To vaccinate newborn or not

[confusedaboutclothes]

I know this is a very sensitive subject, but i’m asking please for FACTS only - I don’t want answers like ‘because the NHS recommends you to vaccinate your baby etc’

Id like to point out i’m not ‘anti vax’ as such, but covid really opened my eyes to researching vaccines etc i’ve done my own research on whether i should be vaccinating my newborn but it’s hard to find unbiased facts.

What I don’t like, is the pressure that is put on us to do as we’re told with our babies. I don’t like the constant reminders, the phone calls and the pressure to vaccinate - it all feels like a box ticking exercise not because the NHS are actually worried about my baby.

Please be kind, I really am confused about this and would love some different perspectives

I presume that you are aware of how much shit there is on the Internet?

Have you restricted your research to peer reviewed papers in well recognised scientific journals or are you reading any old crap that Google churns out?

I'm going to have to leave this thread because it winds me up that such uninformed ignorant people can have kids when the millions of women who struggle to have children and would put them first, can't.

With respect the vaccines your newborn would get are long standing and have exceptional research verifying the millions of lives they save.

However, if I was about to welcome a newborn I fully appreciate your concern. While there were countless lives saved by covid vaccines there were issues. These issues may have been absolutely awful for a tiny proportion of the population.

I do believe it is because we saw the vaccine process accelerated and under the microscope.

Please protect your child and others by having the standard vaccines. Nobody wants to see a devastating measles outbreak for example and your choice could lead to it.

By all means take time and consideration of the extra protection of the covid vaccines.

You should question why the NHS, which is on it's arse both financially and through staff shortages, would bother spending all that time on money on vaccines if they weren't proven to work.

You don't find anti-vaxxers in countries where these diseases are still endemic and killing unvaccinated children. They can see the consequences first-hand if they don't vaccinate.

Nail. On. Head.

We are so lucky in this country to be offered a vaccination programme for our children, open to everyone, regardless of income, status etc. It's one of the best things we can do for both our children, and for children who cannot, for health reasons, have the vaccines.

People who choose not to vaccinate, and then say 'well, my children are ok' are forgetting that their children are ok only because others have chosen to vaccinate. Health officials are worried at the falling take up of vaccinations, and, as a result, at the re-emergence of (sometimes deadly) diseases that people had worked so hard to eradicate in this country.

You would probably have got away with not vaccinating 20 years ago. But as these illnesses increase in the UK, it's more important than ever to get your child vaccinated. There isn't the herd immunity that there used to be.

I was severely injured by the Covid vaccine (MRNA). DC still have all their regular childhood vaccines.

People have been severely injured by the Covid vaccines (my injury diagnosed in hospital and accepted officially, I met many others in a similar situation). There needs to be a distinction between those with Covid vaccine injuries and the antivaxxers who are doing a lot of harm as they discourage all vaccines. The health authorities have not helped the situation by not being transparent about the scale of Covid vaccine injuries and helping those impacted. Unfortunately this has led to distrust of all vaccines.

Even people with undergrad degrees in the subject mentioned know they know nothing.

Also when my DD was 3 she got chickenpox and spent 30 hours in A&E under observation due to a complication.

She is a child who rarely gets sick and ended up with a whole army of medical staff checking her.

Another way to look at this...

Vaccination costs the NHS millions of pounds each year. The NHS only funds effective treatments. Vaccination saves them millions each year.. the cost of dealing with the rampant diseases... and the excessive deaths.

Back in 2012/2013 there was a whooping cough outbreak. Babies died, too young to be vaccinated. So pregnant women were vaccinated, bringing it under control.

People only question vaccines when there are no outbreaks and no danger. When its your child's life, you feel differently... and honestly none of the pregnant women I knew, including myself, questioned the need for that whooping cough vaccine even though it was aeap of faith it would transfer the immunity to the baby. It hadn't been tested.

When it comes down to it, non vaccination is a luxury belief.

CP is going to be added to the UK vaccination programme.

The pressure is put on so that people don't become complacent. So that people see and hear the reasons for vaccination. Don't let the fact that you feel pressured stop you from vaccinating your child. Not liking the pressure isn't a reason.

Plus as said before, vaccines save lives.

I 100% have faith in medicine, research and vaccines. Both my boys have been vaccinated and I’ve also paid for the shots which aren’t covered.

But I will say that one of our close family friend is a GP and she doesn’t vaccinate her kids. She said that she doesn’t trust what’s in it.

