tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55098577018867142822024-03-14T03:05:50.070-07:00Makawee MusingsChanging the world starts at conception, saving the world starts at birthAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-90732068518930466442014-04-10T23:08:00.000-07:002014-04-10T23:08:19.134-07:00MapsMy first assignment in a Women Studies class this term was to draw a map of the world without looking at one. Here is how it turned out:<br />
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After a very hectic day, I welcomed the idea of grabbing a big paper and some crayons and getting my brain into drawing mode. I knew it would be hard to be detailed with names and border lines of countries and really, "who cares about that stuff..... well, obviously, but what is important?" I asked myself. So I of course started with what is most familiar and drew the North, Central and South American continents. Then came blue crayons for the Arctic up top and then I couldn't remember if it was called the Arctic or Antarctica, so I made the one on the bottom the South Pole, which is older than the North Pole because I saw that on a animation of how the plates and continents have changes in millions of years. So then I started the other half of the world that I knew I was going to screw up, but I remember Africa's shape. It is familiar, it is "Origins," I call it, where we all started walking on 2 legs.... I couldn't remember the formation that New Zealand has but I knew it was off over in the corner above Australia and then, while we are on islands, lets put Greenland up there and start on Europe which I know I butchered as well. Russia, India, the middle east, and where is the Dead Sea? I was just looking at a close up map of this area where Israel and Lebanon and Iran and other Arab countries are in a state of perpetual war, religious extremists, lots of sand.... The beaches were incredible! Oh and the Himalayas!! The Buddhists! China who is invading and taking everything, it will be so interesting when they meet head to head with the Russians. Better not forget Japan, home of the Pokemon.</div>
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Then I started going and labeling places according to what I know about them from earth science classes, movies, news and where we live now and where I was born. In N. America we have grizzly bears and Sarah Palin in Alaska, a gold rush trail into the Cascade Mountains, the Rockies, the Great Lakes, the Appalachian Mountains. Lake Okeechobee in FL, a Pirate ship in the Caribbean. I drew trees for the rain forests in South America and mentioned it was only what is left of them, acknowledging their destruction, the Andes Mountains, so magical, another possible Origin of Man. On Africa I drew pyramids and pointed to S. Africa for having white people in power. Europe, I circled for it's Universal health care and population of midwives, a smiley face because Denmark and Holland are reported to be the happiest places on the planet. I know there is great strife for the queer community in Russia so I wrote, "No Gays Allowed" up there. China, where everything is "made in" and I drew a big red war circle around most of Africa, China, Russia, The Middle East and Japan. (I just realized I forgot Korea entirely) Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand so I pointed that out and the Great Barrier reef off the east coast of Australia even though I am not sure if that is where that is, but it has it's own clown fish named Nemo there. RIP Steve Irwin, I loved him. I also labeled Kangaroos, Koalas and deadly spiders and fish, (along with so many other things), in Australia. </div>
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This was fun because even though I don't know names and boundaries, I could still picture some of the landscape and what kinds of cultures are places. I didn't have the room or artistic abilities to draw the Gods of European Druids, African Tribal villages, Indian women with bright fabrics and shiny Models of multi-armed, elephant headed goddess, Temples, Cathedrals, Ghettos and slums, hut villages in Haiti, the markets in Peru, the wall in Palestine, the wars, refugees, famine, diseases, love, learning, sharing, art.... The world as I know it is sooooooo vast, I couldn't hardly create an image in 2D on paper. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-85816731685562353322013-11-18T09:04:00.000-08:002013-11-18T09:04:36.713-08:00The Beginnings of Dreams.....Isn't it amazing how kids can come up with the most profound ideas and conversations at bedtime? Last night, Tiana when to bed crying about the state of the world. She is sick of people screwing things up and she wants to see some change, she tells me she wants to protest at the state capital. She is sick of people polluting, sick of trees being cut down, does not see how it is ok for us to kill those trees and wreck the homes of so many animals just so people can have paper and other things we throw away. She is sick of plastic everywhere, walking around town to have exhaust fumes in her face, people who are starting and participating in wars, poor people in the street that are sick and hungry while rich people drive stupid cars and live in houses too big, she doesn't want to live on a planet where no one cares. In order to give her hope, I asked her if it would make her feel any better if she knew there were millions of people protesting that right now. She looked at me funny so I got out the ipad and pulled up footage from Occupy and Tahir Square and Brazil and talks about ending wars and poverty and environmentalists blocking machines. I told her she is hearing the voices of these people in her heart and soul and we are working very hard to pave the way for the work she will have to do in her life to change the world. She asked how come she didn't know this was all happening and I said people just don't talk about it to kids I guess, she said, "well that is stupid, I need to know what is going on, this is my world too." She said she was sick of people acting like everything is ok <br />
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when she knows it is not and that people in schools should be talking about this to the kids because no one believed her when she tried to talk about it. She wants animals to have rights. She wants people to stop fighting over imaginary gods and resources that will run out anyway. Fossil fuels don't last forever. She had so much to say through her tears. I told her I hope she stays angry so she will have the passion needed to move through her life holding her values in her heart. It's the only thing that brings people to action, when they get mad.... I told her it is ok to feel scared and worried. After all, everything IS NOT OK. And if we keep acting like it is, it's gonna get bad a lot quicker... I love that kid. I am so glad she is aware and can hear the voices of our brothers and sisters in the streets around the world, paving the way for her generation to make things better. I told her, I may not be able to do much in my lifetime, but I am doing my best and the work I do will help to support her to do the work she is going to need to do because I know, her work will be harder than mine. Because when she is ready to make a difference, it will be my parent's generation, the ones who slept through it all, who will be calling the shots, the ones she will have to argue with in her 20-30's. Those are the ones who don't remember the ways and only have been fed lies and complaceny. It has to get better people. Our children are crying in their beds. They are demanding a better outlook. It is up to us to give it to them. If you do one thing today, make sure it is something that will make the world a better place for our kids please. Please.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-27075641213990762272013-09-25T11:53:00.001-07:002013-09-25T11:53:52.268-07:00It is OK to have orgasms when you are birthingAnother Facebook irritation coming your way.<br />
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Frankly, I am about sick of, no, I AM SICK OF women shaming women for birthing with pleasure. When you have a baby and you experience Hell on Earth, everyone is all, " OHHH hunny I am so sorry, Oh I know, I hooked up to the epidural within 10 minutes of getting admitted at 2 CM," like it is all sisterhood. But as SOON as you say you had a fun and exciting, even ORGASMIC birth, it is like you are the red headed step child of birthing and NO ONE wants to talk to you about it. They make you feel all weird about it, act like you are lying, tell you it is gross and inappropriate and get their panties in a bunch about the idea one would even want to have orgasms during birthing. So this natural parenting Facebook page posts this <a href="http://thestir.cafemom.com/pregnancy/161565/1_easy_thing_you_can?utm_medium=sm&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=natural_fanpage" target="_blank">blog post</a> yesterday and the whole waterfall of comments explodes with the same kind of mass shame attack of how in the world and "that was the last thing on my mind" comments. Funny, when my vagina is in pain, I think the first thing on my mind is going to be how can I make it feel better and when does it feel the best? OH YA!!! During orgasms!!! Wow!! Rocket Science!!! So here it goes, me trying to be diplomatic, which as you can see, takes a lot when I am irritated. So after you read the post in the link above that tells you laughter is the one thing to learn how to do to get orgasms during contractions, here is a little advice from me too... because I have had an orgasmic birth, before I even knew it was something that could happen. Ya, we were as surprised as you are...<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">"I find it so ha</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">rd to believe that women who were empowered enough to birth their babies naturally, believing in the power and ability of their own bodies, would find it so weird or gross that women can achieve joy and pleasure through orgasmic feelings while getting their babies down and out. It is just as sad as hearing a woman say she is going to "try for a natural birth." Your body is meant to bring your baby out and it is also meant to feel pleasure. Have you never watched a cat purr as she is laboring to give birth to her kittens? When you enjoy sex or masturbation during your pregnancy, is it not the most amazing feeling to feel your huge uterus pulsate with pleasure? THAT is the key to having orgasmic birthing experiences, learning to enjoy your big uterus contract and pulsate during love making or orgasms by yourself. And then when the time comes for labor, your contractions build into a crescendo of orgasms, joy and pleasure at your contracting uterus, the intimacy of your baby coming through you. This is NOT SEXUAL. It is physiological, it is psychological, it is birth. If our bodies weren't meant to feel good, we wouldn't have all the amazing hormones that come with an undisturbed and fearless birth. It is OUR CULTURE that makes us feel as though we are meant to feel excruciating pain and it has been that way since the first telling of Adam and Eve. It is ingrained into your psyche that you are meant to break at the excruciating birthing experience, but the truth is, you are meant for more than that. Sure, there are painful experiences, sure there are scary ones, sure there are emergencies, but there are also orgasmic, wonderful, pleasurable births and NO WOMAN should be made to feel ashamed for experiencing those any more than a woman who had to have a surgical birth should feel ashamed things didn't go right for her and her baby's dance of birth. It is not weird or gross or inappropriate any more than using drugs to ease your agony for not knowing the secrets to pleasure and pain-free birth is. "</span><br />
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Feel free to quote me.....<br />
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Ladies, you have the right. And, guess what else? You have the right to tell your story of your awesome birth. And you have the right not to be ridiculed for feeling GOOD during birth and if more of OUR GOOD STORIES were shared, we would have more good stories to share because it is all about expectations and if you expect pain, every single twinge of sensation you feel will be processed as pain and if you expect to feel pleasure, your mind will process your sensations as pleasure.<br />
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WATCH THIS!!! It shows everything and it is amazing!!!<br />
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And here is the famous Orgasmic Birth footage that has been going through the web with an interview with the Mom who starred in the <a href="http://www.orgasmicbirth.com/" target="_blank">Orgasmic Birth Documentary. </a><br />
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It was videos like these that helped me prepare for my pleasurable, present, active labor and deliver my baby so swiftly and joyously. </div>
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Ina May Gaskin has been saying it for years and years and her and the Farm Birth Center in TN have a way lower cesarean rate than any other birth center or hospital in the USA. </div>
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People. It is OK to have orgasms during birth. And it is OK to talk about it. It is NOT OK to be shamed for it. So.. you know the rule, if you don't have something nice to say.... shut up. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-88241486159646212182013-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:002015-02-04T13:43:41.980-08:00For the Future of Butterflies<div class="clearfix" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; zoom: 1;">
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Health Chess ABeCell's</h2>
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14 September 2009 at 17:02<span class="timelineUnitContainer" style="position: relative;"><a aria-label="Public" class="passiveImg fbAudienceHover timelineAudienceSelector" data-hover="tooltip" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/edwin-manners/health-chess-abecells/134816456199?notif_t=comment_mention#" role="button" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; margin-left: 5px; margin-top: -3px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; top: 2px;"><i class="img sp_76d73k sx_45f66f" style="background-image: url(https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/y_/r/BORmTFyvaAB.png); background-position: -93px -532px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: inline-block; height: 12px; width: 12px;"></i></a></span></div>
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<span class="photo " style="padding: 0px;"><img alt="Art by Ally Way ( Juno Brown)" class="photo_img img" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/183728_10150104553607036_6596786_n.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 580px; padding: 0px;" title="Art by Ally Way ( Juno Brown)" /></span><br />
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Art by Ally Way ( Juno Brown)</div>
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<i>Health Chess ABeCell's</i><br />
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<i>Full of our cells</i><br />
<i>We see our cells</i><br />
<i>Each A piece in a cosmic, political, and natural chess game of life, death, and health</i><br />
<i>Every cell is full of Aspirations, gifts, talents, and needs</i><br />
<i>Some hear A cell cry out for Attention, support, care, food, and other basic needs</i><br />
<i>Some think cells cry out for stupid, damn reasons: from pain or poverty, or A need for recognition, love, and An equal chance</i><br />
