Birth Control Drugs: Female Sexual Castration?

When I opened my inbox this morning, I found an email from Gail J. Dahl discussing birth control drugs and the way they act to sexually castrate women. This information is food for thought and something every woman should think about when she is considering her fertility and contraception. I decided when I was very young and the 'pill' was new that I was not interested in taking it. Other methods such as I used to manage my fertility are outlined at the end of Gail's explanation. I also chose to embrace the 'croning' and changes that come with menopause as the idea of HRT does not and did not appeal to me.  Reading Gail's words have made me glad that I did listen to my inner self on this one! 

Gail J. Dahl is a childbirth researcher, award winning and national bestselling author. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Childbirth Association. Dahl has received many awards, including  "The YWCA Woman of Distinction Award", "The Woman of Vision Award" and "The Great Women of the 21st Century Award" for her contributions toward women's health and education.  

Gail has written two great books  Pregnancy & Childbirth Secrets and Pregnancy and Childbirth Tips

Her websites are:

http://web.mac.com/pregnancysecrets

http://www.youtube.com/gaildahl
 

 Here is Gail's email to me, reproduced with her permission.

Secrets - Female Sexual Castration - Birth Control Drugs

Shortly after our last e-newsletter on the health dangers of the newest birth control pills, I had the opportunity to speak at length with Jody McLaughlin, who has now logged in over thirty years in the birth industry. It was wonderful to hear of her observations of women over the past thirty years. In our conversation, Judy called the birth control pill, "female castration", and she said it was causing a generation of our young women to be dumbed down intellectually, emotionally and sexually. I agree, this is exactly what is happening to our young women.

Since we began taking the birth control pill, we no longer have young women protesting or advocating for change. University rallies rarely last for more than a few hours. Colleges and universities know that they can easily double tuition fees and have little backlash to deal with. Wars, started and never ended because women have lost their ability to speak up, or so few are willing to. Chemical castration causes one to lose their drive and ambition in life, something that has been known for centuries. 

The pill did not provide women with freedom, instead it has muffled us and stripped us of our female sexuality and sensuality. Stealing the best out of us, our drive and ambition. I believe the pill has become a prison for the modern young woman. All doors out of this chemical prison are locked or just lead more deeply within, each room providing different formats of the same female castrating drugs.

Some our young men are complaining that today's young women have nothing to say past gossip, display little ambition, they are difficult to arouse and quite frankly, boring in bed. That is how a young woman would behave after her sex drive was chemically removed. And because the pill takes away our keen sense of scent, women are choosing the wrong partners when they are on birth control and realize this too late, once they stop the pill and their ability to smell increases. The young women then complain that now their guy smells different. Liking the scent of your partner, sweaty or clean, is what draws us sexually to our partners.  Young women are also losing their drive and ambition just at the moment that they need everything at their command to complete their higher education and begin their new career.

Taking the pill at a too young age, before the age of 25, can leave a legacy of infertility in later years. Undiscovered sexually transmitted diseases along with too early and long term use of chemical birth control is the foundation of the tremendous rise in infertility we are seeing in our North American society today. Young women taking some of the new birth control dugs are finding their period goes away and either doesn't come back for years or perhaps not at all, stealing their fertility and their future. 

Additional physical complaints from chemical birth control include depression, mood swings, frequent headaches, bloating, lack of energy, weight gain, lung clots, pancreatitis, risk of heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder complications and other life-threatening health problems. Don't believe that today's birth control pills are "safer" than they were when we were growing up, they are much, much more dangerous today. Does a bright young woman you know exhibit feelings of hopeless, lack of energy, depression, lack of desire to get ahead, cloudy thinking and mood swings? Is she mostly "down" instead of "up"? These are the young women also at risk for numerous addictions used in order to attempt to chemically feel better. 

Looking back I can see that I started the pill at a too young age. At that time you were on the pill whether you were actually having sex or not. If there was any sexual activity it was certainly sporadic and rarely occurred more than a few times a year. I was continually going on and off the pill and having my prescription changed to another drug due to the multitude of side effects I was experiencing. I finally gave up using all chemical birth control and began to study my personal fertility cycle and and use barrier methods during fertility only. This difference in my ability to move forward in my career and my ability to get things done increased tremendously after I stopped taking the pill. Depression lifted and life just began to look differently allowing me to take great strides forward in my life. 

