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Don’t call me crunchy – or Abracadabra, no more cavities!

August 17, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living with 10 Comments

 

For those of you who still aspire to be crunchy out there, I have a newsflash:

Crunchy is no longer a compliment.

Crunchy implies that you eat granola, which used to imply that you are health conscious and spend much of your time outdoors.  Well, when it’s not 114 degrees out, I do spend time out-of-doors, so I don’t know what you’re going to call me now, now that I’ve found out that granola is not a health food.

It’s loaded with sugar, which, if you don’t already know, is food satan.  And it’s not the sugar on your teeth that is the criminal here.  It’s the sugar in your bloodstream that causes tooth decay.  Granola also contains whole grains, which I am now privy to know are satan’s little tooth decay helpers.

For those of you who might just be joining us on betsydewey.com, you need to know that for the last few weeks my family has been following the Cure Tooth Decay diet.  If it works, in about 10 more weeks, I am going to savor and revel in the moment when I watch my son’s dentist wade through her befuddlement of where 8 cavities went.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll be panhandling with the best of them, trying to come up with $2500 to stimulate the dentist’s economy.  Yes, apparently teeth, just like your skin heals itself of a cut, can remineralize themselves and heal up from a cavity.  If you don’t believe me, either read the book, or just stay tuned for the duration of my family’s guineapigdom to see whether or not I’m onto something.

In order to create the optimal medium in your body for this so-called remineralization, you can’t eat:

sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, white flour,  wheat flour, whole grains, oatmeal, brown rice, raw nuts, (yes folks – that was not a typo – no brown rice or raw nuts!) processed or fried foods

and you really must eat:

cod liver oil, raw dairy products, plain yogurt, eggs, bone broths, vegetables, liver, butter, fermented foods, fish and seafood

and you can eat in moderation:

organic fruit, honey, maple syrup,  and sour dough bread

No Oatmeal?  No whole grains?

According to the astute Mr. Nagel, oatmeal is one of the worst things you can eat if you are prone to dental caries.  Many plants, grains, beans etc. have a certain level of plant toxins in them and they are simply undigestable.

Most of what you’ve ever eaten for breakfast is rotting your teeth: cereal, granola, bran, sweetened yogurt, bagels, muffins, whole wheat toast, jelly, not to mention donuts, danishes, and pop tarts.  All we have found to eat for breakfast is eggs, sour dough toast, butter, honey, local yogurt sweetened with maple syrup and fruit.  Man, that sounds good.

One thing I must say is that raw cow’s milk is sorely underrated. I was a bit sheepish about drinking it at first.  But OMG, it’s sooooooo good.  And it’s fun to buy too.  It feels like you’re buying drugs or something.  You have to know somebody.  You can’t buy it in the stores because it’s illegal.  Oooh.  Grin.  I hear rumors that the Federal Government, our old buddy and pal, has its sights set on making raw milk, supplements and vitamins illegal.  This is not one of my bits on our freedoms that are getting whittled away, but as of about two weeks ago, if anyone tells me that raw milk has become completely illegal, or that I’m going to have to buy my son’s cod liver and skate liver oil supplements on the black market, this little Ms. Smith is going to Washington and she’ll be seeing scarlet.

Vegan might be the new crunchy, but apparently your teeth will fall out

Sorry beautiful vegans out there, but if you’re disgusted by animal products, your teeth don’t have a chance.  Apparently, the fat-souble vitamins A & D that are crucial to healthy teeth and gums are for the most part only found in dairy and organ meat.  It’s really hip these days to not drink milk.  My beloved guru-midwife even thinks that we can’t process the calcium from dairy.  That might be because it’s pasteurized.  We’re getting hugely conflicting nutritional advice these days, and if I can, I’m going to get to the bottom of it.

Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods fame must have titanium teeth

If you’re not into consuming organ meat, or brains, eyes, liver and such, then you really need to be eating bivalves and crustaceans that require you to suck the head.  When you eat an oyster, you’re getting all of the organs.  And, drum roll please. I did it.  I ate my first oyster – a raw one mind you, from the Gulf of Mexico, in July.  And not only did I survive the harrowing experience, I loved it.  I have yet to make the fish head stew and I need some really good bone broth veggie soup recipes, but our eating habits are, well, hmmm, how would you describe it?  Not crunchy.  Perhaps the new describe-how-you-eat-status-symbol should be

Raw?  Grassfed?  Fat Soluble Vitaminy?  Fishy?  Slimey? Bivalvey?

