MIL Refuses TDAP
My husband and I are expecting our first baby this fall, right in the thick of sick season.
My MIL informed me over the phone that she will not be getting the Tdap vaccine, despite it being one of my very few requirements for anyone who wants access to our newborn.
Her reasoning is that the last time she got it, she had a fever for 24 hours. So she’s decided that a temporary fever is a bigger concern than potentially exposing a newborn to whooping cough. Despite refusing the vaccine, she still expects immediate and frequent access to our baby. She claims she’ll “just wear a mask,” but based on her behavior during COVID, I don’t trust that to actually happen.
During the phone call, I kept my response neutral and said, “I’ll have to look into the best ways to keep baby safe.” I did not engage with her follow-up text, which was essentially a long Google copy-paste about rare adverse reactions.
My husband plans to address it with her, but I asked him to hold off for now. This is just the latest in a long pattern of boundary-stomping since we announced the pregnancy, and I honestly needed a few days of space from dealing with it.
I was up half the night stressed over this. Am I overreacting?