Still chemical birth control free and have been since the birth of my daughter. Now, I can see what was happening to me in my twenties and why. I much prefer my sexuality intact and will not be doing anything to stop my cycles. I am happy to have my cycle to the very, very, last, last day. I recently spoke with a sexual health expert and now I understand the importance of my cycles for maintaining my optimum health as a woman. This expert had forecast long before the tremendous damage that could occur when a woman's cycle is stopped or altered chemically. 

Our daughters should not be graduating school without completing a program in Science or Health on tracking her own personal fertility cycle. The recent book, "Cycle Savvy" and "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler are excellent guides for young women for understanding their own personal body cycle and fertility pattern. Every young woman of the age of fourteen was given this book as a gift in Chicago a few years ago, what a wonderful gift to receive, free control of your fertility for the balance of their life. 

Whether you are in the public or private school system, take a moment today or tomorrow and ask your school district if they will add a Fertility Planning module to the Sexual Health programing in your area. This only takes a short email to the Superintendent of your local school system. Ask them to add Fertility Awareness Programming to their Grade 9 Science or Health Classes.  Sometimes a suggestion is all that is needed to get the ball rolling. Pick up the telephone or click on the internet and send a quick email to the leader of the school system for your city. Our young women will not have any alternatives unless we teach them. This just takes a few minutes and could have tremendously positive results for the young women in your city or town, wherever you are.  I just wrote in myself to the head of our school system in my city. It took approximately 4 minutes to locate the top boss, write a one paragraph letter and attach the following recent article and email it. If ten women happened to write in at the same time, with the same suggestion, I would imagine the school system would need to pay attention. 

The pharmaceutical companies and the physicians are not presenting birth control with the correct statistics and side effects. The statistics for birth control are skewed, only showing the stats from using the product correctly which they state, most don't. The chemicals are providing no more than a 50/50 proposition of working, the side effects are not clearly noted. No mention is made of the sexual castration leading to a woman's suppressed sexual desire, decreased drive, decreased ambition, decreased mood and energy, increased weight gain, along with the real and serious life threatening possibilities of physical damage to her body. 

I understand that mom's have enough to worry about today with young daughters, but it is really worth it to take away your daughter's drive, ambition and ability to choose a partner at the most critical time of her life, for the sake of "peace of mind"?

Many thanks to everyone who sends in their comments and thanks also to those who let me know they passed this important article along to a daughter, granddaughter, friend, family member or physician. We need to think of better alternatives to pass on to our daughters to ensure the generational line continues in our own families and that our daughter's are in optimal health.  Best wishes, Gail J. Dahl

Your Fertility Awareness and Charting References:

"Cycle Savvy" by Toni Weschler:  http://cyclesavvy.com/

"Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler : http://www.tcoyf.com/

"The Garden of Fertility" by Katie Singer : http://www.gardenoffertility.com/

"Justisse Fertility Awareness for Women":  http://www.justisse.com/default.htm

Free Online Guidebook at:  "Justisse Fertility Awareness"  http://www.justisse.com/eBook/

Free Fertility Charts at: http://www.gardenoffertility.com/fertilitycharts.shtml

Each one of these authors has created an excellent website to go along with their books and all have great free information. It only takes a few hours to learn how to work the fertility system and a few minutes daily to track your own personal fertility pattern. Some women track their ovulation and use it to schedule important business meetings and projects. 

Ovulation is a high energy and highly creative time for all women. An excellent time to write a song, paint and do some innovative thinking about life. Tracking the ebb and flow of your body's cycle can also assist you in monitoring your personal health throughout your years of fertility.  A free and drug-free way to have full control of your fertility throughout your life. Best, G

Need More Convincing on the Castration Part?

The birth control drugs being sold to your daughters, relatives and female friends is the same drug used for male sexual castration. This drug creates the same personal devastating effects such as of loss of sexual desire, loss of drive and ambition, deep depression, excessive weight gain, emotional turmoil, sexual confusion, isolating behavior and other serious mental, emotional and physical side effects. These drugs are usually reserved for sexual deviants and transexuals.  I was unaware of the depth of damage chemical birth control can do to women. I had an idea from watching what the drugs did to my own body, I am amazed now at how the effects are so all encompassing with the potential for devastating results. The type of drug used for male chemical castration is the foundation for the new types of birth control sold under the names of Yaz, Yazmin and the birth control shot Depo-Provera, any chemical that attempts to stop, re-program or delay a woman's cycle. All chemical birth control has the potential to have the same castrating effect on a woman as it does on men

Midwifery Legislation Update from Maternity Coalition

Update from Maternity Coalition about Health Care Legislation.

