Anyone NOT having the whooping cough vaccine?

[Bluepetra]

Im not on here to sway anyone either way, for or against but I'm not entirely convinced I need to have this vaccine. I'm not anti vaccine, but this one has too many negatives for myself. Has anyone else decided not to have it ?

FWIW my experience is that I have seen/diagnosed 3 cases in the past 12 months- average GP caseload numbers, average/slightly deprived city practice ( but not full of unvaccinated migrants etc it's a stable population).

1 very sick baby. one 15yr old and 1 older adult. Once you start looking in cases that present as " the ad on the TV said I might have cancer as I've coughed for 3 weeks" you find it. Immunity falls over time so the grannies/grandads ( even the older ones who are not vaccinated but had it when it was a " normal childhood illness) aren't immune so can spread it about.

I find the anti vaccine rhetoric on the web incredibly depressing and worrying. :(

By not vaccinating your kids, you don't just put them at risk, you decrease the 'herd immunity' which protects the population at large. There were measles outbreaks in South Wales a little while back (including deaths) precisely because the level of immunisation is falling. Why, oh why, are people trusting random bloggers on the web over the extensive research done by epidemiologist? It's like a weird mix of extreme paranoia and extreme gullibility.

Let's take MMR. There's new research showing that if you get measles it effectively wipes out two years of immune memory - in a toddler, that means they are pretty much immunologically naive again and that can be lethal.

If you track deaths from ALL infectious disease causes, they track pretty much along with the rise and fall of measles prevelance - yet the anti vaxxidiots are bleating on about measles being mild these days and no cause for concern. They are wrong. Very, very wrong - and it is killing people.

The web is a great tool for knowledge, but there's an awful lot of misinformation out there, and much of it is downright dangerous.

Whooping cough is out there in the community - it is at best a really horrible thing to catch and at worst lethal. Please, please vaccinate your kids and yourself

Sidge - I'm in NZ - it's 6 weeks here.

Herd immunity works. If 100 people are vaccinated 100 people will become immune. Herd immunity doesn't work when (say) 2 people idiots decide not to get vaccinated. WC and Measles and swine flu etc MUTATE which is why these illnesses have gone from somewhat, especially in my granny's day, childhood illnesses to deadly DEADLY diseases. Vaccinate your kids!

Here is a patient leaflet that summarises all of the available scientific informatuion about having the whooping cough vaccine in pregnancy. Hope this is helpful
www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/whooping-cough-vaccine/

I had it this morning. Feel absolutely fine. I didn't even feel the needle go in.

Even if it did 'wipe me out for a week' I wouldn't hesitate for a second, I would walk on hot coals for this baby! Anyway I had it, it was fine. My arm ached for a couple of days but nothing major.

It varies from place to place, in my area there was an outbreak a few years ago and a lot of babies died. The vaccination programme has pretty much eliminated it again.

cactus ah okay x I'm only a lay person so I wrote it how I understood it - thank you for clarifying ???? x

Well, after reading this thread and the links I think I'll reconsider and get it now. I was never told much about it to be honest.
I have a toddler who will be at nursery so I don't want the baby being at risk when born - although ds was vaccinated.

Pertussis or whooping cough is a highly infectious disease which can lead to serious complications including death. The disease is especially severe in newborn babies and is a major cause of infant death worldwide; the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2008 there were about 16 million cases of pertussis, and that about 195 000 children died from the disease. However, vaccination has led to a big reduction in infant deaths in recent years. WHO estimates that, in 2008, global vaccination against pertussis averted about 687,000 deaths.

^this

I had the WC vaccine when preg with DS and gave him the tuberculosis vaccine when he was 5 weeks and all other jabs as normal.

No hesitation at all. It is common sense to take all precautions to avoid your child contracting a potentially lethal disease. What patent wouldn't want to prevent suffering for their child? Let alone the benefits of herd immunity for people like my DH who have cancer.

Fuggedaboudit. What is your reason for not vaccinating?

fugg

Yippee! One more for team vaccine :)

I sometimes get a bit strident on vaccination threads but this is exactly why - I don't think people are getting the right information about how bad some of these diseases are, and how low risk the vaccination is. And they are getting exposed to a lot of this misinformation on the web. I think we as a scientific community need to really push the message home.

