Yeah, this is why it's important to do your own research, and not hand all the decisions over to medical staff. They are operating under constraints that have nothing to do with your child's safety and well-being. It's important to understand that.

Hepatitis is also really bad for infants. We opted out of that shot because our kids weren't at risk. Hospital staff aren't really allowed to talk about risk/benefit analysis, so that's your job as a parent. That's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. Hospital staff are forced to operate on the "ok to cause a some injury to everyone to save the lives of a handful" model, but you as a parent don't have to accept that for your own kid.

Just because *you* know that your husband isn't patronizing hookers while out on a business trip, and then bringing infection home to you... well, some women get snookered and the hospital staff isn't allowed to just take your word for it. They are dealing with the dregs of humanity every single day, where a whopping 25% of pregnant women have partners who cheat on them. They *have* to have a blanket recommendation that takes into account all the stuff they don't, and can't, know. Personally, I think they chose wrong. I don't think it's right to do some small amount of damage to all babies, just because some women lie about their risk status, or are lied to by partners about their risk status.

Frankly, I was deeply offended that hospital staff had to treat me like a potential hooker, but it was a lot easier to say "no" to the shot once I realized why they had to do that. In a perfect world, they could just tell the truth and we wouldn't have to try to second-guess everything a doctor mumbles through that invisible muzzle. But that's the way it is.

I think you misread me as thinking that babies need that shot. I think most don't need it and shouldn't get it, and it would be better to give it only if the mother tests positive, and risk a few cases of transmission to infants rather than risk damage to a bunch of not-at-risk kids. But since hospitals aren't allowed to discriminate between high risk groups and low risk groups, and there's no way to tell if you've acquired an infection since the last round of blood tests (and not all women even get prenatal care) I can understand *why* they make those recommendations even if I disagree with them. If you grow up in middle-class America, you can go your whole life without ever knowing someone with hepB. In Southeast Asia, though, it's so common that liver cancer is the leading cause of death. They *don't* routinely vax for it, and it's common for babies to acquire the infection while nursing, from a mother who doesn't know she's infected. Blanket-vax-everyone decisions from on high are trying to avoid that scenario. Like most one-size-fits-all decisions, it sucks for most people.