My response to Mothering's Vaccine Debate article

Thank you, Mothering, for running the Vaccine Debate article. I am a parent who chooses not to vaccinate. As a nurse with a BSN who practiced in hospitals for 8 years before having children, I never once questioned vaccinations. I even consented to the flu shot when I was three months pregnant, after asking the nurse giving it if she was sure it was safe. She simply shrugged.

My life changed when my daughter was born at 35 weeks. She had her first Hepatitis B shot in the neonatal intensive care unit at MUSC in Charleston, SC. Looking back, I still do not understand why you would vaccinate a child whose immune system is already under attack from pneumonia and respiratory distress, at less than ten days old. Once we got home to Hilton Head, I questioned her pediatrician as to why I should vaccinate her on schedule, because the guidelines at the time (2004) said that premature infants should be vaccinated according to their gestational age, not when they were actually born. He convinced me to stay on schedule, and being a health care provider, I never questioned him.

Elle reacted to her two month shots with high pitched screaming that lasted for more than 24 hours. I just thought it was an extreme expression of her already frustrating colic. Then after her four month shots, she stopped breathing during a nap. I went in to check on her because the room was a little too quiet, and she was blue around the lips and nose, and her chest wasn't moving. It took me 1-2 minutes of rubbing her sternum to get her to breathe, and about an hour for her to come around and be fully coherent.

Safety Town

After having moved here from the murder capital of the U.S. I am a bit jaded. A guy came to our house the other day looking to sell a security system. I almost laughed in his face, but that wouldn't have been polite... then today we called the water company because we hadn't had a delivery in quite a while, and they asked where a "safe" place was to leave our water if we weren't here. Seriously? We live in lily white land.

It's really dry here. Dry people, dry land, dry music... I guess coming from a place that is surrounded by water and full of angst to a place surrounded by land and free of angst is an adjustment. My neighbor used to be the lead singer in a band, and he gave me the CD to listen to. The lyrics were so white bread and rhymy- good music, but no soul, no depth, no spontaneity. I'm not knocking it, don't get me wrong, but there is something to be said for a bit of soul and water in your music.