I submitted this follow-up for publication on October 18, 2007. I was told by the Managing Editor (she is wonderful - trust me) after the Editor - in - Chief had reviewed my publication submission; "she has made a decision that we won't be covering autism for the time being", so they wouldn't be using it. Keep in mind ya'all that before my boys were diagnosed I was on track to become a midwife. It has taken me a while to follow-up on all this as I was involved in planning a Congress with a dear friend of mine who happens to be the founder of WaterBirth International; to bring vaccine and autism awareness to the very group of practitioners that Midwifery Today serves.

I understand my submission may have been a "bit in your face" and I specifically stated in my email body of submission; "I do understand that Midwifery Today reserves the right to edit, but I would ask in this particular instance if you wish to edit my submission, if we could talk prior to this happening". The only reason I put this in the email body, was that the original Feedback response I submitted and which was published; the final paragraph was completely deleted.

I will be posting my response to the reply in which Midwifery Today said they won't be covering autism for now. I will be requesting further thought and investigation on the subject (vaccines and autism), as the goal of Midwifery Today and midwives worldwide is educating midwives and women alike to make empowering and informed choices for themselves and their babes... This includes vaccination decisions.

Here is what I submitted on October 18, 2007 for publication in Midwifery Today...

Dear Midwifery Today Staff and Subscribers,

The June 20, 2007 edition of Midwifery Today E-News published feedback I submitted in response to Jan Tritten’s interview of Dr. Michel Odent on the Autism Epidemic. At the end of my response, Dr. Odent invited me to submit studies that may not be included in the Primal Health Research Database.

Generation Rescue published at the end of June 2007, the results of a survey they sponsored that compared vaccinated and unvaccinated children to determine if there was any meaningful difference between the two populations regarding the prevalence of autism and other neurological disorders. Generation Rescue commissioned the independent research firm Survey USA to conduct the survey.

The results of the entire survey can be read here. What I will share with you briefly, is that it was found in all boys meeting the age criteria for the survey; vaccinated boys compared to unvaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55), 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24), and 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61).

The survey sponsored by Generation Rescue was modeled after the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) own survey to establish the prevalence of autism and other neurological disorders. The CDC has been saying for years that a survey/study such as this needs to be done, but the CDC didn’t move forward on this. The CDC believed they wouldn’t be able to find enough unvaccinated children for comparison. Or so they say.

I understand that Dr. Odent’s life work has involved pregnancy, birth and the primal period, but when our world is in the midst of an epidemic affecting our most vulnerable population, our children; it does not seem reasonable nor sound to limit the risk factor time period being studied to the prenatal period and the first year of life. Especially when one considers that many children with autism spectrum disorders are not diagnosed until they are between the ages of two and four years old, and sometimes later.

The original interview of Dr. Odent was conducted because readers of Midwifery Today have children with autism spectrum disorders, and as stated in the preface to the original interview; “Some are ready to transform themselves into amateur epidemiologists and to design their own surveys.” While I still believe that many of our modern birthing practices may indeed for some children add up as a risk factor, that has yet to be determined as clearly as the results of the survey sponsored by Generation Rescue demonstrating that vaccines are indeed at the very least a risk factor for developing autism or another neurological disorder. I would also like to point out that if this was a Randomized Double Blind – Placebo Controlled study showing Risk Ratios of 2.55, 3.24, and 1.61; the agent in question would, in most cases, be said to be causative. But who would sign their child up for a study such as this regarding vaccines in this day and age?

I would encourage those mothers who are “ready to transform themselves” and concerned professionals as well to move forward with a survey. As vaccination has clearly been established to be at the very least a risk factor; if a survey is done investigating interventions during birth as a potential risk factor, it will be necessary to include both vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

Current birthing interventions need to be ruled in, or ruled out, as risk factors. The epidemic of autism continues to grow, and it has recently been suggested that the prevalence rate is not 1 in 150 children as the CDC states, but 1 in 67children.

In the closing paragraph of her book “Louder Than Words”, Jenny McCarthy expresses two very powerful and disturbing questions that I will leave you with: “What is it going to take for people to wake the [bleep] up? One in five children will be autistic, and then what – we can’t procreate anymore?”

In the Spirit of Finding the Cause of Autism,
Angela Warner
Vancouver, Washington
(The results of the survey sponsored by Generation Rescue can be read here: http://www.generationrescue.org/survey.html )