As a mother, the letter below from Toni & David McCaffrey is heartbreaking. As a mother of a buy north face newborn, it’s terrifying. Whooping cough is on the rise. If you were immunized as a child and haven’t had a booster since, you are no longer immune, can carry the deadly virus unknowingly and pass it on buy north face others. Newborn babies have no immunity buy north face this deadly virus. The letter below is a heartbreaking story of a family who lost their precious baby buy north face whooping cough. Please take the time buy north face read it and please go and get immunized. AN OPEN LETTER FROM TONI AND DAVID MCCAFFERY We write this letter broken hearted and feel like we failed our daughter.
Before 9 March 2009, we were happy and complete following the birth of our third child Dana. Today, we are shattered at the preventable death of our beautiful girl. We moved buy north face the Northern Rivers buy north face bring our family up in this pristine environment. However, we did not realize this was a hotbed for contagious and potentially deadly viruses. Our sweet Dana is the innocent victim of dangerously low levels of awareness and even lower vaccination rates. Instead of her photo winning baby competitions, she is the tragic face of a Whooping Cough (Peruses) epidemic and sparked a national vaccination debate. Our two other children are immunized. Dana never got the chance. We did everything by the book while pregnant: checked Rubella immunity, took Folic Acid, avoided high-risk foods, and monitored glucose. Dana was born a perfectly healthy 7 pounds, 4 ounces. And her beauty took our breath away. We breastfed, sterilized and followed SID guidelines. But, we were oblivious buy north face Whooping Cough and the rate of notifications on the NSW North Coast. Yes, we saw some posters, but it beggars belief that not north face outlets one health professional warned us about the risks, scale of the epidemic or precautions buy north face take – not the GP, the obstetrician, the hospital midwives while the epidemic raged in the children’s ward, or the early childhood nurse. What started as a blocked nose escalated into our worst nightmare. From 11 days old, Dana became more unsettled at night and started buy north face cough from three weeks of age. After she tested positive for Peruses, we went straight buy north face the hospital.
However, we were not alarmed because we thought antibiotics could treat it. Wrong. The antibiotics only stop you infecting others. There is no treatment buy north face cure Whooping Cough and we had buy north face watch in horror as the Peruses took its course. First, our tiny daughter coughed uncontrollably until she turned blue and required oxygen buy north face regain her breath. She was fed through a nasal-gastro tube, was given fluid via a drip and placed in an oxygen head box. The pediatrician told us that when Dana could recover without oxygen we could go home, but she would continue having coughing attacks for up buy north face 100 days and possible respiratory complications. However, this is for the ‘lucky ones’. Dana developed Pneumonia on the third day. She was placed on a ventilator and airlifted buy north face Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. We still did not panic, on the advice she would be there for a week until she was strong enough buy north face breathe on her own. On the fifth day, the Peruses took an unexpected and deadly turn. In what seemed an instant, Dana had an aggressive reaction buy north face the toxin, which attacked her immune system and heart. The north face buy Peruses blocked every drug or treatment that the team of specialists could throw at it. We were powerless buy north face save her. After nearly 10 hours of desperate blood transfusions, Dana’s beautiful heart stopped beating and she let out her last sweet breath. The only thing that could have saved Dana was preventing her catching Pertussis. We wrongly assumed our family was protected because we were all vaccinated at birth. However, we did not know that: The Northern Rivers region has one of the nation’s lowest childhood vaccination rates The vaccination wanes after 10-12 years, so almost 90% of adults are no longer immunized Vaccination is only effective if the majority of the community does it. This means that if you are immunized, you can still contract Peruses from the high number of people that don’t vaccinate or are no longer immune. Many people carrying Peruses don’t realize it – they may have an irritating cough or no symptoms at all.
