine? So anyone who wasn't sure could pay for a blood test and see?

Chacha23 · 21/03/2014 13:32

I think YABU to make your decision based on anecdotes rather than on proper statistics and medical research.

bumbleymummy · 21/03/2014 13:34

YANBU it's your decision. There is a lot of WC circulating at the moment anyway so you've probably come into contact with it and 'boosted' your own immunity. Many older children/adults have whooping cough without realising because you don't tend to get the typical 'whoop' when you're older. It means plenty of people are spreading it around without knowing! Maybe you could have your immunity tested?

eurochick · 21/03/2014 13:36

My 2pnth:

I'm pregnant and generally pro vaccine. When I was first offered the whooping cough vaccine, I thought I would have it. I have since read some things that have given me pause me thought. In particular, it seems that the booster that is being used for pregnant women is fairly "weak" and I have seen its effectiveness questioned for women who have not had WC nor been vaccinated (which applies to me). Moreover, when it was offered to me, it was not explained that it is to provide protection until the baby has its own vaccinations at 8 weeks, so it is there to cover a very limited time frame. And while WC vaccine has been offered to pregnant women in the US for a long time, it is a different vaccine to the one offered here, so the one offered here does not have a long history of safe use during pregnancy. To weigh against this is the risk of WC in a young baby and the fact that there have been 12 deaths in young babies from WC in recent years.

I have another couple of months to make my decision, and I will continue to research it in that time.

bumbleymummy · 21/03/2014 13:37

I'm not sure people realise that immunity from the whooping cough vaccine wanes. Some studies have shown that it starts to wane in as little as 12 months so you can't actually achieve 'herd immunity' with the vaccine.

Scuttlebug · 21/03/2014 13:41

So you've been accused of scaremongering of some other site and then come on here and talk about still borns.

Fuck off back to the other site please, you are still scaremongering and you know it.

Original poster

gabcat · 21/03/2014 13:47

scuttle exactly the reason I didn't want to mention my doubts of the WC vaccine , OPs asked and I gave ! can't win!

OP posts:

givemeaclue · 21/03/2014 13:52

You have decided not to have it. That is your choice. Why are you bothered if other people think it is unreasonable?

Scuttlebug · 21/03/2014 13:53

Er no. Just don't post in the first place, then no problems with even having to bring up your doubts. Why can't you be honest and post something like "these are my doubts on the WC vaccine" then at least it's an honest discussion.

Snatchoo · 21/03/2014 13:59

Honestly gabcat, only you can make this decision.

Don't look to people on the internet to validate it for you. There is no way to say whether you will or will not get whooping cough, and really no way to say whether or not it would affect your baby. Unless your friend has had it confirmed that the vaccine was the cause of the stillbirth then it can't really be relied upon.

slowcomputer · 21/03/2014 14:09

Your friend's story is tragic and almost certainly unconnected to the vaccination. If a baby gets whooping cough in the first three months of life there is a serious risk of apnoea and death. It's your call but I think you're dismissing a real and proven risk because of a likely coincidence.

RalphRecklessCardew · 21/03/2014 14:12

My neice caught whooping cough at 5 months. She and her parents had miserable, terrifying weeks caring for a desperately unhappy child.

YABVVVU.

Caveat: There may well be a few cases where there are good medical reasons for not having the vaccine. It doesn't sound like this is one of them.

pianodoodle · 21/03/2014 14:14

You weigh up the pros and cons yourself the same as if you were having an operation etc... and decide what you deem to be an acceptable risk.

I've always opted to have vaccinations (had the whooping cough one during recent pregnancy) and opted for the children to have them too.

justwantitmadeforme · 21/03/2014 14:18

it's up to you.

I took it, I nearly died at six weeks old due to whooping cough. it is a dreadful illness.

Goodeyesniper2113 · 21/03/2014 14:22

Some people can be very blunt with statements like 'you don't deserve to have kids etc'

But saying that, I'm pro vaccine.
Although there isn't a lot of data/results the decision to.vaccinate during pregnancy wouldn't be offered lightly. The science is there on how antibodies and placenta works. If a boost of my antibodies helps my newborn son protect him from contracting or fighting off wc I'll have it.
I feel we have a responsibility to have vaccines for.ourselves and for those who are unable to have the vaccine in first place.

HighlanderMam · 21/03/2014 14:25

You want to play at scaremongering?

This can be the reality when a small baby get whooping cough. Such a helpless feeling watching that.

You are the only one who can make a decision. It's hard to find unbiased information about vaccines. I have weighed up the pro's and cons of vaccinating and personally choose to vaccinate.

You make yours.

WitchWay · 21/03/2014 14:29

You can find arguments that agree with you especially online if you look hard enough. Awful that your friend had a stillborn baby but extremely unlikely that the vaccine was the cause. Your choice, however the more people refuse, the less the herd immunity will protect the unvaccinated because there will just be too many of them, & consequently more disease in the community.

FabBakerGirl · 21/03/2014 14:30

You have to live with the consequences of any decision but when that decision affects another person's life you have a huge responsibility to get it right.

pianodoodle · 21/03/2014 14:37

Oh God I just watched a bit of that video the poor wee soul :(

tiggytape · 21/03/2014 14:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bumbleymummy · 21/03/2014 15:04

"because the baby vaccine wears off for some people after 10 years or so and they can be vulnerable again"

It can be as little as 12 months. The range seems to be 4-12 years.

pointythings · 21/03/2014 15:40

I remember having whooping cough - I was one of the unlucky ones, I had been vaccinated. It was awful, even at 9 years old.

I haven't taken this to mean that the vaccine doesn't work - I was just unfortunate enough that it did not work for me. The vaccine in pregnancy wasn't around when I had my DDs, but I would so have had it. Far better to have a reduced risk of catching the disease than a non-reduced risk, especially in a newborn and with the disease so prevalent now.

Ultimately it is up to each individual though.

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