This is 6-week-old Brielle. She is the reason why you should immunise your children.

Around six weeks ago, Meghan Mcnutt-Anderson gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Brielle.

Six weeks ago, Brielle was healthy.

But now, after being diagnosed with whooping cough, Brielle is lying in a tiny hospital crib, fighting for her life.

While she sat with her baby girl, Meghan posted a blistering status to Facebook, urging parents to think about what their choice might mean when they actively decide against vaccinating their kids.

The text of Meghan’s post reads:

THIS IS WHY YOU IMMUNISE YOUR CHILDREN.

This is my 5 week old daughter, Brielle. She has contracted Pertussis aka whooping cough, which is contracted through unimmunised people, generally children. We have spent the last 3 days in the hospital at her bedside holding her up and patting her back as she coughs. You see, every time she coughs she stops breathing, turns blue and goes limp. She has too much mucous and her airways are too small to cough it up and they become blocked and we have to manually help her pass it.

We will likely be doing this to Brielle for the next 2 weeks at least.

Brielle is to young to be immunised yet and children whose parents chose not to immunise them, put small babies like Brielle, as well as others with compromised immune systems, at risk. Had we not brought her to the hospital when we did, I don’t doubt that she could have easily died with one bad coughing fit. Please feel free to share and spread the word.

If you are considering not immunising your children, think first about the people you put at risk who CAN’T get the immunisation. If our story makes one parent choose to immunise their children that otherwise wouldn’t have, lives can be saved.

Meghan has asked people to share her Facebook status to raise awareness. So let’s help her out, shall we?

Please share this post to help raise awareness about why vaccinations are so important: they save lives. 

This is a gallery of common myths about vaccines being harmful and why they’re wrong. It includes some good arguments to use when you’re faced with anti-vaccination rhetoric.

Click here for a harrowing and heartbreaking look at what whooping cough is REALLY like.

Click here if you’d like to know what it’s like to grow up unvaccinated.

Click here to see an example of how quickly dangerous and vaccine-preventable diseases can spread once the majority of the population is not being vaccinated.