<i>Some Belittle the weaker cells, or Believe everything is ok as it is, after all some cells will always Be poor, Be killed, Be homeless, Be weak, Be sick, Be hopefully gone from our minds and eyes, and Be gone from our ears and hearts</i><br />
<i>And if a black knight comes to help the damn cells in distress</i><br />
<i>Many of the other privileged pieces say, "Let her Be whatever, we are the Best, we can't help every pawn, they will just have to learn, those damn cells that every cell can't have their basic needs met, this is A Be, C's for the Crooks of Capitalism and a D for Democracy to boot, forget socialism, it's a free and wonderful market place, not a free ride, don't they know? And if they don't have the money to pay for medical care or food, or a place to live, well then, they can just work for it, some cells will just have to pull them cells up by their boot straps, whether they have a job or not, what is wrong with those damn cells anyway, why can't they just get it together …....... "</i><br />
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<i>and we do .....</i><br />
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<i>Here's how it works in a butterfly</i><br />
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<i>The Butterfly Metaphor for Transformation</i><br />
<i>by John Renesch</i><br />
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<i>As we began the new year and welcomed a new U.S. president into office I was reminded of the metaphor of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly, befitting a time for transformation - new beginnings and paradigm shifts. The market crash offers a triggering event that could lead us into another aspect of a paradigm shift.</i><br />
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<i>I first heard the metaphor from evolution biologist Elisabet Sahtouris who made the analogy between this miracle of Nature and the prospective global paradigm shift in which we find ourselves today. Sahtouris tells this story: “My favorite metaphor for the current world transition, first pointed out to me by Norie Huddle (author of Butterfly), is that of a butterfly in metamorphosis. It goes like this:</i><br />
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<i>When a caterpillar has plowed rather destructively through its ecosystem, devouring up to several hundred times its weight each day, it gets bloated and hangs itself up to sleep. Its skin hardens into a chrysalis and then, deep in the caterpillar's body, tiny things biologists call 'imaginal disks" begin to form. Not recognizing the newcomers, the caterpillar's immune system ‘snuffs’ them. But they keep coming faster and faster, then begin to link up with each other. Eventually the caterpillar's immune system fails from the stress and the disks, becoming imaginal cells, build the butterfly from the meltdown of the caterpillar's body.</i><br />
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<i>For a long time biologists could not understand why the caterpillar's immune system attacked the new cells, but recently it was discovered that butterfly (imaginal) cells carry a completely different genome. Apparently all metamorphosing insects acquired the second genome somewhere in their evolution and have lived these double lives ever since. If we see ourselves as imaginal cells working to build the butterfly- a better world - we will also see how important it is to link with each other in the effort and to recognize how many different kinds of imaginal cells it will take to build a butterfly with all its capabilities and colors.</i><br />
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<i>I love this metaphor because it shows us why we, who want to change the world, are co-existing with the old system for a while and why there's no point in attacking the old system because you know the caterpillar is unsustainable. It's going to die. The question on which we can focus is “Can we midwife a viable butterfly?”</i><br />
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<i>Patience and understanding is called for in this metamorphic transition. While many of us understand how paradigms change few of us possess the patience. In his book Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, Greg Levoy tells a story that speaks to impatience, also using a butterfly metaphor. He writes:</i><br />
<i>In his autobiography, Nokos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, described an incident in which he came upon a cocoon cradled in the bark of an olive tree just as the butterfly was making a hole and attempting to emerge. Impatient for results, he bent over it and warmed it under his breath, by which he succeeded in speeding up the process. The butterfly, however, emerged prematurely, its wings hopelessly crumpled and stuck to its own body, which needed the sun's patient warmth, not the man's impertinent breath, to transform it. Moments, later, after a desperate struggle, the butterfly died in the palm of his hand. “That little body," he wrote toward the end of his life, “is the greatest weight I have on my conscience."</i><br />
<i>As this butterfly story teaches, we have to learn to trust that all things happen in their own time when our lives are ready to receive the miracles in store for us.</i><br />
<i>Both of these stories can serve us as we weather this storm of the collapse of one economic system and hospice the old while standing ready to midwife whatever new system will emerge from the rubble. As Buffalo Springfield sang long ago,</i><br />
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<i>There's something happening here</i><br />
<i>What it is ain't exactly clear</i><br />
<i>…. Everybody look what's going down</i><br />
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<i>"There is a poetic, a psychic quality about a butterfly, especially a golden butterfly, that should arrest attention, if not inspire the honeyed muse, and make even materialistic turtles crane their necks. It would serve an excellent purpose, if some one should strike right through our banter and reserve of sentiment and hold aloft this symbol of spiritual beauty"....June 23, 1905 Edwin Manners</i><br />
I read this over 2 years ago from a facebook friend and fell in love with all it's meaning and knew this is the point of connection I have, we have, with each other. Understanding this principle is key to "midwifing a viable butterfly" and is the fuel that feeds my work, my sacrifice, my gifts to the world, to Earth, to humanity and what is left of life here. It is taxing, but it will be worth it. I also understand that I will likely not see the type of results I am looking for in my life time, but it will hopefully start the movement towards it in the life times of the babies born during my life time, my own and the others I will touch in my work, and my children's children and their work.<br />
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For the future of butterflies....</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-28610551112657202052013-06-23T20:19:00.000-07:002013-08-07T13:39:27.676-07:00Community Birth WorkersOur Rainbow House attracted another knock on the door today from the cousin of my neighbors' grandson who walked her over to say hi and let me know how much she loves the house. Her and partner are expecting a wee one and was surprised and excited to know about my birth support services and network of lovely providers for her to chose from. She thought she would have to go to Alsea to have a home birth. This young lady was friends with several people that know of me, her partner's cousin is a friend of my son's.<br />
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Friends and family, sister birth workers, please talk to your neighbors about what you are doing, tell them about safe options in childbirth, talk about how important it is for mothers and fathers to be supported and informed so they know that <b><u><i>there are people in their communities</i></u></b> that are available to them to find the birth they want. To CREATE the birth they deserve. It is about all of us and we are all affected in so many ways by the system of care in which babies are brought here. If you are one of those people that think because you are finished having kids or never having them that birth isn't important, think again. Read this book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Childbirth-Future-Sapiens-Michel-Odent/dp/1780660952/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372043393&sr=8-1&keywords=childbirth+and+the+future+of+homo+sapiens" target="_blank">Childbirth and the Future of Homo Sapiens</a> by Dr. Michele Odent.<br />
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Be aware, be a resource, know your referrals among your circle of friends and loved ones, Business partners and network circles.... You might be the link that makes all the difference in the world to that family.<br />
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In Lebanon, OR there are at least 4 Midwives, 2 student midwives, at least 7 doulas, 3 childbirth educators and people meeting regularly to learn and create more community among women and surrounding birth in particular.<br />
<br />
Please have a look at some of the local Birth workers in my community:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.birthwithliz.com/" target="_blank">Birth With Liz</a><br />
<a href="http://www.midvalleybirthingservices.com/" target="_blank">Midvalley Birthing Sevices</a><br />
<a href="http://www.growingfamilybirthcenter.com/services.html" target="_blank">Growing Family Birth Center</a><br />
<a href="http://www.makaweebirthassistance.com/" target="_blank">Makawee Birth Assistance</a> (obviously myself)<br />
<a href="http://www.corvallisdoulas.net/" target="_blank">Corvallis Doula Network</a><br />
<a href="http://www.gentlebeginningsmidwiferycare.com/about/lisa-lehrer" target="_blank">Gentle Beginnings Midwifery Care</a><br />
<a href="http://valleybirthcenter.org/" target="_blank">Heart Of the Valley Birth Center</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-61967247996601415942013-06-20T12:53:00.000-07:002013-08-07T13:42:02.753-07:00MoneyMany years of my life have been spent with short term goals in mind because the short term was so uncertain while being poor and having little resources to draw from. Days go by, weeks, months, without ever considering what will be happening in the next year, 2 years, 5 years, 10. After all, there is no way to even think about possibilities when you don't even know if you will be in the same house or town. That is how it has been for me since I was a young teen.<br />
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Someone recently said to me, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." I couldn't agree more. I realized several years ago that as soon as I spoke the words, my fate changed. As soon as I said," I'm going to do (insert clever plan on making money or improving my family's quality of life)," I could literally feel my insides changing to make it difficult or impossible. Even as I listened to "The Secret" on audio a few years ago and thought that she might be onto something and noticed the way I would challenge the Universe to provide my desires and changing my thoughts to make it seem like it was a success when things happened, I could remember all the times I spoke my thoughts and everything grew further out of reach. Do we live by the law of attraction, willing our desires and needs to us, creating our reality? Or, is it more like God laughing as he taunts us with close successes and dreams that never come to fruition as some kind of challenge to live harder and build us up stronger? Well, for me, it is neither because I believe in neither God or fateful Secrets. <br />
<br />
The last few weeks have been filled with consuming thoughts of how I am going to make my goals work. How am I going to take charge and make it happen without relying on God or mantras? I am browsing pages of options and then thinking, while looking at train schedules and class schedules for classes I want to take more than a year from now, that it is useless to try to find this info because it will likely change before I have the opportunity to use it. Realizing you can't exactly make plans for 3-5-8-10 years from now down to the details of transportation and time management is defeating.<br />
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The harder I look, the further I feel away from my goals and desires. I have to challenge myself about responsibility and attachments and sacrifices, about letting go of old ideas and which ones are worth holding onto. I am sick of reinventing myself. I know what I want to do, but it feels ever so out of reach and it comes down to MONEY.<br />
<br />
You see, if you have money you don't have to rely on other people to help you out of the kindness and convenience of their hearts, you pay your way to what you need and desire. If I had money to care for my needs, I could volunteer at any service I wanted to give and we all know, I live to serve my community and the mothers and children and families and even the critters, domestic and wild. Hell, I would tree sit and get arrested at demonstrations. I would camp out in front of the Capital and serve food to the homeless. I would do the gardening at CARDV and take elderly people to the park. I would be a volunteer midwife and serve birthing families as often as I could without any strings attached, if I could feed my own family and secure my own home and their futures.<br />
<br />
I could be amazing.... if I had money.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-90846224451968232992013-05-29T10:20:00.001-07:002013-08-07T13:44:09.183-07:00Women Deliver<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Activist and film maker, Janel Mirendah has many things to say and I agree 100%. Here is a quote from her today in response to this picture. </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151459934551748&set=a.39121296747.52191.656566747&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_reply">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151459934551748&set=a.39121296747.52191.656566747&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_reply</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">No where is the sacrifice of women to the alter of medical negligence (and greed and control) more of a problem than in wealthy America, where MORE women and babies die than in any other industrialized nation and even more than some very poor countries. The medical model of birth is FORCED upon US women and babies while right to access to physiological model of birth (of which midwives are the ex</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">perts) that make birth safer around the world are denied. Midwives are villianized, criminalized, and brutalized in the US where MORE women and babies will die and countless others who survived are profoundly, permanently harmed. This is only because the rights of people to be born safely AND gently are controlled by the medical and legal systems.<br /><br />The US medical model of birth is NOT safe and it is not kind. The US conquering, wounding male model of medical birth that squelches the feminine, intuitive, natural, physiological model of birth that brought humanity through eons, is NOT the answer to maternal health care around the world - No more than Nestle and Monsanto are the answer to feeding the world. These corporate monsters are a result of, exist because of, the willingness of humans to continue to ignore the truth about women's bodies and what babies/humans truly need. These corporations are the result of disempowered and violence imprinted humans at the most profound moment: birth and connection. These corporations exist, while we HAVE the resources but no the collective will, and not the collective authority over the resources, because of the willingness to continue for generations now to deny women's rights, baby's and father's rights; and, because of the willingness to routinely, profoundly disrupt and abuse women and babies in their most vulnerable moment. In the most powerful country in the world, this is where and how Monsanto and Nestle's control over the world begins.<br /><br />Women and babies in Africa and in United States need what every human being for eons has needed: To be wanted, loved, and welcomed to this planet and treated kindly and as a being of value. They need good food, clean water and air, access to plant medicine and natural antibiotics (lavender, silver, etc), acupuncture, massage/touch, etc and access to the real "alternative", modern medicine, when needed. Childbearing women need not to work 40-60 hours a week. Babies need nourished, nurtured, loved, supported mothers for the first years of their emotional, mental, and physical development.<br /><br />To do that on a global level, or on a mama-baby level, we must first see and know, and acknowledge, WHO the human baby is. See how every moment of development from pre-conception (health of sperm and egg) through infancy is a profound, critical continuum of development: emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, financially. Mothering and fathering need to be valued. The human infant and child needs to be treated as the greatest national resource we have.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-35449933198707268922013-05-08T08:00:00.001-07:002013-05-08T08:00:51.521-07:00Zonta Scholarship EssayI received word yesterday that I was chosen to receive a $2700 scholarship from the Zonta Club of Corvallis. I had to write a one page essay on how I plan on serving women in the community. One page is a hard limit for me as there are so many ways in which I plan to serve the community for so many reasons but I did it and apparently it worked so here is the essay, enjoy!<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Zonta Scholarship Essay by Kaire Downin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Taking
