Whooping cough vaccine. How common is whooping cough anyway ?

[NightSkyWanderer]

I am hesitant about the vaccine.
My midwife is very adamant about pushing the whooping cough vaccine.
What's people's opinion on whopping cough? To be honest I'm rather reluctant to take a vaccine for something I'd never even heard about before. Midwife says it's common but at almost 40 years of age I've never had whooping cough so it begs me to wonder how common is it really? While i want my baby to be safe and I'm not opposed to all vaccines in life, however I am against having vaccines while I'm pregnant. I've already declined the flu vaccines and covid vaccines due to horrible responses from both past injections.
Since becoming pregnant I'm hardly out of the house , I'm fortune enough to be at home during the day and I only go out once in a while to supermarket. Ive stopped socialising and I've become somewhat of a hermit due to exhaustion and fear of exposure to virus's ect while pregnant so really wouldn't my risk be low anyway ?
I'd value some other opinions as to your experiences

Hi OP. I had the whooping cough vaccine when pregnant with DC3 to protect them (and me). I was living in Belgium at the time and a newborn had just died in my district of whooping cough. Understandably pregnant women was strongly encouraged to have it.
I had no adverse effect (it is an "old" vaccine so lots of data on how it is works on various people) and I am happy I had it. I would recommend.

I think the 1980s scare was because it was initially a whole cell vaccine with more significant possible side effects like febrile convulsions. The one now is acellular with fewer side effects.

@puddypud no my midwife never went into detail regarding the vaccine and the reasons behind it

@BiscuitsandPuffin I'm in Ireland too

If I was going to skip any vaccines in pregnancy, it wouldn't be this one.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/health-news/warning-issued-pregnant-irish-women-11599977.amp

As PP said, the vaccine is not for you but for the baby. The baby will get the whooping cough vaccine as part of its routine childhood vaccinations, but it will be exposed and at risk until then. By getting it when pregnant, you’re ensuring he has some antibodies when born and will be better protected.

You say you haven’t heard of it - that’s why there’s a vaccine.

I had mine while pregnant in 2022 and worst side effect was a sore arm. It’s not to protect you, it’s to protect your baby so they’re born with the anti bodies. I honestly didn’t question it, same with babies other vaccines - it’s a no brainier.

You haven't really heard of it because previous generations of mums vaccinated against it. Same with measles, some of these diseases are victims of their own successful vaccinations programmes - first time mums nowadays think they are very very rare diseases - they're not when they are left unchecked in the population.
I had whooping cough in 1969 (my mother was quite misguided and would not allow immunisation). I was ill for many months and my older sisters still remember thinking that I must die soon. I also had measles and mumps. One of which hospitalised me and I was in isolation for a week aged 10. I had my polio immunisation at the same time as my first child.
Needless to say, my own children were first in line at the immunisation clinic when the time came.

Why would you not get it OP? What actual reasons, it's a perfectly safe vaccine FOR THE BABY

I was born in the 70s and wasn’t vaccinated as I don’t think it was done back then in the country I lived. Both me and my brother got it when he was 5 and I was 2. I ended up in hospital for about a week but my brother was able to stay at home with dad. I would definitely take the vaccine even if you for some reason aren’t worried for your baby’s sake do it for all the other little babies out there. Vaccination is effective if everyone participates to help eradicate these horrible illnesses.

I had the whooping cough vaccine during pregnancy in 2012 (right when they started rolling them out because of an uptick in cases) but unfortunately it was too late and I'd already contracted whooping cough.

I cannot emphasise how awful I felt, the coughing is like nothing else, you can't catch your breath and vomit from it. I still, 12 years later, occasionally throw up when I cough as the gag reflex is still there. I went into labour with already sore stomach muscles and not only is coughing post-partum not fun (my pelvic floor muscles did not hold up well), I'm hopefully this year getting a hernia repaired which started as a result of the pressure on my stomach muscles because of baby + cough. We went out Christmas shopping not long after DD1 was born and I had to go home because every time I breathed I whooped and coughed, it was terrifying and DH thought he was going to have to call me an ambulance.

It is a very safe immunisation to have in pregnancy and the risks of not having it are horrendous. For all the horrible things I've listed above, I'm still grateful that it was me that got it and not my newborn baby.

Please trust the medical advice of the doctors and midwives. They are professionals and would not advise you to have an unsafe vaccine.

please do not make decisions like this based on the advice of strangers on mumsnet.

Making yourself a hermit is not helping your baby or you. You need exercise and fresh air to have the healthiest possible pregnancy and labour.