The Senate passed the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 on Tuesday 16 March. This legislation should give Australian women greater access to affordable, continuity of care with a known midwife.

It marks the beginning of a new era of maternity care for Australia’s maternity consumers. It is a huge achievement; and thanks to the work of generations of women and to you.

In recent months, much of our focus in the birth community has been on the aspects of the maternity reforms we are unhappy with including the collaborative arrangement and the threat to births at home. But we should remember that this legislation is a giant step forward in the right direction to woman-centred maternity care.

What this means

We don’t know how it will all work in practice yet as Health Minister Roxon still needs to make decisions on a number of things including definitions for ‘eligible midwife’ and ‘collaborative arrangement’ and details around Medicare and prescribing are still not finalised.

But what we do know is that:
• Consumers, from November 2010, will be able to choose (in theory) their own midwife for their pregnancy, birth care in a hospital and post-natal care. How intrapartum care in hospital will work still needs to be sorted with visiting/admitting rights. This care will be more affordable as they can get Medicare rebates for it. This has the potential of increasing the numbers of Australian women who can access continuity of care with a known midwife from less than 5% to a New Zealand figure of around 80% or higher.
• Midwives will have access to
o Medical Benefits Scheme
o Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
o Professional Indemnity Insurance (excluding birth at home) and the Government will also pay any insurance claims that exceed $1 million. Note: The need for a collaborative arrangement to be in place before a midwife could access this indemnity was dropped in the Bills.

What MC is doing?
MC is working hard. We have:
• representatives at all working groups of the Department of Health and Ageing involved in implementing these reforms.
• given evidence at two Senate enquiries.
• attended consultations and made submissions to provide the consumer perspective on maternity issues.
• engaged in strategic conversations with other stakeholders.

MC and a range of midwifery and nursing organisations have agreed on a consensus for collaborative arrangements and took this proposal to the Minister’s office. We’re feeling optimistic about this. Senator Joe Ludwig (ALP) clearly stated in the Senate it was not the Government’s intention in the legislation to give one professional group control over another. We need to keep the Government accountable to this.

What about homebirth?
There is nothing in the Bills for homebirth – the Bills neither support nor outlaw homebirth. However Health Minister Roxon has made it clear that she intends women to be able to continue to access midwifery care for homebirths. To hear it straight from the Minister, see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK_Vt18eq0s

MC, along with the Australian College of Midwives, has developed an alternative proposal for the Quality and Safety Framework midwives will need to work to in order to qualify for the two year exemption from professional indemnity insurance. As the whole purpose of this exemption was to secure women’s access to homebirth care, MC expects an outcome which will work.

We have asked that this framework be finalised by 1 April 2010 giving women and midwives 3 months in which to make plans. The final version of the framework will be released in the next few days. Look to the website for a link to it shortly.


MC’s perspective of an ideal outcome for homebirth (in terms of what’s going on at the moment) is that midwives providing homebirth care will be:
• registered as a midwife and able to practice
• exempt from professional indemnity insurance for the first two years of national registration (from July 2010)
• working in much the same way they do now.

Some homebirth midwives might also choose to become an ‘eligible midwife’ with access to MBS and PBS. In which case they will need to have a collaborative arrangement in place so that their clients can receive Medicare rebates for their pregnancy and post-natal care.


What you can do right now?

• The National Health and Medical Research Council has released its draft ‘Guidance on Collaborative Maternity Care’. This is a very important document. They are asking for feedback on this document and want it by Friday 27 April. For more information go here: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/consult/consultations/ngcmc.htm. When you read it, ask yourself how these arrangements would work for you as a consumer. SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO l.metcalfe@tpg.com.au for incorporation into a response to the NHMRC.

• If you haven’t written/visited your Federal MP for awhile, get back in touch and tell him/her that birth and birth care really matter to women and families, and we expect governments to take responsibility for the quality of care and choices available to women [how do you see this yourself?]. Remind them that they need to find a long-term solution for indemnity for midwives providing homebirth by June 2012 and that the clock is ticking.

