Our next Meet the Doulas Tea will be on Thursday, July 17 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm in the Decatur area. The tea is open to all who are interested in finding out more about the role of a doula in birth or any of the childbirth services offered by Decatur Doulas. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to Jenn for exact location.
June 29, 2008
June 20, 2008
The Doula Phoenix
“In North America, social birth disappeared in the twentieth century: women no longer needed labor support because they were unconscious. When women woke up, the doula was roused from a long slumber as well.”
- Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, by Jennifer Block
Triple Screen
This from a friend in Atlanta, names have been changed…
“I remember when Susan was pregnant with Henry, I had to debate
with the doctor about our refusal to take certain prenatal tests.
The only “benefit” these tests provided was information you might use
if you wanted to abort a deformed infant. Since we would not abort
regardless of the results, it made no sense to put Susan and Henry at
risk with these invasive tests.
I made this case to the OB/GYN and he responded, “You mean you don’t
want to know if the baby is a monster?” I was outraged, but I just
shook my head and said, “It doesn’t matter.”"
June 16, 2008
Read to your Baby
You might feel a little odd at first if you are not used to reading aloud, especially reading to an infant who seems to not follow the story. Keep at it and you’ll get better at reading and your child’s brain will have that extra stimulation of words, sentence structure, and more.
“Bedtime reading stimulates nearly every facet of a child’s development, from language to memory, to motor skills, as he or she learns to turn pages, understand sequences, and follow a narrative.” A new study shows that books stimulate all aspects of a young child’s development. The earlier your child gets into reading books with the family, the more successful he or she will be later in academic studies.
Reported in The Week, May 30,2008
June 12, 2008
Psychiatrists in Drug Income Conflict
This was the title of an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 8, 2008. Here’s the opening paragraph:
“A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful anti-psychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to the university officials.” The doctor is Joseph Biederman, along with a colleague, Dr. Timothy Wilens. The article goes on, “…his work helped to fuel a controversial 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder… and it is far from clear that the medications improve children’s lives over time, experts say.”
The article further describes that research financing is increasingly coming from the pharmaceutical industry and less from the federal government. The National Institutes of Health require reporting of research income over $10,000 per year by universities, but have no way of verifying the accuracy of this voluntarily reported income.
What?! NO way of verifying major conflicts of interest! Children needlessly taking psychiatric drugs! The side effect on children, families, and society are enormous! This is a doctor with great influence affecting “an explosion in the use of anti-psychotic medicines” and the practice of thousands of doctors and the lives of countless families. The same kinds of things happen with childbirth practices in terms of the great influence of groups like the American College of Gynecologists (ACOG). One example is the dramatic decrease in women’s access to vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) in the past decade due to ACOGs statement on saftey. They don’t tell you about that when you agree to your first cesarean. There’s lots more where that came from. Read the book, Pushed, by Jennifer Block.
Parents, pay attention! Ask questions. Do your own research. In any situation, take responsibility for your own health care and that of your children. You are the only ones who truly have their best interest at heart.
June 7, 2008
Surrender
“To truly give birth you have to surrender to the process of birth, which is to suspend a conscious awareness. You must trust the instinctive internal self. And I think we have come upon a generation of women who don’t know what that internal trust looks like. I think there will come a time when we will remember or will rediscover – perhaps it will be so distant that we’ll feel we have discovered – the intrinsic value of birth under one’s own steam. Maybe we have to evolve back to a place where we realize all of this is folly. That we can’t control health in ways we think we can. And that in fact the most important and valuable thing we can give ourselves is a woman under her own steam, bringing her babies forth.”
-Midwife quoted in Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, by Jennifer Block.
Kid Smarts from Mom’s Diet
“Three year olds whose mothers ate more fish while pregnant with them score better on several tests of cognitive function than their peers whose mothers avoided seafood, a new study shows. However, the researchers also found that the amount of mercury in a woman’s body rose with the amount of fish she had consumed – and that children exposed to more mercury performed worse on these tests. Based on the findings, they say, it’s possible that fish could have even greater brain benefits for babies if mothers-to-be consumed seafood with lower mercury levels.” -Reuters Health
Now, while this analysis does not distinguish between “fish” and “seafood,” one would be wise to avoid those that are known to be higher in mercury content. A good rule of thumb is to also only eat wild fish, not farm-grown. Here’s a link to the Seafood Selector of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Shampoo Ingredients and Your Baby’s Health
If you’ve been to one of our Meet the Doulas Teas, you’ll know that I am a strong advocate of using baby soap products that are not petroleum based (anything containing sodium laureth sulfate and the like). Here’s a link to River Wired about shampoos containing phalates affecting your child’s later reproductive health. Think: Grandchildren! There’s a short video on the page.
Really, moms, take nothing for granted! A product is not guaranteed to be healthy just because it’s made by Johnson & Johnson or because it’s on the shelf at Target or Costco (actually, more reason to be suspicious). Use plant-based soaps, shampoos, and wipes/wipe solutions. I use California Baby products, but there are other good ones available online or at natural food stores. If you haven’t noticed that we live in a very toxic world, and welcome it into our homes in so many ways, please start paying attention! It’s not hard to find good information and healthy products, you just have to look beyond that thing which is easiest to put in your shopping cart.
Our skin is our largest organ and it soaks in whatever you put on top of it. Take your plant-based soap products to the hospital with you and have them use that to wash your newborn. It’s never too early to start!