Vaccines are essential and literally save millions of lives. They are part of the fabric or society and help to ease pressure on our public systems, limit death and disease and reduce transmission.

You are being totally unreasonable and selfish by prioritising your own desire not to get symptoms form a vaccine over your health and the health of your unborn child and those around you.

You do realise people get it less now BECAUSE THEY ARE VACCINATED. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I had whooping cough as a child. I couldn't be vaccinated as my sister used to have fits and they didn't know what effects the vaccine would have. I was really poorly for weeks. I get frustrated to this day with people who won't go vaccinated if they're able to.

Cases are drastically on the rise:

amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/09/what-is-whooping-cough-and-why-are-cases-rising-in-england-and-wales

Get the vaccine. Don't risk killing your unborn baby for the sake of something that's so easily preventable. It really is that simple.

My brother got it as a newborn. He was too young to have been vaccinated. I was 10 and fully vaxxed. I also had a broken arm in a cast which made me a perfect candidate to hold him upright when my mum had to get on with other things. (There were a lot of us before all the judgemental folk pile in)

That video takes me right back, I'll never forget his coughing and the absolute fear that he would stop breathing on my watch. Please have the vax. They wouldn't be pushing it so hard if it wasn't an issue right now and paediatric units so f**ked.

My brother (early 30's now) got whooping cough when he was 10 years old. He was off school for at least a month.. the coughing was horrendous.

My recommendation is- get the vaccine!

I've come on to say that I got Whooping Cough as a chonky 11 year old and I got it mildly. I didn't know how a baby could possibly survive that. For decades after, I feared getting a cold because the resulting cough was vicious.
Please take it.

The midwife who delivered DS phoned in sick with whooping cough 6 hours later.
I had had the vaccination and thankfully DS didn't catch it but we were put straight into a private room (isolation ward) and DS was given precautionary antibiotics. The midwife not had the vaccination as a child as there was a big scare at the time.
The doctors were very concerned and triple checked that I'd definitely had the whooping cough jab when I was pregnant as it can be really dangerous for newborns.

My DSis had to wait to meet my newborn as she was pregnant and hadn't had the whooping cough jab as a child (due to the same scare) and wasn't yet due the one you have in pregnancy.
I've since met several other mums who also had the same midwife.

The reason a lot of us don't have whooping cough is because we were vaccinated as children...

I know 2 kids in the last year who got whooping cough because their mum didn't vaccinate them. They were awfully ill for a while.

It really is a privilege to say no to a free vaccine, that has reduced cases in UK, when so many countries don't give it free/don't have it/only for people with money.

I have it now! My teenage DD is recovering from it. I am in my 40s and it is truly awful. So far, I've had 5 weeks of coughing fits and gasping for breath. I would be terrified of a small baby getting it, and a decent percentage of tiny babies who get it don't survive. I also know two others through work who have had it in the last 6 months. The jabs wear off after 10 years so it's mostly teens and adults that get it badly. It is definitely about a lot this year, it's also called the 100 day cough. https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/health/2023/12/11/news/whooping_cough_cases_increasing_in_the_uk_what_you_need_to_know-3840556/

The reduction in vaccine take up due to the anti vax fuckwits is becoming truly terrifying. I’m beyond furious that most of these idiot adults were fully vaccinated when they were kids too.

Arseholes.

There is information on the NHS website and should be on your hospital website too. Midwives literally have 10-20 mins max with us to do all they need to do and all the detail they will give you on pregnancy is available on the NHS website:

1: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/whooping-cough/
2: https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/keeping-well/whooping-cough-vaccination/

Should I be concerned about whooping cough?

Whooping cough is a highly infectious, serious illness that can lead to pneumonia and brain damage, particularly in young babies. Most babies with whooping cough will need hospital treatment, and when whooping cough is very severe they may die.
Research from the vaccination programme in England shows that vaccinating pregnant women against whooping cough has been highly effective in protecting young babies until they can receive their own vaccinations from 8 weeks of age.
In keeping with usual disease patterns, which see cases increasing every 3 to 4 years in England, whooping cough cases have fallen in all age groups since 2012. The greatest fall has been in young babies targeted by the pregnancy vaccination programme.
Cases of whooping cough in older age groups are still high compared to pre-2012 levels. The number of cases was particularly high in 2016, in line with the typical 3- to 4-yearly peak in disease rates.
Babies can be infected by people with whooping cough in these older age groups, so it is still important for pregnant women to be vaccinated to protect their babies.