• Keep up your membership to Maternity Coalition and other consumer and midwifery groups. In numbers we have strength. Without you, we are nothing. To renew your membership with MC and find out when and where the next meeting is close to you, go to our website www.maternitycoalition.org.au



Lisa Metcalfe
President Maternity Coalition
Em: president@maternitycoalition.org.au
Web: www.maternitycoalition.org.au

Optimal Environmental Conditions for Childbearing

The shocking deaths within the last six months of two child brides from the Yemmen ,one from sexual intercourse related haemorrhage five days after her forced marriage and one from childbirth, provide a graphic and tragic illustration of the disastrous circumstances that can accompany female reproductive lives. Their stories are testimony to the difficulties that girls and women face in living their lives in ways that are empowered and valued.

Thinking about these young girls and their lack of choices, driven by culture,  religion, standard of education, political will and misogyny, led me to consider what is the optimal environment for childbearing?

Optimal Environmental Conditions For Childbearing

In an optimal social environment, childbearing women, babies and children are highly valued in ways that are quite tangible. The vital contribution that mothers and babies make to society is recognised as fundamental to the health and wellbeing and indeed the future of society. The needs of mothers and babies needs are at the heart of government policies and social considerations. The society as a whole expects every workplace to be family friendly and therefore it is the norm. To be considered family friendly, a workplace has on-site childcare, flexible working hours and breastfeeding facilities as a matter of course. Breastfeeding is a normal, accepted part of childbearing. Breastfeeding in public is normal and there are easily accessible facilities in every large department store, recreational and public utility for breastfeeding women and their babies. All children are educated at school about child development, contraception, maternity care, pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. In our optimal social environment, women have true choice about pregnancy. If a woman chooses to stay childless, that is accepted as a valid choice. Women are not pressured in any way by the media or their social network. Women have access to the contraceptive that suits their needs. There is general agreement that no women should have to bear a child that is unwanted. There is an appreciation that an unwanted pregnancy creates unacceptably high levels of suffering for the woman and for the individual who is born unwanted. Women’s self determination is valued and encouraged. Every pregnant woman is in a stable and loving relationship and has at least five people that she knows, love and support her in emotional and in practical ways. 

Every woman who wants to become pregnant is financially secure. She is at her best nutritionally, physically and emotionally with the help of free and easily accessible holistic pre-conceptual health care. A visit to the pre-conceptual health centre is a normal thing to do for a couple planning a pregnancy. At these centres, couples build on their knowledge gained from their school education and learn more about prenatal and infant development. The role of nutrition, stress management and exercise in optimising the prenatal environment for their future pregnancy is explored. A conscious approach to conception, pregnancy, birth and childrearing is treasured. Couples go to courses about relationships and parenting to ensure they are well equipped to provide a loving environment for their own growth and development as partners and parents. Families are encouraged to be supportive of one another as family friendly practices are part of the educational process in schools and work places.

There are women centred health services in neighbourhood centres where pregnant women can access relationship based midwifery care and an integrated perinatal service. The integrated perinatal service includes midwives, doctors, social workers, psychologists, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, dieticians, early childhood nurses and paediatricians. According to the individual woman’s needs, members of the health care service work with the women as an integral part of the team. Women can choose to give birth at these centres or at home. If there is some condition requiring close medical attention and care in labour, the woman can birth at the tertiary referral centre with her midwife and other team members support. 

The woman and her partner are supported by their midwife and a home help person for up to six weeks after their baby is born.

Of course the optimal environment for childbearing that I have described can be seen as a 'pipe dream' a fanciful idea that is unattainable. I suggest that for our species to become all it can be, humanity needs to look seriously at how women and children are treated in this world.  We will only fulfill our potential if we start taking  proper care of women and children and ensuring there is an optimal environment for childbearing.  The plight of young girls in the Yemmen is a blight upon humanity.  However, the Yemmen is not the only place where being female is a liability.

Everyone needs to take responsibility for the position of females in society.  Everyone has to do their bit to improve the social structure. Nothing changes until we change.

24 Hour Virtual International Day of the Midwife Conference

An exciting event has been planned to celebrate International Day of the Midwife. Dr Deborah Davis from the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney and Sarah Stewart Otago Polytechnic Education Development Centre in NZ have planned and coordinated a fabulous, innovative virtual conference.

 

International Midwives Day Virtual Conference

Presentations, discussions, chat room and webpage discussions, videos and podcasts are all planned to occur on the day.

Conference program

You can have a look at last year's event and explore the presentations there to get a sense of what you can expect this year.

