Anxiety after Boostrix IPV

[Mia098]

Hello. a week ago I had the vaccine boostrix ipv (diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio). and I've had so much anxiety since taking it because I'm so afraid that the fetus has been damaged by the vaccine. I can't relax, sleep, and I cry every day and regret taking the vaccine. I feel so stupid and that I should have thought much longer about the vaccine than I did.

I just listened to the doctor but should have done more research myself. I feel so stupid and angry at myself :( I will never be able to forgive myself if my child gets hurt because of me..

Hi OP

Sorry you are struggling at the moment, pregnancy is a rollercoaster of emotions! Is there anything in particular that has made you think you might have harmed your baby?

Here is the bumps leaflet that talks about the risks of having the vaccine (which is practically none) and it does provide excellent immunity for little one. The vaccine has been used since 2012 and is viewed as very safe in pregnancy

https://www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Repevax/

I would have a chat to your midwife about how you are feeling as I am sure they can direct you to good sources of information (rather than Google which can be a whole different rabbit hole).

Hope that helps a little :)

Hey Hun, I had it with my son 6 years ago and he's a healthy big boy now. I had it again this pregnancy at 20 weeks, I did get unwell for 24 hours which was strange (fever, aches and pains) but I'm 21+3 now and she's pretty much beating me up in there so she seems to be fine!
Remember you are protecting your baby for the first 8 weeks of life, if baby got whooping cough as a newborn, the outcome could be fatal and the vaccine is helping you stop that.

I've had the flu jab too, as I did with my son and all is ok!

I had a mmc in January so I completely understand the level of anxiety pregnancy can bring, I worry about baby girl daily but the more she moves around in there the more settled I feel. I hope you can forgive yourself and realise the likelihood of harming your baby is so unbelievably slim compared to the protection you are giving x

@SJ456 thank you for your answer. I just had a thought after I took the vaccine "what if this harms my baby" I also started searching online and there I read that many people had not taken it, that it had only been tested on animals and not on pregnant women, and I was terrified. where I live, the vaccine is brand new to pregnant woman, and most pregnant women take the 3-1 vaccine, but I got 4-1 (the one with polio) and I'm also afraid of that. feel it was just hysterical of me to take the vaccine and not necessary at all. breaks my heart to think that i may have hurt my baby,lots of anxiety now.
I tried to talk to the midwife, but she thought it was unnecessary. It was a doctor who told me about the vaccine, and I went and took it.

@Ttcmumma thank you for your answer. did you get boostrix ipv (the one with polio)? Thank you for sharing your experience with the vaccine. I feel it was just so stupid and unnecessary of me to take it and I'm so afraid of what this could do to my baby. everything I read online that it has not been tested on pregnant women scares me. I've been so careful with everything during my pregnancy, but I’m taking a vaccine I don't know anything about. I don't know what I was thinking.

@Mia098 yes it's the only one offered, it's stated on the NHS website as what pregnant women are offered since 2012? I think it would be more stupid to not get it tbh, because with there being no evidence of it harming a baby and majority of women get it as a standard in pregnancy, you'd seriously regret it if your newborn caught whooping cough.

I'm not the kind of person that just gets everything either, I won't be getting the COVID vaccine in pregnancy due to the way it affected my body personally in the past. But the flu and whooping cough vaccines have been standard for years so must be fairly safe.

@Ttcmumma thank you for your answer. I hope I can think like that eventually. now I only feel guilt, shame and fear for having taken the vaccine. I'm afraid that I won't be able to forgive myself if there is something wrong with the baby. then I think it's my fault because of the vaccine.

I haven't had the covid vaccine either. is probably why I'm so disappointed that I took boostrix ipv too. I should think carefully first.

UK rolled out whooping cough vaccination (using boostrix) in 2012, following the deaths of 14 babies too young to have received their own jab. We were not innovators - US, Australia, New Zealand and a number of other countries already gave the jab in pregnancy.

Vaccination rates in pregnant women in UK is around 70%.

There has been no increase in foetal anomalies, in UK or anywhere else in the world since roll out. There has however been a really sharp drop in the deaths of newborns from whooping cough.

when I read online I feel that so many people don't take it and that also scares me.

@UnmentionedElephantDildo thank you for your answer. but in the other countries I think they got boostrix, I got boostrix ipv and am also afraid that it contains polio, which boostrix doesn't.

when I read online I feel that so few take the vaccine, say that it has not been researched enough in pregnancy and that the vaccine contains a lot that can be dangerous for the baby.

The advice of your doctor is more reliable than that of anonymous people with an anti vax agenda on the internet, OP.

This vaccine is recommended in pregnancy for a good reason. You've done the best thing for your baby.

Your assumption is wrong. I apologise for not being clearer, but it is the one that contains the polio component in all those countries.

