WHY I CHOOSE TO VACCINATE
I know this is a heated topic at times and something that people can be very passionate about but I want to share the things I've read, learned & what I've decided is best for my family.
I also want to share in case any of my thoughts or words helps another Mom out when deciding what is best for her family. This comes from a Mom that loves the natural, organic, non-toxic way of life.
I'm not here to convince, argue or tell anyone they should vaccinate or not and neither should you. It's a personal decision!
So let's start with the basics...
WHAT IS A VACCINE?
"A vaccine is a product that produces immunity from a disease and can be administered through needle injections, by mouth, or by aerosol."
There are 14 diseases that are preventable before the age of two, thanks to vaccines.
Isn't that amazing? I wish we had more! Why wouldn't we want protection from these diseases? Deadly or not, I don't want them and I sure don't want my baby getting them! They sound terrible.
"The diseases that vaccines prevent can be dangerous, or even deadly. Vaccines reduce the risk of infection by working with the body’s natural defenses to help it safely develop immunity to disease."
"When germs, such as bacteria or viruses, invade the body, they attack and multiply. This invasion is called an infection, and the infection is what causes illness. The immune system then has to fight the infection. Once it fights off the infection, the body is left with a supply of cells that help recognize and fight that disease in the future."
"Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection, but this “imitation” infection does not cause illness. It does, however, cause the immune system to develop the same response as it does to a real infection so the body can recognize and fight the vaccine-preventable disease in the future. Sometimes, after getting a vaccine, the imitation infection can cause minor symptoms, such as fever. Such minor symptoms are normal and should be expected as the body builds immunity."
Isn't that amazing that we can reduce the risk of infection by working with the body’s natural defenses to help it safely develop immunity to disease?! Isn't it incredible that they figured out how to do that?
Vaccines are the greatest public health discovery in human history!
WHAT ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS IN VACCINES?
I loved this story and perspective from a Mother who grew up unvaccinated. She was raised with an incredibly healthy diet: no sugar until she was 1, she was breastfed for over a year, had organic homegrown vegetables, raw milk, no MSG, no additives, no aspartame. But that didn't stop her from getting the measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox. She talks about how awful they were and her experience growing up so healthy but constantly being sick due to these diseases.
Read her story here! She says...
"If you think your child’s immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it’s strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines."
"I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy watching children suffer even with a cold or a hurt knee. If you’ve never had these illnesses, you don’t know how awful they are. I do. Pain, discomfort, the inability to breathe or to eat or to swallow, fever and nightmares, itching all over your body so much that you can’t stand lying on bedsheets, losing so much weight you can’t walk properly, diarrhea that leaves you lying prostrate on the bathroom floor, the unpaid time off work for parents, the quarantine, missing school, missing parties, the worry, the sleepless nights, the sweat, the tears, the blood, the midnight visits to the emergency room, the time sitting in a doctor’s waiting room on your own because no one will sit near you because they’re rightfully scared of those spots all over your face."
But there are vaccines that prevent these illnesses... Why wouldn't you get them? Why wouldn't you want your child protected?
Like I said, I love the eating healthy, organic, non-toxic, natural way of life. So I get being nervous or wondering, should I vaccinate? Are they really full of ingredients that could harm myself or my baby?
Pretty sure my baby gets more toxins off the floor, food, who knows what else... then the ingredients in vaccines. I think it's been blown way out of proportion.
After praying, reading, researching, talking to Mom's who vaccinate and Mom's who don't, talking to doctors, my personal friends that are nurses, a lady from a vaccine manufacturer...
We choose to vaccinate!
I didn't want to be scared into not vaccinating. I didn't want fear to be the reason I didn't vaccinate. So I went on a quest to look deeper, to learn and know more.
That's one problem with our digital, information at our fingertips world. We read a mommy blog or comments on Facebook and we believe it!! BUT it may not even be true!!
We start questioning the medical community and our doctors. I personally don't want to live like that. I don't believe the medical community is trying to harm anyone. I don't believe it's about the money. They hardly get paid anything on preventable measures. They get paid more when we get one of these deadly diseases and end up in the hospital. I believe they truly want to help prevent deadly diseases.
RESOURCES I thought were helpful when looking into vaccinations.
A lot of people who choose not to vaccinate always talk about the vaccination inserts... I'm not a doctor or a scientist so I really don't know how all these moving parts work exactly. I didn't want to read the insert and interpret it wrong. I found this article really helpful!
I also called a vaccine manufacture to ask a couple questions. I called Sanofi Pasteur. The lady I spoke to told me that the inserts are printed when they license the product. The information included is based on the clinical trails they have done. The CDC has done retrospective studies, for example, on pregnant women since they don't do clinical trials on pregnant women obviously. There have been no adverse reactions.
A lot of people who choose not to vaccinate recommend the movie Vaxxed and/or Andrew Wakefield, the doctor that published the study saying that the MMR vaccine causes Autism. Since his claim other researchers have not been able to reproduce his findings or confirm his hypothesis. There were financial conflicts, as in he was being paid and most of his co-authors withdrew from this study. You can Google his name to learn more or read what Wikipedia says.
So for me anything related to this doctor is not a credible source and I didn't look more into it or watch his movie called Vaxxed. This was an interesting article talking more about this movie. He was the director.
"A study in JAMA in April 2015 was one of the largest; it involved an analysis of 96,000 children. The authors wrote that their findings “indicate no harmful association between MMR vaccine receipt and [autism spectrum disorder] even among children already at higher risk."
So NO vaccines do not cause Autism! Research has stated this time and time again. And even it did, I'd rather my child have Autism than die from one of these preventable diseases.
For me, what it came down to was, if my child were to get one of these diseases, have life-threatening complications or even die and there was something I could have done to prevent it... I couldn't live with that! I've also felt peace as I've looked more into vaccinations and I don't feel fear or confused as I research and learn more.
If you are feeling fear or confused, research more, learn more and see what you feel. You know what's best for your children! They were given to you for a reason.
Follow your Mother intuition!
Thanks for reading!
- Jenna
xoxo
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