Hmm, bivalvey.  Now that has a ring to it.

Children’s literature, movies, and TV need to evolve – BAD

July 29, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living, Parenting with 6 Comments

Just because it’s for “children” doesn’t make it okay for kids

When my son was about 3 we came home from the library one day with a stack of books to read.  That night, my husband came out of our son’s room after putting him to bed.  He had a disgusted look on his face, and handed me one of the books.  How I wish I had written down the title so I could share it with you now.  He said, “I managed to censor it spontaneously enough, but man, who writes this stuff?”

It was an adorably illustrated book about a man who hated his little boy’s cat.  He was always calling him “worthless” and “good-for-nothing”.  As if teaching that attitude toward animals wasn’t bad enough, the story goes on to have a burglar enter the family’s home one night.  The cat ends up saving the day by chasing the burglar away and thus wins the heart of the father.

I was in disbelief.  Does this not strike most parents as monumentally inappropriate? My child at age five still doesn’t have the foggiest idea that people break into houses and I really want to keep it that way.  Fear is debilitating and can be traumatizing.

The only thing I could figure is that it was published by a home security company.  They survive off of the fear of home invasion.

Next was Thomas the Train.  Also when my son was three, he was given a set of Thomas videos and we let him watch them now and then.  At first glance, Thomas seems so innocent and wholesome for children.  And honestly, Thomas the engine is quite a lovely character.  It’s the other engines who have nasty personalities.  They are always picking on little Percy or calling each other names.  The vignettes always have a happy ending, but the damage has been done.  We noticed that within a couple of weeks of watching Thomas, our little sweetheart wasn’t being so sweet.  Out went the videos and back came our son.

He also got noticeably aggressive while we were reading a set of particularly gory dinosaur books ad nauseum.  Again, we chucked ‘em and things improved.

I have censored about half of those old “Little Golden Books” that my mom has at her house.  Some of them are just awful!  The story of a giant who bludgeons people to death while they sleep is the one that comes to mind.

I’ve taken black marks-a-lots to books we own when they use words like “hate,” or introduce concepts like school sucks (even though we home school).  Am I the only one?

Believe me, I love our constitutional rights more than anyone else I know, and I would never condone any censorship of our right to free speech.  I’m just suggesting that we evolve beyond all of this crap, that’s all.

Old Archetypes of Fear need to become a thing of the past

It doesn’t seem like we’ve evolved past the old archetypal stories that so need to become a forgotten thing of the past.  Think of Hansel and Gretel. It’s the most frightening children’s story I could ever imagine.  Children hated by stepmother.  Father abandons them in the woods.  They find their way home.  Father abandons them again. This time they end up at a gingerbread house owned by an evil old lady who tries to fatten them up and eat them, so they kill her and go home to their father.  Oh, and the little murderers live happily ever after with the dead beat dad.

Other old super-outmoded archetypes are the evil stepmother, the dismemberment of animals (three blind mice), giants, ghosts, oh the list goes on and on.

Almost all of the Disney movies and many others are really scary and I don’t want my kids to be scared.  Think Cruella Deville of 101 Dalmations, the child snatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or any of the evil step-mothers.

Now, before I lose my proverbial way here, I need to get to what prompted this musing.  It’s PBS.  They typically have superior programming in my opinion.  However, do any of you let your children watch The Electric Company?  Apparently so because it’s still on TV.  My son is learning to read, so after he watches Wild Kratts (his favorite show) as a reward for getting all of his stuff done, I’ve been letting him watch The Electric Company.  I must say that the Kratts brothers show has villains that might scare younger kids, but it’s decent enough.  However, The Electric Company falls into the category of totally irresponsible entertainment for children.  It’s a bunch of irreverent tweens running around sassing each other and boasting while they spell words and teach grammar.  Seriously, these kids are irritating and obnoxious.  It’s very reminiscent of every time I’ve ever seen 5 minutes on the Disney Channel.  Pre-pubescent girls being rude to each other and young, sexually charged, between-class locker scenes must be what sells children all of the crap they advertise on that channel.

