I was at a playgroup meeting recently and a mum told me how her little one had rubella recently - he was unvaxed. She was saying it was mild etc. BUT all I could think about was the pregnant women she might have been in contact with before it was diagnosed...9 in 10 babies exposed to the virus in the first 10 weeks have severe congenital abnormalities.

I am not offering my child as a matyr to the cause, but surely vaccination is a community issue as well as a personal one?
If vaccination rates drop below a certain level, diseases currently controlled by vaccination will become more common in our society in both un-vaccinated and vaccinated people. Some people with the disease will only experience mild symptoms but some will be severely affected and some will die. The more common the disease becomes, the more likely it is that some people will affected at the worse end of the disease spectrum.