ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the decline in parental uptake of childhood vaccines – within the segment of society that is well educated and middle-class – is indeed because of the success of public health. Crawford describes how the political ideology of neoliberalism, ‘situates the problem of health and disease at the level of the individual’, and individual responsibility for health has been transformed into a moral imperative to be a ‘good and healthy’ citizen. The subject position of motherhood within the context of modern public health in neoliberal states has become increasingly the focus of injunctions, duties and obligations to ensure the production of healthy children. Purposive sampling was used to recruit parents who had recent and varied experiences with vaccinating their children. The notions of ‘building’ a child’s health, and of the immune system as being in a state of ‘becoming’ were prevalent in these interviews.