So, after a few days of getting to play the misleadingly educational video games on the PBS website’s Electric Company page, my son has been sighing and eye-rolling at me, quick to anger, shaking his fists in rage, basically acting like a teenage drama queen – and he’s 5.  When I came in and witnessed the sassy, bitchy, disdainful way he was being talked to by a cartoon when he “won” the game I was floored.  Well, that’s the end of that.

I suppose it’s just my instant karma for being open-minded about screens.  I’m not one of those moms who wants to shelter my child from the realities of our society completely, but until our society decides to be the tiniest bit conscious about what they’re serving up out there, I’ll take my toys and go home.

Any conscious children’s authors out there?

But before I go, I want to put a call out there to conscious children’s authors.  Expecting society to change is ridiculous.  Horrible children’s literature is like fast food.  It’s never going to go away.  We just have to choose to avoid it for the health of our children.

I would like to compile and publish a book of uber-conscious children’s work – stories, poems, art.  People can only learn that to which they are exposed.  So instead of fear, villains, and being rude, perhaps we could consciously write stories that introduce respect, kindness, honesty, trusting intuition, staying out of harm’s way, etc.  I’m not saying that the occasional foil or villain isn’t okay, but leaving children wide-eyed with fear, unable to sleep and bitchy to their parents is getting old.  Email me if this interests you.

And may your children be cheery and bright, and may the boogey men, rude pre-teens, and monsters in closet keep their distance…

8 Cavities, 1 Petit Four and Some Fish Head Stew or Cure Your Own Tooth Decay

July 23, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Homeschool, Natural Living, Parenting with 13 Comments

“Every single one of your son’s molars has a cavity, Ma’am.”

And?

“It’s gonna run you about $2500.  But we take installments if that’s helpful.”

What the?  digesting… digesting…. 2500 what?  Dollars?  Fillings?  but I’m a nature girl… how could two pieces of candy everyday after violin practice have turned into this?

I’m still reeling as I’m sitting with my toddler in my lap at my son’s hand drumming class.  I simply open my mouth – and

RADICAL SHIFT OF CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE, BRACE YOURSELF.

I mention the bad news to the other homeschool moms.  As usual, a conversation with another homeschool mom left me empowered, educated, and thirsty for more.

Every time I am engaged in conversation with one of these delightfully enlightened women, it’s as if new universes are brought to my attention.  I thought I was homeschooling for my boys, but apparently, I am about to change the world.

She looked me right in the eye and said, “I wouldn’t do anything to his teeth.  I’d just change his diet.  Check out a book called Cure Tooth Decay. His teeth can heal themselves.”

Is she from another planet?  I love her!  I love healing myself.  But teeth?

Here we go down yet another adventurous rabbit hole of unconventional wisdom.  This is becoming pleasantly familiar.  Similar were the feelings of delightful shock and then exhilaration as I first learned of and subsequently embraced the ideas of home birth and home school.

I downloaded Cure Tooth Decay a couple of hours ago, and I think my entire life is about to change.

I have a pretty good sugar addiction

I’m feeling huge resistance to the change.  I mean, if it’s good for a hummingbird, it’s gotta be okay for me right?  Good God, what am I doing to the poor hummingbirds?  Am I rotting their tiny little beaks?

Wisdom, when you have it, feels like common sense. Ironically, in three chapters I’m also already up on the high horse of better food decisions.  So far I’ve gleaned from the book that above all else we have to eradicate sweets and white flour from our diet.

Maya Angelou might do better when she knows better, but she doesn’t mention backsliding.  I’ve known better for years. Growing up, my older brother used to say, “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’re dead.”  I read The Sugar Blues 10 years ago, followed the sage advice, gave up cane sugar for months and cured myself of chronic yeast.  What a high horse that was.  I’ve been so conscious of what I eat at times that the mere idea of pulling into a drive-thru repulsed me to a point of lightheadedness with hunger.  But that ever-burning, self-destructive, bacchant, debaucherous, deep-seated sugar fiend always manages to make me an excuse – just like any other addict.  You’ve gone six months without it; surely one little petit-four is moderation. And I’m sucked back in – to the tune of cheesecake, chocolate, ice cream, Halloween, the occasional coke for which I’ve had palate since about age six.

It’s really an underestimated and undercover little booger, sugar I mean.

