Just been offered Whooping Cough jab - please help me decide!

[crackcrackcrak]

I'm 36+2 and need to have it by 38 weeks if I want it. So I need to decide and book within a week.
I am concerned this is new so hard to research and make decision based on history of side effects etc.
ATM I am more worried about having it BUT I am in the south west where the outbreak was.
I have never reacted to a jan before but allergic to penicillin and often react v strongly to medication - cant be dealing with that!
Please advise....
TIA

Well I've booked mine for tomorrow. Not having the flu one this year though as so many people seem to have said it makes them feel dreadful, and I don't need to feel any less capable atm!

Just a bit concerned it might mean dc doesn't get proper immunity from his first jabs - but then if he already has some from mine, does that matter?

Terry that's awful - I do hope you make a full recovery asap x

Rooney, I didn't get a reaction at all from my flu vaccine. I had the whooping cough in one arm and the flu in the other at the same time. The whooping cough has given me a mildly sore arm but no other symptoms.

As the nurse said to me, in a slightly exasperated tone "the flu vaccine won't give you flu, any more than the whooping cough vaccine would give you whooping cough"

Well I had the flu vaccine in October, no after effects. I will be having whooping cough in January. I know of several adults who have had whooping cough lately, there is a lot of it around. Personally I think the risk is tiny, compared to the potential death of a newborn baby. Loosing a child of any age, is something you never get over.

Hi terry! Hope u are recovering now from wc....just wanted to check- I take it u wil not be having the jab then? Atleast from ur illness u can rest assured your lil one has received a good dose of antibodies?

I went and had mine for WC yesterday. It's pretty sore tonight, arm is swollen at the top and hard to lift but I can still drive etc, just it hurts.

I'm quite glad I had it though.
Hoping soreness wears off soon...everything else hurts already so it's just one more painful body part to contend with!

Whatdoithink- no I don't need the jab as I will have passed on the antibodies. There was some debate but it did seem pointless so I was glad when they decided I wouldn't need it!

And I am recovering now thanks to all who mentioned it- I had a little whoop this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks but cough is practically gone. Just the torn muscle/ cracked rib to heal now and I honestly don't think they are going to be right until after the baby arrives.

yes Terry I cannot imagine a rib managing to heal under the strain of a bump!

Not long to go now, I'm a few days behind you, I hope it all becomes a very distant memory once your baby is here x

I know- its mad but I have been hoping baby comes early (logically I know I should hope it cooks for as long as it needs!) just so I can take some decent painkillers

I totally understand, well without having been through what you've been through of course.

I remember thinking I might have cracked a rib a few years ago when I had flu and I wasn't even pregnant then - it hurt like buggery. So I cannot imagine how painful it is when pregnant.

I've been kind of wishing the baby would appear early too, and I've only got SPD to complain about!!
Well, we don't have any say in it really, anyway, so that's Ok - it's Ok to wish a little bit I am sure these babies will do whatever they want!

Oh I know, nothing can be done anyway! I have started raspberry leaf capsules with a vengeance though!

let me know if it helps..

Well nothing yet but I should hope not at 35 weeks, am thinking of trying evening primrose capsules up the fanjo from 37 weeks also. Got some in the cupboard anyway as I used to have epic PMS

Hi all,

Has anyone actually looked at what goes into this 'magical serum of wonders' - looked at the testing? -

you can find the link here for theirproduct that their 'hawking' www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/15256

Specifically look at this:

4.6 Fertility, pregnancy and lactation

Pregnancy

The effect of REPEVAX on embryo-foetal development has not been assessed. No teratogenic effect of vaccines containing diphtheria or tetanus toxoids, or inactivated poliovirus has been observed following use in pregnant women. Limited post-marketing information is available on the safety of administering REPEVAX to pregnant women.

The use of this combined vaccine is not recommended during pregnancy.

Breastfeeding

The effect of administration of REPEVAX during lactation has not been assessed. Nevertheless, as REPEVAX contains toxoids or inactivated antigens, no risk to the breastfed infant should be expected. The benefits versus the risk of administering REPEVAX to breastfeeding women should be evaluated by the health-care providers.

Fertility

REPEVAX has not been evaluated in fertility studies.