If you’re looking for fact based evidence look for some medical studies. You won’t find anyone with any sense on here that isn’t opinion based. I was never vaccinated as a child, nether was my mum, and my children havn’t been either and we have all been absolutely fine. Vaccines are pushed because they make money, not for the welfare of the child.

that being said, not all of them are dangerous, it just comes down to preference. I come from a family of doctors who also chose not to vaccinate their children (my sister also is a virologist so knows a lot about vaccines).

the MMR vaccine gets a lot of grief for potential links with autism - honestly I don’t know about this either way, however I do know that when given to a baby under 18 months it can affect the baby’s stomach lining in a negative way.

its purely a personal choice. You will often get a biased answer form health care professionals as they are taught to push vaccines so do some research and make your own decisions.

there is no right or wrong answer OP

Hi OP. I totally empathise with your situation ! Having a newborn makes you feel so protective and it’s totally natural for you to question injecting a substance into their body. All 3 of mine have had theirs but I remember having this feeling every time. Can you speak to your midwife or health visitor about it and express your concern ? They will have heard it plenty of times and will not judge you! Or your GP. Maybe they can arm you with the facts to put you at ease . The fact you’re unsure about it shows how much your love your baby and want the best for them. Anyone jumping down OPs throat , try to remember how it feels to have that precious new born on your arms. That plus hormones and lack of sleep. Have some empathy ! X

There's no grey area BECAUSE YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD VACCINATE

Thank you all - some of these replies are exactly what I needed.

Im fully aware my research is based purely on the internet and that not all of it will be true. I would never ever put my child at risk and vaccinations absolutely seem to be the best thing to do, so that’s what will be done.

I just wanted to get different perspectives on it as i’m the type of person that will get so confused on different opinions and then like to look into those opinions further.

You've got scientists and doctors that have spend years in university, studying and developing medicine, vaccines and science.

And then you've got tw* who spend a few hours on YouTube who think they know better and are playing with the lives of their children. It's disgraceful to be honest.

Mumps

www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/mumps/facts

Rubella

www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/rubella/symptoms-causes/syc-20377310

@Iwishiwasasilentnight That’s really good news. DS had quite a mild bout of CP but unfortunately DH caught it from him and was absolutely floored by it. I had it very badly as a young teen, was hospitalised and am quite badly scarred even now over 40 years later.

I would suggest looking elsewhere other than Mumsnet if you are truly on the fence and want different opinions other than an echo chamber telling you to do it. I would also suggest not considering them all the same and looking at the individual risk factors, rate of serious illness and death, complications, etc of each vaccine and each disease or illness they deal with.

You do NOT have to give your baby any, you do NOT have to give you child every single one, you do NOT need to succumb to pressure if you have real concerns that are validated with research, you SHOULDNT blindly not give any because it feels like a box ticking excersize. After hours days weeks months and to be honest near on years of reading studies, dissecting them and finding evidence both for and against depending on the individual vaccines (which are not all created equal) the only reasonable thing to do is completely inform yourself of all aspects of them if you are concerned at all. if you choose not to, there are risks, if you choose to, there are risks. You can also look into applying a different vaccine schedule if you don't feel happy about the high number of vaccines given at one point. As will be the case every time a new vaccine is added, there are many more given at once today and before the age of 1/3 then ever in history. I can already see the pitchforks and foaming at the mouth I'm going to receive for saying this but do your research and if you are intelligent you should be able to come to your own conclusion without asking for input from Mumsnet or any other online forum full of people you don't know who have entirely different lives to you and thoughts and ideals. I mean no malice in this but if you really aren't sure either way or don't think you have the ability to research you are better off getting them for your baby and that's coming from somebody who isn't giving them to her own baby at the pace at which the NHS recommends. You would likely always "what if" if anything did happen. The pharmaceutical field is as much a social paradigm as any other scientific field and you are allowed to question things. Who did the study, who was it commissioned by, what agencies profit from it, for both sides of the argument.

My MIL is an ardent anti vaxer. She even told my husband she was ‘disappointed because she raised him better’ after finding a bottle of calpol in our house.

She reads medical research that is published and will tell you all about it. She isn’t however, qualified in any way to do so and can’t really interpret the data correctly. Then she goes around telling people whatever half made up conclusion she’s come to as it’s her ‘obligation to inform others’. Her main source of news is also Russia Today.

This is the type of person you are listening to. There isn’t some global conspiracy that all doctors, nurses, health care workers are in on with government. They just want to reduce completely avoidable deaths.

Thank you for your lovely reply - i fully expected really strong feelings in the replies and that’s ok because it just hammers home how important it is.

The thing is, and maybe it’s hormones like you say, for every 1 bad article against 10 good ones I read, I then panic about the bad one!

I have tried talking to health visitor and GP but fully understand it’s their job to make sure babies are vaccinated. I just wanted someone to say i understand how you’re feeling but here are some facts etc

Your lot are likely fine because other sensible responsible mothers chose to vaccinate their kids. Thankfully those mothers are the majority.

They’re reminding you often because they don’t want your baby to die of a preventable disease.

The pressure is also on because many of the diseases covered in the vaccine schedule are so deadly for young children.

The aggressive safe and effective messaging around the Covid vaccines and denial of side effects (ridiculous as all medications have side effects) has arguably done a lot of harm as it will lead to broader trust issues. I write that as someone hospitalized after a Covid vaccine. My DC will not have MRNA vaccines, but have all the scheduled shots.