Aussie mum Rebecca Harreman has a four-month old baby boy, and right now, she's desperate. Why? Because her barely-newborn baby has whooping cough, medically known as pertussis.
In a heartbreaking video of her little one struggling to breathe that she uploaded on her Facebook page recently, Rebecca pleads with other parents to vaccinate their children and themselves against pertussis.
www.facebook.com/bec.fox.83/videos/10208274898574228/
She hopes the video of her baby boy will be an eye-opener for those parents who might be sitting on the fence regarding whether to vaccinate their kids or not.
Rebecca says:
"This is a GOOD coughing fit in a 4-month-old with Pertussis, or Whooping Cough - 23 days after his cough started which is when it's supposed to be getting past the bad stage."
She noted that a cold she picked up at the hospital, which she caught from being there with her son and had passed on to him, has made him relapse again.
She added that this incident was "nothing compared to watching him turn blue from coughing for so long and so much he can't take a single breath."
Read Rebecca's message on the importance of vaccinations, on the next page.
"Doing nothing is just wrong"
The worried mum does not beat around the bush when it comes to sharing her opinion on the importance of vaccinations:
"I don't care whether you want to try and prove to me that vaccinations and herd immunities don't work. I don't care that vaccinations have side effects, because every person in this world reacts differently to all types of food, products and medicines. I could not care less, even if it is ever proven one day that they don't work.
"You know why? Because at least at the end of the day I tried to do something to prevent this and not sit there and say 'oh well, vaccinations don't work so I'll just sit here and do nothing'... because doing nothing goes against every cell in my body as a mother. Doing nothing is just wrong."
Food for thought, we think.
While Rebecca got loads of positive support, sadly, she was harshly critisised too, leading her to announce on Tuesday (17 November) that she would be "going private" on Facebook.
Meanwhile, according to Australia's 9 News, Queensland Health in a Facebook post, "are urging all people who come in regular contact with small children to ensure their pertussis vaccinations are up-to-date."
"Dr Jarvinen says vaccination is the ONLY effective way to minimise the risk of whooping cough, with most hospitalisations and deaths occurring in babies less than six months old," the Facebook post read.
In Singapore, only the immunisations for Diphtheria and Measles are compulsary by Law.
What's your opinion on vaccinations for children? Should more immunisations be made compulsary? Share your thoughts with us in a comment below.