It's the inactivated polio jab (not the live one, which has been phased out completely in UK, the last recipients having it in 2004)

I don't know what you have been reading, but it sounds riddled with inaccuracies. And using data sets for 15-20 years use in pregnancy, to show no increase on adverse outcomes, is hardly a lack of research. It's the absolute opposite!

@MargotBamborough thank you very much. I hope I will feel better eventually. now I've had anxiety day and night for a week because I took the vaccine, so it feels completely wrong that I took it:/

@UnmentionedElephantDildo Thank you so much for the information. when I read what was written about pregnant women and the vaccine, it said that it had only been tested on animals. right now I wish I hadn't followed the advice to get the vaccine because now I have very high anxiety and am angry with myself for taking the vaccine. there is no one who can guarantee me that the baby will not be affected, because there is never any guarantee. but I made a choice to take the vaccine and it's going to be very hard for me if the child gets hurt. then I think it's my fault.

This is what a child with whooping cough looks like

Because you got the vaccine the chances of your child suffering like this are minuscule.

It is incredibly infectious and vaccine rates are shockingly low currently.

Hi op,

I’ve been very anxious in my pregnancy for various reasons. I’m not anti vax, but I’m cautious and my baby won’t follow the standard NHS schedule…

I got the same vaccine you had in this pregnancy. I’m due my baby next week. I’m 100% certain I made the correct decision for my baby. Whooping cough is no joke, particularly
in Winter.

Please don’t beat yourself up. You’ve done a very sensible thing.

I had this vaccine with my 4 year old. He is perfectly healthy and well. I know it’s anecdotal but all of my friends with young children had it too and their children are fine!

I declined the Flu and Covid jab, but weren’t passing on this one.

@blaum yes i saw the video a while back and it made me cry :(

@VillageFete thank you for your answer. did you get the same one as me, the one with polio? have you not been afraid that the vaccine will harm the child? it's horrible to be so scared after I've made a choice for my baby. where I live now there is not WC that I know of. and the doctor recommended it, but the midwife hasn't said anything. I feel it was perhaps a bit unnecessary to take the vaccine.and when I feel so much anxiety it must have been a wrong choice:/

@blaum do you mean that few people take the vaccine now?

@Mia098 Yes. It has Polio in and my son (age 4) had his at the same time.

For me, I weighed the risk up. Whooping cough could very easily make my child seriously ill, or kill her - There’s no evidence as far as i’m aware of that Boostrix IPV can.

I feel for you. Anxiety is utterly awful, but there’s hundreds of thousands of us all having it together and it’s been on the market for a long time.

If someone wrote that in a way which alarms you, then there is something badly wrong with both what they are saying and how they are saying it.

Any pre-roll out trials aren't a key aspect any more when assessing this vaccine because there is now a massive data set including use in pregnancy, stretching back about 15 years and which shows it is safe.

Unfortunately yes, immunisation rates in UK are low for a developed country. Mercifully that doesn't mean "few" have the vaccine, rather that rates are not good enough to prevent a small cluster of cases becoming a larger outbreak. The target is for 95% of children to be vaccinated - that is not currently being met for any jab

Which does mean we see child illnesses and sometimes deaths that should have been avoidable. When there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, there tends to be a rush to get the jabs. It happened in a small way with polio this year, with whooping cough in 2012 and with MMR in 2012/13 (outbreak in Wales)

I’m sorry you’re feeling like this, anxiety during pregnancy is really hard. Getting support for this is really important. Have you got a helpful midwife, partner, friend or someone else to help you work through your anxiety?

You have been sold a lie. Research is what scientists, academics, analysts and clinicians do to make decisions which are objective and based on evidence. They have the skills to analyse the evidence. There are then public health decisions based on this. Internet forums, opinions, single stories often given anonymously, you tube clips aren’t research.

Boostrix IPV has been given in the UK since 2012 following real evidence of harm; baby deaths. This public health release described the decision making: https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/sites/default/files/pertussis%20immunisation%20for%20pregnant%20women%20factsheet.pdf It is evidence and research based.

Anxiety isn’t logical though so you are unlikely to feel better about your decision until you get some support for the anxiety rather than about the vaccine. I hope you are feeling better about this soon.

@VillageFete thank you very much. I just felt that I trusted the doctor a little too quickly without hearing the opinion of several doctors or midwives. I'm just so afraid that something will show up later, and I'm starting to think "what if it was because I chose to take the vaccine?"

@UnmentionedElephantDildo thank you very much. I spoke to a midwife yesterday and she thinks it was unnecessary that I took the vaccine and that I had injected something into my body now that I am pregnant. I then completely panicked and felt so stupid and irresponsible.

@bringmelaughter thank you for your answer. yes, I have spoken to a doctor and a midwife regarding the vaccine, but none of the doctors I have spoken to now after taking the vaccine feel that it was necessary for me to take it. so now I feel like I've injected something into my body completely unnecessarily and I'm very scared for my baby.

Have you taken the vaccine during pregnancy?