To think this is classic PFB?

[SamanthaBrique]

Friend just posted this photo on Facebook, with the caveat that she's got 6 weeks to go and wouldn't be "taking any risks" with her baby girl.

Personally I think it's nice t give new mums some space anyway. I think half my issues in establishing feeding were due to ds getting passed from pillar to post when he should have just been attached to me all day

My daughter died of RSV, she had a significant underlying condition but I sat in PICU for a month watching babies come in and out, healthy term newborns, preemies and those with underlying conditions, few of them died but having your baby rushed into intensive care, ventilated and waiting to see if they will be okay is hardly anyone's ideal introduction to parenthood and the vast majority of those children will go onto to have longer term breathing/lung issues due to their severe RSV.

My second baby is due in three weeks and no way will anyone be seeing him in the peak of RSV season without washing (not alcohol gelling) their hands. RSV remains on surfaces for ages. It's not about how clean you are.

ahhh! My stomach hurts

Meh, it's good to give "Baby" some germs and get its immune system up and running imho. Everyone treats babies like they're so fragile but babies are DESIGNED to survive! Even numpties can manage to muddle through without causing irrepairable harm.

Will be funny when she's desperate for a babysitter in a few years and no-one can be arsed. Imagine how much trouble you'd be in if you looked after PFB and got it wrong!

Honestly, since having whooping cough last winter I can totally understand why someone would worry about a newborn catching it - it was a dreadful, dreadful illness and I'm a pretty robust 44.

I am so sorry for your loss TheDisillusionedAnarchist

Wishing you all the best for your new arrival.

Perfectly sensible requests as far as I am concerned.

Whooping cough boosters are on regular schedules in other countries, e.g. France every ten years, and I did expect people around our DCs like their nanny and DGPs to have them done. I have one anti-vaxer friend and specifically asked if she had vaccinated her DCs before letting them anywhere near my newborn.

Sorry, dying laughing, this is so terribly OTT and precious! Will her house be bleached top to bottom? Is she not getting the whooping cough vaccine? A friend who gave birth recently had hers whilst pregnant.

I'd rather see a first time mum stand up for herself and set her line in the sand rather than the scores of so called spineless people pleasers that have their first few days of parenting ruined by boundary stomping friends and family. Good on her.

i managed to give a dear friend norovirus 2 weeks after we'd had it. Until that point I thought I was quite a good housekeeper. You can't be too careful with newborns ime. A Bulgarian friend told me that they have a tradition of not circulating the baby in the first 40 days there (this was her family custom at least) which I thought was sensible back when I had dd1.

Booboo that's interesting - I had no idea whooping cough immunisation didn't last for life till dh and I caught it. Will be paying for private boosters in future.

A bit twee but hardly ridiculous demands. It's very mean to post this and laugh tbh.

first few days of parenting ruined by boundary stomping friends and family.

What? Who has ever had the first days of their child's life "ruined" by friends and family coming to visit?? Why put yourself in Purdah just because you've had a baby?

Sadly chicken babies aren't designed to survive and newborns are very vulnerable to illnesses that for most would be nothing. There is a reason that infant mortality rates where very high before health care improved. Even now many babies die, or are left with lifelong complications when they pick up "minor" illnesses whilst still tiny and vulnerable

Nah, can't get wound up by this. She's not doing any harm.

I wouldn't put anything like that on Facebook, but before DS was conceived, I visited a friend and her young child in hospital and the baby in the bed next to her had whooping cough. It's a sound that I'll never be able to forget.

Before I had DS, there was quite an epidemic around in our area. Boosters are free for parents, siblings and even grandparents of a new baby, and the doctor even put one through for my aunt for free as she would be in close contact with my DS. It's included with our tetanus boosters here, so people should generally be getting one every ten years anyway.

"but hardly ridiculous demands"

What? It's reasonable to expect people to find a private GP/clinic and pay for an off-schedule jab?

And though I agree it's reasonable to have people wash their hands (as they come in, so they're not touching many household surfaces before that) it's not reasonable to post about it in FB.

Because surely you'd actually talk to the people who are likely to visit, and you can just ask them (to bring their vaccination certificates, that is; hand washing you could just steer people to on arrival)

They sound like idiots.

I wonder if the traditional practice of 'rooming in' or a cuarentena where mum stays at home and is looked after by mother or mother in law or other close relatives could have been one of the ways young babies were protected (and mum) along side resting, est breastfeeding etc?

Friends in Japan practiced this with both children, it also involved only very necessary visitors. If any.

As I've just noticed oldboots mentioned!

I really didn't want visitors for a few weeks I must say!

exactly - seems a sensible practice to me, the tough it out attitude is so careless with other people's lives. Yes it'll probably be alright but you don't know that. Schmaltzy sentiment aside :)

I think it's quite probably aimed at someone in particular.

I did similar (not this, but similar) when my DD was due earlier in the year. It was aimed at a couple of people specifically - relatives that would take offence to me speaking to them, but take ANYTHING posted in photo/meme/info poster as gospel. It was an easy way of making my point to them, knowing they'd see it, knowing they'd probably post something like "So true hun. Can't be too careful" which meant I knew it'd be easier for me to back up at the time if I needed too.

People only think folks are precious with their newborns because very few newborns die now in comparison to the path. It gets forgotten sometimes that there's a reason for that reduction, and part of it is that we are more careful with germs and bugs.

On a slight tangent I wonder why on earth the NHS doesn't provide hooping cough boosters though, given their own website points out that the vaccinations do not provide life long protection...

www.nhs.uk/conditions/whooping-cough/Pages/Introduction.aspx#vaccination

The UK version of the cuarentera- the babymoon - certainly existed.

But nowadays it seems that people want to travel during this period (I've seen threads asking for recommendations for destinations), so there is clearly quite a drastic and sharp divide between the babymoon cocooners and the travel ASAP types.