12 credits a term, keeping a GPA of over 3.0 as well as navigating a health
care system to manage the care of my daughter with Autism has been one of the
most challenging aspects of being a mom in college. After experiencing these
challenges and deciding to home school my daughter, its becoming even more
challenging yet and I don’t see it getting much easier. That being said, my
passion and drive to make the world a better place for my daughters and the
women and daughters in my community fuels my love for education and addiction
to volunteering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> At OSU, I am working on 2
degrees, one in Human Development and Family Science, the other in Women Studies
with a minor in Psychology. The main
goal of my education is to be a midwife. I hope to continue to attend college part
time to earn the prerequisite credits to finish in the National College of
Naturopathic Medicine in Portland where I will become a naturopathic physician
and midwife. I will approach midwifery in a way that is more than catching
babies, but transforming women into strong, independent, empowered and educated
mothers by supporting the formation of their family with Holistic care. Working
with mothers who are survivors of abuse is one of my top priorities. Childbirth
is a time of transformation where the opportunity to heal many past emotional
and spiritual injuries is present. I plan to provide support to help families
grow out of old pains and into a new position of love and care, even if these mothers
have not experienced a life of that themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Having dropped out of high
school the day I turned 16 and being a homeless teen, I didn’t have the
opportunities or support to become a college graduate early in my life. I
worked in night clubs, eventually finding a partner and getting pregnant at 19.
Shortly after the birth of our son, we were married and have remained together
for 16 years. I went to Massage Therapy school and worked for 4 years until I
had my 2<sup>nd</sup> child. I spent 4 years of my 2 daughters’ early lives
working from home as a seamstress after designing a baby carrier and creating
an online business that failed due to the lack of financial investment I could
contribute. After the loss of that opportunity, I had my hand at real estate, but
that coincided with the drop in the market and I was, again, suffering due to
lack of financial support and was forced to quit that endeavor and go to
college. I never, in a million years, thought I would be a college student, and
I certainly never thought I would be considering becoming a doctor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://intimacyheals.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/woman-making-heart-shape-with-handsning2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://intimacyheals.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/woman-making-heart-shape-with-handsning2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> The birth of my children was the
most transformative and healing process for me. Currently, I am studying
textbooks, reading studies, writing papers, attending a study group and
conferences, and providing birth support as a doula when I am available. I also
provide herbal and placenta medicine to new moms and post partum help with
breastfeeding. I never turn down a client for lack of money because ALL moms
deserve care. I believe the future of our society depends on peaceful births
and support of mothers to raise peaceful children who will care about the
people around them and the Earth we live on. I believe that Midwifery is one of
the highest forms of working with women and is important for all people. All babies
deserve a peaceful birth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Acknowledging the lack of
midwifery care in our health system has put me in position to be an activist
politically. I am the Vice Chair of the Linn County Community Advisory
Committee that oversees the efforts of Intercommunity Health Network and
Samaritan Health services to perform the contracted duties of providing care to
Oregon Health Care clients. Oregon
Health Care is in a big transition and being a part of this committee puts me
in a position to influence the way that health care is administered to the
underprivileged population that uses OHP for services. The current goals are to
reduce spending, provide patient centered, preventative care and create a
system that addresses the full needs of the community which is currently
lacking in mental health, maternity service, disability care, and drug and
alcohol rehabilitation. It is an honor and privilege to be in this position
which I was nominated for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So
as you can see, I am an active and passionate community member with a focus on
women and children. Receiving this scholarship would help my family tremendously.
We currently are a month behind on our mortgage and are wondering how we will
pay for child care over the summer so we can both attend school full time. My
part time care taking job will likely be terminated in another month. To be the recipient of this scholarship would
be a blessing. Thank you for your consideration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-49851108053613195792012-11-13T14:18:00.002-08:002012-11-13T14:19:06.176-08:0010 Yellow ThingsIn one of my classes, my professor likes to start the class with a writing exercise. He asked us to write down a list of 10 yellow things and then write a poem, we had 10 minutes. This is what I got....<br />
<a href="http://earlystories.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/yellow-roses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://earlystories.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/yellow-roses.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
My Notebook<br />
Roses for Suffrage<br />
Sections of my Rainbow House<br />
The Sunset<br />
Pineapples<br />
Pears<br />
Crayons<br />
My Tank Top<br />
Pill Boxes<br />
Soap Bottles<br />
<br />
The Sunset reminds me of evenings spent sipping pineapple frozen drinks in the Keys<br />
I wore my tank top that matches my mom's favorite yellow roses,<br />
but she doesn't know they had anything to do with suffrage voting.<br />
I moved far away from there<br />
and instead of lemons in my back yard<br />
there are pears<br />
My bathroom is smaller<br />
with soap bottles and pill boxes scattered on the counter top<br />
and outside there is a rainbow painted on the front of my old house.<br />
My children no linger draw on the walls with crayons<br />
and instead my notebooks go missing.<br />
This is what home looks like,<br />
Ever changing as fast as the sunset.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-73180149777839336842012-11-12T22:42:00.001-08:002013-08-07T13:46:05.238-07:00GMO Madness<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism_50290d5e92a11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism_50290d5e92a11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism_50290d5e92a11.jpg" target="_blank">click here to enlarge</a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This is a subject I have been paying quite a bit of attention to for several years. The single most convincing argument I have heard is from Robin Lim, a famous midwife in Indonesia who has been working with women there for over 20 years. She has found that since GMO soy and corn crops have been added to the diets of the women in Indonesia, there has been a huge influx of placenta abnormalities. Problems with the placenta that are life threatening to the baby that used to be rare are now being seen more often, as much as several times a day in the birth center where she assists in the delivery in over 10 babies a day. You can read more about her experience <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/034968_GMOs_umbilical_cords_midwives.html" target="_blank">here: </a></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We do not have enough research that shows that these modified food are safe for people, we do have studies showing they alter the genes of animals. The same company that made Agent Orange and DDT makes these GMOs and they said the previous chemicals were safe and they were not. I guaranty once you go looking around and connect the dots that you will find that this is an experiment being done, especially on the poor people of the world and we are losing. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Monsanto sold thousands of these types of crops to people in India and when their crops died, families lost everything. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide from the practices of Monsanto selling them seeds that don't grow, with the promise that they will have better crops. They infect crops that are natural and ruin the livlihoods of anyone in the area. The company makes them dispose of all their own seeds that they have learned to save for generations, they test nearby farmers and if their crops show signs of the GMO they sue them. This practice forces the farmers to buy seeds every year and prevents them from using the farmers knowledge and tradition of how to grow proper food, making their land bare and stealing everything from their families. You can read more about that <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I invite you to do read beyond this one page to educate yourself on not only the health destruction but the life destruction that this business promotes, the horrible business practices and go a bit further to learn that the former lobbyist, Michael Taylor, of this monstrous company has been appointed by OBAMA as the Senior Advisory to Commissioner for the FDA! </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida grande', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Yes I am passionate about this. Natural food is at stake. Our well being is at stake. People's livelihoods are at stake and we are being fed this garbage without our knowledge. Even "organic" food can have GMO products. We need to know what we are eating, have access to safe, affordable, nourishing food. All other industrialized countries have BANNED them, why are we living in the dark ages?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-62701673971448976262012-10-04T15:31:00.000-07:002013-08-07T13:49:15.690-07:00Picking Your Own Bones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://tantumrespirajustbreathe.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/pic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://tantumrespirajustbreathe.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/pic1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Tanya Maria Mah wrote a blog called <a href="http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/10/ive-got-a-bone-to-pick-with-my-yoga-teacher-tanya-maria-mah/" target="_blank">"I've Got a Bone To Pick With My Yoga Teacher"</a> that my sweet husband, knowing how much I can relate, shared with me on Facebook today. I thought I would also share and include my response to this. Enjoy!<br />
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<span style="background: #EDEFF4; color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Wow, she sure had a lot of coffee that day! I get what Tanya is saying
here. It gets old when we are told day after day to think positive, go back to
our breath, only do what we can handle and it will all work out. After all this
time I have played along with dietary supplements, vitamins, yoga, eating
right, going gluten free, the changes that have actually occurred as a result
to those efforts are small in contrast to the amount of time, energy, money,
and will power it has taken to put them into place. This is why pharma wins.
But when we give up on these things, and we go the "easy way" with
medication to help our anxieties, weight loss, hormone imbalances,
energy/fatigue issues, depression, pain, exhaustion, we realize that there is
no easy answer and sometimes going back to your breath is better for you than
popping a pill. Sometimes these professors got their position because they have
knowledge and experience that we, as students don't have, they have talked to
enough people, tried enough variety, and know better. Sometimes it is a mixture
of these well intentioned know it-alls and their own desire to make a buck that
we get sucked into the trends. But we still have to be accountable for our own
gullibility at the desire to have something, SOMETHING freakin' work to aid in
the discomfort of existing. Not everything is backed by science, and many times
the stuff that is comes with a pamphlet 2 inches thick of risks and side
effects, then we become gullible that it wont happen to us, until it does. What
is the answer? I don't know... I am equally gullible to both sides... We all
just want to feel better. Maybe the hardest part is accepting that peace
resides in the mind and mind over matter means that you can overcome your pain
and suffering if you just believe. Maybe it is a placebo effect that is the
best answer to relieve the suffering, the power of ones' own mind. That is why
I love psychology... wow, I just wrote a mini paper...</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-1030654460313059962012-07-26T12:30:00.000-07:002012-07-26T12:30:46.675-07:00Review of "Birth Rights: The Risk of Choice"<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHuUogWQb-8">Birthrights: The Risk of Choice</a> is produced
by Betsy Kulman, distributed by Al Jazeera, is a 25 minute documentary
featuring several doctors, families and birth choice advocates in an attempt to
bring awareness about the choices surrounding cesarean sections as an option to
birth. The film starts with a couple from Columbus, GA traveling to Atlanta, 2
hours from home, to deliver their baby at a hospital with the only doctor they
could find that will allow a trial of labor in order to provide VBAC services.
