Pertussis / Whooping cough booster for parents

Hi all

Just a bit of background so that you can understand my predicament:

We intend vaccinating our boy and getting all of the appropriate boosters ourselves.

I am, at present, particularly concerned about Whooping Cough as there have been several outbreaks in SE QLD. DH went for his booster last Friday (only to discover that someone at his office had contracted it! - so the timing couldn't have been better!). His folks have also agreed to get it, which is great. So that side of the family is sorted.

I, unfortunately, was not advised to have the booster before I fell pregnant and am therefore unprotected. My folks will be coming to stay for 6 weeks after the birth and I have told them to get a booster while they are still in South Africa and well before they get to Australia. Apparently in South Africa it "isn't necessary" and they do not have a Whooping Cough booster available for adults at all (the mind boggles and I find it incredibly interesting that they can be so sure of themselves!).

My GP has said that it is safest for family members to have the booster a month or more before bubs enters the world (not for me obviously, as I am pregnant). He then said that I can have my booster when our boy gets his first set of vaccinations when he is 2 months old. That is all well and fine, but I want to know what happens in those 2 months when 3 close carers of bubs are not protected!

I will be speaking to my OB on Wednesday, but thought that some of you ladies may have found yourselves in a similar situation and could share your experiences.

My questions are:

1. Can my folks and I have the booster just after bubs is born, or will this put him at risk?
2. Will it be safe if I am breast-feeding at the time?
3. Would you see getting the vaccine as a bigger risk than bubs possibly contracting WC?

Thanks in advance :)

I'm sorry that I can't answer most of your questions, but I can definitely say get the booster done as soon as possible!
My DH & I were discussing getting the booster done for him and the kids before the baby gets here... and about 2-3 weeks after discussing it me & the kids contracted whooping cough. I can tell you now it is the WORST thing I have been through. My poor kids are only just getting over it. I am still phlegmy and have a cough at night and I was diagnosed with WC close to 3 weeks ago and suffered through it for a week before diagnosis. My youngest son (2) is fully immunised against WC but he still got it. It has been awful seeing him cough until he basically can't breathe and he has been vomitting phlegm after some coughing fits :( I would hate to see a newborn suffer through this illness.

I am pretty sure that the vaccine for whopping cough is not live therfore if you get the booster the virus cant be passed on to bubs. If you are birthing in a hospital Id ask the the dr's there for it, or see your gp when you are discharged. I had the vaccination after dd1 at her first lot of vaccinations, I think it has pertussis (whoping cough), diptheria and tetanus so you get the protection from all 3. The governemnt vaccine info line is 1800 671 811give them a call.

Oh Lisa, that sounds awful. I am so sorry to hear that you are having such a tough time. I have heard how awful it can be and that is why I am stressing so much about doing the right thing for our baby. The little ones really suffer from it because they end up panicking because they can't get air. At least we can understand what is happening and control it to *some* extent. I really hope that you and your family get better soon. Thanks so much for the advice, a friend of mine said exactly the same thing: just get it done as soon as baby is out!

Sararose, providing the OB gives me the go-ahead, I will get my doctor to prescribe the vaccine for my parents and I. I will take mine to the hossy so they can administer it while I am still there. My folks will need to get it done as soon as they arrive here. You are right, it is bundled will tenatanus, diptheria and polio - unfortunately you cannot get a WC booster on its own. Thank you for the government vaccination number, I will be giving them a call as soon as I post this :)

Thank you both so much for your feedback and advice - I really appreciate it x

This post is just for anyone who searches this topic and is asking similar questions. I called QLD immunology and they said that:

1. Ideally all parents AND grandparents should get the booster.
2. You should NOT get it during pregnancy.
3. There is no problem getting the booster as soon as possible after baby's birth i.e. you can take it with you to hossy and get it administered there. BFing afterwards isn't an issue either.

If my OB says anything differently, I will post what he says on Wednesday.

