Mommy intuition anyone want to share experiences?

[Deborah]

I've been wondering about this mommy intuition thing, specifically in relation to vaccinating. Over the years I've encountered a lot of stories where someone said: "I had a bad feeling about the vax, but I did it anyway and then things turned out badly" or "I had a bad feeling about the vax so I said no and we went home."

Do people think this works? How? What is this about?

Please share stories and any thoughts about what might be going on with these gut feelings of danger that some folks have experienced. TIA!

[Blue Dragonfly]

Not about vaccines, but health related . . . My ds had an ear infection at 6 mo. It wasn't clearing up (or getting worse for that matter), so I went to the doctor - his first visit - and of course was prescribed antibiotics. I said I wanted to wait for a few days to see if it would clear up on its own. I am glad I did, because, of course he got better (with a little TLC and some herbal drops). When he was a year, he had a second infection. This time I could directly link it to him being in a bit of a dust storm. When I thought back to the first infection, he had also been out on a dusty, windy day. I think it wasn't an infection at all, but an allergic reaction, and I am so glad I didn't get on the antibiotic merry-go-round.

One of the reasons I don't vax is because DSs' dad is allergic to eggs. I often wonder if he hadn't had his vaccinations, if his egg allergy could have been avoided. There are also lots of mental health/brain related issues (OCD, Alzheimers, ADD etc. in their dad's family.) The thought of vaxing my children just seems like playing Russian roulette. And so not worth it.

[snowbird25ca]

Well, I don't know in general if people think mommy intuition works. Personally, I know mine is right 100% of the time, I just don't always recognize it for what it is.

I had this sense about my dd's 2nd shot. We were already delaying & selectively vaxing, but I just had this sense of dread and anxiety for days leading up to the vax appt at the health unit. I passed it off as me being anxious about her being poked, but decided to only do 1 vax instead of the 3 we'd been planning. :

The single shot we did was Pentacel - it's the DTaP/HIB/IPV combo vax here in Canada. My dd started screaming immediately and had that high pitched scream that would start and stop all the sudden. Then she went to sleep and wouldn't wake to feed.. her interaction when she did wake to scream wasn't normal, her babbling stopped, she quit pushing up with her lower legs. She was 6 mos old at the time. She got a fever, and 5 days later when we took her in for a check up with her dr, she had lost weight, and it wasn't a difference in scales.

It took her 6wks to regain verbal skills to where she'd been, and it was another 3 mos before she started using her legs again. I knew it was a reaction, but didn't know much more beyond knowing I wasn't going to give her anymore shots for a good long while.

Scarily, I still thought this to be a "normal" reaction, but it was enough for me to research more. And then the diagnosis of hypotonia started getting tossed around when she wasn't walking yet at 18mos. This was the point I put hypotonia and vax reaction into google along with DTaP and got a list of "rare" severe reactions. She'd had every one on the list except for a seizure. : And that was when I realized fully the severity of her reaction.

I'd already been kicking myself for not following my gut and doing the shot in the first place, all the reactions listed together just made everything fall into place and confirmed that what I had been feeling, I'd been feeling for a reason...

Can I explain it to this day? Nope, no other way to explain it than mommy instinct. And I can say having experienced such a bad outcome to ignoring this instinct, I am much more more in tune with my mommy instincts and am forceful about it if someone challenges me on an issue that my inner voice is screaming about. Interestingly perhaps, it was this lack of inner dread and an inner voice screaming that made me comfortable to not give my 33wk preemie that vit K shot even knowing that he was at higher risk of a brain bleed because of his prematurity... I just "knew" that he was ok and that I'd know it if he wasn't or if he was the 1 in 100 000 that needed the shot.

I think that this mommy instinct is something all women have, maybe some dads too. I just think that society "trains" us to only trust what our eyes and ears can see and to dismiss our feelings and instincts.

That's my thoughts and experiences anyways.

