Do relatives need whooping cough vaccs?!

[gingerfluffball]

Keen for a bit of advice here on what everyone else has heard/done... at a family get together a few weeks ago, one auntie informed us all that every adult who plans to interact with the baby when he arrives will need to have had a whooping cough vaccination (to protect the baby before he gets his vaccinations). Is this true? Haven't heard anything about it at my midwife appts (and keep forgetting to ask).

Feeling a bit hopeless as a mum-to-be not knowing if this is something I should know about or not. Any ideas?

No you have the injection to pass on the immunity to the baby before its strong enough to have its own injection at 8 weeks

I live in Australia so the advice may be different but here they advise both parents and grandparents (ie the adults who are likely to have the most interaction with the baby in its first weeks) to have the vaccine asap to reduce the risks for the baby before they have their own immunisations.

No they don't - any adult who had had jabs in the past will already be immune and therefore shouldn't be at risk of passing it on anyway. The jab in pregnancy is to give your baby antibodies (which is what gives the protection) until they can have their own jabs,it's not to stop you getting it.

I'm in Australia too skitter so sounds like she hasn't got this info out of thin air.

helly that makes a lot of sense. Haven't heard anything at all from midwife yet about me getting the jab though.

How far gone are you? We get the jab in later pg as too early and baby wouldn't be protected

26 weeks. How late is later pregnancy? Thanks for all the advice so far

They will only offer it to you on the nhs (unless there is some other reason for your family to have it), so anyone else is likely to have to have it done privately. The jab whilst you are pregnant should protect the baby but if your family want to have it as well then they can. Tbh it's good practice not to let people near the baby who have coughs/colds for the first wee while if you can avoid it as a newborn with any cold is hard work as they breathe through their noses.

Sorry forgot to add that some people will already have had it, being whooping cough rather than the jab. Both my parents and DH had it as children.

Sounds like good common sense that always, although you'd think people with coughs and colds would have the sense to stay away from a newborn anyway!

I'll ask my midwife at next appt but good to know what the nhs are offering.

I've been told mine will be at 32-34 weeks.

in Ireland they tell you to get the jab between 28-32 weeks ;)