OTT - whooping cough jab for family?

[Unicorn007]

My hubby and I are expecting our first. I happy to get the WC jab when it comes to the right time to help protect our little one when it's born.

A friend of ours has just had a baby boy and she had made everyone in her family (DH, DM, DF,DB etc) get a WC jab and basically is saying no WC jab then you can't come to see our baby (or hold him).

Please confirm to me that this is totally OTT - I wasn't planning on telling my DH to get the WC jab for when our baby is born (don't even know if he can) Surely, good manners = don't visit new baby if you know you're sick!!!

Will she get the whole world vaccinated too?

A bit OTT but then again new mums and dads can be like that with their brand new babies.

I would have loved to have got my DH done but cant find anywhere to do him, with other visitors will ask them to see if they are well or ill first.

I don't think that is particularly OTT tbh. I would be very anxious about having a newborn atm. Whooping cough appears a mild illness at first and is not that easy to spot in adults so excluding 'sick' people isn't too easy.
Your friend may be planning to keep away from people as much as possible till her baby is old enough for injections. Yesterday I was talking to a friend who had a long hospital stay prior to giving birth last year. One of the women on the ward with her (with bleeding) later gave birth to a healthy daughter. The next time my friend saw her was at a local ICU unit. (They were there with their daughter who had been born with some problems but is now doing well.) That other couple were there to deliver a card to thank the staff for doing all they could. Their healthy daughter had caught whooping cough aged two weeks and died.
By all means make choices for your child but don't judge other parents trying to keep their baby safe.

Is it possible that she didn't have it in pregnancy and so her baby is completely unprotected?

If she's just had the baby there's a good chance she missed the jab. My friend only just managed to get it a few days before delivery and her baby is two weeks old now.

I don't think this is OTT. The US has been dealing with resurgent whooping cough for longer than the UK, and this has been recommended in the US since 2005. It is called "cocooning" -- you create a cocoon of immunity around the baby. (The DTaP vaccine, which is just being introduced for pregnant women in the UK, has also been in use for pregnant women in the States for a while.)

I'm expecting a baby in March, so I've asked my obstetrician (private, here in London). He said it isn't done in the UK and he didn't really have a view. (He is also skeptical about doing the WC jab to the mother because there isn't evidence that it helps -- it's just hoped that it might help.) I'm planning to have the WC jab myself when the time comes, because there isn't any downside, and I was thinking DH should get one. I mentioned this at the GP when I got my flu jab and the nurse said it wouldn't be available for DH.

I'm taking DD (3) to the paediatrician next week so we will ask her if she has a view about this as well.

Now, I am thinking that it makes sense to get DH vaccinated privately. Particularly since there is no conclusive evidence that me getting the vaccine will protect the baby, and we know that he will be less likely to infect the new baby if he has been vaccinated. After all, he rides the Tube every day. (OTOH, he had all his jabs as a child -- we just don't know if the immunity is still good.)

So, I am struggling with the same question but don't really have an answer.

But I do know it is a complete fallacy to think you can protect a baby by just not visiting if you aren't well. Like many serious illnesses, you are contagious before you have symptoms. These diseases would not be dangerous if prevention were possible through that.

Sorry to write such an essay but it's complicated!

That's what I thought - that he would still be vaccinated as he had his shots when he was a child. But think I should probably look into it also now..

The problem with whooping cough is that the jab doesn't last lifelong. Nothing does. The jab will protect children at the most dangerous point - babyhood and young childhood but has possibly worn off in teenagers and adults. I suspect dd1 had whooping cough earlier this year. She is 14. Nobody else caught it in our home. dd3 should certainly still be immune, maybe dd2 is and I have no idea about dh and I.

The vaccine wears off, as does immunity from having whooping cough. So if he had the jab as a child he would most likey no longer be immune.

Not OTT at all. Here in Australia it is recommended both parents and grandparents have the WC vaccination because a large number of babies are catching whooping cough and dying. I had my parents get vaccinated when I had DS1 and both my husband and I went and got vaccinated. Now they are recommending pregnant get vaccinated to pass the vaccination onto the unborn child.

My MIL refused to get vaccinated and I was incredibly pissed off. Babies die of this in not small numbers. It's a very real risk and one that is reduced by a simple, safe vaccination. It's a no brainer for me.

