The whooping cough vaccine is recommended every time you’re pregnant, even if you have had the vaccine before.
The whooping cough vaccine (Boostrix-IPV) is very safe and is recommended to be given from 16 weeks up to 32 weeks of pregnancy. This gives your baby the best chance of being protected from birth, as you will have transferred your antibodies to them before they are born.
Whooping cough can be a very serious infection, especially for young babies. It can lead to pneumonia and even death. Having the vaccine in pregnancy helps protect your baby in the first few weeks of life.
In the UK, published studies have shown that the vaccine is over 90% effective in protecting your baby from whooping cough until their vaccinations at two months.