Another scene in that doctor’s office shows other pregnant moms talking about
why they chose him. One woman reports calling over 30 OBGYN clinics looking for
a practitioner that would allow VBACs before she found Dr. Tate. She said that
she was told by other doctors that she would not find anyone who allows VBACs
and “it’s for a good reason.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://i3.ytimg.com/sh/J0J_cmhPzzk/showposter.jpg?v=4fcdba43" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i3.ytimg.com/sh/J0J_cmhPzzk/showposter.jpg?v=4fcdba43" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Dr. Tate is a OBGYN who is a man of
Jewish faith. He believes that it is his traditional Jewish upbringing that
gives him a healthy respect for nature’s intention of the way almost all women
are able to birth naturally. He also believes there is a time and place for
cesareans and interventions to help deliver vaginally and that he will provide
them when necessary. And even though many doctors are performing Cesareans
<a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/04/csection-rates-association-lawsuits.html" target="_blank">because of the fear of being sued</a>, he leaves that in the hands of his faith and
provides the best medicine for his patients that he has determined is in their
best interest, not his. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The documentary also gives
statistics such as the WHO recommendations that the cesarean rate be below 15%,
that the risk of Uterine rupture during a VBAC is less than 1%, that cesareans
are the #1 surgery performed in the USA, and that 77% of OBGYNs will be sued at
some point in their career. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> It is because of the risk of being
sued that many OBGYNs will jump to section a mother. When utilizing cesareans
as a normal part of their business, they don’t have to work the longer hours of
a practitioner who waits on natural labor, They can schedule more mothers that
are due in the same month, they won’t be under the stress of anything else that
might happen which could create risks of being sued and they get paid more
money when performing the cesarean. There is no incentive for them NOT to use
them or, in many cases, over use them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The film also highlights support for
mothers who have undergone cesareans and seek community to process the
emotional issues surrounding these traumatic births, such as <a href="http://www.ican-online.org/">ICAN</a>
(International Cesarean Awareness Network) and Jill Arnold’s website </span><a href="http://www.theunnecesarean.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">www.TheUnnecesarean.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">
where people can access studies, research, data, birth stories and other
resources to make informed choices about birthing practices. Jill says, “The
overriding theme is frustration and desire to change the system.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-43496935404443379902012-07-13T12:21:00.004-07:002013-08-07T13:47:00.426-07:00Dance to Heal the Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lq20ymvwm4A/UAB0TQLEhDI/AAAAAAAAAEI/0ILJpNI6SeQ/s1600/dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Lq20ymvwm4A/UAB0TQLEhDI/AAAAAAAAAEI/0ILJpNI6SeQ/s320/dance.jpg" width="229" /></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Dance To Heal The Earth. Whenever you dance, wherever you dance, dance to heal the earth! Dancing is power. Dancing is prayer. Some say that all is dance. Maybe. Now there's a big dance coming, a dance to heal the earth. If you're reading this, you're probably part of it. You take part whenever you do whatever you do to help heal the earth. When you recycle. When you choose to show love, to fight </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">for justice, to bring healing, to bring out what is good in others. When you avoid cruelty and dishonesty and waste. When you are outraged. When you speak out. When you give. When you consider the generations to come. When you protest to the oppressors and encourage those who feel the cutting edge of injustice. And, of course, when you dance. There is a tree that all the prophets see, and whenever you let your love show, you make the flowers grow.<br />Soon this dance will be done in a big way, in the old way, on sacred ground. All living things will take part. If you want to, you can take part. No one is twisting your arm. You can stop any time you need to, and start up again whenever you're ready. If you've read this far, you probably know what I'm talking about. You've probably been doing it in one way or another for a good while. Soon will be the time to make no bones about it! Cut loose!<br />Anytime you dance, anywhere, whether at a party or in church, dance to heal the earth! Let your feet beat a healing rhythm into the earth. Let your feet beat a strengthening rhythm for those who struggle the hardest. Let your feet beat a life-giving rhythm for all peoples, regardless of race or national boundary, regardless of whether we're human or whether we're the trees, the air, the fish, the birds, the buffalo, the bear, the crow. We come out of hiding, we come back from the dead, and we dance, and our dance is a prayer, and our songs and our rhythms and our breath give life.<br />Is the music they're playing some mindless jingle? Never mind, as long as it's not bad music, and you can dance to the beat! Make your own words, and make the words a prayer. A prayer for the end of exploitation, a prayer for the end of lies, a prayer for healing, for justice, for life. Remember your prayer-song, feed it and let it get strong and pass it along. Dance and pray, whenever you dance, dance to heal the earth.<br />Have you seen anything? Wear it out! Make it so that all can see what you see! Take a white T-shirt and mark it with your dreams. Is there anything you'd like to tell the world? Take your shirt and mark it with your song! This is the way it has been done, so you can do it too. Use any color except black (there are reasons for that that will become clearer later), and you'll probably find that a loose, pure cotton T is most comfortable for dancing in. Because this is an actual dance, you dance hard, you sing and breathe hard and sweat. Wear it when you plan to go out dancing, to dance to heal the earth.<br />Some people do this dance while fasting, and dance for several days straight. But even a few minutes of dancing helps, and joins with all the other dancing going on, everywhere on Earth. Not everyone can fast these days. Besides, you never know when you're gonna dance, and you have to eat sometimes! But if you plan to dance, hold off eating till later, or just have a little. It's easier to dance if you don't have a hotdog weighing you down.<br />Some people say, do not do sacred things where people are drinking and partying. But all the universe is a sacred place. It really doesn't matter what others are doing, you can make a place sacred wherever you are, with your intention and your prayers. Some people use smoke to make a place sacred; a cigarette or incense stick will do fine. You can dance to heal the earth anywhere, even a party or a bar! The earth is everywhere, so you can dance anywhere to heal her. Only one thing. Please hold off drinking or using any other intoxicants till you're done. It works better that way.
<br />The Lie has gone far enough. It spreads and makes everyone sick. Now is the time for this dance to begin. It, too, will spread, and it will bring healing to all. In the beginning, they say, God put a rainbow in the sky, to let us know that Spirit never forgets. Now is the time for us to put a rainbow across the earth, to let God know that we, too, remember.<br />Dance to heal the earth. Not just when you're dancing, but always. Live the dance, whenever you move, in all you do, dance to heal the earth.<br />~Dee Smith</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-86665867903868170852012-06-09T18:11:00.002-07:002012-06-09T18:11:21.969-07:00Fight or Surrender, what next?<br />
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Today is my daughter’s 10<sup>th</sup> birthday. She was my
first home birth. It was a difficult experience that has lead to amazing
things. Her whole life so far has been an difficult experience that has lead to
amazing things. Now I have to remind myself exactly those lessons today. My
mother called to wish her happy birthday, she was lucky to even get that. She
also informed me that because her and her husband are behind on her taxes, her
financial advisor has told her that she is not to co-sign for any more of my
student loans. I am $11,500 short for the 2012-2013 year. I have no idea where
I am going to come up with that money. I am basically, excuse my Foul language,
FUCKED. I am scared, disappointed, wanting to roll in a ball and feel sorry for
myself. But I don’t have time for this. I want to finish my college education.
It means a lot to me. I don’t know how much harder I am can work to make it
happen and still be able to continue my commitments for assignments with AAMI.
I regret joining too soon, I should have waited until I was done with college.
