Relatives refusing flu vaccine…

grace_e

Hi! Due 10/29 and the majority of my husband’s immediate family have informed me that they will NOT be getting either their flu or tdap vaccines. I don’t exactly see eye to eye with his family on a lot of things so, this isn’t exactly surprising but is still disappointing and stressful.

Curious if anyone else is dealing with this and what kind of stance you’re taking. Ok to visit but masks/no touching? No visits until a certain point? Etc. part of me wants to just say no flu shot= no visits until the baby can get vaccinated at 6 mos but, not sure how reasonable + scientifically/medically supported that is. Might just be me being spiteful :)

Thanks for any advice!

merostomata

I don’t have any specific scientific advice, but just wanted to empower you to do whatever feels best and makes you feel safest! No one else really matters besides you and baby. You can decide after the baby comes, too. I know a few friends who had rules regarding Covid vaccination, as well as no visitors until X age.

And if you end up partially using it as an excuse to not have to deal with relatives you’d rather not see anyway, that is totally valid too 😉

samleds

Hi there! Going through very similar experience. We read up on CDC guidelines and then spoke with every doctor at our OBGYN practice (it’s common for us to see all the docs) to get their recommendation. We also asked the pediatrician during our interview with them. In our experience, each med prof recommended being vaccinated. Beyond that, it was our choice how to handle. We found having the backing recommendation from every med prof to be helpful in stating our boundaries. Ultimately, it’s up to you and your partner, if applicable. Which I recognize is a dissatisfying answer, but I hope you feel empowered to make an educated decision and know that you’re not alone. If it helps as an example, we set up if-then guidelines for visiting. Example: are you up to date in TDap? No? Let’s do FaceTime visits until baby is all set at 6 months! if you are up to date in TDap, great! Are you up to date on COVID and flu? No? Are you feeling well/haven’t been exposed to known cases of flu, RSV, COVID? Good, we’ll provide you with an N95 mask to be worn for the whole visit. Etc.

Good luck!