To vaccinate newborn or not

Thank god your kids were protected by other parents who had the sense to vaccinate. They don't know how lucky they are. It's a shame their own parent couldn't do the same.

I am skeptical of the way childbirth is dealt with by the medical profession (having systems in place rather than a tailored approach, high induction rates etc). So not a blind follower of everything I'm told.

BUT vaccines are a good thing, and a population-wide approach makes sense for disease prevention. It's not just for your child, it's for the safety of others. And I do not know of a single person who has had a problem with childhood vaccines.

What's your particular concern?

Well said

You can read Roald Dahl's essay about losing his 7 year old daughter Olivia to measles, as he has more immediate personal experience than any of us do: https://leadingsteps.com.au/leading-steps-news/pejejrusfjg95vs4zkjnv7vr0suy1e

When Andrew Wakefield came out with his stories I asked a couple of people I knew who grew up in developing countries about childhood vaccines being given when they were growing up. They told me about family members who were children who died due to lack of vaccination.

I then spoke to older people , some who are now deceased as they would be 90+, about the same thing. They again told me about family members who died in childhood due to lack of vaccination.

I then met my DP who told me about the distress of parents he met who had been originally against childhood vaccination until their baby or young child caught a disease, ended up in hospital and ended up with a disability.

i’ve done my own research on whether i should be vaccinating my newborn

So what qualifies you to do your own research?

A bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, or microbiology is typically required to qualify for a research assistant role in vaccine research and development. However, as you progress in your career, pursuing postgraduate research study at the honours, master's, or PhD level may be necessary.....

Or have you been relying on Dr Google?

At this time 15 years ago I was sat in ITU with ds planning a christening on advice of the consultants. He had RSV and at that time there was no vaccine.

in the last year there has been a lot of progress of getting a vaccine for RSV and it makes me happy that when that is rolled out it will prevent other children suffering like ds did (and still is!) and other parents going through the utter hell I did.

why would you take the risk with your child’s life when you have a choice to prevent them being in that situation?

Why would you think your "research" was actually better than the actual scientists, professionals etc that have done the actual research into vaccines and illnesses?

You might find it easier to find information on what catching the illnesses could do to your child than information about what the vaccines do.

Another thing you need to consider is that vaccines give herd immunity, so any vulnerable child that is unable to have the vaccines is protected by their classmates having had the vaccine.

Imagine if everyone stopped vaccinating their children? Then look up how many children used to die or end up disabled for the rest of their lives because vaccines didn't exist. We're heading in the wrong direction with vaccine uptake as it is because people think they know better. It's alright people coming along and saying "well I didn't vaccinate my children and they're fine". Of course they are fine because everyone around them protected their children by vaccinating their own.

No, the NHS aren’t worried about your baby specifically, don’t be ridiculous. They are worried that not enough people will have their children vaccinated and that children will die of diseases that are entirely preventable in 2024.

Have you looked at historic child mortality statistics and the causes?

Your children will have benefited significantly because so many other children were vaccinated meaning that these fatal childhood diseases were practically eradicated.
Now that more parents have been refusing vaccines cases of these disease have returned and unvaccinated children (including those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, some of whom are incredibly medically vulnerable) will be at risk of death as a result.

I see kids everyday that live with the complications of meningitis.

Not one of them were vaccinated.

Every single parent, after months in hospital, wishes they had vaccinated their kids. It's always a bit late in the day for wishes when they're child is the one that needs to live with seizures, hearing loss and kidney problems. It makes me so bloody mad.

I don't say this lightly but I do think any parent who chooses not to vaccinate shouldn't have been a parent in the first place.

I think you should have thought about your stance on vaccines before you got pregnant because 'doing your own research' is a load of rubbish when the vaccines have been meticulously studied for years.

Yes, you should. It absolutely is not a box ticking exercise - the reason the NHS is so clear about the need to vaccinate is because vaccinations prevent truly awful childhood illnesses.

In the UK we don’t see the results of polio, measles etc because they’re very rare as a result of widespread vaccination. But the consequences are awful. In Madagascar in 2019, for example, 1200 people died from measles and 64% of them were under the age of 15. Vaccination coverage for measles is poor in Madagascar because of lack of access to health resources. Even when not deadly, measles can cause meningitis, blindness and seizures. It is not a ‘harmless’ childhood illness. And it is, very sadly, on the rise again in the UK because of antivax sentiments.

