Hi OP, 
I almost didn't have the whooping cough vaccine on my first pregnancy but did it in the end (34 weeks). Then I saw Light for Riley here on mumsnet www.facebook.com/lightforriley/videos/1538734389770670/
I'm now pregnant again and had it.
This is the research linked in the Mercola article www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24961836
The cohort in this study are children from 5-15 years old. Not babies.
I have access to the BMJ and below are several responses about the article
1. Either detection of IgM antibodies or a rising titres of IgG (on two or more occasions) indicates a recent infection
In the article1, under the Caption Strength and limitations of the study, 2nd sentence says-
Oral fluid samples from more than 90% of children were suitable for analysis, and we used oral fluid anti-pertussis toxin IgG titres of 70aU or above to indicate evidence of recent pertussis infection.
"My query is that IgG alone means an old infection and not the recent one. Recent infection is either IgM detected or rising titres of IgG and we cannot infer it from just one reading of IgG."
Neeru Gupta
Scientist
No competing interest
2. Paediatricians and General Practitioners who care for school age children presenting with a persistent cough, will welcome the article by Wang et al 1 as it provides evidence in support of introducing an adolescent pertussis booster vaccination. Whilst previous articles have confirmed a sustained increase in the incidence of pertussis among older children,2 this is the first article which has addressed the inclusion of an adolescent booster vaccination within the UK immunisation schedule. There has already been the introduction of such a scheme in several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United States. 3 Furthermore, the World Health Organisation has recognised the potential cost effectiveness and reduction in incidence within this target group.4
Although the paper had a number of strengths, we felt that the study focussed upon one area of the UK, and it may not reflect a fair representation of children from different social economic backgrounds and the study period of two years duration, may not allow for full evaluation of seasonal and annual variability often associated with respiratory symptoms. We were also concerned that one might expect a larger number of patients presenting to primary care with chronic cough over a two-year period, so how representative of the population was this cohort and how generalisable are the results?
Ultimately the paper does show a shows a sharp increase in the risk of pertussis seven years after receipt of the preschool pertussis booster vaccination. Of concern, 20% (95% confidence interval 16-25%) of children who had been fully vaccinated had evidence of recent pertussis infection. Moreover, this risk was more than three times higher in children who had received the preschool vaccination seven years or more previously. Even with the above limitations these results do support consideration of the need for an adolescent pertussis booster vaccination in the UK.
Further research is clearly required to establish the clinical and cost effectiveness of an adolescent vaccination program but it needs to be representative of the general population of the UK.
Dr. Katie Greenwood
Paediatric Trainee
Dr Valerie Rogers
Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Colin Powell
Senior Lecturer in Child Health