I haven't blogged here in a while, but I'm feeling the urge to start it up again and share it with all of my family and friends.
I thought I'd write about how we came to the parenting/life altering decisions that we've come to in regards to our family.
When I was pregnant with our daughter Addison, I wanted to know EVERYTHING. I read every pregnancy and birth book that I could get my hands on. I researched online. I talked to other moms. I'm surprised my brain didn't explode with all of the new knowledge I was aquiring. Instead I was only thirsty for more!!
A few people that I had blogged with on another site had mentioned vaccines. Some delayed the shots and spaced them out more than the recommended schedule, and some didn't vaccinate at all.
The seed was planted, and like reading about pregnancy and birth, I started feeling the urge to read everything and anything about these vaccines that were going to be injected into my precious, sweet, pure little newborn baby girl.
The first vaccine I started researching was the Hepatitis B vaccine since that vaccine is normally given right at birth and EVERYTHING I found about that shot pointed me to NOT get it. It's quite ridiculus in my opinion, actually.
Basically....they started giving the Hep. B. shot to ALL babies because SOME babies were being born to drug abusing mothers and contracted hep. b. from them when they were born. Now, hep. b. is contracted from prostitues, IV drug users, and dirty needles. You can be sure that your little sweet baby is not swapping dirty needles hangin out in his crib!!!! At least MY baby is certainly not doing that!!! The only time I would ever be worried about my child contracting Hep. B. is when they were a teenager having sex. If you look into it, you'll find that the hep. b. shot antibodies don't even LAST until they are a teenager!! So WHAT is the point of getting it (especially when you look into all of the vaccine reactions one can have if injected with it!)!?
It made no sense to me......and that's how my my journey began.
I was already doing the unconventional while pregnant.....I decided to have a midwife deliver my baby instead of an OBGYN. The more I read....the more comfortable a midwife sounded to me, and as soon as I met my midwives, I was 100% sold. Some people thought I was crazy, because people tend to look down upon/frown on the unconventional and the unknown....but I didn't care what anyone else thought...and that midset gets easier and easier every day!
I had a wonderful drug-free delivery on April 5, 2007. It was truly the best day of my life. My mother, my doula, the midwife, a few nurses, John, and my future mother in law were all present to see our sweet baby girl born. It was life altering and earth shattering. My voice was found and I knew that I needed to do everything I could to protect this little baby from this very world we live in.
Looking back, a homebirth would have been a better option, but we made the best decision we could make at the time. I'm positive our future children will all be born with a midwive in the privacy and comfort of our own home.
In the hospital, breastfeeding went okay, or so I thought. We took Addison home, and the next day we noticed she looked a little jaundiced. We took her to her appointment a day or two later for her newborn check up, and I saw a nurse practitioner who was a very cruel and mean spirited person. I didn't like her from the minute she stepped in the room.
She weighed Addison....and plotted her weight charts on a chart that was developed from the year 1950 of formula fed children (never mind that Addison is breastfed). Breastfed children gain weight slower than formula fed children, as it takes a while for a mothers milk to come in after she gives birth. She was an alarmist, and told me that I needed to come back the next day to get Addison's weight checked. We went back, and Addison had lost 10% of her weight.....a perfectly normal amount of weight to be lost by any breastfed baby. My milk had still not come in and it was day 4. We were sent to see a lactation consultant, who told me that I needed to supplement Addison with formula. I was devestated and fought hard to avoid it. I gave in with the pressure though, and we used a supplemental nursing system which is a tube that sits by the nipple as the baby nurses, and the baby gets breastmilk or fomula through the tube. After 2 feedings using the formula, I noticed that my milk was coming in, so we stopped all formula feedings. My milk was plentiful and Addison was nursing often. I was SO relieved!
Thinking back, I obviously wish she would have never had ANY formula, but it is what it is. Being sleep deprived and being under an extreme amount of pressure from medical professionals that want you to do it "their way" was too much for me at the time, so I gave in. I could have sought help from Le Leche League instead, which would more than likely have been much more productive. Either way, she gained weight well from that point on, and continued to thrive on my milk....and still does! She is going on 2 years old and still nurses.....and I am SO proud of that fact.