You will learn all about working with a Wiki which is a website where people can create and edit pages about topics/areas that interest them together. Links can be made to resources and further pages.  People can work cooperatively on policy and guidelines development, research and networking on a Wiki. The 24 hour virtual International Day of the Midwife Celebration and Conference is all on a Wiki, with links to events, tools, videos and podcasts provided within the Wiki.

Going to conferences is always fun. I love them, but geography, finances and time zones prevent many midwives meeting on an international level. Online resources and tools such as Second Life, Elluminate and Skype overcome those limitations and enable midwives to meet, communicate, share information and resources in a far more flexible way than face-to-face meetings. This 24 hour virtual celebration of midwifery is a means of providing us with an opportunity to meet at some stage during the day either 'live' in real time meetings or at recorded events at a time that suits us individually.

Elluminate is a virtual meeting room. You can listen, watch, interact in the Elluminate meeting room. You will need to get familiar with Elluminate before the sessions you want to take part in. Sarah Stewart has kindly offered to take you through Elluminate and show you how it functions. Contact Sarah to book a time to do so if you would like that help. I'm certainly going to take her up on her generous offer.

Revamping the Blog

I've had a such a great time tonight, working with Sarah Stewart, the queen of using social media for updating about midwifery and education. Sarah has been wonderful, coaching me on getting the twitter link, the 24 hour virtual International day of the midwife link and putting the tags of my posts on the page.

Sarah's blog is well worth exploring as there are some great tips for anyone who wants to use this medium to get their message across. Sarah Stewart's blog  Sarah also has some timely advice for those of us who use Facebook and Twitter in terms of our professional responsibilities.  I think you will find what she has to say very thought provoking and useful.

I would love your feedback about the new look and any other suggestions you may have for my blog.

Writing Birth: Rainbows in the heart and other matters of importance

When Vicki Chan of Better Birth Workshops put a quote by Carl Sandburg on Facebook, followed up by this beautiful poem (below) written by Sandburg on their discussion page, my thoughts turned to the way that artists and mothers write about birth. 

Being born is important.
You who have stood at the bedposts
and seen a mother on her high harvest day,
the day of the most golden of harvest moons for her.
You who have seen the new wet child dried behind the ears,
swaddled in soft fresh garments,
pursing its lips and sending a groping mouth
toward the nipples where white milk is ready

You who have seen this love's payday of wild toil and sweet agonizing
You know being born is important.
You know nothing else was ever so important to you.
You understand the payday of love is so old,
So involved, so traced with the circles of the moon,
So cunning with the secrets of the salts of the blood
It must be older than the moon, older than the salt.

 

Carl Sandburg at 55 years of age

What an amazing poem and what an amazing man to write so eloquently about birth and how important birth is, not only to women, not only to babies, but all of us.

My thoughts then moved to "Harvest Day" a brilliant piece where writer and journalist, Anna Maria Dell'Oso explored her feelings and experiences about birth and mothering in a column for the Good Weekend Section of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. Anna Maria's column and others was published as a book called Cats, Cradles and Chamomile Tea in 1989. I highly recommend the book and in particular this chapter, for mothers, midwives, doulas, fathers, students, everyone.

Anna Maria wrote:

"Being with someone, murmuring along with their heartbeat, breathing with them is a lost art. The true midwives of birth and death, those who keep vigil at the bedposts are rare. They are people whose eyes are accustomed to darkness and light, who stand waiting by  night and by dawn, holding cloaks and soft wrappings at the cross roads and gateways; they stand at the threshold, at the breaking of the paths, watching the lights, the rain and the winds, welcoming and farewelling our journeying souls. The price of such people is above rubies. No machines that go ping can stand in their place. Yet so often that is all we have. Thank God it doesn't happen to me".

Poets and writers show us what's real, what's missing and what's possible. Their words and the images they evoke go straight to our heart and let us know if we are on track or need to change. They teach us if we are willing to listen and see with new eyes those things we adapt to and take for granted. 

A lovely quote by Sandburg, is to be found in engraved lengthwise horizontally in a finished split tree trunk in the lobby of Carl Sandburg Middle School, Neshaminy School District of lower Bucks County.

"MAN IS BORN WITH RAINBOWS IN HIS HEART AND YOU'LL NEVER READ HIM UNLESS YOU CONSIDER RAINBOWS"

As you would be aware, the word "man" was used at the time as the generic term for a human being. Carl Sandburg was obviously referring to all people when he wrote that statement. What does being born with rainbows in our hearts mean? What does it take to consider rainbows?  Our human spirit is ignored in what passes for maternity and newborn 'care' in this country and in most of the so called developed world. Indigenous people understand the rainbow in a person's heart, they consider rainbows and read each other well. 

