Vaccines during Pregnancy and For Baby: Make the Most Informed Decisions & Choose What's Right for Your Family
Show Notes:
[1:41] Our Reviewer of the Week is Nahycnil, and she said, "This podcast and birth course helped me overcome the anxiety I had after my first birth that was filled with interventions. With all the information this podcast offers and the birth course, I was empowered and was able to have an unmedicated amazing birth experience with my second! So grateful for the My Essential Birth course and the pregnancy and birth made easy podcast. I’m obsessed with all things pregnancy and postpartum now!"
[2:44] Today's topic is definitely a hot topic. I try not to avoid these kinds of things, but I also want to come to you with really good information. We will be talking about vaccines. Know that I do my very best to give very unbiased both side information, and I know my job is done or I've done it well, if you have no idea which way I lean. The goal here is to help you know how to educate yourself. These kinds of decisions are so important for us to make on our own, and they are for us to trust our intuition, and to work on knowing how to research things in such a way that we have both sides of the story, so we can make very educated and informed decisions.
[4:20] I just want to remind everybody listening that we're all going to have our own opinions. You may or may not agree with what is said here, and you may or may not agree with somebody else. Chances are you are going to butt heads with somebody about this at some point. So I would just ask that you keep an open mind and an open heart and remember that we're all on our own motherhood and parenting journey. We're all trying to make the best decisions for our children.
[10:09] I've learned over the years, definitely as a parent, but also into my adulthood, I am currently learning this lesson right now: more information is what is needed to make good decisions.
[11:29] We actually do have an example of a good Instagram account called @justtheinserts. You can go and look at the information on the vaccine inserts straight from the CDC. Definitely one of the places that I recommend that you look because they have all kinds of information on the vaccine and its side effects and what to look for.
[16:19] Remember that you should be looking for a pediatrician before you give birth. You want to be on the same page with them, not just for vaccines, but in general (how you choose to raise, feed, treat your baby.
[18:52] Something to ask yourself when looking into vaccines is how prevalent is the disease? What's the chance of my child getting sick with this? Is this something that we see breakouts of a lot? What happens if they do get it? What are the treatment options? What are the side effects? What are the side effects from getting the vaccine? What are the side effects from getting whatever virus it is?
[22:01] Vaccines offered to moms and babies right after birth: the CDC recommends the TDap and flu shots.
[23:41] For baby, it's going to be the hepatitis B vaccine. They do a vitamin K shot that is not a vaccine, it is to help with blood clotting, and erythromycin, also not a vaccine, that is an eye ointment antibiotic.
[24:34] What is the tDap vaccine? The reason that they ask women to get it when they are pregnant is for the pertussis. Pertussis is the whooping cough and babies are not vaccinated for that until they are two months old when they get that first Tdap vaccine. It is given to moms during pregnancy with the idea that those antibodies will be passed on to baby postpartum until they're able to receive that vaccine. Now the CDC recommends that moms receive it between their 27th to the 36th week of each pregnancy. The CDC says getting TDap between 27 through 36 weeks of pregnancy lowers the risk of whooping cough in babies younger than two months old by 78%.
[29:43] The other vaccine given to baby is Hepatitis B. It's given to every baby within the U. S. unless it is declined. It doesn't matter if mom has hepatitis B or of what the risk factors are for them, at least in the ways of the providers offering it or, or recommending it. If you or your partner have Hep B, if your baby's going to be coming into contact with people that have hep B, then that could be a real concern. Hepatitis B is a liver infection that spreads through the blood, semen, or other bodily fluids.
[33:42] You need to know you can say yes to everything. You can say no to everything, or you can choose to do your own schedule. You totally get to choose. The thing is, if you decide to not do something, even at a visit and decide the next week, you would like to do it. Guess what? You can bring them right back in and it's no big deal. So keep that in mind as you're, as you're making those decisions too. It's not an all or nothing. It doesn't always have to be an all or nothing. You absolutely get to choose what you do for your baby.
Remember that we are all trying to do our best. I would ask that you choose compassion and understanding when you're talking to each other, whether that's on social media or in person because parenting is hard, and we all deserve a little bit of grace with that. And remember that every parent, including yourself, is going to interpret benefits and risks differently, and that that's okay. We are all individuals. We're not made to think the same. And we have the opportunity and the responsibility to make those decisions for ourselves and our family.
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