May 1, 2008 8:19 AM
Vaccines - make an informed decision - Part 1
Continuing our discussion of vaccinations, I have a personal story to share:
My first daughter Samantha Sunshine was born in 1969. Always questioning the status quo, I researched natural childbirth and breastfeeding. These are freedoms new mothers now take for granted, but in those days the medical establishment wasn't having any part of it. Doctors were put on pedestals and you never questioned them.
I tracked down hard-to-come-by books like Grantley Dick Read's Childbirth Without Fear and La Leche League's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. There wasn't much out there at the time and there were no places like Borders or Amazon to find stuff. But even when I was young, I was always interested in alternatives - and I was determined to figure out the best way to do things. (In 1970, after Samantha's birth, which proved to me the wisdom of questioning the status quo, I began practicing yoga, vegetarianism, and natural herbal cures. Just call me Ahead of the Curve ;)
My hospital experience - at Georgetown University Hospital in September 1969, was ghastly, as I describe in Reaching the Left from the Right:
This was before sensible and compassionate childbirth. As usual, pursuing a different path, I’d searched hard for the then few-and-far between books on natural childbirth and breastfeeding.To the hospital staff this meant simply no pain relief. Other than that, the experience was barbaric: I was shaved and strapped to a rigid table, wheeled into a delivery/operating room surrounded by people in masks, including Jeff – there only because of our take-no-prisoners approach to him being there. After the baby was born, they took her away for 12 hours observation, while I was not allowed to get out of bed even to go to the bathroom, much less to go down the hall to see her. Jeff had to leave at the close of visitors’ hour at 8:30. All of this was standard procedure for all births in 1969.
By the next morning, after an achingly sleepless night without my baby, I found my voice. When my doctor came to check me I insisted on leaving immediately. Not a big deal today, but back then – well,my neighbors couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw us coming home in less than 24 hours when I should have been in the hospital four or five days.
I recount this for a reason. The counterculture was guilty of many mistakes, of implementing grand philosophical ideas that turned out to have disastrous consequences for the individual and society at large. Nevertheless, there were some good things that came of it. One was a reevaluation of the way babies were born in the U.S. The counterculture movement was responsible for turning that process upside down, and today it is possible and probable that a baby will be born in a way that honors mother, father, baby, and the Creator as well.
So that was one good result from the counterculture movement. Another was my first daughter, Samantha Sunshine.
Having a new baby was empowering to me. I was responsible and at that time in my life I took that seriously. There was no information out there about attachment parenting. From the get-go, Samantha slept in a crib in her room because that's how I thought it was supposed to be done. It would be six years before I had another baby, Jasmine Moondance. She slept in a bassinet in my bedroom. In 1983, when Joshua was born, the bassinet was moved next to my bed. Sometime in the consequent tumble of kids - seven born between 1983 and 1993 - Tripp and I began sleeping with our babies.
Oh, how I wish I had known the joys of attachment parenting from the beginning!
One thing I did get right, though, was not to go along blindly with the medical establishment. And here is the most important part of this new-motherhood story:
In those days, common practice was to begin babies on solid foods at six weeks. Doctors did not think a breastmilk diet was sufficient. But thanks to La Leche League, I knew it would be absolutely sufficient and the best choice for six months.
When I took Samantha for her six week check-up, Dr. Kelly said, "Now you can start her on baby cereal." I nodded and smiled.
At the next check-up, he said, "Now you can start her on strained fruit." Nod, smile.
At the next, strained vegetables. Nod, smile.
Finally at six months, he announced she could eat strained meats.
I will never forget how brave and revolutionary I felt - my cheeks were burning - when I announced, "This baby hasn't had any solid food at all - only breast milk."
Dr. Kelly had never heard of this before and wasn't going to be convinced by a mere mother. But there was the evidence in my glowing, growing, healthy baby (Still glowing, growing and healthy today - I love you, Sam!)
The point I want to make is this: yes, we've taken back control of childbirth and feeding. But somehow, along the way, the medical establishment has lulled us into complacency. We have followed like sheep down the vaccination trail.
As a mom who has had babies in her life from 1969- 2000 (I'm not a miracle woman, my last three are adopted), I have seen the vaccine industry/machine grow exponentially. When I was young, drug companies were not allowed to advertise to consumers because of ethical concerns. Somewhere along the way that consumer protection was rescinded so that a generation of mothers can be persuaded to inoculate their daughters (and now they're pushing for Gardasil for boys, too) against diseases that are not airborne, but the result of lifestyle choices some individuals decide to risk.
With drugs a major U.S. industry - always seeking profits - shouldn't we question this push? Shouldn't controversies - like inadequate testing and likely connections to autism - be publicly aired in our mainstream media?
Parents, you need to take control in this area. Doctors do not always know what's best for your children. As one of my readers recently commented, parents are like contractors who hire subcontractors. She was speaking of education, but I want to ask you to apply that concept more broadly.
I know it is difficult time-wise to do everything you need to do. But thank God for the Internet and the free flow of information. In my early motherhood days, for medical information you had to get access to a university hospital library, look up stuff in a card catalogue, put in a request for books and take notes by hand. Now you can read and print in your pajamas while sipping coffee.
And you can even have a discussion with other moms about what you are learning.