But now, now, it might mean I make a hard decision to quit college, get a job
and get focused on midwifery sooner than I expected. It might mean that I call
Carla, tell her what is going on, hope for some mercy and take a pause in my
studies. I hate that my update this week is so focused on ways I might fail
instead of all the things I completed and succeeded at this week. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thechangeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/winding-path.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thechangeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/winding-path.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 21px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Photo by: </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/2632386248/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #137725; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tambako the Jaguar</a>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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This week I turned in a 20 page Zine project on VBACs that
helped me learn so much. This week, my friend, another student midwife, called
me to schedule a visit to process a recent birth she attended and said, “ I
just need to talk to another midwife.” Referring to me… I was flabbergasted, I
know I am still a student, but she knows, in my heart, I am still a midwife and
she honors me as such. So much she has asked me to be her partner in surrogacy
as she was just accepted by a company and is in the process of being matched to
parents and she wants me to partner with her through her pregnancy to be her
support person. I am available to be on call to attend births in August and September
and I have been reading the latest issue of Midwifery Today. I am so focused,
so excited, so determined to make something out of all this, I can’t believe that
I may not be able to complete my degree and walk. It means so much to me. I
want the education, I love my classes, my teachers, the experience of being in
college and learning and questioning and challenging and meeting exciting
people and having opportunities to learn things I have never been exposed to
before. I feel like I am thriving but I am floundering at the same time. It is
terribly difficult and terribly exhilarating at the same time. </div>
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I am transforming so much right now it is overwhelming… My heart is full.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-33131262079798691942012-03-21T13:11:00.000-07:002013-08-07T13:54:42.412-07:00"Anti Science Hippie Moms...."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9TYHHeT7bOw/TmegCncv-BI/AAAAAAAAAqk/93adytJ20Yc/s1600/doula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9TYHHeT7bOw/TmegCncv-BI/AAAAAAAAAqk/93adytJ20Yc/s320/doula.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A friend of mine posted on Facebook today asking for positive thoughts of comfort for her 17 yr old sister who was having a baby in a hospital with no doula or support people around her. She was concerned because of her own experience as a young woman birthing in the hospital with little choices offered and no one to help empower her. Her's was similar to mine, forced episiotomy, student OB's, a lot of interventions that were never quite explained and a lot of pain and suffering afterwards. A commenter on her post suggested that "</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"> </span></span>I know the anti-science anti-doctor meme in the hippy community has some merit - however some docs are the reason baby and mom survived !" This is the last kind of comment a mother of 3, who has had 3 different births in 3 different settings and knows from experience what happens in a large portion of mother's experiences needs to hear from a "friend." <br /><br /> Please don't assume that people who support natural birth and dont advocate for healthy, low risk women to birth in hospitals don't do their homework, there is plenty of science that supports it. But yes, we are blessed when there are the couple of doctors who really do provide good support. But really, how long is the doctor there for? There are hours and hours for most first time moms with no support at hospitals and scientific studies show that when interrupted in labor by strangers, the physiological conditions that support a healthy <a href="http://www.sarahbuckley.com/downloads/Ecstatic-Birth.pdf">biologically correct birth</a> get disturbed and that does cause the complications that often require the help of the doctor to "save them" as she put it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/the-most-scientific-birth-is-often-the-least-technological-birth/254420/1/">article by Alice Dregger,</a> so eloquently points out the misunderstanding fueled by the unethical treatment of women by doctors in the birthing business. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o96RlmFyOO4/Th38AO4rftI/AAAAAAAAJho/Xy45CPlvPls/s1600/IMG_0106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o96RlmFyOO4/Th38AO4rftI/AAAAAAAAJho/Xy45CPlvPls/s400/IMG_0106.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit for pic and a great article can be found <a href="http://usthreebirds.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-of-my-least-favorite-pregnancy.html">here</a>.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">in the U.S., "obstetricians are the experts and the experts have come to see birth as dangerous and frightening." De Vries suggests that the organization of maternity care in this country -- "the limited choices that American women have for bringing their baby into the world, what women are not told about dangers of intervening in birth, and the misuse of science to support the new technologies of birth" -- actually constitutes an ethical problem, although we typically do not recognize it as one."</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many people who also are under the misconception that midwives are not educated or do not have scientific studies to back up the "witchcraft" that they support. Yet time and time again, studies point to less intervention, less disruption, less meddling and better outcomes for both mothers and babies, long term. The use of <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/31/too-many-babies-are-delivered-too-early-hospitals-just-say-no/">inductions </a>, <a href="http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsiefm.htm">routine fetal monitoring</a>, <a href="http://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/epidural.html">epidurals</a>, and the<a href="http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100120/eating-drinking-may-be-ok-during-labor"> inability to eat</a> or <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1948086/">move around</a> freely has disrupted the normal processes of birth, increasing risks to the point that the Royal College of Obstetrics has made claim that there are <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/31/too-many-babies-are-delivered-too-early-hospitals-just-say-no/">too many babies born in hospitals</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/C-section-maternal-mortality-1990-2006.png?d4fd08" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/C-section-maternal-mortality-1990-2006.png?d4fd08" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"> Hospitals around the country are at the beginning phases of </span><a href="http://www.healthcanal.com/pregnancy-childbirth/27660-Natural-births-possible-encouraged-hospital-setting-University-Michigan.html" style="line-height: 19px;">implementing</a><span style="line-height: 19px;"> a <a href="http://davis-floyd.com/the-technocratic-humanistic-and-holistic-paradigms-of-childbirth/">new paradigm</a> into the birth culture of their institutions. This is a wonderful starting point to shift the commonly held belief that birth is inherently risky and we NEED interventions to be safe. There are 30 other countries that have a better <a href="http://www.who.int/gho/maternal_health/en/index.html">maternal mortality rate</a> than the USA. Obviously, we can improve this. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">When a friend expresses her concern for a loved one, obviously, insulting them with stereotypes is not the nicest thing to do, but even more than that, carrying around this attitude and spreading it is dangerous. When it is already so hard to make decisions and swim through the information that you have to search for because it is not readily offered by your paid professionals in so many cases, the perception of your peers can influence the decisions that are made. If you are going to give advice to someone, please make sure it is accurate, you could be doing more harm than good. And if you made some of the decisions that have been proven to be not as safe as we think, and nothing bad happened to you, consider yourself lucky. This is the exception, not the rule, and it is very invalidating to be talked to like you don't have a reason to be concerned, when you are following your instincts and doing your homework. Being concerned when you have this knowledge is healthy. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-29138457126540066792012-03-19T13:04:00.001-07:002012-07-26T12:54:41.864-07:00Safe Motherhood Quilt Project<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AHHHHHHH..... the sigh of relief as I sit here after completing my finals for Winter term and welcome the next 2 weeks of relaxation. Wait. Oh ya, no relaxation for me! I have a browser with 11 tabs open, most of which are midwifery related articles waiting to be read and filed, a few more are autism related articles waiting to be read and discussed with the old man about possible solutions to help with our 9 year old and I have a pile of work upstairs waiting to be organized so I can get to midwifery studies in a few days. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The life of a midwifery student is exciting and exhausting but oh so rewarding. Especially when you open your computer to see one of the biggest inspirations to your calling being interviewed by <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/19/ina_may_gaskin_on_rising_us">Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. </a> Ina May Gaskin is a pioneer for American Midwives. She has made leaps and bounds in bringing awareness, advocacy and education to mothers for over 30 years. She makes so many articulate points in this interview and is so inspiring. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things she discusses in this interview is her <a href="http://www.rememberthemothers.org/">Safe Motherhood Quilt Project</a> described as, "<span style="line-height: 21px;">The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is a national effort developed to draw public attention to the current maternal death rates, as well as to the gross underreporting of maternal deaths in the United States, and to honor those women who have died of pregnancy-related causes since 1982." There is a list of facts as well as more info on how to get involved and spread the word on the website. Please visit it and learn about</span> how we can prevent maternal mortality and improve the outcomes for many women and families in our country.</span><br />
<br />
Some stats that are important to remember when thinking about maternal mortality rates are :<br />
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<ul style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0.25em; padding-left: 2.5em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">At least 30 other countries have lower maternal death rates than the U.S.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">There has been no reduction in the maternal death rate in the U.S. since 1982.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The CDC acknowledges that we have a massive problem of underreporting of maternal deaths in the U.S. and that our reported rate may be only 1/3 to 1/2 of the actual total number.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Maternal death rates are four times as high in the African-American community as in the Caucasian community.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">There is no federal requirement that the states carry out a confidential review of all maternal deaths in order to be sure that all are counted, to analyze the principle causes of preventable deaths and to make policy recommendations to prevent such deaths in the future. In most countries with lower maternal death rates than ours, maternal deaths are systematically reviewed and there are lower levels of underreporting of such deaths than the CDC says we have in the U.S.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Please visit </span></span><a href="http://www.rememberthemothers.org/">http://www.rememberthemothers.org/</a> for more info!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-85012779742414106362012-03-14T21:54:00.001-07:002013-08-07T13:56:00.726-07:00What are the Conditions for a Physiological Birth?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sxI7zPJl-n0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
This is knowledge from the beginning of time that we have had disrupt and prove to be sure that nature had it right... Time and time again, I here professionals who have had more experience than you can imagine, quote scientific studies that tell us that Mother Nature already knew what we needed to survive and only when mankind turned to "man" did we forget the old ways or disrupt them enough that we have to prove it over and over again in as many ways as we can that women know how to birth if left to their own accord.<br />
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Antique midwifery texts dating back to the 1600's written by European physicians, male physicians, knew already what midwives are trying to bring back to the women of our communities today. They describe in great detail the passion of labor, the needs of a woman while she is birthing, the effects of disruption to the mother, the psychedelic state of mind that she enters, the Ecstasy right after labor of an uninterrupted birth and the very little help that one must give other than making sure the mother is well nourished and hydrated and has emotional support if she chooses.<br />
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Let's relearn what is already written in our genes, what we were born with, unlearning the fear and accept Birth.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-69551407731479119142012-02-29T16:58:00.001-08:002012-02-29T17:03:11.011-08:00Breastfeeding is a matter of Public Health!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/94986513-resize.jpg?w=600&h=400&crop=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/94986513-resize.jpg?w=600&h=400&crop=1" width="320" /></a></div>
This should not be coming as a surprise, nor should it take a public service announcement to make it common knowledge that Breastfeeding is the best choice for your baby.<br />
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Please know, if you or a loved one is having problems breastfeeding, there is loads of places to find support. Your local<a href="http://www.llli.org/"> La Leche League</a> is the first place to look but if that is too "crunchy" for you, please call your local <a href="http://www.samhealth.org/services/womensservices/Pages/maternityresources.aspx">lactation consultants from the nearest hospital. </a><br />
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Please also be aware there are milk banks and <a href="http://www.eatsonfeets.org/">Eats on Feets </a>groups popping up all over the country where you can get donated milk for your baby if you are unable to breastfeed.<br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">The wealth of new data about the effects of breast-feeding influenced the AAP to update its guidelines. Researchers have found that breast-fed babies have a decreased risk of dying of SIDS, fewer ear infections, less likelihood of obesity or cardiovascular disease And fewer hospitalizations for pneumonia; mothers benefit from decreased risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancers. Duration is important: “The longer you do it and the more exclusive it is, some of these effects become even more significant,” says Schanler. “Hospitalization for pneumonia is significantly reduced if you exclusively breast-feed for six months as opposed to less than four months. How can you say that’s not important?”</span><br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Read more: </span></span><a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/29/why-pediatricians-say-breast-feeding-is-about-public-health-not-just-lifestyle/#ixzz1np1CIE5A" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #003399; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/29/why-pediatricians-say-breast-feeding-is-about-public-health-not-just-lifestyle/#ixzz1np1CIE5A</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-75303212688413131562012-02-28T12:37:00.002-08:002012-02-29T17:04:30.730-08:00Surrender<br />
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The most amazing thing I have learned about birth so far is
that regardless of the planning, the knowledge you obtain, the plans you make
the visualizations you rehearse, when you are in the moment in birthing,
surrendering to the forces in your body takes work. If the mother fights the
surrendering, she will suffer more, become irrational, and experience the birth
in ways she was not expecting. This goes for the period right before labor as
well, the days in which she tries to get things going, induces medically or
“naturally” with herbs or procedures. Surrendering is probably the most
important skill to practice, meditation, breathing, letting go. Surrendering
isn’t just the responsibility of the mother to learn though, it is important
for the whole team of people, should she chose to have one, to be able to
surrender with her, leave things alone, let her be primal and instinctual,