Newborns are helpless and it takes just one breath buy north face infect them. Dana contracted Peruses in the first weeks of her life. No one else in our family has tested positive for Peruses or had a cough. We have tortured ourselves with questions: Was it in the hospital? Was it from our son’s school or daughter’s childcare centre? Was it at the GPs? Was it at a birthday party? Or was it a loving relative or friend who doesn’t know they have the bacteria? It doesn’t matter… we are all innocent victims in this. We are devastated that Dana’s death is the catalyst for change and dearly wish we had the chance buy north face wrap her in cotton wool as families across Australia are doing now. Lismore Base Hospital has been admitting up buy north face two children per week for Peruses and Dana was the third newborn airlifted from this region buy north face Brisbane in as many weeks. But, no one in our community knew. The day after Dana died; NSW Health issued alerts and provided free boosters for new parents and grandparents. The Minister for Health then advised that public health officers were writing buy north face all new parents buy north face advise them of the free boosters and we also understand information packs have been produced. This is too little too late for us. NSW Health should have proactively alerted the community of outbreaks and precautions buy north face take before it became an epidemic. This requires more than just posters and media releases. We need advertising campaigns supported by vigilant screening, consistent advice from frontline health workers and free boosters for all adults. However, the efforts of a few are futile. Everyone in our community must work together buy north face increase vaccination rates buy north face protect our most vulnerable.
Please learn from our past. Vaccination was introduced because there is no medicine buy north face stop these bacteria that killed and maimed thousands of children. Now, these third-world diseases are on the rise again. In NSW it is Whooping Cough. In Queensland it is Measles. Do you want buy north face live in a country where we are too scared buy north face have friends or family visit our babies or we won’t leave our homes? For anyone that dismisses the facts, please walk in our shoes. We cry ourselves buy north face sleep with memories of our daughter coughing until she couldn’t breathe, attached buy north face a ventilator, going into cardiac arrest and holding her bruised and swollen body after her heart stopped. We were inconsolable as we left our baby in the hospital morgue and drove home from Brisbane with an empty baby capsule. We weep as we explain buy north face our children that their baby sister isn’t coming home and remember her trusting eyes pleading for help. Our hearts broke when our six-year old son helped carry her tiny pink coffin out of the church. And when our children ask why Dana died, we falter, because it was completely preventable. We are comforted by the overwhelming support, prayers and acts of kindness we have received from across Australia and around the world.
People ask how they can help ease our pain. We simply ask that: All parents vaccinate their children All adults get a booster, which the government should make free for everyone If you have a cough, get tested for Peruses buy north face prevent the north face buy the spread of the bacteria All levels of government and health workers improve processes buy north face warn the community of outbreaks of any virus or disease and precautions buy north face take.
Finding plus size maternity wear can be challenging. Finding good quality, comfortable plus size buy north face longer length maternity wear even more challenging. Many maternity labels offer small, medium and large sized pregnancy clothing, just a handful offer extra large size maternity & plus size maternity & even fewer AXLE & AXLE Maternity (XL, AXLE, AXLE).The plus size fashion market is growing and will continue buy north face as the average body size increases. Mainstream fashion designers have picked up on the demand for larger sizes but maternity fashion designers have been slow buy north face respond. Designing larger sized clothing has different challenges buy north face small sizes, but technically is no more difficult. While larger sized ladies may have bigger hips, busts and pregnant north face outlets bellies, they don’t necessarily have bigger shoulders. We road tested a number of extra large size and plus size maternity garments using ladies sized 20 & 24. We found the following -
In General:
• extra large & plus sizes were not really what we would consider “extra large” or “plus size” i.e. not a true size 20 or 24
• designs were not particularly flattering and did not cater buy north face a larger sized needs – the garments seemed buy north face have extra allowance all over, not in specific places like hips, bottoms & busts
• Plus Size Maternity was very hard buy north face source with limited designs available
• Extra Large Maternity was a little easier buy north face source and had more designs buy north face choose from
• Very limited color available
Most Flattering:
• Cross over style / wrap around tops and dresses
• Alien (A-Line) style skirts
• Straight leg pants
• Straight leg dark denim jeans
• Long Shorts
• 3/4 summer pants
Most Comfortable:
• Barefoot Maternity plus size summer pants
• Cosmic Maternity extra large short
• Barefoot Maternity plus size cross over tee shirt & nursing top
• Barefoot Maternity plus size straight leg pants & jeans
Adjustable waists and natural fabrics were a winner in the comfort stakes. Cosmic maternity shorts had a nice stretchy band at the top that felt great around the tummy.