As some of you know, my fourth baby was born three weeks late. I always joked (sort of) that he waited so that I could nurse his older brother through the measles. Yes, he needed nursing, to be kept quiet in bed, in a darkened room (even though this was 'proved' to be unnecessary, it did ease the situation). After ten days or so, when he recovered, I experienced the same thing as with his two elder sisters: that the illness had been a help to him and brought a profound satisfaction. Somehow or other, he was more content, more himself. Happier in his skin.
In those long-ago days, we didn't have the MMR vaccine, so all of my kids had measles, mumps and rubella, as well as chicken pox. They weren't dangerously sick with any of these childhood diseases, although there was discomfort and fever. But then, we were living a healthy, outdoor lifestyle in South Africa, eating mostly our own organic/Bio-dynamic vegetables, and my children were used to being proper patients: i.e. staying in bed when they had flu and so forth. Today, in general, I'd say we are far away from that culture.
I think we can't do justice to the whether or not to vaccinate debate if we don't consider the question of incarnation. As opposed to the term 'growing up' we could say that the ego 'grows down'. Some of us are never fully incarnated, but certainly there's a maturity that comes at twenty-one (the old, traditional 'coming of age' time) and even more so with twenty-eight. All fevers can help with the process because the ego is connected with warmth and fire.
In my book 'Magical Motherhood' I suggest it's up to the parents to decide what they can handle. Also, if the decision is made to go with inoculation, it's definitely worth looking at immune-boosting remedies such as you find in anthroposophical medicine and homeopathy. When we did the smallpox vaccine for our elder son (he who had the measles just before his brother was born) I was advised to dose him with Thuja D6 to help offset the negative effects. Whether or not that's enough, who can say?