So, we’re officially shifting to the Cure Tooth Decay diet.  This apparently includes cod liver oil, butter, and fish head stew. ;-)  In three months we are going back to the same dentist, the same technician, and the same x-ray machine.  I can’t wait to see the look on that dentist’s face when the teeth are re-mineralized and the cavities are all gone.  And if the cavities are all gone, imagine our health in general!  I’ll keep you posted.  Literally.

Back to the land of the awake  8-O

So it took me 8 cavities in my little 5 yo’s head to bring me back to the land of the awake.  Hallloooo!  I’ m back.  I don’t know how long I’ll stay.  I have a pretty good track record for not sticking around too long.  And I bid adieu down my nose to the rest of you who are still blindly and deliciously choosing a double bacon burger today.  Go ahead, get the apple pie while you’re at it.

Change your posture and your whole world changes

June 15, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living with 2 Comments

A few years ago, I met this remarkable 70 year old woman who didn’t look a day over 50.  Her secret?  Alexander Technique.

This is how it went down.  She said, (and I highly recommend you take a moment and try this for yourself) “Just walk across the floor there.”  So I did.  In my regular old, slumpy, tired way, I walked across the floor.  (Do it.) Then she asked, “How do you feel?”  Answer – uh, like I usually do.

Then she said, “Look at the bottom of your feet really quick.  The ball, edge, and heel make a triangle.  Make sure you strike the floor with your heel and that all three points equally distribute your weight.  Now, stand up straight – like you’re a puppet being suspended from a string attached to the crown of your skull.  Shoulders back and down, breast bone out. Now, make sure you are picking up your legs and moving them from your hips – like marching.  Your hips and knees and feet all move.   Now, back to that upright posture.  Head held high, but not back – like the puppet.  Now, relaxing from the top down, walk across the room.”

I did.  I walked across the room. (Do it.)  She asked, “How do you feel now?”

Dude.  I felt like I could take on the world.  Like the most confident leader the world has ever known or like a super model owning the catwalk.

Changing the way you hold yourself changes the way you feel about yourself. And that will change everything, from whom you meet to what they think of you, to the opportunities you draw to yourself.  If you feel like a badass, then you pretty much are one.  I know that statement could draw some criticism, but so be it.  When you get right down to it, it’s true.

Alexander Technique doesn’t just change how you feel about yourself, it changes your physical capabilities.  It allows for freer speech and singing.  And it obviously changes how we age.  Alexander is like yoga while you’re just standing at the bus stop.

Just like any skill, this is something that you’d have to practice and be thoughtful about in order for it to become you.  But as I write this, I’m game.  And I’ll take y’all on.  Let’s see if we can all become badasses over the next few weeks.

What I really want is for some of you to implement both this posture thing and the perception thing from blog-before-last – change both your perception and posture for a day and then tell me how you feel.  I’d like to know.

 

Probiotics work – Spread the Word

June 6, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living with 0 Comments

If you already know about and take probiotics, you can disregard this article, but before you do, send the link to the people in your life who might have no idea what their gut is missing.

A friend of mine recently had both of his knees replaced.  He got an infection in the hospital and ended up on loads of antibiotics.  When my husband asked him if intended to take probiotics, he confessed he had never heard of them.

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help us digest our food.

Apparently we need a little more chatter out there about this little miracle.

Everyone who has ever taken antibiotics needs to take a bunch of probiotics to replenish the friendly flora that inhabit a healthy intestinal tract.  These bacteria get killed off by the antibiotics.  It’s like friendly fire all over the place when you take antibiotics.  Actually, I’d say that antibiotics are really more of a necessary evil.  You should never take antibiotics unless it’s the only way you’re going to survive.

You can get probiotics at any health food store.  Just ask one of the hippies in the supplements section to tell you which one he or she likes the best.  It will very likely be refrigerated.  Take it for a month after antibiotics and then every now and again.

I really like a brand called Ortho Molecular Products, Ortho Biotic Powder.  From what I understand, it has a friendly form of yeast in it too, which helps to keep the bad yeast from proliferating in your belly. You can easily give this powder to children too – just a small amount in juice.

A healthy digestive tract is crucial to overall health.  It doesn’t matter at all if you are eating healthy food, if your body is struggling to digest it.  Intestinal flora are a must.

Many friendly flora are found in yogurt and other foods, but not the variety and amount like in the supplements.

While you’re at the little health food store, be sure to stock up on arnica (natural, homeopathic, bruise-be-gone), tea tree oil (a natural antiseptic to put on cuts or clean house with), and elderberry syrup (natural anti-viral).

