Midwives advocating against vaccinations

Stuff reports:

Expectant parents are being advised against vaccination by the very nurses and teachers who are supposed to give babies the best start in life.

The Immunisation Advisory Centre has received complaints of midwives and pregnancy class teachers trying to dissuade families from giving babies the MMR jab, despite overwhelming medical evidence that immunisation saves lives.

Dr Nikki Turner, the centre’s director, said some of the advice was “jaw-dropping”.

Women are being told vaccines are dangerous, unsafe or don’t work. In other cases there is no discussion of vaccine benefits. 

Any medical professional who lies about vaccines should face disciplinary action.

NZ College of Midwives advisor Lesley Dixon denied there were any midwives providing bad information. When told of midwives sharing anti-vaccine articles with expectant mums, Dixon said: “Women find the midwife that works for them.”

The College of Midwives time and time again seems to think their role is to defend all midwives, rather than uphold professional standards. At first they deny any midwives peddle anti-immunisation propaganda, and then when told there are some, just casually say people have a choice. They express no concern at all that their members are spreading information that may kill babies.

Parents were often not aware that having the whooping cough or flu vaccine during pregnancy also provided protection for the newborn baby, she said.

Whooping cough has caused four infant deaths over the past four years. A woman and her baby also died after contracting the flu in September 2013.

“Their deaths may have been preventable if the mothers were vaccinated,” Turner said. “It would be useful to have curriculum standards so if people chose to teach outside the curriculum you can challenge them.”

You expect nonsense from people who are not health professionals. But very disappointing to have so called health professionals giving such discredited advice.