allow her room to move and vocalize and not get uncomfortable if the sounds she
makes are scary or unexpected. The midwife needs to surrender to the time the
mother and baby need to make the dance of emergence happen, the family needs to
surrender to the idea that their requested presence is all they need to provide
and they cannot make the mother’s work easier any other way, the father has to
surrender to the power moving through his partner’s body to bring forth this
baby and let go of needing to fix anything and just be with her. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mamahhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mamahhh_2011-0916_AwePregoBody-e1316183992361.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://mamahhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mamahhh_2011-0916_AwePregoBody-e1316183992361.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For a wonderful pregnancy meditation <a href="http://mamahhh.com/2011/09/pregnancy-meditation/">click </a>here. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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Surrendering
does not mean you cannot be present or make decisions should you need to, part
of surrendering is listening to your body and acting on the messages you
receive, without expectation of what you think you will hear or what will
happen. This goes again for the witnesses, listening, acting on the requests of
the mother, understanding the messages that are not verbal, like when to leave
her alone and when to support her, when she is scared or when something does
require assistance. But if you are too busy thinking, having expectations, you
will miss those bits of communication you can only pick up with a clear mind in
the moment. </div>
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A long time ago, I was on a quest for a vision while
meditating with Reiki attunements. I really wanted to receive a message from a
spirit guide. I sat and waited, and “watched” with eyes closed, trying to make
something out of the shapes that floated behind my eyes. I sat for what seemed
like hours, “trying” to have a vision. It wasn’t until I surrendered, what felt
like giving up at the time, letting go o the expectation, that I finally saw something
and it was so quick, so fleeting, yet so detailed and meaningful I became so
excited when it happened, it was gone as soon as I realized it was there. The
split second vision I had has stayed with me since then, the lesson has
followed and reminds me in many situations about the power of surrendering and
the gifts that accomplishing the surrender can bring. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-39149455665174414732012-02-19T11:23:00.000-08:002012-02-29T17:06:25.889-08:00Childbirth Experiences Have a Lot to Do With Expectations<br />
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This is a paper I wrote for a sociology class in reference to this study <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cjri/2008/00000026/00000004/art00004" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cjri/2008/00000026/00000004/art00004</a></div>
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The expectations and experiences that mothers face can be related to the type of care and the culture that the expectant mother is exposed to. The study, “<em>Childbirth expectations and experiences in Belgian and Dutch models of maternity care</em>” conducted by Wendy Christianens, Mieke Verhaeghe and Piet Brake (Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, Vol 26, No 4, Nov 2008, 309-322, Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Belgium) sought to confirm how a mother’s exposure to societal norms, previous experiences, other people’s stories and the way their care giver attend to the perceived needs and expectations account for the actual event’s experience and the level of satisfaction on the mother’s behalf. Belgium and Dutch women develop different patterns of expectations during their pregnancies and tend to have diverging birth experiences according to the care provided to them during their gestational and postpartum periods. The researchers expected that Dutch women would have a more positive outlook about childbirth than Belgium women, though there was no expectation of difference of experiences versus expectation between Belgium and Netherlands due to the socialization processes as a function of the maternity systems.</div>
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The researchers used a variety previous data dating back from 1982 to present to determine how to conduct the study and what variables they would use. There was a questionnaire made to be distributed to women in both Belgium and Dutch Maternity care systems. There was one questionnaire given at about 30 weeks gestation and another given at 2 weeks postpartum. These questionnaires were used to determine the expectations and outcomes of the mothers, planning on birthing in a hospital setting or in a home or birth center setting. The fixed factors were time, country and place of birth.</div>
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In Dutch maternity care, it is common to have home births (30% of births), low medical intervention, and short hospital stays if the mothers do plan to attend hospitals. The Midwifery Model of care is used that is woman and baby centered, viewing birth as a normal, natural physiological process.</div>
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Belgium is contrasting in the way that home births are uncommon and the medical model of care is highly practiced having a 98% hospital birth rate. The society there sees birth as risky and that hospital births will ensure a safe delivery. Birth has become a medical event in need of supervision by specialists and it is common to use interventions such as epidural pain relief and surgical birth.</div>
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Data was collected within 4 groups of women. Women who planned their births in either the hospital or home in both Belgium and Dutch care systems. There were 5 hospitals and 27 midwifery practices with similar socio-economical factors. Midwives and Obstetricians asked their clients to participate. The main factors of eligibility were that they had to speak Dutch and be 18 years or older in age. The questionnaire was conducted in an anonymous manner.</div>
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The Questionnaire was designed to learn if the subjects felt anxious about the upcoming birth and labeled the choices as unknown, uncontrollable and unavoidable. The language of “expectation” meant that women had to answer about what they thought would happen, not what they hoped would happen. The outcomes of the score would show people with a higher number were feeling more negative towards their expectations and experience and the lower score would show more optimism.</div>
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Of the 827 questionnaires filled out during the prenatal stage, only 611 participated in the follow up questionnaire 2 weeks after birth, 265 were Belgium women and 346 were Dutch. Participating women were between the ages of 19 and 44, the mean being 31 years old. First time moms were 54% of the respondents and the study reported that more Belgium than Dutch women had a higher education with 77% of Belgian and 40.5% Dutch, though almost equal percentage (85%) of the women were employed. This raised a question for me personally about the way that higher education seems to be correlated with the increased use to medical intervention because of affordability or access to that kind of care.</div>
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The results show that both countries had a expectation that was more negative than the actual experience even though the expectation were significantly different between the subject groups. The results concluded that “expectations and experiences are positively associated and the relation is rather strong. Expectations are a strong predictor of a woman’s experience of childbirth.” In the majority of cases the experience was better than the woman’s predictions. Some of the significant findings were that women planning on giving birth at home had the lower scores showing less anxiety about the process and also showed a higher level of satisfaction after the birth had happened. This analysis conformed the hypothesis. What was also found in this study was that when replaced by the actual place of birth from the planned place of birth, the home birth subjects had a more positive experience than the hospital subject groups “showing that midwifery care is more satisfactory than care by doctors.” The findings were relevant to how policy is created when caring for pregnant women in a way that supports having a strategy to reduce negative experiences and is more encouraging of optimistic expectations. This would be a preventative approach that can be applied to maternity care systems worldwide.</div>
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The researchers approach was a functionalist approach. The research was based on the idea of how the maternity system functions effect the satisfaction of the people who are receiving care through it. I found this study to be very pertinent to my main focus of education which is midwifery. The level of satisfaction that a mother experiences through her birth effects many parts of society. Her ability to raise a healthy human being is essential to the integrity of the future of our survival on this planet. If she is dissatisfied, that experience can lead to depression, detachment, breastfeeding problems, marital issues just to name a few. The baby could suffer from neurological damage from a traumatic birth, not having a healthy mother or care giver, nutritional issues from not having built a strong breastfeeding relationship and social issues from lack of bonding due to birth trauma. These effects of birth on society are coming into a larger awareness as we are able to conduct more and more studies about the biology of birth and neurodevelopment and how our society benefits from cooperating with nature’s intended way of babies to be born. Additional research I would like to see on this subject is a longitudinal study of emotional and physical health of babies born in and out of hospitals, the rate of postpartum depression amongst women who have birthed in both settings and the incidence of long term emotional dysfunction (PTSD)from the women who viewed their birth in the higher negative range. </div>
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Kaire Downin 2012</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-19335410968457651342011-12-13T17:11:00.000-08:002012-02-29T17:11:56.144-08:00Scared of Repeating Preterm Birth?A friend of mine just found out she is pregnant. Among her joy is a heavy layer of fear. You see, her introduction to being a mother was complete with a pregnancy riddled with severe morning sickness and constipation that ended in her daughter being born 2 months premature. and a lengthy stay in NICU. She is terrified that she will be miserable again and have to balance her toddler and a possble premie situation again, and I understand these fears. She is afraid that talking about these fears will make me think she is crazy. Here was my response to her, I thought I would share to help others address similar fears.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I
do not think you are insane. That is a nightmare of a way to start your life as
a mother. Preterm babies are so hard to heal from. There are so many reasons
that our bodies decide not to continue a pregnancy, it is very hard to
pinpoint. With the level of technology we currently have available, doctors are
certainly able to give a better prognosis to these babies that would have
otherwise been considered a late term miscarriage in earlier times. Besides the
fact you have had this experience, your fears are normal and you are not crazy!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://g.psychcentral.com/news/u/2010/05/woman-pregnant-worried.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://g.psychcentral.com/news/u/2010/05/woman-pregnant-worried.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Some
things to be aware of. I know you love statistics so I will give you some
numbers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Preterm
Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM)is the leading cause of preterm
labor and accounts for 88% of babies that die when born (before 37 weeks
gestation)prematurely. Premature Rupture of Membranes happens in about 3%
of all pregnancies, around 150,000 annually in the US. (from my research paper
on cesarean birth rate)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In
Midwifery Today’s last publication, they had a story about premature births and
claimed that the majority of these are caused by uterine infections. They also
said that dental hygiene is incredibly important to prevent uterine infections. Pretty interesting huh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I
am going to take a wild guess here, and this is just a hunch, I am by no means
qualified to tell you this is fact but being as constipated as you describe can
lead to an overload of toxins in your body and probably had a significant role
in your preterm birth. The first step I would take, if I was your midwife, would
be to get you on a diet that would help to reduce that. This may include you
going outside of your comfort zone to eat things you may not be entirely happy
about, at least try it, and if you cannot fathom keeping up with it, seeking
alternatives that would have the same effect. Here are some choices…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Besides
what the <a href="http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/constipation.html">American Pregnancy Association recommends</a> which is the first steps to
take
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">my
favorite herbologist, Susun Weed, has some suggestions <a href="http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Pregnancy_Problems.htm">here</a>
that are easy to implement with the right motivation, certainly preventing
preterm labor and avoiding the nightmare scenario you endured before is enough
motivation to give it a try. You can obtain these herbs at your local herb or Tea Shop or order online. Not only do they have
medicinal qualities, they are nutrient rich and better absorbed than prenatal
vitamins in most cases. You can lose the iron supplements and replace it with
the herbs that also contain calcium and vit A, C and B’s that are vital to your
health while pregnant.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://forpregnant.info/uploads/posts/2011-07/1311944565_best-food-for-pregnant-women-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://forpregnant.info/uploads/posts/2011-07/1311944565_best-food-for-pregnant-women-5.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vit
C is another supplement that can drastically reduce your risk of preterm
premature rupture of membranes. <a href="http://www.ajcn.org/content/81/4/859.full">This study</a> reports “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Daily supplementation with 100 mg vitamin C after 20 wk of gestation
effectively lessens the incidence of PROM.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In this <a href="http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timely.asp">article by Gail Hart</a>, who is a midwife and
educator who travels all over the world with Midwifery Today as an expert
speaker, whom I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting and conversing with,
she goes over some of the issues that cause preterm labor and ways to avoid
them. This woman has practiced natural authentic midwifery for more than 30 years and
is a jewel to our community. Please read this and let me know if you need any
clarification on anything. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Now,
if you are going to go the high risk route with a doctor, and you tell them
about supplementing with herbs and vitamins, they are possibly going to tell
you there is no evidence to prove any of this works. They are mistaken. The
evidence is in the years and years of these plants being used and producing
healthy pregnancies and babies and are not reported or scientifically studied
because it would cost loads of money and drug companies can’t patent the herbs
the way they do medicines so it is a money issue and not a science issue. I
honestly understand why you would want the support of a specialist OBGYN with
your past experience. I am sure the tests and reassurances you can gain from
them will help your confidence in the pregnancy and your ability to learn to
trust your body. I hope I can give you the tools you need to advocate for
yourself and take charge of your care and seek to understand ways in which you
can maintain your health without unneeded interventions that might disrupt the
safety of your pregnancy. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.brixpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/P1040973.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.brixpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/P1040973.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
easiest way to insure yours and your baby’s health is to make changes to your
diet. I have an abundance of raspberry leaf and nettle and can bring you
some to get started right away if you want. It can’t hurt. I sweeten
the infusions with fruit juice like cranberry or pomegranate. You can brew half
a gallon of this every other day and keep it in a water bottle that you can sip
on throughout the day to help with your morning sickness. I also brew kombucha
and can supply you with kombucha tea or a SCOBY so you can brew your own. This
will also aid in digestion and prevent constipation and balance your intestinal
and vaginal flora. <a href="http://www.foodrenegade.com/is-kombucha-safe-when-pregnant-or-nursing/">Here</a> is info on Kombucha during pregnancy.