[EENS]

(broken keyboard, excuse typos)

When my dd, 2nd child, was born, I had "NO HEP B VACCINATION" plastered all over her plastic bassinet. I told every nurse that came in the room to examine her that she was not to be vaccinated.
Like an idiot, I consented to let the nurses take her to the nursery for her hearing test. I was so incredibly tired, I thought I would sleep for an hour or so while she was being tested. I told the nurse to bring her to me at the first sign of hunger or distress. An hour passed and she still wasn't back in my room so I took off as fast as I could to the nursery as I had an awful feeling - I knew something was wrong and my heart was racing, I could almost hear alarm bells going off in my brain. I entered in the nursery and there was my daughter (sleeping) with a vial of hepb vax tucked into the corner of her crib. The nurse was preparing to give her the shot. I nearly screamed "she is not to be vaccinated, didn't you see the signs all over her crib? Were you going to jab her without my consent?" I was seeing red, the nurse stammered "Um, no, I would have had you sign the Paperwork before we gave her the shot." Yeah right she would have. She didn't care.

Bottom line, I'm sure you all know this,as do I, but for a moment I thought I could actually trust the medical staff - NEVER LEAVE YOUR BABY FOR A MINUTE!! The doctors and nurses don't care what you say - and if they think they can get away with something without being sued, they will. Vaccination is a religion for some of these people.

[aira]

I'm sure she thought she was saving your poor baby.

I didn't vax DS at all, and I can't really credit instict, seeing as I've been aware of the dark underbelly of vaxes for my whole life.

I did learn the hard way about trusting my instincts after DS had RSV and the ped suggested we go to the ER "just for a chest x-ray". Without writing a novel here about what happened, I learned that I ain't letting no one touch my kid until I know damn well what they are doing, why they are doing it, and whether they have the slightest clue as to what negative effects they may be causing. 'Cause they usually don't, it seems. :

I will always speak my mind from now on.

[Deborah]

Wow! These are amazing stories. Yes, mama instinct does seem to exist and to work.

Thanks for sharing.

Anybody else?

[~member~]

Originally Posted by aira

I'm sure she thought she was saving your poor baby.

I didn't vax DS at all, and I can't really credit instict, seeing as I've been aware of the dark underbelly of vaxes for my whole life.

I did learn the hard way about trusting my instincts after DS had RSV and the ped suggested we go to the ER "just for a chest x-ray". Without writing a novel here about what happened, I learned that I ain't letting no one touch my kid until I know damn well what they are doing, why they are doing it, and whether they have the slightest clue as to what negative effects they may be causing. 'Cause they usually don't, it seems. :

I will always speak my mind from now on.

Same here....my baby got burned......and, I KNEW what had to be done, but like an idiot, I let the doctor have control and he ended up injuring her more. Never again, never again.

[earthmama369]

My instincts with dd said a homebirth would be great, but crappy apartment building environment + first-time mama fears led me to choose a hospital birth. And it was a good hospital birth, don't get me wrong. But it would have been a GREAT homebirth.

We bought a house. I got pregnant again. All signs point to homebirth, yes? Noooo.

I really wanted a homebirth. But I had a nagging feeling ds needed me to birth at the hospital. And he did. Picture perfect labor at home, then in the water at the hospital. Everyone left us alone. No wires, no IVs, just dh and I in the tub, low lights, music, and our doula. And a crash team there within seconds when the shit hit the fan. Abnormally short cord, leading to partial placental abruption, hemmorhage for both of us, and a shoulder dystocia presentation, all within minutes at the very end. DS came out unresponsive. Immediate action saved his life and prevented brain injury.

So I trust my instincts. And my instincts say no vaxes for this boy, at least until age 3. Maybe -- probably -- none at all during childhood.

[aira]

Wow! Earthmama!

May I ask which hospital this was?

[earthmama369]

Originally Posted by aira

Wow! Earthmama!

May I ask which hospital this was?

Middlesex Memorial. They're Baby Friendly certified and while not perfect, have been working hard the last few years to get toward a birth center model. Right now you get what you ask for there. If you go in with an OB and ask for a medicated birth, that's what you get. If you go in with your family practitioner D.O. from Maine who's into probiotics and reiki, your LMT dh, and your doula, and ask for a waterbirth with no intermittent monitoring or Hep lock, that's what you get.

The way they do things is a great argument for being an informed customer.

