A healthcare professional speaks up

 On facebook

'As a healthcare professional, I want to explain the reactions many of you receive when you share your stories. It often comes down to cognitive dissonance…a psychological conflict that occurs when people are confronted with information that contradicts their deeply held beliefs. For many in healthcare, it is almost impossible to grasp that what they were taught to help people might actually cause harm and even harder to accept that they may have played a role in that harm.


This was a difficult realization for me. Understanding that not only were my children injured by vaccines, but that I may have inadvertently contributed to the harm of many other children, was a bitter pill to swallow. But it was a necessary one.


True change began for me when I chose to listen…to genuinely hear the stories of others and consider the possibility that what I had been taught wasn’t the complete truth. That there might be conflicts of interest within healthcare, discouraging providers from recognizing certain realities.


I didn’t believe it at first. Not the second time, either. But when I watched my third child experience a traumatic reaction to a vaccine right before my eyes, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Even then, I gaslit myself, just as my pediatrician did, telling myself that what I saw was normal, despite knowing deep down it was anything but.


It took hearing the same stories, over and over, from other mothers, women I knew, trusted, and respected for my guard to finally come down. It wasn’t easy, but it opened my eyes.


So, to those of you who feel your stories don’t matter, who believe your voices aren’t being heard-KEEP SPEAKING! Keep telling your stories. Because it was mothers like you, who refused to be silenced, that changed a healthcare professional like me.


A drop in the bucket might seem insignificant, but enough drops can overflow even the largest container. Keep going. Your voice matters.'


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