If you only knew how different that feels than it did in 1969 when I decided somehow not to follow blindly but to reject the conventional wisdom to do what was best for my child. We have so much more support now. We have each other.
My experience is unusual in that I have raised/am still raising two generations of kids. I hope that hearing this true story will encourage you to rethink today's conventional wisdom.
It is really time to take back control of what is being put into our children's bodies!
Part Two will suggest an invaluable resource for you.
In the meantime, may I suggest that someone write Vaccines and Children: A Parent's Manifesto. Anyone up to that task? Let me know and I will publish it and we will begin to circulate it.
Posted in Health, Mothering, Teens and Tweens, Toddlers, Vaccines | Permalink
Comments
You know, it was interesting that you wrote about the baby food issue. My husband and I are 32 (he is...I'm staying 29 forever, thank you...and I am not 32 yet!). We went to see his parents on Tuesday with our new baby (his 3rd, my 4th, our 6th). His mom asked how soon I was going to start the baby on solid foods. I was in shock! Our baby is not yet three weeks old!!!
She recounted the ages she started her boys on baby foods, and also that she took the babies off breastmilk and onto formula (without a medical reason). I was surprised, but they were a military family and I wrote off what seemed odd to me on having a military pediatrician.
But after reading your article today...it is clearer to me! Thank you.
Also, you commented on how parents have become complacent and just simply trust everything the doctors say. I would like to broaden that idea--our society, in general, has gotten there. When my oldest son was 8 months old (he is cleft-affected), the hospital overdosed him with morphine after his lip repair surgery. At one point during the first night, (I was rooming in) I awoke with a start because I noticed he was not snoring. Because he did not have a palate yet, he snored even when he was awake. But I ignored my mother's intuition because I believed: If there was a problem, the nurses and doctors would be in here!
To make a long story short...three hours later, I was awakened by about 7 staff members descending on his crib. I was told he was not breathing or waking up. Before I could really comprehend what was happening, I was standing all alone in the hospital room and my baby was being placed on a respirator. (The story has a MIRACULOUS and happy ending...they didn't lose the lip repair and he had NO long term effects from the overdose and respiratory arrest!)
Now, when anyone is preparing for surgery and asking for any advice (most people know we have made living in a hospital a fine art), the first and only advice I give is to never let a staff member do anything without asking what they are doing and why. My son was overdosed with morphine because of a decimal point error. Yes! My son received a dose 10X what his little teeny failure-to-thrive 8 month old body should have received--and he also received that dose repeatedly throughout the night although he was not whimpering or crying!
I have had many people thank me for this advice. It's amazing to me how many people have close calls in our hospital systems. But taking an active and questioning role in your care, or your loved one's care, can keep them safe and keep you feeling sane.
Sorry if this is not on subject--vaccines--but I thought it might be important to share.
Posted by: Ceci | May 1, 2008 12:38 PM
{Standing, applauding...}
-mother, birth doula, parent of child with autism...
Posted by: Marian | May 1, 2008 4:00 PM
I totally agree on the idea that parents have choices that they are probably unaware of in the vaccine area. I think Ceci is right on in her post as well. We have GOT to be advocates for our children.
I had a similar experience when my son was hospitalized with spinal meningitis. After multiple veins being unable to hold an IV, he needed surgery to put in a central line. I kept asking questions of the nurses, who gave me pat answers...finally, after some insistence on my part, they called the surgeon who put in the central line. He came by that evening after his office hours to confirm my suspicions. The line was not as it should be and all the IV fluids from the day had either leaked out or were just filling up a pocket on his chest wall. It was infuriating to know that all his meds for the day were pretty much wasted and that this could have been caught sooner if someone had just listened to me and called the surgeon immediately! Anyway, we have to speak up and ask questions!!
As for the vaccine issue, I have not written a manifesto, but I have posted recently on vaccines and the books I recommend as well as my recent experience explaining my choice to the Dr.
You can read it here:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSmom0f4/498033/
Posted by: Phyllis@Aimless Conversation | May 1, 2008 4:46 PM
Barbara, I find your baby food story interesting because it's EXACTLY how my MIL recounted her experience to me. Except I don't think she ever told her doctor that my husband had never had anything but breastmilk. She just continued to smile and nod -- and breastfeed.
I also find it very interesting that even though she was fairly counter-cultural about childbirth, she never thought twice about inducing. My FIL was on the road a lot, and they wanted to be sure he was home for my husband's birth. It never occurred to them that induction wasn't exactly natural! (Having been induced myself, I'm pretty impressed that she managed it without pain medication!) Unfortunately the induction resulted in my husband's collar bone being broken. (He's fine now, LOL!)
I also want to concur with the PP who said it's imperative to find out EXACTLY what is going on any time any medical personnel attempts to treat your child (or you!) I've been given medication that was unsafe for me (thankfully I didn't take it!) and refused many inappropriate treatments for my children. I even had a doctor argue with me trying to give my oldest daughter medication that she was allergic to! (And it wasn't even related to the illness I brought her in for!)
Unfortunately this can be very difficult when giving birth in a hospital because they so often insist on taking children away to the nursery "just for a little while." I once caught a nurse coming to take my son without even asking me first! How can I be sure he's being treated properly if I'm not there?
Posted by: Michelle Potter | May 1, 2008 5:18 PM
