Quote:
Originally Posted by
lulubikes 
Last night DH and I went to a vaccination workshop led by a naturopath. It was good, but emotional. DH are more on the same page, but we had some difficult talks afterwards. I'm more of an external processor than DH and sometimes he gets frustrated. We worked it all out in the end. Still don't know what we're doing about vaccinations. We're leaning towards not doing much of any, but I'm really torn about DTaP. Pertussis has been going around a lot around here (Oregon/Wash) and it being the most risky during the first year, I sort of lean towards doing it. But I also really am not comfortable giving such a little baby a vaccination. Not sure how to sort that one out. I found out last night, I could get the adult version (TDaP) - I guess it's approved for 2nd half of pregnancy, but I'm not comfortable with that. I was thinking maybe getting it postpartum and maybe some of that would go to the baby, but as my DH pointed out, is that any better than giving the baby the vaccination? And we don't actually know if the immunity would transfer. At one point in our conversation, he surprised me by saying he'd be fine not vaccinating at all. We started this vaccination conversation (before I was pregnant) where he was pro-vaccination and I was against!
Lulu, you are right. Vaccine decisions are so difficult and what is right for one family may not be right for another.
I had a couple other thoughts that hadn't been brought up yet and since you are questioning the DTaP in particular I thought I would share.
One thing to consider is the age of those children who died after contracting pertussis. The tinier they are the higher their risk of complications. According to the CDC the deaths were mostly under 3 months old. So, when they are at the highest risk they are actually too young to receive the vaccine anyway. They don't really reach "immunity" (if there was such a thing) until they get the whole series (2, 4, and 6 months) and by that time they are past the most high risk age for whooping cough complications.
Another thing is that while the media is talking about these huge "outbreaks" that we are having it is not a whole lot different than the cycle that the WC always runs. No one knows why but WC ebbs and flows every 3-5 years. They have not found that "cacooning" (having those around small children be vaccinated) or multiple boosters for older children has had any affect on the on the rise and fall that occurs during the cycle.
Also, MANY of these reported cases of WC have been in those that were FULLY vaccinated against WC:
"Washington state; for instance, has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates in the country, but CDC officials have said that most of the children who have come down with whooping cough were vaccinated."
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-current-whooping-cough-epidemic-could-mean-that-the-vaccine-is-not-working
"Nearly two out of three people diagnosed with whooping cough in San Diego County this year, were fully immunized."
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/07/vaccinated-people-getting-whooping-cough-sd/
They may have already gone over the vaccine risks with you at your class but here is the package insert in case you haven't seen it. This line in particular always shocks me:
General Disorders and Administration Site Conditions: Fatigue, injection site
induration, injection site reaction, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
And the adult version:
Safety and effectiveness of BOOSTRIX have not been established in
pregnant women. WHAT?!?! Really?!
One other suggestion would be to visit the VEARS site to see how many reports of vaccine complications there have been and compare them to the rates of WC cases. It is very interesting reading.
This is a very personal choice and one that I can tell is weighing heavily on you. I think that I should have sent this to you in a private message but after I got done typing it all out it wouldn't let me cut and paste it into a message to you.
Sorry to everyone for my long winded vaccine post...I just always want to make sure that mamas have as much info as they can when they make this decision (I have close friends whose children have serious, permanent vaccine injuries so it is a topic close to my heart). :-(
its absolutely crap that she felt the need to hand in her licence, but if it's what she has to do to feel better about supporting all women, then I will support it. On another note, I hope your DP is ok? That must be difficult??
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