I'm not sure if this is correct but my dr said I should wait until I finished breastfeeding before getting the vaccine. She advised my dh to get it asap. Sorry don't know if that helps!

Hi Clair

Yeah I have heard that too - which is why I am asking these questions :( It is all a bit scary because some professionals say yes and others say no - I wish there was a dinfinitive answer. Thanks anyway :)

DP and I both had booster shots done when DS was about 3 weeks old. I am fully breastfeeding him.

My mum and my MIL also got booster shots after he was born and both had contact with him when he was about 6 weeks old.

Nil negative effects or side effects here. My town has a massive outbreak of WC atm so we all decided the risks of vacinating were outweighed by the risk of contracting it when he was so young.

I had the booster when DD was about 10 days old and continued breastfeeding etc as normal. No ill effects here.

My Ob said to get it when I took DD to her 10 day check up with my GP.

Sambo the hossy should just give it to you, you shouldn't have to supply your own....well in NSW you don't.
All close carers (entitled to Medicare of couse) get it for free

Again, thank you all for your responses - they are so helpful!

Kaz, great to know. My friend did the same thing and also had no side effects. So that sounds promising :)

Jitterbug, BF was a concern of mine...so good to hear that you had no issues.

Kim, it is different for different states. Apparently all states get assigned an immunisation grant from the Federal government and each state decides what medications / vaccinations they would like to subsidise. QLD, unfortunately doesn't have the Boostrix / Adecel vaccine on PBS...so we have to fork out $72 a pop with no rebate (unlike some other states where it is totally free for immediate carers). Quite silly really, considering there have been so many SE QLD outbreaks...

You *might* be able to get it for free... I have a brochure about the free immunisation clinics they run for newborns and in the corner it says "Immunise yourself too. Protect your newborn and take advantage of our adult whooping cough vaccine." I'm not sure if that means they are free as well or not because we didn't know about it at the time we did ours but might be worth looking into.

Hi Sam,

We asked my parents who will be the main carers besides me and DH to get the immunisation too (cause I am having a c-section, I need some help with DD jic anyone was wondering why my parents will be main carers).. That was all good until my Mum was waiting nearly 3 months for the vaccine as there was a shortage. Thankfully it came 2 days before she left to go to Dubbo to help my brother out for a while..

But when it was looking like she may not get the vaccine in time, I was discussing this with the pharmacist that I always go to about my concern. He advised that although the best protection is the vaccine, if the caregivers are not in regular contact with children, and are very cautious about hygiene when in public places, then the chances of them contracting it and passing on are considerably lower. Also the vaccine doesn't stop you getting the disease, just a more mild dose of it.

My SIL knows our feelings on this and was considering getting the vaccine just so she could bring the kids down to see the new baby.. I told her the decision was hers and I wasn't going to force the issue. Both her kids are immunised and even though she works in a hospital she is on a ward (not A&E) so the chances of somebody having it and it not being known about and her contracting it are quite low (and I can't expect someone to pay $80 for the one that includes some other vaccines as well, just because the basic whooping cough one is out of stock).

Now my il's (who my DH asked to consider the vaccine), is another story that I won't go into here, but will send you a message on FB today or tomorrow..

Wow that sucks, you'd think it would be uniform....

I'm in NSW and was able to get it for free. Uni told me to get it, because I *could* (but unlikely) be exposed to whooping cough through working with kids when I do my pracs. I got the combination one that also includes diptheria and tetanus. I just went to my GP and asked for it and he had it there in the fridge and gave it to me on the spot, for free.

There not really too much information on the effects of the vaccine on your baby when you aare pregnant (i mention this because there are actually some vaccines you can get when pregnant in certain circumstances)... But do get it asap after baby is born if you are worried about not being immune to it. Its not a problem to get it when breastfeeding.

Whooping cough is very infectious, you can be infectious before you know you have it. There was a whooping cough outbreak last year within the day care my daughter goes to... she luckily didnt get sick - she's been immunised. However each of the kids there that got whooping cough werent immunised.

