Wisdom and Births

One of my favorite activities is hunting through a used bookstore (with a chai!) and searching for my next great find. During a recent visit to one of my favorite local shops, I serendipitously chose a book off the shelf that held a certain anthropological and feminist appeal. Imagine my utter excitement when I discovered that it contained a multitude of birth stories occurring throughout the evolution of man! Great find for $3! This anthropological fiction book, Circles of Stone by Joan Dahr Lambert, is rooted in historical evidence and theory, such as basing a character off the discovery of "Lucy's" body and theories about how she may have died. The book is broken into three parts, three different but interwoven stories, which take place over the course of major evolutionary changes in prehuman and human history. Part I takes place in the Great Rift Valley of Africa approximately 1-1.5 million years ago, Part II occurs between the Rift Valley and the shores of the Red...

I'm a birth junkie, plain and simple. I love learning all about birth and sharing all this knowledge with those around me. Unfortunately though, my interest in birth has allowed me to witness, both individually and on a population scale, the widespread abuses of women in childbirth . Years of experience as a birth doula, home-based educator for new mothers, and my Master's education in the field of maternal and child health has led me to the firm conclusion that birth in the United States isn't as good for mothers and babies as it can AND should be! This knowledge and experience has impassioned me to protect and inform women. I want my friends, family members, ALL WOMEN, to understand the options they have for their childbirth . That they don't have to be abused, pressured, or scared. It is my hope that women learn to trust themselves and their bodies and can say "enough" when they are disrespected in their care. In my experience, many women have an u...

Happy 3rd Annual Empowered Birth Awareness Week!!! September 2-9, 2013 http://www.birthpower.us/eba.html This is my second year blogging as Wisdom and Birth for Empowered Birth Awareness Week (EBAW) and I am SO happy to see the movement growing! Last year, for my first EBAW (which was actually the second annual EBAW, but the first one I was aware of!) I wrote a post about what you can do on Empowered Birth Awareness Week to spread the knowledge and advocate for better maternity care for mothers, babies, and families. You can read that post here . Empowered Birth Awareness Week is one week, at the beginning of September, in which we ALL can do something, no matter how big or small, to improve birth for women all around the world. Why do we need to improve birth for women in the U.S (and around the world)? Because WE CAN DO BETTER.   WE CAN DO BETTER than one out of every three babies being born surgically! WE CAN DO BETTER than two-thirds of women pushing on their backs! WE...

"Girls Can do..." was always my father's prompt ,  "ANYTHING!" I'd respond , and I absolutely believed it.   My father taught me to be strong, passionate, and beautiful. He showed me that although I am the prettiest girl on the outside ;) I am even more beautiful within. He has always encouraged me to share that inner beauty with those I love, and with the world. He has taught me what I am worth, what I am capable of, and how I deserve to be respected. He fostered dreams and independence within my energetic mind and he encouraged me to extend myself beyond any known boundary. A father has the power to demonstrate to a young woman what she is worth, based on how he treats her and her mother. A father demonstrates what a man is, how a man should (or perhaps should not) act based on how he cares for his family, his work, and himself. A father is most surely one of the most influential and important people in the life of their daughter. A good father ca...

Today I learned how long the optimal inter-pregnancy interval should be. I was previously informed that pregnancies should be spaced at least two years and I had no real opinion on the issue of having "too long" an interval in between pregnancies... I was wrong! This discovery was prompted by a project I am working on in my Internship with REACHUP, Inc. to create educational materials for consumers about preconception and inter-conception health - like the example below! For those who don't know, preconception and inter-conception refers to the time before (pre) and between (inter) pregnancies. Research demonstrates ( and frankly so does common sense ) that your health before you get pregnant and in between your pregnancies is important to your future health and that of your future baby! Planning your family can help you accomplish important goals, get healthy before pregnancy, and make decisions that will make your future family stronger. For example, in the case of s...

Another perfect food for Pregnancy, and everyone! I discovered a research article about the beneficial effects of eating dates towards end of your pregnancy! I knew NOTHING about dates, and had to do some research, and I have discovered that dates are wonderful little fruits and should be consumed by everyone :) The date ( Phoenix dactylifera) is a sweet tasting fruit which grows on the date palm, originating in the Middle East and African Regions of the world. There are a variety of date palm species and over 14 varieties of date fruits. Dates may be one of the top 10 foods you should eat . You can use them in so many different recipes (sweet potatoes, salads, desserts!) and they have a long shelf life. The list of various fatty acids, minerals, nutrients, animo acids, vitamins, elements... is so long, this fruit is amazing! Dates are composed of: At least 15 different minerals such as Potassium, Calcium, Fluorine (great for teeth!) , Iron, and Zinc 14 types of fatty acids 23 typ...

True to form, the medical community has routinely over-used an intervention on women and babies EXPERIMENTALLY before knowing the risks or benefits of wide-scale use. Mass experimentation on women and children has been an ongoing issue with modern western medicine and CLEARLY continues... this time with the drug Pitocin.  Pitocin, a synthetic form of Oxytocin, is used all too frequently in maternity care to either induce (start) or augment (speed up) labor... a typical intervention on the 'cascade' that SO many women unnecessarily face in the hospital system today. It is WELL KNOWN that Pitocin makes contractions more frequent, more intense, and longer. ...so how could it NOT adversely effect a newborn!? Additionally, research has demonstrated that Pitocin use to induce labor can double the risk of a surgical delivery (Cesarean Section). According to Birth Certificate data from the CDC 2010 Report and the recently released Listening to Mother Survey III , somewhere between 2...

An interesting and possibly alarming connection... Could the bacteria found in a baby's gut be a link between cesarean sections, infant formula, and Autism?  Current research is demonstrating that the bacteria found in your gut affects your behavior - additionally, research is also demonstrating that infants fed infant formula and delivered by cesarean surgery have altered gut microbiota, is it possible this is a link between cesarean delivery, infant formula and behavioral disorders such as Autism? Such a link could have substantial repercussions on our population's health.  Research from UCLA (1) demonstrates that the brain-gut communication flows in both directions.When women were fed yogurt with probiotics, their brainstem and prefrontal cortex were more active (measured using f MRI), meaning that the rational decision making center of their brain was receiving, interpreting, and responding to messages from the body. Conversely, a group of women who received no probi...