Like the article says, if you haven’t been a regular drinker of the kombucha,
start with just a small cup a day, you may never need to drink more than that,
but if you enjoy it, you may want to gradually increase it or even add it to
your infusions… I love kombucha, but I have acquired the taste for it and
noticed the benefits right away! </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">OK,
that is a lot of reading for you to get started. I hope it helps ease some of
your fears by putting some choices in your hands to work with. If it was me,
the first thing I would try is the raspberry leaf infusions with some nettle
and a small cup of kombucha to help with the morning sickness and prevent
constipation. If you don’t have much of an appetite, these are the bare minimum
things I would want in my body to nourish the cells and the baby’s growth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-27407483248736591822011-11-14T16:42:00.001-08:002013-08-07T13:58:35.815-07:00Is Vaccination Really Responsible for the Eradication of Fatal Childhood Disease?<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">Is Vaccination Really
Responsible for the Eradication of Fatal Childhood Disease?</span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One
of the biggest arguments from people who are advocates of immunizations is that
we have seen such a drastic reduction in deadly childhood diseases since
vaccinations have been being used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately for them, there is evidence that vaccination didn’t have
anything to do with the reduction in illnesses of this nature. In this chart,
you can see that the number of people who died from several of the more common
devastating diseases were declining before the introduction of vaccines to the
population. </span></span></span></div>
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</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The Evidence</span></b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A paper
published in 1977 from the Lancet, “VACCINATION AGAINST WHOOPING-COUGH:
Efficacy versus Risks” (bystianyk/Stewart) reveals, ““There was a continuous
decline [whooping cough deaths], equal in each sex, from 1937 onward.” They
report that Vaccination was started on a small scale around 1948 and then
nationally in 1957. The findings were that it did not affect the rate of
decline in deaths due to disease. The results instead point to the bilogy of
disease where the decline between 1930 and 1957 is due to the weakened parts of
the population already being removed and the spread of the disease lessening
because the population was left with stronger immunity. The reports determines,
“With this pattern well established before 1957, there is no evidence that
vaccination played a major role in the decline in incidence and mortality in
the trend of events.” Furthermore, this study shows that since 1977, the
scientific community has been aware that vaccines were not the reason that
diseases ceased to exist in our communities. These declining numbers came about
during a period when the public health agencies spread a wide campaign about
hand washing and hygienic practices to help reduce the risks of infection as
suggested by Dr Palevsky in the Documentary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Greater Good. </i>(Manookian) Dr. Palevsky </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Do the Vaccines Work for Future Outbreaks?</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr.
Lopez-Duran, an advocate for vaccination, claims that <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">children of parents that refused
vaccinations were at risk for pertussis 2000% more than children that received
the vaccination. The writer than goes on to give the results of a study
stating, “Of the 156 children who acquired pertussis, 12% were children of
parents who refused vaccination.” This statistic leads me to question who then
were the other 88% of the children with pertussis? Were they vaccinated? The
research participants were all part of a large health care insurance company. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This statement is not followed with
information about the ages of these children when they were infected either.
The pertussis vaccination wears off in the teens, requiring continued
vaccination to be effective. The way Dr. Lopez-Duran states his claim leads me
to believe that the vaccination is not effective. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It
Can’t Hurt to Be Safe, Vaccination is Preventative!</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Supporters
go on to state that there is no scientific evidence to prove that the cause of
the severe reactions that are blamed on vaccinations are in fact from
vaccinations. This is a flawed statement as all the studies the CDC uses to
determine the safety of current vaccinations are not only paid for by the
companies producing them but are epidemic and not scientific investigations
with in depth looks t the ingredients and their affect on the human body,
including neurological health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr.
Lopez-Duran goes on to state, “Parents who agreed to vaccinate their children
were 2 times more likely than vaccine-refusing parents to visit the doctor for
upper respiratory infections.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
interpretation of this statement is that the participants were biased and that
parents who refused vaccination were less likely to seek the help of a family
physician when their children were sick than those who voluntarily received the
vaccinations. I find there to be fault with this statement in the sense that if
the vac-refusing parents were less likely to seek the help of a physician when
their kids were sick and they didn’t die of severe infection, then maybe the
help of the physician wasn’t needed to begin with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the children did acquire pertussis, as the
writer assumes is likely underreported for the same bias reasons, and they
didn’t die or need hospitalization, maybe pertussis isn’t as lethal as much of
the literature would like to convince you it is. This also shows that studies
cite children who are vaccinated have increased visits to doctor’s offices.
Let’s examine this.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
there is a higher incidence of return patients in the vaccinated category, and
these patients were not reported to (VAERS) The Vaccination Adverse Events
Reporting System, than what were these kids seen for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is suggested that an increase in the
common cold, asthma realted illness, reoccurring ear infections, and other
chronic illnesses are what bring these kids in. Is this not because of the
reduction in immune system function directly after the immunizations are
administered? Studies from India show that there is an increase in fevers,
diarrhea and coughs in the month following vaccinations. (Neustaedter)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr.
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Neustaedter reports in his article, “Do
Vaccinations Disable the Immune System” that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>in 1950, studies linked receiving the DPT vaccination. The study
confirmed that out of the almost 4000 kids in New York that year that were
infected with polio, that they were twice as likely to have received the DPT
vaccination 2 month before the onset of the Polio. </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Doctors
interviewed for the documentary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Greater Good,</i> stated that doctors are not trained in how to detect a
reaction from vaccinations. The VAERS claim that their statistics are flawed
because of the severity of under reporting from doctors and individuals.
Doctors often will not associate the side effects with the vaccinations because
it has been ingrained in them that they are 100% safe and save people’s lives. </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What
are the Real Risks of Vaccination?</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Each Vaccination is a combination of
aluminum, formaldehyde, mercury, antibiotics, and a minute amount of the
disease being vaccinated against. None of these ingredients have ever been
tested individually in comparable doses on human children or babies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Sears advocates that the FDA should have
done this job before these vaccinations were ever allowed to enter the market
and be injected into our bodies. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr.
Chris Shaw, a professor of neuroscience says aluminum is used in vaccinations
to make the injection last longer in the body, because the body doesn’t process
it out when injected instead of eaten. He conducted a study with mice where he
injected comparative quantities of aluminum and reported that there was a
significant decline in behavior, motor skills and cognitive abilities. Upon
autopsy of the injected mice, findings included severe damage to motor neurons
that were associated with long term development of Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrigs
Disease, and Alzeimer’s 20-50 years down the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4 Years later, no one has tried to refute Dr.
Shaw’s study and when approached about the results, the FDA responded that it
“does not believe that this particular paper brings to light the need for
additional research that is not already underway.” (Manookian) </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Conclusion</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If we know that the reason the common diseases
that caused death and severe illnesses at the turn of the century declined was
largely due to hygienic practices and the biological fact that the strong
survived and left us with a population of people that are resistant to the
disease, why then should we be worried about an epidemic of that nature again?
If there is clear evidence that the safety of vaccinations in the entire
population is questionable, why are we accepting legislation that is making
vaccination mandatory to all who are not using exemptions of religious or
medical nature? Why has the FDA approved the injection of chemicals into
infants if they haven’t been tested? Even if vaccinations, alone aren’t
responsible for the severe reactions that are becoming more and more common in
our society, shouldn’t there be more testing to assure people that they are
indeed safe and be offered on a voluntary basis? These are the types of
questions I want to raise to motivate you to find your own answers to what is
really the right way to handle this issue for you and your family. There are
many factors involved to why we are seeing 1 in 10 children diagnose with
Autism in today’s society. It could be a combination of an overload of toxins
and vaccinations are what drives the damage over the top, it could be because
of the reduction in breastfeeding, the increase use of neurologically damaging
drugs during labor, heavy metals in our food supply, pollution in the air. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answers are not yet clearly defined and
until they are, routine vaccination of over 30 diseases before 6 years old
should come to a halt and be examined more thoroughly on an individual basis
and the choices left in the hands of the parents, not doctors and politicians. </span><br />
<br /></div>
</span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-60078362190628111592011-10-24T13:08:00.000-07:002011-10-24T13:09:30.916-07:00Women's Persecution by the Church<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Even as a young girl, I
didn’t buy the whole story. I remember being about 11 years old and having been
raised in a Catholic Church, prepared for my First Holy Communion ceremony,
going to Sunday School and learning all manners of things they teach kids about
Jesus and the rules and God and Heaven and Hell. I had figured Santa Clause
out, looked up books in the library about sex and hated when my mom answered me
with, “Because God made it that way.” It was never enough. But the thing I
hated most was the way people talked about Eve. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jaydax.co.uk/lastsupper/lastsuppertongerlocopyz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://www.jaydax.co.uk/lastsupper/lastsuppertongerlocopyz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My parents had a huge painting of The Last Supper on a
wooden board in their bedroom. Weird place to have this hanging around but it
was there and I remember being sick and home from school and studying that
painting. I loved it. I knew there was a woman in it and I knew it was Jesus’
lover. I never asked and never had anyone interpret it to me, but I just knew.
I knew something sneaky was up and they were telling secrets and the guy in the
corner was a liar. I knew there was something being hidden under that draped
table cloth, people playing footsies with each other. I could just feel it in
my young mind. The picture was sexy to me, in a weird way, intriguing,
mysterious. I knew there was symbolism that I think my genes understood but I
couldn’t put it into words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/davinci-code-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/davinci-code-1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Imagine my excitement as a young adult woman who had
already separated from the church and studied religions from all over the
world. I was a not so closeted but not really out of the closet pagan type, who
had just got my hands on this controversial book, “The DaVinci Code.” Oh How I
reveled in the conspiracy, how I felt like Dan Brown was telling a story I knew
in my heart HAD to be true, after all, history backs up so much of it. Common
sense tells you that his version is so much more likely than religious scholars
would have you know. Political warfare, men who were greedy and wanted power,
killing an important man who wanted peace and equality, and succeeding, but
leaving his wife, with child. Oh no, that was not going to work. So defamation
is the first course of action, ignoring, demonizing and continuing to repress
the voice of women who sought peace, logic, and harmony with their surroundings.
What more can be an enemy of men who are power hungry?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of course it didn’t start with Mrs. Christ, and it
certainly didn’t end with her as Mr. Langdon and Mr. Sauniere reveal in The
DaVinci Code. So many cultures have sought to humiliate women, control them,
own them. So many still do. But the gendercide that has plagued this planet has
been fueled at such an intensity by the Church, to ignore it and act like it
never happened and deny the rights of women to restore their original place in
society is just one more way of continuing the mistreatment of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://www.museumofdisability.org/siteimages/medicine/BurningWoman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.museumofdisability.org/siteimages/medicine/BurningWoman.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Above all things, women are the creators of life, the
very essence of our primal being, the need to reproduce is as strong as the
need to eat. I often wonder how many men would be inhabiting this planet if
women weren’t making babies and feeding people. In childbirth, women form the
very bonds that create a biological safety net to protect their children, our
future. They nourish them with their own bodies, if all goes well, for more
than 2 years from conception to weaning, and then continue to care for them and
not only take care of the young, but old alike as well as their husbands and
other relatives or members of their communities if they are able. It must be
terribly confusing to a man to see women give so freely of their bodies to
create and nurture life, such a selfless act in so many cases. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Birth is an experience that would prove to be one of the
biggest misconceptions amongst men over time. The Bible will explain the pain
of labor a price paid by women for their sin of temptation. I would like to
reinterpret that to be that the discomforts of labor, to bear a child is the
price paid by a woman who engaged in sex, which is a product (if we are lucky)
of temptation, and temptation is not all that bad. And in the book, “Medicine
and Society in France” by Forester and Ranum, they claim after being introduced
to a publication of theories by Dr. Engelmann that, “There has been a
widespread acceptance of the idea that the length of labor and the intensity of
the pain felt increases with the degree of civilization” and that child birth
was easier for women who were more connected to nature, such as those in some African
Tribes (there are many tribes that are just as repressive to the women, mutilating
their genitalia and considering them property) and how short and easy their
births were. It seems with shame of the body and of the act that brought the
baby to the womb combined with the fear instilled into civilized, God fearing
women, that only then did childbirth become dangerous and painful. There are
accounts from all over the world of women in matriarchal societies having
amazing births that are easy and hardly resulted in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>maternal or infant death when compared to
populations of people who are or are attempting to be civilized. Furthermore,
these matriarchal societies are often the types that are living close to nature
and practicing some form of Goddess Worship, honoring the sacred feminine and
exposing the life giving energies surrounding sex as sacred and honorable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/burning-witches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/burning-witches.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Calling temptation a sin and saying you shall be punished
for it or for causing it to others has created much mental anguish over
thousands of years. In an attempt to curtail sexual irresponsibility, the
Church has literally mutilated the minds and bodies of countless people, from
unnecessary circumcisions ( on both males and females) to brainwashing people into
believing that sexual feelings, the biggest instinct of our animal bodies, are
evil, to people being sexually abused by religious authority figures by
manipulating them to believe they are serving God by pleasuring their leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of men claiming the power of self
control, it was easier to demonize women and blame them for the cause of all
things sexually desirable. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> </v:stroke></v:shapetype></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Besides the cultural repression of a woman’s sexuality
and her being shamed into a painful and dangerous birth history, the actual
proof that lies in the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>Malleus Maleficarum, </i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">or also known as the “Witches Hammer” is
enough to make any woman seriously question if we will ever know the true
nature of women. We have undergone such a blatant massacre (over 5 million
women executed for supposed witchcraft) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and continue to scare into submission the
survivors. This book was published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger and told the reader that “the Devil’s presence was strongest where
human sexuality is concerned” and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of
course women were believed to be more sexual than men so they must be the cause
of it, even accused of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>having sex with
the Devil himself because they were so insatiable. The writers wanted the
readers to believe that women were weaker than men and so women with strong
personalities or who were smarter than the average women (or man) must be a
witch and must be tortured and killed. Even more disgusting was the ways in
which healers and midwives were targeted for helping other women and for
knowing how natural medicines worked to ease the ails of women. If a woman who
was “over used” by her husband, having too many children in succession and was
in danger of dying in childbirth, wanted to have an abortion or use birth
control, a midwife would help her and if found out, they would both be put to
death. In the time frame we are talking about, the Middle Ages and Renaissance
times, women were expected to lay with their husbands when ever called to do so
and they were forbidden to try to control conception, often having 2 babies in
one year. And during these time periods, women were often married by 16 years
old, suffering childbirth before their bodies were developed fully and having a
life expectancy of only around 35 years old. (Pomeroy)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
closing I would like to bring all the info presented together to point out that
women suffering because of religious teachings has not furthered society in any
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has contributed to a
de-evolution of our species, been used as weapons in war and politics, has
weakened society and most of all has influenced human kind in ways that do exactly
opposite that was intended<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bringing us
closer to “Evil” than had we empowered, honored,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and respected the women of our societies.