How and why to use cloth menstrual pads. Period.

June 4, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living, Spirituality with 10 Comments

How to actually use them? Click here – I’ve finally found a favorite brand.

So back to my not using tampons.  I haven’t used them in years except for on those rare occasions when I go swimming during my moon cycle.  It is especially important to let your Aunt Flow just be on her heaviest days.  Tampons are bad for you and have been linked to vaginal irritation, cervical dysplasia, and vaginal infections .  Women are meant to bleed and the blood nourishes the vaginal walls.  It’s part of healthy, natural living.  The unacceptable alternative to tampons these days is disposable pads; they have a similar environmental impact as diapers, and a similar rashy effect as well.
It makes me think of a saying I know – Wisdom, when you have it, seems like common sense.  I think everyone knows what I know, but apparently I’m wrong.

I’m prompted to write this bit because we had our laundry done at one of these great wash-n-fold places.  One of my old rusty colored (I don’t believe in using bleach unless it’s an emergency) hemp pads got in the wash and none of the ladies at the Laundromat knew what it was.  They didn’t even know what it was!  They asked if it was something I put in my shoe.  So, this is for all of you (and I think it really might be all of you) who don’t know about cloth menstrual pads.

I think I’m so advanced, but I must be really old-fashioned or something – everything I discover that I think is soooooooo cool is just what people did for 60,000 years.  Once again, I make my point; women historically have worn rags – hence the term.

But here we go again – the cloth menstrual pad.  I love them.  If you try them, you will probably love them too.  Unlike their plastic and chemical conventional counterparts, they breathe and don’t cause rash or chafing.  On heavy days you can double up and change often.  No biggie.  I have some that are cotton and some that are hemp and I don’t even know which is which.  I’ve had them for about ten years.  Just like cloth diapers, there’s an initial investment, but then you save boatloads over the years to come.  They cost about $13-17  for a set, and you’ll need 3-4 sets.  I recommend 2 regulars and 1 nighttime pad.  I found mine at a little Eco-store, but you can get them online.  Another really novel idea is that of actually sewing them yourself — ooooh.

When you change your pad, just have a bowl of water to toss it in.  Whenever you’re ready, wash them on hot.  I recommend washing them every 2-3 days.  If you wait any longer, you’ll see why.

Now, I may not need to be going here, but here I go: something cool you can do with your cloth pad moon cycle water is give it to the Earth.  Blood is very nourishing to the soil.  It’s one of those rare gifts you can give to this Mother who gives so much to you.  Sorry dudes.

Are We Killing Ourselves with our coffee pots and hot car interiors?

June 2, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living, Parenting, Pregnancy with 2 Comments

             As a natural living advocate who has been aware of toxicity amongst us for some time now, it still blows me over whenever I become aware of more of it.  Since we don’t know for sure what’s causing all the autism and cancer out there, the quality of our environments and products we consume simply must be considered.  This comes ironically after yesterday’s bit on fabric softeners.  This time it is our car interiors.

            For those of you who don’t know it yet, there is something out there called “out gassing.”  New, manufactured products “outgas.”  Some of the main culprits are new carpet, paint, flooring (new houses in a nutshell), clothes, bedding, mattresses, computers, and almost everything they sell at Target or Walmart really.  Someone should do a study of the longevity of Walmart employees.

            Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my coffee maker.  If you’re not a mom with young children in recent years, you may have missed all the hubbub about BPA.  Bisphenol-A is a toxic chemical that has recently been removed from the plastics from which we drink.

            That got me thinking.  Apparently, when we heat plastics to eat or drink from, even more of the toxic chemicals are leached into our food and drink.  Since baby bottles have been historically heated, this is very disturbing.  I recommend using glass baby bottles.

            Back to me thinking.  Every morning, along with millions of other unsuspecting Americans, I drink copious amounts of coffee, which has been brewed through various layers of plastic.  Big oops.  So, I got out my old, glass French Press coffee maker and I’m getting by.  Another alternative would be a stainless steel percolator coffee pot.  I wouldn’t drink anything that’s been in hot aluminum either, since aluminum has linked to Alzheimer’s disease.  (If you are still using conventional deodorant on a daily basis, check out the ingredients!)