What will make us wake up to the rainbows?

We are blessed to have the poets, artists and writers. They help us learn to consider rainbows and other signs of real life. They show us why birth is important when we have forgotten. 

Flashmob: Pregnant women breakdancing in London

"If you think this is dangerous, try giving birth in poor countries without a midwife,  hospitals or medicine. This flashmob is one of a series that is happening in Paris, Berlin..."  Oxfam

700,000 more midwives are needed globally. When a trained midwife is in attendance, a woman's chances of surviving childbirth dramatically increase.

Midwives create a clean environment for the delivery and deal with complications during birth. Midwives must be supported with decent, well-equipped hospitals nearby for emergency care.

Oxfam

Caesarean vs VBAC a dramatic difference

This is a very inspirational and moving video by Alexandra Orchard about her birth experiences.


Cesarean vs. VBAC:  A Dramatic Difference from Alexandra Orchard on Vimeo.


There are some very interesting comments on Alexandra's page. Click this link or cut and paste into your browser.

http://vimeo.com/5648654

Optimistic Expectancies and Cell-Mediated Immunity — Psychological Science

Having positive expectations is good for your immune system functioning and therefore good for your health.

"These results provide the first evidence that changes in optimistic expectancies are accompanied by changes in immunity, as well as the first evidence for a mechanism by which this effect occurs. Changes in expectancies about law school predicted changes in cellular immune function, and this relationship could be partially accounted for by positive but not negative affect. The results support the validity of psychological interventions to improve immunity and health (e.g., Andersen et al., 2007) and suggest that efforts to correct irrationally pessimistic expectancies may be warranted, particularly if these efforts also increase positive affect".

Interestingly, the authors conclude:

"Although optimistic expectancies are associated with both increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, it may be as important for immunological health for people to be happy as it is for them to lack anxiety".

That song "Don't worry, be happy" was on the mark!

Of course, childbearing women do have 'worries' and their anxieties can be alleviated by having a midwife to journey through their experience with.  Midwives can provide a sounding board and provide information and a safe space where worries and fears can be explored; strategies for self management developed and worries dissipated.  In such a supportive environment, women's cell-mediated immunity is obviously improved, which would 'fit' with the reduced numbers of women experiencing pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and premature labour that is associated with 1-2-1 midwifery care.


Optimistic Expectancies and Cell-Mediated Immunity — Psychological Science

Perception of effort, not muscle fatigue, limits endurance performance

"As recently as 2008, scientific research papers were citing the theory that endurance performance is limited by the capacity of the skeletal muscles, heart and lungs and that exhaustion occurs when the active muscles are unable to produce the force or power required by prolonged exercise.
Dr Sam Marcora, an exercise physiologist at Bangor University, has now disproved this for the first time and proposed an alternative - that it is your perception of effort that limits your endurance performance, not the actual capability of your muscles. He showed that the muscles were still able to achieve the power output required by endurance exercise even when the point of perceived exhaustion had been reached".

The idea that the perception of effort limits a person's endurance performance is relevant to any physical activity that requires endurance, not just the sporting arena.

For birthing women, their families and midwives, this information is very important. Perceptions around labour and birth are culturally constructed. Many women are apprehensive about giving birth because of the negativity they are subjected to on a daily basis from well meaning friends, associates and even total strangers. That apprehension that many women feel, coupled with also well meaning but negative, undermining comments when they are in labour, may lead many women to perceive that they are 'at the end of their tether' and unable to go on. Birthing physiology requires the woman to feel safe and loved to work optimally.

Many partners get frightened by the rawness and primal nature of labour and seek to make themselves feel better by sympathising/pitying and/or suggesting pain relief for the labouring woman. An example is regarding one of the couples, several years ago, who came back to an antenatal group to talk about their birth experience six weeks earlier. When they had told their story, the man said "I was so happy when she had the epidural, I couldn't stand it any longer".

Women do look to their partners and caregivers to check how they are 'doing' in labour. Women get feedback that way. Fear-filled or pitying faces trigger mirror neurons to create similar feelings in the women, disrupting their physiological functioning for birthing. Unless the woman's self talk is particularly strong and positively oriented, her mind will be filled with fearful reactive thoughts, further disrupting her birthing physiology.

