These are the reasons, in a nutshell, why we don't vaccinate. I know many people disagree with these points, but we are confident with our decision. I cannot please everybody while raising my children in the safest and healthiest way I see.
1) I do not believe vaccines ever eradicated any disease - I believe it was improved sanitation and clean water that lead to the drops in disease spread at those times.
2) I do not trust the CDC, FDA, or any medical establishment that continually profits from sick people to tell me how to be healthy.
3) I do not think the ingredients are safe or ethical, which include formaldehyde, mercury, animal by-products, aborted fetal cells, and aluminum.
4) I don't believe God gave us faulty immune systems.
5) I am not afraid of the diseases enough to give vaccines that might or might no be effective and might or might not harm my child. Today we are able to treat almost all of these diseases, and while deaths still occur it is much more rare than it used to be.
6) I don't believe it makes sense to give a child a vaccine that could potentially cause them serious harm or death only to prevent something that they may or may not ever be exposed to, especially when vaccines do not even give full immunity. I would not feel guilty if my child died of Whooping Cough - I would feel guilty if my child died from something I gave them that has death as a side effect.
And I don't believe I should vaccinate my children to protect anybody else. I don't give a crap about the "herd mentality" - I will not risk my child's life to save another's, no matter how cold that sounds. I think most parents would make the same decision in that regard - my child is my responsibility - your child is not my responsibility. There's no nice way to put it, but it's true.
December 12, 2010
October 22, 2010
You Survived!
My sweet baby boy,
You made it! You turned five this week, and I am pleased to say that you are still alive. It was touch and go there for the first few years. Your father and I truly had no idea what we were doing, and got the bulk of our information from Parenting Magazine.
When I look back over your years, I have very mixed emotions. I had just turned 18 when you were born, and I didn't know what I was doing. I wish so badly that I had known the things I know now. I feel so horrible about the unnecessary pain and fear you endured because of my lack of knowledge. I let the doctors induce me with Pitocin when you were 8 days "overdue", because after an ultrasound they said that the amniotic fluid was low. The next day my water broke, and then the contractions got painful. After 5 hours of crying through contractions I decided to get an epidural. Then I spent the remainder of the afternoon playing rummy with your dad and my mom. When it came time to push late that night, the doctor kept pressuring me because your heart rate was dropping (I remember it dropping, my mom remembers it raising - I don't know which version is correct). It was a very stressful time, and I pushed for over an hour laying on my back with 3 people on either side of me holding my legs back as far as they could go. The doctor gave me an episiotomy without saying a word, and eventually I pushed you out. Knowing what I know now about childbirth, I am amazed that you came out at all with all of the interventions that were in place. Under those circumstances, I should have had a c-section, but I lucked out. When they gave you to me, all clean and wrapped in a blanket, I felt nothing. I didn't know what to feel. I was so tired and everything had been so surreal that I felt outside of myself.
You made it! You turned five this week, and I am pleased to say that you are still alive. It was touch and go there for the first few years. Your father and I truly had no idea what we were doing, and got the bulk of our information from Parenting Magazine.
When I look back over your years, I have very mixed emotions. I had just turned 18 when you were born, and I didn't know what I was doing. I wish so badly that I had known the things I know now. I feel so horrible about the unnecessary pain and fear you endured because of my lack of knowledge. I let the doctors induce me with Pitocin when you were 8 days "overdue", because after an ultrasound they said that the amniotic fluid was low. The next day my water broke, and then the contractions got painful. After 5 hours of crying through contractions I decided to get an epidural. Then I spent the remainder of the afternoon playing rummy with your dad and my mom. When it came time to push late that night, the doctor kept pressuring me because your heart rate was dropping (I remember it dropping, my mom remembers it raising - I don't know which version is correct). It was a very stressful time, and I pushed for over an hour laying on my back with 3 people on either side of me holding my legs back as far as they could go. The doctor gave me an episiotomy without saying a word, and eventually I pushed you out. Knowing what I know now about childbirth, I am amazed that you came out at all with all of the interventions that were in place. Under those circumstances, I should have had a c-section, but I lucked out. When they gave you to me, all clean and wrapped in a blanket, I felt nothing. I didn't know what to feel. I was so tired and everything had been so surreal that I felt outside of myself.
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