Health, Disease and Compulsory Crap.

There are new government regulations here is Australia about compulsory Pre-School Health checks. They only apply to families on welfare payments.

I can see that on one hand they were introduced to help children. It’s a well known and sad fact that families on the lower end of the socio-economic scale have more health problems but I also see it as an unfair, marginalizing, discriminatory policy.

It assumes that everyone with a lower income is either an uneducated, stupid or lazy parent. This is not true…just as it is not true that families with higher income look after their kids’ health in a responsible way.

If you don’t get the health check before your child is of compulsory school age the government can now cut your payments. This is perhaps the bit that shits me most of all. It is stinking capitalist coercion!

So I have to take Amaya to see a doctor to prove to the government she is healthy.

I mentioned it to her the other day and she was horrified at the thought of going to the doctor.

You see she has never been to a doctor in her life. In fact even when I gave birth and throughout my whole pregnancy with her, I did not see one Health Care Professional.

Now not taking my kids to ever see a doctor is not in anyway related to my income. In fact it is related to my life style and my intelligence.

My kids have been sick before. Not very often but they have had an occasional cold or flu or tummy bug. But none of them have ever been sick enough to warrant a doctor’s visit.

So I’ve discovered that because Amaya has no experience of doctors she has built up a negative image of doctors and hospitals and thinks that only very sick people and people who are about to die go to see doctors.

Just because our lives lack much contact with the modern medical profession does not mean I neglect my family’s health.

In fact I take a huge interest in their health.

We treat our illnesses with herbs and natural remedies. We have faith in the body’s ability to heal itself; a belief that every illness actually strengthens the immune system…whereas every course of unnecessary antibiotics weakens it.

Some might view this as a radical way to live. Actually it’s about self-responsibility.

We are responsible for our own health. We do not wait til we are sick and diseased and then let someone else take responsibility for making us better.

If we live and eat healthily we can maintain our good health.

AND of course I value the modern medical system; for its amazing achievements in surgery and it’s efficacy at curing very serious diseases.

AND of course I would take my children straight to a doctor if they ever needed to go.

But for common illnesses I have little faith in the poisons Doctors prescribe.

So all this means for me, is to have a few gentle talks with Amaya; to explain that you don’t have to be “very” sick to go to see a doctor, that we are going so the Doctor will tell us how healthy and strong she is.

That doctors are generally very friendly and nice and that I will be with her and cuddling her the whole time