The vaccine whisperers: Counselors gently engage new parents before their doubts harden into certainty
SHERBROOKE, Québec — As a mother, Marie-Hélène Étienne-Rousseau wasn’t dead-set against vaccination, in a mind’s-made-up, won’t-even-talk-about-it sort of way. But she was vociferous enough to have the nurses worried. Again and again, she’d explain that she’d read plenty online. That she’d heard frightening stories about these shots. That she wasn’t convinced they were good for her kids.
And protecting her kids was at the forefront of Étienne-Rousseau’s mind. How could it not be? She was 26. Her youngest lay in an Isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, a mask over his nose to help him breathe. Anyone walking by could watch the delicate fluttering of his heart and lungs, visible in a rainbow of squiggles on a bedside screen. His name was Tobie.