As you show - once you give reasonable people the actual scientific information, they can and do often make a different choice.

My ds is vaccinated against everything. I just didn't get the WC last time around as I didn't get much information on it, and find the internet difficult to research vaccinations as so many biased opinions.
As I just said, after this thread I think I will get the WC done in this pregnancy.

X-post with skip

Ds is 2.5 now, can I ask what vaccines all your dcs have had up to this point?

You can still pick up a form of whooping cough if you are vaccinated. Some years ago, a cough was doing the rounds at school. It was pretty bad, and children were being sick in the playground but no one thought anything of it. A neighbour of mine caught it and was coughing in the night, could not breathe and was sick. She went to the doctor the next morning who told her it was whooping cough. If one of the children had taken it home to a newborn unvaccinated child, it would have been very worrying. I still have people in my family who have had it, so would have the vaccination with no qualms.

There were people refusing vaccination in the 70s who were quite happy for the children to get it, which was fine for them. A lot of children are fine but some aren't and babies aren't and it just keeps the disease in circulation and a risk for those who are most vulnerable.

I just read a bit more about it and saw that it was introduced in October 2012 - I was 7 months pregnant then so was very hesitant to get a brand new vaccine 'tested' on me. Now I know the facts about WC and how dangerous it it, I will ask for it at next midwife appt

I didn't think twice about it, and in fact had to chase it up as my MW forgot to officially tell me about it/refer me to get it .
We had an outbreak of WC in my place of work (a hospital) in my DH's department when I was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was working with neonates at the time so had to be given prophylactic antibiotics, as it's so serious. There was a big story on Facebook not long ago about a baby boy sadly passing away due to whooping cough in Australia, where the vaccine isn't routinely offered to pregnant women. We're lucky to get it here, and with the lowering uptake and resulting increasing disease presence due to anti-vax propaganda it's even more important to take it up when offered.

Thank you for all replies, it's definitely on my mind 24/7.
I'm aware of why they offer the vaccine and what it can do If babies contract WC. I'm not anti vaccine and I'm not here to scare anyone, we have to talk about ALL sides to make an informed decision, that does include ladies who feel their still births and other complications were brought on by this particular vaccine. I'm all for vaccines and do trust science but this one bothers me a lot. It is a very personal choice, I'd never say to anyone not to have it or to have it.
It seems the Midwives and NHS are pushing it but it's new and not been around long enough.
Here are my personal reasons;

1. Risk of stillbirth and other complications. I read quite a lot about this so far.
2. The fact that it hasn't been tested on pregnant women and is a relatively new vaccine for pregnant women to have. ( I know that it can't be tested on pregnant women)
3. Its contents
4. The fact that a baby can still get WC even if the mother has been vaccinated.
5. The side effects/ long term and short term, is it worth the risk.
6. In my area of the UK I haven't heard of anyone, adult or child having WC. I work with people everyday and never hear of anyone having it. (I'm in the North of the UK)
7. I feel it's uneccasery.

A very difficult decision for me. Still thinking...

Where are you getting your information from? Hearsay, anecdote, etc? feeling something is "wrong" is nowhere near the same as making a rational choice. Your last post sounds very emotionally driven
I think you need to look at the facts. As for your point no 5. Well yes, if the risk is your baby suffocating to death.
And 3. "it's contents" what exactly? The fact that the vaccine contains vaccines?

1. Are you an epidemiologist? If not, please ignore this extraordinarily unreliable source of data.

I think you need to re-read this thread, and perhaps educate yourself a bit further in terms of which sources and types of information to base these decisions on.

Not to be dramatic but as someone who has had a stillbirth of twins (not caused by anything vaccination related --tbh I've never heard of a stillbirth risk with vaccinations, you learn something new every day) I still got the vaccination and I would have any and every vaccination available. I would rather my conscience be clear that I did everything for the baby I am currently carrying... It is ultimately your choice to make but I couldn't even begin to imagine losing a child because of something entirely preventable x good luck

"learn"