            And what about my old trusty, plastic Brita, through which I so faithfully filter every drop of water consumed by my family?  Hmmm.

            My purpose here is not to alarm you.  On the contrary, it is simply to inform you and get your brain going.  I don’t believe in living in fear.  That is the worst thing possible for your health.  I just want to be informed and to make intelligent choices.

            It came to my attention this morning, after all this other awareness that I already have, that it is recommended that we let the hot air out of our cars before turning on our car air conditioners and breathing nothing but toxic air.  Yes, the carcinogenic chemical that leaches out of our blazing hot dashboards is called benzene, and we’re not supposed to breath large amounts of it.  Well, duh.  Doesn’t that seem like something we’d intuit?  Not me, folks.  I wonder how many other stupid things I’m doing without even realizing it. 

Infinity comes to mind.

Fabric Softeners are a Scam (and Poisonous too…)

June 1, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Natural Living with 3 Comments

Ahh, just as I’ve always suspected.  Fabric softeners are a total scam. 

What is a fabric softener or dryer sheet?  It’s a bunch of chemicals and artificial fragrances, which cause many different reactions in people – from rashes to headaches and far, far worse.  They’ve been linked to permanent central nervous system damage.

Aside from the fact that these products are toxic, the part that gets my goat is that for some reason people think they need them.  There’s one woman I know of who uses 15 dryer sheets per load.  Which came first?  The drier sheet or the lunatic woman?

We’ve been marketed to in such a way that we think towels feel rough if they’re just washed and dried in the sun.

I remember staying at a fancy hotel in France one time.  The towels felt like they’d been starched, rough as sand paper.  I asked about it and was told that that’s the way the owner of the hotel likes his towels.  Washed and dried on the line, hmmm, how novel.

Somehow it seeped in and I gave up the dryer sheet and started just washing and drying my clothes.  I like the smell of just clean, like the smell of clean water or air – it’s delicious in a transparent kind of way, clean because it’s not dirty.  The smell of fresh, sun-dried clothes is actually remarkable.

So the dryer sheet is an irrelevant, purposeless, poisonous item that we purchase (waste of money), use (waste of health), and then dispose of (waste of landfill space) and why? If you consider that static cling is really no big deal, then it’s the beautiful work of capitalism.  We, my friends, are free.  We are free to come up with totally worthless ideas and sell them to each other.  We are also free to educate ourselves before we use anything.  Freedom rocks.

If you have unexplainable rashes, headaches, dizziness, coughing, confusion or anything else, you might want to give up the dryer sheets – and artificial air fresheners and perfumes.

Homebirth Illegal in North Korea, I mean Virginia.

May 31, 2011 in Blog, Homebirth, Natural Living, Politics, Pregnancy with 7 Comments

Something’s rotten in the state of Virginia.  Yes, and it smells of funkiness anti-American, anti-liberty, even beyond the stench of socialism.  This folks, is scary.

I have a friend who has recently moved to Virginia because her husband, who is serving this country as a soldier, is stationed there.  She is pregnant with her second child and would love to have her baby at home, which, in Virginia, is illegal. (Okay, this is not true, as I found out after publishing this article, however, it’s still ridiculous that there are states where midwifery is a felony, so read on…)

Did you catch that?

Could someone who has the first clue about freedom over there in Virginia please help me here?  Virginia is the cradle of America and home of Thomas Jefferson, who I am sure was born at home.  This is beyond sad to me.  It is absurd and bordering on communist and cruel.  Who has the right to tell a woman where she can give birth?  What is the punishment for squatting down and bringing a new person to the planet in the safe haven of your own bedroom?

This shouldn’t be striking me with such force.  I already knew that midwifery is illegal in Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Illinois and Indiana. But none of those states had anything to do with the foundation of our country, which is something that is apparently being forgotten, called freedom.

Virginia?  Really?

Well, Virginia law-makers, let me educate you, if education appeals to you.  Home birth is statistically safer than hospital birth (see my previous blog for the stats).  So why would Virginia politicians make it illegal?  Either they are misinformed or the medical community stands to gain financially from this law against freedom, women, children, and nature.  Ah, there’s the rub.  Hospitals and doctors don’t make a dime when someone is born at home. That has to be it.  They have a strong lobby.  Unborn babies can’t lobby at all.