[13Sandals]

i had fully vaxed my first son (though was uncomfortable with it) and he had no reactions (that I can see). when my second son was born, I intuitively felt that he would die if I tried to do the same schedule with him. it was very subtle, but even at two weeks old, I could tell he had some sort of sensory overload problem...like a light wind bothered him in the sling - to much skin to skin..again, just an instinct. we delayed and got a few I thought would get us by as we moved to a non-philosophical exemption state - even, um, doctored the vax card a bit. I didn't think of the chicken pox vax - it didn't even cross my mind that they would ever make that mandatory for school entry...well it was and to make a long story short got him the vax at 4 1/2. I figured he was too old to regress - but instnictively knew his delicate system couldn't handle it. I had an overwhelmingly horrible feeling of danger - but i told myself to stop overreacting, that it was just the stress going on in my life at the time. afterwards he had a major speech regression, suddenly couldn't get the thoughts from his brain to his mouth. his sensory problems worsened. he is slowly starting to get better now - with no more vaxes, no antiobiotics and loads of vit c...but, he's still not quite the same. Sort of bittersweet - I know my instinct was right - if I'd gone gung ho with vaxes - I believe he'd be gone - but i suppressed the instinct as he got older (for my own convenience: )and he still suffered damage. I won't allow that to happen again.

[Gitti]

When my son was 12 he suddenly couldn't get up in the morning without pain in both knees - well, you guys know what it is now but back then I had no clue. So I took him to the doc and was referred to a orthopedic surgeon.

Long story short: while sitting in the waiting room I picked up this medical journal and low and behold there was a small article that described EXACTLY what my son had - Osgood Shlatters Disease (basically growing too quickly and being too active).

Right there I KNEW that was it. There was NO doubt in my mind and I was just about to tell my son that we were leaving. (The cure was cutting back on exercise and rest for a few weeks.)

But just then we got called into the exam room. Guess what the doc said, he has to do surgery on one knee and in a few weeks on the other.

NO WAY WAS I GOING TO LET HIM DO THAT.

I have written about it before and don't want to rehash the whole story but anyway, I stuck with my mothering instincts. I knew I was right. That doc tried to make me feel guilty, threatened me, got into my face, said I was a lousy mother my son would be crippled for life... I yelled back and told him this was my son and I was taking full responsibility.

My son was totally bewildered. He had never seen his mom like that before.

As we left I threatened the doc that I would sue him if he sent me a bill. (I have no clue where I got my audacity that day? It came from somewhere deep inside of my gut.)

When we reached the car I cried like a baby.

I never got a bill and my son started to heal within a week.

From that day on no doctor every could tell me again what to do. I learned to rely on some inner instincts which are always with me when I need them.

I trust my own decisions completely.

[aira]

That's great, earthmama. My hell mentioned above was at Yale, and the birthing hell was at St Ray's, which is actually also supposedly baby friendly, but the staff just did not get the whole idea. Some even had the cajones to complain to me about all that stupid baby friendly stuff, and what a PIA they thought it was. One even said, "Ugh! Some mothers just think they know everything! "

And they don't have water (or didn't then), birthing balls, anythinglike that - even though they say they do. It was all just lip-service. : Maybe they have come a long way.

With the birth, to be a little more on-topic, I wish I had known to stop the abx IVs I got for 3 days. I didn't even know they were giving them to me. They really trashed me and I'm still affected. Totally without consent.

[Annikate]

Yup, my mommy intuition told me not to do it but I just thought it was because of the needles - not because of the actual CRAP they injected into dd.

Then I learned a little and promised my mommy intuition that I'd never ignore her again.

[angelpie545]

From the moment my kids were born, I felt that they would suffer serious harm if I vaxed them while they were little. I did a lot of research before they were born, but I intuitively thought that they would be very sensitive to medicines/chemcials as am I(I can't even drink a glass of wine without nearly fainting-that's how sensitive I am). However, one day, when dd#1 was four, she was running around our front lawn and suddenly started screaming. I ran outside and found a deep, bloody cut on her foot. I don't know what came over me, but I freaked out completely. Visions of tetanus and CPS knocking on my door came flooding though my head, and I gathered her up and took her to the ER for a tetanus shot and immunoglobulin treatment. I wasn't aware that the vax wasn't required, and wouldn't prevent tetanus. My daughter had a reaction two days later. She became listless, had a high fever, slept a lot, and vomited. Thankfully, she snapped out of it a couple of days later, but I can only imagine what it would have been like had she been a infant, or had gotten several vaxes at once. Mommy's instinct is there for a reason.