Polio is another horror. I’ve travelled to countries with poor polio vaccination coverage and you see so many people suffering from extensive disabilities caused by catching the disease as a child. It can cause paralysis. It has been eradicated in Europe specifically because of the successful vaccination programme but if you don’t vaccinate your baby she could still catch it if she travels to a country where it is found, or comes into contact with someone who has been infected with it while travelling.

Vaccinations are a short term discomfort for your baby which will provide her with the incredible gift of freedom from illnesses which could cause her intense suffering or even kill her. Part of parenting is making these kinds of long term decisions for her good. You’ve benefitted from your parents making that good and loving decision for you - you now get to do the same for your daughter.

All of this!

I don’t like the constant reminders, the phone calls and the pressure to vaccinate - it all feels like a box ticking exercise not because the NHS are actually worried about my baby.

Well it is a box ticking exercise. The more boxes they tick the more lives can be saved.

Vaccines save children’s lives. They reduce the risk of hospitalisation and serious complications of infections. Before vaccination many children were killed or left seriously disabled by infectious disease, and this is thankfully much rarer now. You should vaccinate your child.

What are your concerns?

This website collates a lot of evidence about vaccinations.
https://vaccineknowledge.ox.ac.uk/home

This one collates evidence on vaccination side effects.
https://www.healthychildren.org/english/safety-prevention/immunizations/pages/vaccine-studies-examine-the-evidence.aspx

There are ZERO reasons not to have your child vaccinated. If you had really done any research you would gave decided this straight away. You need to know that the WHO, CDC, NHS, etc, are all more reputable than some weirdo on YouTube with a sideline in selling foil-lined hats.

What's the research you've found which is giving you doubts? Perhaps unpicking that might help you come to a decision.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/213373/vaccines-prevented-37-million-deaths-lmics/amp/

this is probably the most comprehensive study available as of 2023.

Put very very simply millions and billions of children have died from ‘basic’ diseases such as flu, TB, measles etc and that could be your child. This doesn’t need to happen.

I had measles - a new strain back in 1970s in fact one of the first people to be diagnosed with it. One day I was fine - in school the next day at deaths door literally transferred after a few days from my local hospital to one in London - I nearly died.

Likewise I read the research on HPV and then all the information and studies in the medical journal regarding the HPV vaccine - my eldest missed out due to the roll out programme and I moved heaven and earth to get it. If you have ever seen the devastation of cervical cancer on a loved one - why would you not protect your child?

I strongly suggest getting ‘off the internet’ and reading the medical journals.
Peer viewed and independent studies.

I was listening to something on the radio about measles the other day and was amazed at how high the R number is (I think it was about 15) that with the massive rate of complications shows exactly why vaccination is so important. Not only to protect the individual but also to protect those who are unable to be vaccinated for whatever reason.

The NHS doesn’t worry about individual people. They’re concerned about research led decisions, saving money and saving lives. The vaccination programme costs money, they would only do it if saves lives and money - the money is saved by keeping babies and children out of hospital, ICU (potentially the morgue) and preventing them from having life long medical issues.

I would start my looking at symptoms and complications from illnesses vaccination cover and the likely hood they happen. Then you can look up the side effects of the vaccines, nurse at GP practice should be able to give you the name of the brand and you can google the leaflet. Then you can compare the symptoms of the illness to the vaccines and make decision about what is right for your child.

I think it is easy to forget just how privileged and fortunate we are to not only have access to clean water and education for our children but also to have access to vaccinations.

Not just the NHS recommends vaccinating but every single health organisation in the world. Quite simply because vaccinations saves lives.

None of my three kids ever had a vaccine . Two are now adults and one is a teenager . Never had any health issues . They are able to get the vaccines as adults if they choose to do so .
It’s a personal choice and you will get strong opinions either way .
I chose not to vaccinate as my first was born in the midst of the MMR controversy- which unless you had a baby at that time - it’s hard to explain how difficult it was .