cherrytreehorn please let me answer a few of your points - information is the key here!
he instructions state that the Boostrix vaccine is not suitable for pregnant women and hasn't been tested on pregnant women. There is no way of knowing what the long term effects could be.
this is standard on a package insert. If you look at any cat. B drug such as ranitidine, you'll see similar warnings (consult your doc before, etc.) it's legally obliged to have this as there has not been a SPECIFIC study and FDA or whatever acceptance. It doesn't mean it's harmful. Long term effects are being monitored. So far they seem to be a lowering in the rate of whooping cough.
It is also a 4 in one vaccine, not just WC. Usually a child would not get this until they are 3 years old. At nearly school age they are significantly more robust than a fetus is at 28-36 weeks.
This is a fallacy. There is no evidence that several vaccines at once 'overwhelm a baby's immune system.' I can understand why people think this, it seems like you're chucking all this nasty stuff at your poor little babe, but it's just not true. From the minute the cervix opens they are bombarded with immune challenges (and fight them off, unless they are immune compromised, just think how quickly kids with no immune systems die unless they are in a bubble!)
We are told not to take so much as a couple paracetamol and limit how much tuna we eat because of potential damage to the baby, yet a 4 in one vaccine is ok? This seems contradictory.
Perhaps it does. And I do understand - the urge to protect our little ones is strong, and this isn't an unreasonable thing to think if you're not au fait with how it works. But it's not if you understand the mechanisms. Paracetamol has a very low range of helpful--> lethal even in adults. Taking the normal packet dose of you're pregnant is ok. Taking double that can fuck up your liver pretty fast, preggo or not. Tuna contains Mercury, which is a neurotoxin - very well established mechanism for how this works.
On reading up on it I found several forums particularly in the US where women claimed to have reduced movements, preterm labour and stillbirth after the vaccine and of course there is no way to prove that, but equally it does raise alarm bells. If you reported this to a doctor they are hardly going to say 'oh maybe it was that vaccine you had?'. There cannot be any clinical trials on pregnant women, understandably so.
Ah, now this is exactly what I mean when I say the inter web is a double edged sword. Seriously, stay off forums like that. a woman who has had a stillbirth is understandably going to want to know why. They want a straightforward cause. X caused y, x is to blame, x is bad. Avoid x, campaign against x. Because that's simpler than 'x happened and there's no apparent reason and my heart is ripped out'
I cannot emphasise enough how damaging forums like that are. They exploit and feed off grief and ignorance.
If you report to a doctor that you had an adverse event after a vaccine, they do report it. There are ongoing surveillance programs for drugs and vaccines, and they work - look at Vioxx! There are huge, very involved surveillance programs and massive amounts of work done before a vaccine or drug gets approved on the NHS. I work in clinical trials now after many years in primary research and I could bang on all night about how bloody long the approval process is... :)