So, is that it America?  Are we going to unite against laws that take our freedom away?  Are we going to just sit and watch our freedoms be taken?  I don’t care if you like the idea of homebirth or not.  If you are truly American, then every one of our freedoms should be important to you, whether you exercise it or not.

Please, someone from Virginia, enlighten me as to why this law against homebirth is okay with you.  I beg you.

 

The World is Round or Homebirth is Safer than Hospital Birth

May 31, 2011 in Advice/Wisdom, Blog, Homebirth, Natural Living, Parenting, Pregnancy, Spirituality with 13 Comments

People really thought that the world was flat.

It seemed like it was flat.  But it wasn’t.  How do you suppose you felt the day that someone pulled the wool off and told you that the world was round?  Skeptical?  Foolish?  Angry?  Yeah – people were burned at the stake for telling the honest truth.

What I have to tell you today is proven by science, just like the fact that the world is round.  And most of you are still going to walk away thinking that it’s not true.  But here goes.

It is safer to have your baby at home than it is in the hospital, and more fun.  Every single study on low-risk deliveries at home and at the hospital shows this.  Yet, for some reason, 99% of Americans feel safer at the hospital.

Now why am I compelled to share this with you?

For one, I want the truth to be known.  No woman or couple should choose the hospital out of fear.  Since the world is round, I mean – since homebirth is safer than hospital birth, it should be the other way around.  Although it would also be nice is we chose out of love and not out of fear…

How often in your life do you train for a marathon and run it?  How many times do we summit Mount Everest?  How many times do we enter our darkest hour, then emerge victorious in the light?  How many times, ladies, do we get    to     give      birth?  How many times do we get to connect with the lineage of our mothers on a primal level?

Deep breath.

Go to Youtube, watch some home births, spread the word.

The world is round.

STATS and Facts

  • Homebirth is statistically safer than hospital birth for both mother and child, yet less than 1% of American babies are born at home.
  • In the five European countries with the lowest infant mortality rates, midwives preside at more than 70% of all births.  More than half of all Dutch babies are born at home with midwives in attendance, and Holland’s maternal and infant mortality rates are significantly lower than in the US.  (Holland – 4.73 deaths per 1000 live births, USA – 6.26)[i]
  • In a six year study done by the Texas Department of Health, it was found that midwife attended birth has about 1/3 the infant mortality rate of physician attended birth.[ii]
  • Maternal Mortality is low in the US.  8 in 100,000 women in the U.S. die due to complications from pregnancy.

 

Medical interventions[iii]

Planned Homebirth                                Hospital Birth

Induction of Labor 2.1%                                                       21%

Electronic Fetal Monitoring 9.6%                                                       84.3%

Episiotomy 2.1%                                                       33%

Vacuum extraction 0.6%                                                       5.5%

Cesarean Section 3.7%                                                       30.4%

Cesarean Section

  • It’s the most common major operation performed in the U.S.
  • 16 US hospitals have cesarean section rates of 45% or higher.
  • 1/3 of women who deliver in the hospital will be given a C-section.
  • About half of the C-sections done in America in 1994 were unnecessary, costing Americans $1.3 billion annually.
  • The World Health Organization states that there is no justification for having a cesarean section rate higher than 15%.
  • The risk of maternal death associated with C-section is five to seven times that associated with vaginal births.

Medical Error

When large studies done in Colorado, Utah, and New York are extrapolated to the over 33.6 million admissions to U.S. hospitals in 1997, the results of the study in Colorado and Utah imply that at least 44,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors. The results of the New York Study suggest the number may be as high as 98,000.  Even when using the lower estimate, deaths due to medical errors exceed the number attributable to the 8th-leading cause of death. More people die in a given year as a result of medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).[iv]

Go to Youtube, watch some homebirths, spread the word.

[i] Central Intelligence Agency – The World Fact Book, 2009, CIA https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html (accessed June 2, 2009).

[ii] [ii]Texas Lay midwifery Program, Six Year Report, 1983- 1989, Bernstein & Bryant, Appendix Vlllf, Texas Department of Health, 1100 West 49th St., Austin, TX 78756-3199.

[iii] Citizens for Midwifery, 2005, Planned Homebirths are Safe.

[iv] Linda T. Kohn, Janet M. Corrigan, and Molla S. Donaldson, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. (The National Academies Press, 2000),1.  http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9728&page=1 (accessed Sept. 17,2008).

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