Supporting the life giving and nurturing population of our communities ensures
healthy humans. If babies are born to a broken mother, how will she then teach
them what they need to survive in this chaotic world? When looking at the
issues we are faced with today, in seeing the blatant disregard of life and
environment, I have to wonder if we participated in a woman centered culture,
if things would still be the way they are today.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Bibliography<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Ehrenreich, Barbara and
English, Deirdre <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Withches, Midwives and
Nurses: A History of Women Healers </i>The Feminist Press City University New
York, NY (no copyright date available)</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Forster, Robert and
Ranum, Orest<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Medicine and Society in
France Selections from the Annales Volume 6 </i>Published by John Hopkins Press
Baltimore, MD 1980</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Gies, Frances and
Joseph<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women in the Middle Ages: The lives of real women in a vibrant age of
transition </i>Published by Harper Perennial, NY 1978</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Pomeroy, Sarah B. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Godesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in
Classical Antiquity </i>Published by Shocken Books, NY 1975<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-89940804276708402982011-10-23T21:48:00.000-07:002011-10-23T21:51:08.341-07:00Are Vaccinations Weakening our Immune Systems?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6jRxallsBms/TqTqgN0Ls1I/AAAAAAAAAD8/m0NjfKP_Bd0/s1600/CDC+vaccinations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6jRxallsBms/TqTqgN0Ls1I/AAAAAAAAAD8/m0NjfKP_Bd0/s400/CDC+vaccinations.jpg" width="270" /></a>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Are our immune systems being weakened by the overuse of
vaccinations? In the 1980’s there were only 10 standard vaccinations that were
mandatory as far as the CDC was concerned, now there are over 30. Some
researchers have shown that there may be a correlation to long term immune
system dysfunction due to the developing immune system of babies being
bombarded with toxins before it has fully established. The continuation of
scheduled vaccination throughout much of a child’s life has shown to cause side
effects ranging from short term discomforts to long term developmental delays
and in some rare cases, death. These possible negative reactions are often not
communicated to parents who are in charge of their child’s health decisions and
in many cases the physicians are playing down the possibilities of how severe
the reaction can and have been for people in the past. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The advocates of vaccinations propose that the risk contracting
one or more of the debilitating and life threatening diseases we are
susceptible to without vaccinations outweighs the risk of having a slight fever
and body aches. This view point believes that if we stop vaccinating, even
though we have almost eradicated these diseases in our society, that we will
have another plague of illnesses. In order to prevent this mass illness, it is
imperative to start vaccinating children at birth. </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The protestors of the scheduled vaccination model insist
that the vaccinations are proven to weaken the immune system, making the young
child more likely to have chronic infections and asthma or allergy related
illnesses, resulting in other long term effects, including loss of time at
school, reliance on prescription medication that is costly and has more side
effects and in some cases, surgeries like tubes in ears for reoccurring ear
infections. There are some people who believe it was the fault of vaccinations
that have cause neurological disabilities in their children including ADHD and
Autism Spectrum Disorders. There are a few cases of parents who were not given
the proper information to make choices about when the right time to vaccinate
their children are and have had to bear the death of a child. </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a middle ground that thinks vaccinations are a good
idea but they chose to do them at different intervals, often delaying the first
round of vaccinations until their child is a year old or older, and then
selectively choosing which ones are appropriate for their child.</span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://naturalnews.com/specialreports/Vaccines-GetTheFullStory_250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://naturalnews.com/specialreports/Vaccines-GetTheFullStory_250.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And then the extreme anti vaccination group who comes who
firmly believe that their bodies function just right biologically and that if
they take good care of themselves and their immune systems that they could
survive if they are exposed to the viruses of concern. Some of the people in
this group come from a religious background and believe that Faith will guide
them and others are from a non religious background and rely on their faith in
the biology of their body and the natural law to guide them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My personal stance on this issue has gone from no concern at
all to vehemently opposed to scheduled vaccinations and am starting to lean
toward opposing all vaccinations unless the manufacturers start creating them
differently. My first child was vaccinated on schedule until he was 3 years
old. He had recurring bronchial infections and ear infections and the
pediatrician diagnosed him with asthma and ADHD and was prescribing steroidal drugs
and interested in behavioral modification drugs. I was absolutely not about to
put my 3 year old on these types of medications without looking into all
options. I found all of these different views which posed many questions about
alternatives and habit changes that would lead to a healthier lifestyle and
prevent some of the issues we were dealing with. The first thing we did was
modify our diet to get rid of many of the things studies had shown could
contribute to asthma and ADHD in children including dairy and artificial food
colors and preservatives. It was the best decision we could have done. My son
improved within months. I never gave him another vaccination either because at
this point, studying a natural, biologically correct diet and lifestyle, I
became aware that there could be more going on with the vaccinations than I
understood yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When my 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> child was born we decided to delay
her vaccinations and waited until she was a year old. The first time she had
been to the doctor’s office since her 3 week old check up was the week she was
to turn one. She received her first round of vaccinations and she contracted
chicken pox which wasn’t even one of the vaccinations we gave her. This coupled
with a complete change in her behavior, which at the time I thought was related
to the chicken pox, was enough to start me doing more research. I watched as my
daughter healed from the pox but then withdrew from interacting with our family
the same way she used to. She then started with ear infections, bronchial
infections and she didn’t receive another vaccination. She is 9 years old now
and has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of Autism. </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> child never received a vaccination until
last year, when she was 7. This child was always the last one in our family to
get sick, if she even got it. She recovered the fastest and had the least
severe effects, often not requiring any interventions or medications when the
rest of us would be miserable for a week or more. Even a stomach virus that
would bounce from family member to family member that would have each of us
laid up for 24-48 hours, she would throw up one time and feel bad for about 6
hours and then be fine. It was incredible to see the difference in a normally
functioning immune system on a human being who was born naturally and never
exposed to medications and a healthy diet of mostly whole foods. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some resources:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx">Ian's Voice</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?ID=539">A Doctor Speaks Out </a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://vran.org/">Vaccination Risk Awareness Group</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://vaccineinfo.net/immunization/immunization_risks_serious.shtml">Risks too much to be Ignored</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://naturalnews.com/Vaccines_Get_the_Full_Story.html">Link to downloadable report on vaccinations</a></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5509857701886714282.post-72471537162329028882011-09-29T21:42:00.000-07:002011-09-29T21:42:41.075-07:00Flexitarian??
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A review of "<strong>Going Flexitarian: Are you ready to go ‘mostly meatless?’</strong> "By
Sandra Neil in <em>Tastes for Life Sept 2011 issue</em></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://danshamptons.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/muscle-vegetarian1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://danshamptons.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/muscle-vegetarian1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It has been a dilemma for many people, the choice to be a vegetarian
or continue eating animal products. On one hand, many people enjoy animal
products and seem to not be able to live without them. They are in everything
they are used to eating. Choosing to even go dairy free is a huge discipline
that takes a lot of effort to maintain. But many people also know that there
are health concerns to eating eggs for breakfast or indulging in that rare
burger. And now people are becoming increasingly aware of how factory farms
treat animals and their effect on the environment, not to mention the
disgusting practices at the slaughter and processing houses. So what to do?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/images/ChickensInBatteryCageslg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/images/ChickensInBatteryCageslg.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sandra suggests you become a flexitarian. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea is that you do your best to consume
vegan foods during the day and eat animal products in your dinner meal only,
and if you can avoid that, you do. The idea is to cut back, buy local and
ethically produced products and consume them occasionally not at every meal and
eventually not even daily. You can have your roasted turkey on holidays,
barbque on the weekends with your family, but the difference is you are buying
the meat local and being aware of how your choices effect the world around you
and your health. Buying locally grown, organic meat is pricey, so that is
another reason to keep it to a minimum. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.moograssfarms.com/image.php?type=T&id=17546" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="http://www.moograssfarms.com/image.php?type=T&id=17546" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sandra shows us a report from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vegetarian Times</i> that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>says
they “believe that 70 percent of its subscribers are vegetarians who occasionally
eat animal flesh.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She shares that 3.6
years could be added to your life if you practiced eating a vegetarian cuisine
and even weigh 15% less than carnivores. Even Michael Pollan thinks that
flexitarians can experience the same benefits of a true vegetarian.</span></div>
<a href="http://vegetarianfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/vegetarian-protein.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://vegetarianfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/vegetarian-protein.gif" width="320" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sounds like a compelling suggestion that people could feel
good about. These kinds of changes take time and discipline and most of all,
realization. It usually isn’t until someone has experienced a health issue that
they take a look at their diet and see how they can prevent it from getting
worse. We need to look at our diet and not wait for things to go wrong and know
we can get better before we break down! Sandra’s suggestion of taking baby
steps creates the feeling that this is something that can be accomplished
without feeling the change too much. Some of us already have started doing this
and not realizing there is a name for it. So trade in your eggs and bacon for
fruit and rice cereal over coconut milk, take a bean burrito for lunch and
enjoy that pork roast later tonight knowing you made a difference in your
health and the environment AND in your pocketbook!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05434216882946545982noreply@blogger.com0