My son had a high temperature. I called the doctor who advised giving Calpol. I said I trusted that the fever was doing it’s work and that I had given a homeopathic remedy and would wait to see if his condition changed. The doctor on the phone told me that a high fever can cause the proteins in the body to cook like egg white. He strong-armed me into making an afternoon appointment. By the time of the appointment my son’s fever had gone down and he felt well enough to playfully hop into the surgery. The doctor I saw then was fully supportive of my decision and said my son’s response was clear evidence that I had made a good choice.

My son was diagnosed with Polyarticular idiopathic Juvenile arthritis. Within 3 months he had 27 joints affected. He was given many drugs, then steroids, then told me next was methotrexate. I refused. The doctors and consultants at GOSH and The Royal Alex (Brighton) got angry. I still refused, discharged him from GOSH and jumped on a plane to India. After a month there, he was much better. Was ordered to go back to the hospital, which I did. They then said now you’ll have the Methotrexate. I refused again. They threatened me with social services and court orders if he was not symptom free with 3 months (although they’d told me there was no cure and he’d never get better, be in wheel chair and be on drugs forever). Three months to the day later he was symptom free. I showed them blood results, they insisted on taking their own.

I would like to share my story in the hope that it encourages others to be brave in confronting a situation. I have never felt so angry and humiliated but the genuine response I received later the same day remains a most positive experience. My children aged 5 and 3 clearly had whooping cough. I visited the whoopingcough.net website written by a Dr and also called a friend who was a GP and whose children had recently experienced the same. Because we had a holiday booked we needed to verify the illness in order to claim cancellation insurance. Because my own GP took the swab incorrectly, twice, despite me showing her the instructions and emphasizing the importance of doing it correctly the second time (time constraints in the bacteria showing in a swab) she sent me to the A&E department.

It was odd that even though I called ahead to explain

This is not about one single incident but how I have been made to feel in general by NHS professionals about my vaccination choices for my children. My health visitor and my GP told me that parents who decided not to vaccinate were ‘selfish’. The same health visitor suggested that I just let my child have the Polio as it was not an injection and just a drop on the tongue. My GP was very intimidating and insisted on showing me graphs and inferring that I was just another parent who had been influenced by Andrew Wakefield – he made me feel as if I was very stupid. Another doctor warned me that my baby only had to get a cut playing in the garden and she could be dead in 48 hours without the DTP vaccination. The receptionist asked me if my children would be allowed to go to

My son was taken to the GP by his father. He was a baby, not yet 1, though I can’t remember exactly how old. I had decided he could have the polio vaccine but not the others. His father agreed to go along with whatever I decided as I had done lots of reading on it and he hadn’t. When he got there the GP tried to bully him into having the rest of the vaccines without my consent or knowledge, but he refused. Then the GP said that he would not give him the polio vaccine if he did not agree to have all the others too. Again, his father refused. The GP lost his temper and started shouting at him, slamming his fist on the desk and shouting “It’s a scientific fact!” I was always slightly proud of his Dad for then shouting back “It used to be

The exact date I cannot remember but I estimate my son’s exact age at the time of the incident to have been around 3 or 4. It was in the A&E department in Stoke-on-Trent. My son suffered from febrile convulsions until he was 8. It was late at night and we sent for an ambulance. The paramedics were very kind. We got seen quickly in the casualty dept. There was a doctor and a nurse. The nurse stepped in to take details; to fill in a form. She asked about vaccines. I told her my son had only had polio vaccine (like many mums in this situation, it was a question I dreaded). She immediately started telling me why I was wrong and why I should be vaccinating. I told her I had done a lot of research on the subject, and I had come to the conclusion that my

Our first baby, born September 2010. Was booked for homebirth. We were initially advised by the community midwife that it would depend who was on-call when I went into labour whether a homebirth would be supported. Low iron levels from 36 weeks meant I was constantly pressured to change my choice to hospital birth which I refused. I was overdue only 3 days and met with the clinic doctor who tried to force me into an induction which I refused. He provided me with only worst-case scenario outcomes and as I remained steadfast, he asked me to sign a form that the hospital had provided me with the appropriate advice which I had refused. It felt like decisions were made to avoid legal action rather than with due care. I had my homebirth in the end with no problems. Our second baby, also a homebirth in November 2014. Again we