On the other hand, in a similar way to what happens in sporting situations, when partners/family and midwives provide encouragement, words of praise, smiling faces and a firm belief in the woman's ability, women's self talk changes and they find the inner strength to continue, even getting a 'second wind' as the energy in the room picks up. That's where the analogy to sport ends because with birthing there is no competition. There is no one to beat. The wonder is that there is a beautiful baby and fabulous placenta to welcome into the world.

The recipe for enabling birth, as it is for any physically related endeavor requiring focus and endurance:

• believe you can 'do it'
• prepare yourself
• surround yourself with people who believe in you
• ask your partner/support people to say supportive messages and to smile at you in labour
• tell yourself that you 'can'
• do it

Perception of effort, not muscle fatigue, limits endurance performance

Stress During Pregnancy Linked to Higher Risk for Asthma in Offspring

The way that our physiology switches genes on or off in response to environmental circumstances/triggers/cues, a process now studied as 'epigenetics' or 'above the genes' is becoming increasingly understood. The way that stressors impact our lives, our genetic expression and our immune system is becoming more and more recognised and obvious as scientists seek to understand the role of the environment in disease profiles. The significance of the prenatal experience in setting the foundations for health and wellness or disease is now recognised as a reality for humans as well as other animal species.

What scientists are discovering as they study the role of the prenatal environment in health and disease, is that high levels of maternal stress during the prenatal period is associated with impaired immune modulation. This study gives further credence to the Barker hypothesis that the prenatal experience is programming the infant's physiology, including the immune system to respond to the environment it will be born into. In the case of children whose mothers experience chronic and high stress levels, they have immune systems that are more vulnerable and more highly triggered by adverse environmental factors.

"In the Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma Study, the investigators evaluated associations among prenatal maternal stress and cord blood mononuclear cell (CBMC) cytokine responses among 557 families in Boston; Baltimore, Maryland; New York City; St. Louis, Missouri, and other cities. Each child had a parent with history of asthma or allergy".

Cytokines are messenger molecules with a complex range of interweaving, intersecting pro inflammatory and anti inflammatory functions.

"This is the first study in humans to show that increased stress experienced during pregnancy in these urban, largely minority women, is associated with different patterns of cord blood cytokine production to various environmental stimuli, relative to babies born to lower-stressed mothers," lead author Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said in a news release.

The obvious answer is take care of pregnant women. Reduce the environmental stressors that pregnant women have to negotiate on a day to day basis. Poverty, violence, poor nutrition, unwanted pregnancies, lack of preconceptual care, lack of meaningful, supportive care during pregnancy and birth etc are all environmental risk factors with huge implications for the health and wellbeing of mothers and their babies.

Midwifery care that is provided in a one to one relationship is very beneficial for helping a woman defuse her stress levels. As a woman feels safe with her midwife and as trust builds, discusses her fears, problems and life circumstances, emotional stress is releases and solution generating can begin. Our government needs to heed these studies and provide better care for pregnant women if they truly want better and healthier societies.



Stress During Pregnancy Linked to Higher Risk for Asthma in Offspring

Government sold out to the AMA

 "The new regulatory framework includes a request for midwives to form a collaborative relationship with doctors, requiring their sign-off to access Medicare insurance and pharmaceutical benefits"

This bit of legislation has put midwifery under the control of doctors and sold out women's choice to birth at home with her own midwife

 

and is it no wonder when our prime minister, the honourable kevin rudd, at the AMA's union dinner says:

"In particular, tonight I want to acknowledge the hard work of Andrew Pesce as President of the AMA. I've appreciated Andrew's input and his engagement with
the health reform agenda in the meetings that we have had together in recent weeks.

The Government and the AMA are both committed to tackling the long-term challenge of health reform, and we are both committed on the direction we need to take to tackle this challenge - in particular, on the need for stronger clinician leadership within our health system.

In July last year, the AMA told us about the sorts of things that they would like to see in health reform....

Andrew, we heard you."

Date: 10 March 2010
News Type: Speech
Title: Speech to the 2010 AMA Parliamentary Dinner


Senate passes controversial birth bill | Herald Sun

Miracle baby elephant makes public debut

Miracle baby elephant makes public debut

"Miller said the indications were the elephant would have no permanent problems despite being stuck in a position in the womb which experts considered would result in death to both mother and calf in the wild".