In September of 2007, I found out about a group called the Holistic Moms Network. I went to their open house and met a ton of like minded mamas and families. I felt so warm and welcomed, that I joined the group right away. The leader's husband happenes to be a Chiropractor, and we immediately started seeing him regularly, and got to be good family friends. The information that I learned from him and from the other members of HMN continues to be invaluable!
Throughout all of this time, John and I had continued to research vaccines. We continued to tell our pediatrician at every single well baby visit that we were still deciding and we were not going to vaccinate her until we had all the facts. Our doctor put an extreme amount of pressure on us, as well as fear, telling us that our daughter could DIE if we didn't vaccinate THAT VERY MOMENT. I informed her that she could also die that very moment if we DID choose to vaccinate her, and that it was our decision, and not hers. After a few more medical disagreements about the care of OUR daughter, we decided to fire her as our pediatrician and found a more natural and holistic pediatrician just for emergencies. Needless to say, we are MUCH happier now. We use our chiropractor as our main health care provider, and have seen our family doctor for Addison maybe 3 times at the most (and none of those visits were because Addison was "sick"). Since we do not, and will never, vaccinate our children, there really is virtually no point in going to the Well Baby Visits. They should actually be renamed....vaccination visits, because that is about all they are good for!
The chiropractor has dramatically affected the health of our family. Addison has NEVER had a single ear infection, even though both John and I had several growing up. I had tubes put in my ears 3 times growing up because I had so many ear infections. I was on antibiotics ALL the time. I was also incredibly sick ALL the time.
Since I have stopped seeing any doctors for any medical situation, and since I have stopped all pharmaceutical medications for myself, and since I continue to regularly see the chiro, I have seen personal dramatic health benefits in my own body. Instead of the 15 colds I would get every year, I might only get 2 a year now. I used to get bronchitus and ear infections, colds and sinus infections and upper respiratory infections all the time. I can hardly recall the last time I was sick, except it was during a very stressful yet wonderful time in my life....when I met my half sister for the first time ever!
I started to understand that when the body is stressed, the immune system is compromised and it is a lot easier to get sick! I've noticed when I eat badly that my body reacts to that and gives me the sniffles or a cold because I didn't put the good food that it needed into it instead.
After coming to our decision never to vaccinate, the researching didn't stop there for me. I continued to do so, and it has become quite the passion of mine.
I'm so passionate about the dangers of vaccines...because from the bottom of my soul..everything that is in me 100% believes that vaccines are not safe whatsoever.....and they are incredibly incredibly dangerous. NEVER vaccinate before you've researched. You can NEVER take it back!! All I know is that most of my friends and their babies who are NOT vaccinated are the healthiest children Ive ever met in my entire life. So WHAT if they get the chicken pox? They won't have a lifetime of asthmas and ADHD and allergies for their WHOLE LIFE. The body's immune system STRENGTHENS after going through a normal childhood disease. That's why you will notice that after children get sick...they often leap ahead developmentally and it's just amazing! Because they are STRONGER!
I compare the health of my daughter to other children, those that are vaccinated, those that aren't, those that have some vaccines, etc. I have never ever met another child who was vaccinated who is healthier than Addison. Doesn't that say something?
One thing I know about becoming a mother is that it is imperative to follow your instincts. Usually...your instincts are never wrong. Any time in my life that I have ever gone against my instincts....I have regretted it. Instincts are there for a reason.....and I wish more people would listen to them.
I've learned to question the status quo, never do anything because someone else says you "have to", research everything for yourself, and stop caring about what other people think.
"Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind." I love that quote because it is oh so true.
I've also found that people become quite defensive if you bring up something (like vaccines) that they have believed to be safe all their life. Without even doing the research, people are quick to get defensive and try to tell you how "wrong" you are. What I've also learned.....is "Tell a lie long enough and loud enough and people begin to believe it." That's how I feel about vaccines. Lies told for years and years and years with no medical research (not backed by pharma companies) begin to manifest into the "truth" because people have heard the same things over and over.
Yet....when you start to do the research.....only then do you learn the TRUTH.
This blog is about our life. Our decisions. Our research. Our information. If I can help even one person question the status quo on vaccines especially, this will all have been worth it.
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