Or how about what goes into it (I'm confident that they won't list the 'full' list of ingredients, but here's a sample:

** Produced in Vero cells.

REPEVAX may contain traces of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, streptomycin, neomycin, polymyxin B and bovine serum albumin, which are used during the manufacturing process (see sections 4.3 and 4.4).

For the full list of excipients, see section 6.1.

Phenoxyethanol

Polysorbate 80

^Yeah, not having been to medical school and not being a medical expert, I trusted the committee of well-educated people who debated this subject publicly to have made the right decision. I read all the minutes. I was satisfied.

I have three graduate degrees including a Ph.D., but none of them are medical. I am pro-science and pro-education. I do not think people without medical degrees know more than those who do.

So yeah, I did trust the experts and I got the jab. Well done me.

So it looks like getting the jab immediately post partum may be the way to go for those of us who are still twitchy about this. That way antibodies theoretically get passed through breastmilk and the unknowns about having the jab whilst still pregnant are eliminated...?

No, the nhs advice is that bfing won't pass on vaccination immunity and you should have it while pregnant.

I've currently got a whooping cough (17 weeks), does that mean I wont need a jab as my baby will be immune to it?

This HPA link is useful. It suggests that if you have whooping cough in pregnancy you should still receive the vaccine to maximise antibody transference.

I had it- I am a doctor and sought the advice of obstetricians and microbiologists in my hospital and they all recommended it.

Does anyone know or have links to the amount of time the Pertussis (or the combined Tdap) vaccine has been used on pregnant women? I haven't found any yet but am still looking.

I know the US has been vaccinating pregnant women for longer then the UK (vaguely remember hearing for about 1 year only but do need to locate and verify the data). I have also read that the Tdap contains antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus too, both of which apparently have been used in pregnant women who have required it since the 1960s with no adverse effects. Therefore it's only the pertussis element that concerns me.

I'm 26 weeks pregnant and currently deciding whether or not to have the vaccine and am cautious that as noone is permitted to test vaccines on pregnant human subjects, that there is possibly not enough data available to determine whether or not administering Pertussis vaccine in pregnancy can have any long term developmental effects on the baby.

I am aware WC is a horrible disease in very young children (my mother had it as a newborn) but the data I have found states that 1 in 100 babies who contract WC at under 6 months of age will die of this illness i.e. there's a 99% chance of it not being fatal if contracted, and I wonder whether I'd rather take these known odds in baby's favour than gamble on an unknown outcome.

There is some evidence emerging from the US to suggest that in cases of children /babies who've contracted whooping cough, that many of them have been vaccinated i.e. the vaccine is actually not particularly effective. WC is likely to be passed onto infants from adults and it's not realistic/possible to vaccinate all the adults your baby will come into contact with (a method known as 'cocooning' i.e. vaccinating all close family members).

If anyone has any links/info to actual empirical data on this I'd be really grateful. Apologies for the lengthy post but I don't blindly trust the advice of the Health Service (whilst saying this I'm thinking of Thalidomide prescribed globally for morning sickness before later being withdrawn).

I would get the jab. I have whooping cough at the moment and it's no picnic. I'm exhausted. I wouldn't wish this on an adult and yet it's much much much worse for a child or baby. The feeling of suffocating during a coughing bout that then ends in vomiting is horrendous. And from what research I've done there is more and more of it about here at the moment. I was vaccinated as a child but didn't know that the vaccine wears off in adulthood. It wasn't on offer when i was pregnant five years ago but had it been I would have had it as this is really no fun and it supposedly goes on for ages.

If I were pregnant I'd get the jab. I contracted it as a baby, became seriously ill and nearly died. For that reason alone, if I thought there was a chance something could protect my child from that I'd take it. Like the MMR jab - I was never given it and my partnet's aunt caught shingles from his niece and was horribly unwell at present. Wish I'd been given it!

I'll be having it. I had WC as a young child and it was bloody awful.

What is actually in the vaccine? Does anyone know if it has any nasties in it such as lead? Mercury? Formildhyde? Heavy metals etcs? Apparently these have been connected to austism which obviously would be a long-term consequence of taking any vaccines. Obviously I would like to take the vaccine to ensure my new born will be safe from whooping cough but I also want to be able to make the decision knowing what I'm taking?