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Hi
I was just wondering what everyone's opinon was on having the Hep B vaccination on the day the baby is born. Do people think its really necessary to give a baby thats only hours old this type of vaccination?
I read in the litreature about it that it can also give the baby a fever and make them unwell. I imagine its going to be pretty stressful the first couple of days anyway without adding the stress of worrying about the baby because they are ill.
Anyway would love to here people's opinons.
Hi,
I thought the same as you and did not do the first one and both my girls strated at 2 months instead of birth, so didn't have the first shot and they are fine.
I had the immunisation done for my daughter. They did it when she was a couple hours old. I thought, better to be safe than sorry. It didnt make her have a fever or anything like that.
I'm opting to give it later, maybe at 2 months. I figure birth is pretty stressful for my bub and doesn't need a fever and feeling unwell when trying to learn so much new stuff. Like learning to feed etc. I have been immunized and so have two of my children. My husband and two older children have not been immunized. I dont think we are in a high risk category.
After discussing the matter with my doula, the question i am asking myself is what is the risk of the baby contracting Hep B. If you don't carry the virus yourself (and therefore can't pass it on to the baby during birth) the main ways of transmitting the disease in first world countries are injection drug abuse and unprotected sex.
I dont think the baby will be having unprotected sex or injecting drugs.
The risk of contracting the disease is probably very limited.
It may not then absolutely necessary to give the baby this vaccination.
Thats my 2 cents anyway.
DD had her about 4-5 hours after she was born. No fever or anything afterwards... she was fine. TBH i never even knew what needle she was gettin at the time... they asked DH not me.
I agree with Kim, I wasn't even aware of the time it was done as I was way to out of it. My DH knew my views and was happy to agree. We work in a highly risky environment and wanted the best protection - just in case.
Those ways of contraction may be two ways but they aren't the only ways....remember there have been several foodoutlet and doctors surgery scares for Hep B recently. I agree the chances are minute, but we didn't want to take the risks.
We didnt have it done in hospital, we waited until the 6th week. We figured, what are the real chances of bubs getting Hep B in the first 6weeks of life, when we will be home most of the time anyway. Personally, I'm so glad we didnt get it done til later. I dont think it is warranted IMO. We wont be getting bub no 2 done in hossy either....Will wait again.
We chose not to have it done with DS.
Both my DH and I know that we're not Hep B carriers (were tested as part of our fertility treatment), and neither of us engage in any of the high risk behaviours.
At the end of the day, I felt that the risks/side effects associated with giving the vaccine were higher than the chance of bubs catching Hep B in the first 2 months of life.
I also wanted to wait so that bubs would have built up his immune system through my breast milk, before introducing foreign substances such as vaccines.
i could have written this word for word. Mason will begin his hep b immunisations at 8 weeks:
We chose not to have it done with DS.
Both my DH and I know that we're not Hep B carriers (were tested as part of our fertility treatment), and neither of us engage in any of the high risk behaviours.
At the end of the day, I felt that the risks/side effects associated with giving the vaccine were higher than the chance of bubs catching Hep B in the first 2 months of life.
I also wanted to wait so that bubs would have built up his immune system through my breast milk, before introducing foreign substances such as vaccines.
I see both sides of the discussion here, and this is not critical in any way, merely an observation.
How many people who are choosing to put off the injection because it's only a very tiny risk that the baby will catch Hep B, are also swearing off eating soft cheese, precooked meat, etc in case of Listeria, even though it's only a very tiny risk that there will be listeria present in the food?
Lisa xx
my other reason for not having it done, is I have read about it interfering with bubs sucking ability and breastfeeding problems.
We have had our babies done (but on the day of being discharged with both Maddy & Indah...)
We are of high risk due to DH being Indonesian, also we travel & will be travelling back to Bali with Zyon in September. He will only be about 2 months old & I'd rather he is protected against it than not whilst we travel & are in DH's village for 3+wks.
Both our girls were immunised as newborns first as I work in a very high risk job with lots of exposure and I also have a family member who has heb b.
ETA can I just say you would be surprised how many people actually have heb b. Its quite frightening.
We decided not to give our DD hep B until her 8 weeks vaccinations. We looked at the pros and cons and decided that our DD was not going to be around anyone with hep b in those first 8 weeks. Both DH and myself are immunised against it due to work. If our DD was going to be in childcare or around people I was unfamiliar with then our decision possibly would have been different. We deemed her chance of exposure extremely low risk so we decided to wait.
I agree with Cherie and Danni. With everything else the baby is going through, why not just wait until their first set of vaccinations and get it done then. Vaccinations are full of baddies that protect against baddies. Yes, its beneficial but I don't see it as being necessary until later on.
We dont have time to wait we are travelling once bubs is 7ish wks old, so I need to have it done asap.
I have talked this over with several paediatricians. All said that unless you have risk factors (such as listed above), no one "needs" Hep B until their teens, when the possibility of the child's OWN risky behaviour begins. They said the reason the vaccine is given so young is to make it fit in with the other childhood immunisations. If we waited till the teens, fewer children would be vaccinated.
When the vaccine first came out in the late 70s/early 80s, only dentists & other people whose jobs took them in contact with body fluids, got the vaccine. Then it was everyone in medicine, then in child care...now it's nearly universal.
With my first two, I elected to delay Hep B until they started school. With my next two, they started the series at 2 months. It's hard to avoid it by that point, because the jabs are now combo ones which include Hep B. My last 2 bubs were both seen in hospital by a neonatologist who told me that waiting until 2 months was absolutely not a problem. One thing to know is that the national vaccine register then shows bub as not fully vaccinated until the end of the first year, which didn't worry me.
Having said all that, all the doctors also told me that Hep B is a very, very safe vaccine and if it's important to give it at birth for whatever reason, there are no concerns.
Thanks everyone for your responses. It helped a lot to hear what others were going to do / had done.
I think I will just wait until the 2 month vaccination. I am not in a high risk category so I am sure the baby will be fine for 2 months. That way its body has at least two months with coming terms with being in the world first.
Aidyn was done at birth, basically because I didn't know any better, and didn't know to question it.
My next baby will be have the Hep B done at 2 months. I don't like the thought of overloading their little systems straight after birth, nor jabbing them with a needle - as if the birth hasn't been hard enough on them already!