Jitterbug, I will definitely ask my OB about it tomorrow. As it stands, I have the chemist holding 3 boosters for me to collect tomorrow afternoon. I will check with them too if there is a cheaper/free alternative at the baby clinics.

Heather, I am well aware of the shortage :( That is why DH only got his shot this past Friday and not 2 months ago! Fortunately I have found a chemist that has a fairly decent stash of the boosters and am getting it through them. With regards to how contagious it is, I have also heard that it is only necessary for parents or high risk adults to get it. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the case as some of the outbreaks (as Karina has said) have been quite significant in terms of severity and spread.

You are right that at $72 a pop, it is hardly something that you can force on people. Fortunately DH's family know how crazy I can get and have already joked that they had better get it done if they ever want to see their grandson. I laughed it off, but secretly I am really glad that they have got the message and are taking it seriously :D

Also, just so you know, you cannot get the WC vaccine/booster just on its own. It is always bundled with the other disease vaccines/boosters. Well that is what my GP said, anyway. Looking forward hearing from you on FB :)

Kim, there is something to be said for a Federal Medical Budget! I don't know why they cannot legislate this stuff across the board...after all, we are a single country with countrywide medical issues!

Karina, thanks for the info. I have heard how rapidly it can spread and the fact that it can have such a long incubation period means that isolating and containing outbreaks is near impossible. I imagine that is why there is such a shortage of the booster.

Thanks again, everyone :D x

Harrison is fully immunised against WC but he still contracted it. Obviously it would have been more severe had he not been immunised. Apparently the immunisation isn't guaranteed to work properly on everyone which is worrying, but I still will be making people get it... better to be safe than sorry I think.

Ok, I actually did some research on WC and immunisations myself. Canada has the worst rate of WC in the more developed countries... and they have taken a strategy of giving the mother a booster after labour. It takes 10 days for the antibodies to go through to the breastmilk - which gives babies passive protection from Whooping Cough until their first needles.

NSW Health also informed me that the youngest you can take them for immunisation is 6 weeks.

It was on the news today that parents with babies born after 1st May will be eligble for a free vaccine from 1st aug for 6 months..

Parents targeted for whooping cough | The Courier-Mail

Just thought I would post for the benefit of qld parents that may want to go down that track.

Just saw this thread.

We got the vaccination (Dh and I) when DD was about 2 weeks old. We'd have gotten it earlier had we realised it was available to adults. My parents have had it too.

I've breastfed throughout, glad to know that she was getting some kind of protection from it from me through the milk. The GP did not suggest there was any possibility of problems from BFing after the vaccine, nor did I find such a suggestion when I read up on it. Maybe that advice is outdated? I've also expressed some milk during the 10-15 days after I had the shot, in case she gets it before she is fully protected, in which case she'll definitely be getting some of that antibody-loaded milk from the freezer, in case that helps some.

Babies can die of whooping cough. Wikipedia reckons the death rate in infants is "up to 3%". There is no way the possible side effects from the vaccine could be worse than that! Adults can have it with little or no symptoms, so even though DD has had her 2-month shots I still worry about the possibility that someone around us catches it, doesn't realise, and passes it to her before she is more protected.

Thanks for the info Heather. We have already paid for DH's, but it is good to know that mine will be free. For something that is so important and life-threatening, I am truly surpised that it has taken the QLD government so long to wake up and subsidise it!

There was an interesting segment on the Today show regarding WC. Nothing that I didn't know before, but it is really great that they are educating the masses about the risks to children. I have spoken to a number of people with and without kids and they stare at me blankly when I speak about the risks etc. So getting some mainstream info out there can only help.

Tenar, thanks for sharing your experiences. I also understand that even though they get their first WC vaccine at 2 months, it can take several more months until they are protected and, even then, it isn't a given that they won't contract it. The idea of passing on some antibodies via breastmilk is somewhat re-assuring...that is providing I am able to BF :)