I'm glad people have mentioned the us and aust - here in the UK we ve till now been relatively unaffected by wc. I too questioned if DH should have the wc jab too but wondered if ott. Do we know if mum has jab as recommended before 38 that immunity is definately protective for baby? Just a query. Must admit good additionl reason to ban visitors for couple of weeks after birth!

Clarella - nothing about vaccination can be definate. You would give your baby a good chance of having antibodies but nothing is certain. I would be very careful re visitors in any case atm.

So if you want an additional person/ people vaccinated eg it makes good sense for my DH to have it - I am 36 weeks, had it today- can you get your gp to do it, is it chargeable?

I don't think it's ott really - the nurse who did my jab today said that whooping cough is especially high in our area- east/ south east so it good I was having it done...

Introduction of the whooping cough vaccine changed the disease into one of adults and very young babies. As vaccinated mothers lack the antibodies to pass to babies. "Antibodies made from immunisation are not passed to newborn babies as passive immunity for their mothers" (quoted from research conducted by nurses/midwife). immunity last 5-10 yrs. Many countries no longer use Pertissus vaccine due to serious risks (fatalities, encephalitis, and many other; report on research into cot deaths using 'Cotwatch' registered 'extraordinarily' high levels of breathing stopping or nearly stopping post DTP vaccine, which continued for months after,hence strong links with cot death).

I have struggled to get any evidential information when asking NHS practitioners instead offered generals like 'you must have it', 'its successful', evidential type of information doesn't get disseminated through the NHS, and reactions can be broadly misdiagnosed as having 'another' cause. At the end of the day, babies suffering life-threatening asthma's/reactions is just as scary as saying 'a baby died of whooping cough'. Whats the answer?

A lot more information on which to truly base a decision.

It contains many very harmful ingredients, as many do and have to so the body will react (things like formaldehyde, toxic heavy metals like mercury/aluminium, detergent).

Recently a friend was due to have her DD vaccinated, by very pro-vaccine nurses, and she felt pressured to get it done, until speaking to the manufacturer who confirmed the parabens present in the vaccine which the DD is topically allergic to; what happens when injected straight into the body? Many eczema's do indicate an allergy to parabens (this case was confirmed in a specialist London hospital).

Having been made aware of all this stuff I'm really struggling with the best way to go!!!! When I see medics with my dc I ask always for specifics about the vaccines, but cannot get any or be pointed towards any!?!?! Finding it so difficult to decide what to do :(

I hadn't thought about my husband getting vaccinated, I assumed if I had it while pregnant I'll pass the antibodies on to our daughter who will then be immune so even if DH gets it then she wont be able to catch it from him.

I have seen our pediatrician (as I mentioned above) and explained the situation, and thought I'd report back. She didn't seem familiar with the idea of vaccinating fathers, but once I said that DH has not been vaccinated since childhood and there's no knowing what his immunity is, and he is riding the Tube every day, she said it definitely makes sense for him to get it. My DD will be due for her 3yr4month booster around the baby's due date, and the pediatrician also suggested I have that done a month or so early, so that DD's immune sytem will have a chance to react before baby arrives.

My thinking is that, assuming my husband is currently not immune to whooping cough (which obviously might not be the case), vaccinating him is more important than vaccinating me in pregnancy. We know the WC vaccine is generally effective on adults, and that he is far less likely to infect the baby if he is vaccinated. Everything I have read (except the NHS brochure at the GPs!) indicates that there is no evidence that vaccinating the mother protects the baby -- it is just done in hopes that it offers some babies some protection. (The main place I am getting this is a report on the website of the US Centers for Disease Control, and talk with my obstetrician.)

Very interesting that Australia recommends even GPs get vaccinated. . . will I bring this up with my mother-in-law? . . .

I'm also trying to make a decision on this one. Just thought I'd add that in France the advice is for the father to be vaccinated during the pregnancy (immunity takes a few weeks), and the mother to be vaccinated immediately after giving birth. Both aimed at stopping the parents from catching and passing WC on to the baby, rather than trying to pass on immunity from the mother by vaccinating during pregnancy.

I think they do have a resurgence as well, but not as much as in the UK.

I don't think it's OTT, sorry. When my nephew was born my parents both had it (as well as my sister and brother-in-law). It's not a bad idea. I'm hoping it won't cost too much for my husband to get it.

By the way, my family is in the US and this is standard there.