Melb baby dies of whooping cough...

[Inertia]

I've never signed a consent form for immunisations but have given implied consent because I took them to be immunised and agreed to having them done. Each time i was given an information sheet, made to read it and take it with me, and check the syringes to make sure they were getting the right ones. Same proceedure, 3 different states, 3 different venues. A doctors surgery, child health clinic, and a community immunisation clinic.

I have always been informed of the adverse side effects of immunisations, also in 2 different states and 6 different venues. If you are not being informed I would find another health care provider. Child health nurses are the best at doing this in my opinion.

2 states over 14 years, with several doctors surgeries and child health clinics as well as one hospital. In fact, I went to the hospital to get my son TIG on orders from my doctor and they gave him ADT. At the time my doctor was actively supporting my decision to delay vax and this was brought about by an unfortunate nail stick accident before his final DTaP shot. So no. No consent for the ADT, no information on the ADT and they sure as heck didn't care to show me if it was the right one, not that I would have had the first clue myself. Unless they write ADT and TIG on them?

it's more the doctor/nurses doing what is in their minds the best thing to deliver the child safely, as they have been given the responsibility and legal obligation to do.

If they have been told no, they do not have the legal right.
If they have not gained informed consent, they do not have the legal right.
Doctors/Nurses doing what is in their minds the best thing is not a legal right.

Perhaps then Birth Assault might work better for you?

I assumed before I came to this forum that anyone who questions vaccination agreed with the AVN but now I know better, that people question and think AND read. Thats a good thing!!! I know their style and it isn't pretty!

No. Never been to the AVN. My reasons are my own. I have never met a doctor that did not understand them and agreed that under the circumstances it might be safer if I delayed.

Still, none of them asked me to sign any forms.

[LizLemon]

If they have been told no, they do not have the legal right.
If they have not gained informed consent, they do not have the legal right.
Doctors/Nurses doing what is in their minds the best thing is not a legal right.

Perhaps then Birth Assault might work better for you?

Completely agree with you - not for a minute saying their behaviour is in any way ok, and if it happened to me I'd be screaming from the rooftops. Strangely "birth assault" does work better for me. Please understand, I am in no way condoning doctors doing the wrong thing, merely just the use of a term which has what I believe to be different connotations and motivations.

[Schmickers]

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10 posts until this thread hits the magic 300. Closing arguments, ladies and gentlemen...

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bug's Mum, try reading some of Liebling's birth stories on here. And my emotional recovery (OK, a very long 3-year journey, eventually ending up with complaining to the hospital). I think birth rape is appropriate - and as for screaming about it, how many women report rape? Very few. Because of the emotional backlash of choosing to visit that pain again. I said no and yet still had things done to me I didn't want. But DH was OK with it, so that makes it all alright according to the health professionals at the time. (Which is why no doctor, midwife, nurse or DH is coming near me should I ever give birth again.) Also, rape implies a loss of power, not being heard, an assault on a very private and sensitive area of the body - try having a doctor shove his hand up there while I'm pushing and complaining that I'm too tense as he does it. I think birth rape covers that best.

As for vaccinations - people disagree. Wow. Vaccinated people can die of the diseases they think they are safe from, vaccinations don't always work and some cause more problems than they solve. Yet I still get Liebs vaccinated, albeit delayed vaccination (still within the approved time-frame). Why? Because overall they do more good than harm - the ones I choose to have done, at any rate. I don't get a chicken pox vaccine as I'm not Australian, wouldn't have given it to Liebs if I had the choice - and he could have died from it, age 3. I still stand by my decision - but would I feel the same if he had died? I don't give him every vaccination, and am against the HPV vaccine because of the marketting, but just because I have a foot in both camps doesn't mean I didn't inform myself of my decisions nor does it mean I am doing a bad thing from either perspective.

I do think that some health professionals see the greater good of vaccinations as more important than a parent's worries, but that happens in every profession about something. Just as some anti-vax people willingly blind themselves to any benefit of vaccination. Not everyone, but the few extremes give everyone a bad name.

[LizLemon]

FB - I appreciate your candidness (is that a word?) about your own experience and I am very sorry for what is an appalling experience. While I am not prepared to offer up stories of my own from the other side, I do respectfully hold my ground on my belief of the term. But having experienced what you have, you are entitled to call the violations that you suffered whatever you want to call them, and to be heard accordingly. Like anything we are all shaped by our experiences and show respect each others. I hope you have managed to find some peace after what you went through

[RockinSAHD]

I think birth rape covers that best.

I agree very strongly, I think theres a pretty definite line, no means no means no. Consent is important and it's law. Something that's done to another person physically for the reason of taking power away from that person that affects them strongly deserves that word no matter the setting. I think that it's very important to take a strong personal advocate into the birthing room whether it's a really good friend, trusted partner, doula or personal midwife. I'm sorry that happened to you too FB.