39wks and possible Whooping cough

[Kazzo]

Hi,
I found out on Monday my Dr has whooping cough. I last saw her Wed 20th of this month and this is in the timezone that they are telling her patients that she has it.
Anyway, I have had a head cold for a few weeks now but in the last couple of days I have been having coughing attacks and a real heaveyness in my breathing. I know these are symptoms of whooping cough and although it has been more then a week before from seeing my Dr that I started coughing, but I also know whooping cough can lay dormant for 7-10 days before you know you have it.

So I guess my question is, I am 39 wks tomorrow, should I wait till the morning and call the Dr or call my birthing unit tonight and ask their advice?

Thanks in advance.

[LionsandBears]

It won't hurt to call now for advice. They may say go to the doctor tomorrow.

I hope you're wrong and you don't have whooping cough, but I understand it's going around.

[Danielle_NZ]

Wow hard question... sorry I can't offer much advice but if in doubt it doesn't hurt to ask your birthing unit if things are getting pretty full on with the coughing

Good Luck

[Marlene]

I would call ASAP. I don't know much about whooping cough, but something to consider is does the baby need to be protected in some way if she is born while you have it. If you get tested for it (they take a swab from the back of your throat) at least you will know for sure. Good luck with everything

[Kazzo]

Thanks ladies, your advice was what I was thinking I should do and it is what I always think, if in doubt then call, but I guess I just needed someone to tell me it is the right thing to do IWKWIM.

So I called the birthing unit and they said go to the Dr first thing in the morning and ask for a swab test and ask for a rush on the results. The Midwife also said they should have tested me straight away knowing I was pregnant.
Fingers crossed that it is just a flu symptom and that no harm has been done.

[JennaJayen]

Blessedmum - I hope everything is ok and you just have the flu.

My hubby got diagnosed with whooping cough 2 weeks ago, via Blood Test, and as a precaution (even though I wasn't at the doctors with hubby that day) the doctor prescribed both me and our DS the Erythromycin(sp?) antibiotic as both me and DS had the flu, had been coughing for at least 2 weeks and DS's coughs had started to sound a bit like the bark that whooping cough causes.
We did a bit of research on it as we weren't sure if it could affect our bub and cause problems for it in the second trimester.

This years flu that has been going around has been particularly bad - I ended up in emergency on a drip 2 days before we found out hubby had whooping cough with dehydration because I hadn't been able to keep anything down that day and a fever of 38.7 (we found out in our research that vomiting caused by the coughing can be a symptom, as well as a fever for 24-72 hours, but the symptoms are the same for a particularly bad bout of the flu as well as many other virus's).

They would be doing everything they can to rush the results of your tests so that they can know whether you have it or not, as you would have to start antibiotics ASAP if you do, and bub would need to go on antibiotics as soon as he/she is born and would need to be monitored constantly at the hospy until they knew for sure that everything would be ok.

I really hope everything is perfectly fine though

[Kazzo]

Thanks Jenna,
I had a bloodtest and nasal swab first thing this morning and will hopefully get the results this afternoon. Thanks for the information. I am hoping it is just the flu. But yeah, my first thoughts are what about my baby when she is born and like you said, she will have close monitoring if I do have whooping cough. The hospital also said it would be good to know as they would have to keep me seperate from others.

[Kazzo]

Oops, Double post.