Its called the anti-vaxx movement, and I used to be a part of it.
Im a crunchy mother of six.
Things started to change for me during the delivery of my fourth child.
Image courtesy of the writer
This was the beginning of my journey toward out-of-hospital birth.
I had a home birth with my fifth child, Parker James (we call him P.J.
), and it was amazing, transcendental, and everything I ever wanted.
It was a lot more empowering.
I felt like I had had a baby for the first time, even though it was my fifth.
But when he was six months old, I started looking for a new pediatrician.
We had some job transitions and for a time our family was uninsured.
I was also talking to all these people who didnt vaccinate their kids at the time.
And within those circles, some people dont vaccinate their kids.)
All of this led to my decision to stop vaccinating my children.
Plus I really didnt want to have any dependence on the mainstream medical establishment.
These confident, engaged mothers werent vaccinating, and they could articulate why.
I started to agree with anti-vaxx sentiments that many modern ailments may be due to over-vaccination.
When I got pregnant with my sixth, I was in the process of leaving the Mormon Church.
Throwing away science was the collateral damage of my newfound commitment to listening to my own gut instincts.
My sixth child was also born at home and I didnt take her to a doctor afterward.
I wasnt looking to men in white coats anymore about what was best for me and my baby.
When I left the Mormon Church I lost a lot of my friends and social circle.
Skeptic circles were so harsh onanti-vaxparents and I wanted to be able to defend myself and do it well.
The more I prepared for such arguments, the more I realized I had no solid defense.
But that didnt mean I trusted the system.
I began to feel my children should be vaccinated but I still didn’t trust pediatricians.
So I did my own research and started mapping out a plan for an altered vaccine schedule.
I was trying to straddle the proverbial fence and find some middle ground I felt comfortable with.
I felt like they were shutting me down.
But I knew stuff now.
I was trying to be super logical about it.
People were just scared to say it publicly and I wasnt.
I had a very low tolerance for this dogmatic thinking because I had just left my religion.
I needed people who could have hard conversations.
I just laid it out and there was a huge response.
There was definitely a market for it.
Like youre going to lose your street cred if you take your kids to get shots.
I think some parents believe you will effectively turn in your crunchy momma card if you vaccinate.
From what Ive seen we have a more diverse group than other crunchy mom groups.
Weve also had Ask Me Anything threads with pediatricians to help answer questions.
Ive had several people tell me that they changed their anti-vaccine stance because of Crunchy Skeptics.
I will always be grateful for that.
You just have to lean over and over again on theplethora of science for vaccinesand hope people listen.
This story is part of a larger package called Vaccines Save Lives.
you’ve got the option to find the rest of the packagehere.