Exposure to Whooping Cough

So FIL calls me today to let me know he was just diagnosed with whooping cough

I'm 36+4 pregnant, and DS is 16months, and we have fairly regular contact with the ILs, well when they have time for us anyway :shakehead:, but we seen FIL 3 times this past week. Who knows how long he has had it, and generally speaking you're considered infectious for the first 3weeks if not treated early

DS has been cranky the past couple of days and developed a bit of a cough yesterday after waking up with a snotty nose... please :pray: we don't get it

Hoping you don't get.

*hugs*

Janie xxx

It's a tough one - a friend of mine had it recently, she had no idea until her cough just wouldn't go away even though Drs kept saying it was just asthma or a chest infection - wasn't until one cluey doc made her get a nasal swab that it was diagnosed.

I'd suggest have a chat with your GP and get your DS tested to be on the safe side, as once antibiotics are started they need to be quarantined for 5 days. Fingers crossed it's just a cold but better to know for sure :hug:

DD1 and I were exposed to it when I was 38 wks (by my doctor). We both had to be tested just to make sure. I would go and ask to be tested.

Thanks girls. I see my ob today so will mention it to her as well - given everything else that is going on at the moment, whooping cough is not something I want to add to it!

I would go to the GP asap and ask for antibiotics (erythromycin or clarithromycin are the ones that work) just in case. By the time they diagnose, it's just too late. It's a shame but most gp's are actually quite ignorant when it comes to vaccinations and things like whooping cough. I would NOT take any chances. Since you are at the late stage of preg, chances of infecting bub at birth is high. AB's won't treat whooping cough but make symptoms more bearable and reduces spread of infection. I would get everyone in your family on ab's.
I got whooping cough at 28 weeks and it was SEVERE for 15 weeks! I would not wish that on anyone. Even after going to 2 dr's and 3 visits later (after recommendations from the drug info centre at major hosp), the dr's failed to do anything and only gave me ab's after 5 wks - needless to say it was ineffective at this stage. I got it off a colleague at work. He got ab's asap and the difference in our symptoms were collosal! I suffered for weeks and he just had a mild/moderate cough for a few weeks.
Not trying to scare you or anything - sorry! but there is so little info out there. Good luck, hun :hug:

Belle has a good point - fortunately when I was exposed a while back (not while pregnant) my Dr started me on antibiotics before the test results came back just to be safe. A lot will. Definitely talk to the ob about it, as they'll know whether the abs are safe to use while pregnant too.

Best of luck

You've probably already seen your Ob by now, but I was just going to mention that it might be a good idea to give them a ring and let them know that you have potentially been exposed to whooping cough and there's a slim chance you are contagious. They may ask you to wait outside until they come get you or have you rushed into a consulting room if there are other Mum's and bub's in the waiting room.

EDIT: Just to give you a bit of a laugh, that's what we used to do at my Vet clinic when there was dogs suspected of having canine cough hehe


EDIT again: Although now that I actually think about what I'm writing, it's probably being way over cautious. You have to spend hours with someone to actually give them whooping cough. A couple of coughs doesn't spread it :)