[MonP'titBoudain]

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've ignored my mommy intuition pretty completely so far with ds' vaxes, just telling myself that I was nervous about his getting pricked. But every time he gets another vax I have louder alarm bells going off in my head for days before and days after. He's had a full vax schedule so far : and with his 9 mos I wondered if he was having a slight reaction but with his 12 mos shots, I'm pretty sure he had a reaction (nothing very dramatic). I've been waffling back & forth on whether or not to continue. You all have really encouraged me to trust that mommy instinct, hopefully before any serious damage is done.

thanks.

[Deborah]

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've ignored my mommy intuition pretty completely so far with ds' vaxes, just telling myself that I was nervous about his getting pricked. But every time he gets another vax I have louder alarm bells going off in my head for days before and days after.

Hi MonP'titBoudain,

That was one of my hopes in starting this thread. The debates on the safety of vaccines don't always seem to help, but I thought that people might be able to relate to a common experience of intuitions.

Thanks for sharing!

[Jade2561]

My intution told me not to do it with dd #1 and I did anyway. She has some horrible reactions but I continued to vax her. On her one year check up I had a horrible feeling that I shouldn't do it and I stood my ground and even though I was harassed and fired by her ped., I didn't give in. I am so glad I didn't.

Later that evening she got really sick; she must have caught something at the office. SHe had a fever of 105 up and down all weekend. She was so sick and it took everything her little immune system had to fight the illness. I think that if she had been shot up with MMR and Dtap that day that her body would not have been able to fight off the illness and would have been very sick especially since she had a history of reactions. I always trust my gut now.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Every single vaccine damage case I have taken, the mother has said that before the shot, she didnt' want to do it. But she let herself be talked out of not doing it, and after the shot she felt that she had betrayed her baby, even before whatever happened, started.

These mothers feel a double guilt. The one who felt the worst guilt was a mother who first felt this way with her fourth child. The other three kids were fine, but she didn't want the shot for her fourth. Her fourth had a severe reaction with seizures..... and permanent damage.

The double guilt comes from the fact that these mothers felt they ignored warnings placed there for good reason... so they betrayed themselves, and their child paid the price.

The first time I had mommy instinct cut in in a huge way, was when my oldest one was 6 months. We co-slept, with a special firm bed attached to the side of our water bed, and I had put him in his bed as normal, and about an hour later, I had this sense that he was in danger and I needed to go to him. I tried to rationalise that he was fine, but it got insistent, and I went into the bedroom, to find him inside at at the bottom of our waterbed. When I pulled him out, he was red, sweaty, asleep and floppy. He hadn't cried out, or made any sound at all. But the connection was there.

I gave him a warm bath, a massage, sang to him, fed him, and ... nothing ever happened again regarding the bed....

The second time, the same child was 17, and something changed in the middle of a game of cricket on a Saturday. He had had giardia three weeks before, but I knew it wasn't that. To cut a very long story short, it took me until Thursday morning to convince doctors that he was in big trouble. By that time his haemoglobin had dropped from 155 to 62. That week was a week of fighting for the best of the system, while fending off the worse, all the time, working off a mother's instinct.

On a side note, turns out that child has an instinct of his own. Exactly a week to the day he said to me "mum, the bleeding has stopped". I asked how he knew, and he said "I feel different. My energy is back." From that moment, the staff couldn't hold him down.

Did they ever find the source of the bleeding? No. And I'm sincerely grateful to God that they never did, because if their ability to fix it, was as useless as their ability to find it, and the mistakes they made along that path, then I think I'd be lucky to have an older son at all.

[aira]

Originally Posted by Cyneburh

My husband just stood in the room crying before the shots and praying that nothing bad would happen.

This image is such a powerful example of the wreckage the vax program does to families. This is the moment, right here. We know it's a russian roulette game at best, and just feel helpless and victimized.