Interestingly, the mother gave birth alone, once everyone left her after the pronouncement that the baby elephant was dead in utero.  The experts do that shroud waving thing around birth quite a bit. Even with elephants. Just goes to show that experts are wrong across species. Mothers always know best

British fertility clinic raffling human egg

What do you think of this?

"A British fertility clinic said Sunday it was raffling off a human egg this week to promote its "baby profiling" service, which it insists is legal under UK law".

British fertility clinic raffling human egg

Private practice midwifery

I've been quiet on my blog for a couple of weeks. I've been thinking a lot.

Over the last two weeks, I have been contacted by more and more women wanting one to one midwifery care.

The  women who have contacted me include:
1. Women who live outside the boundary set by publicly funded homebirth services
2. Women who prefer to know their midwife and have one to one care, rather than take 'pot luck' on which midwife will be there at the birth
3. A woman having twins who is apprehensive about all the negativity around having twins and being 'routinely' done to -  you know, induction, epidural... etc. She wants a midwife to go to hospital with her because she doesn't trust the 'system'.
4. A woman who has had three births via caesarean and wants to birth normally.
5. A woman who has had two births via caesarean and wants to birth normally.

To me, this signifies a problem with the 'system' of maternity care in this country. Women's rights are still being ignored. The importance of birth and freedom of choice is still being ignored.

The mountain of research which demonstrates that pregnant women's emotional as well as physical needs must be met to enable optimal health and wellbeing of the mother and her baby is being ignored.

Now is the time to write to the government, the opposition and all your local members talking about these human rights issues. Write your letter. Send it by snail mail. I've been told that a letter from any person is seen as representative of 100 members of the community.  Google the various political parties and all the politicians and their addresses are easily found. Our lives are being over regulated and under serviced. Time for a change. Please make your voice heard.

Study finds genetic link between misery and death

Specifically, Cole analyzed transcription factor binding sequences in a gene called IL6, a molecule that is known to cause inflammation in the body and that contributes to cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration and some types of cancer.

"The IL6 gene controls immune responses but can also serve as 'fertilizer' for cardiovascular disease and certain kinds of cancer," said Cole, who is also a member of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute. "Our studies were able to trace a biochemical pathway through which adverse life circumstances — fight-or-flight stress responses — can activate the IL6 gene.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IL6 gene.

IL-6 acts as both a pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine - an immune system messenger molecule. IL-6 is relevant to many disease processes such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, prostate cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Advanced metastatic cancer patients have higher levels of IL6 in their blood.
Cytokines are regulatory signaling proteins, taking messages from cell to cell and influencing the behaviour and activity of the cells. Their pro-inflammatory behaviour is implicated in many of the processes that plague pregnant women, causing havoc for them and their babies.

This study is very exciting. Such clear linking of stress response and cytokine activation as described by these researchers is essentially providing more evidence that pregnant women need environments which are calm, relaxed, nurturing and supportive. Midwives are the obvious people to support, nurture and ensure calm and relaxed surroundings as they work with women to normalise their experiences of change on the journey to becoming a mother.

1. Kristiansen OP, Mandrup-Poulsen T (December 2005). "Interleukin-6 and diabetes: the good, the bad, or the indifferent?". Diabetes 54 Suppl 2: S114–24. PMID 16306329.
2. Dubiński A, Zdrojewicz Z (April 2007). "[The role of interleukin-6 in development and progression of atherosclerosis]" (in Polish). Pol. Merkur. Lekarski 22 (130): 291–4. PMID 17684929.
3. Tackey E, Lipsky PE, Illei GG (2004). "Rationale for interleukin-6 blockade in systemic lupus erythematosus". Lupus 13 (5): 339–43. PMID 15230289.
4. Smith PC, Hobisch A, Lin DL, Culig Z, Keller ET (March 2001). "Interleukin-6 and prostate cancer progression". Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 12 (1): 33–40. PMID 11312117.
5. Nishimoto N (May 2006). "Interleukin-6 in rheumatoid arthritis". Curr Opin Rheumatol 18 (3): 277–81. doi:10.1097/01.bor.0000218949.19860.d1. PMID 16582692.
6. "Cancer Patients Typically Have Increased Interleukin-6 Levels". American Society of Clinical Oncology 2006 Annual Meeting, Abstracts 8632 and 8633. Medscape.com. 2006-06-26. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/537309.

Study finds genetic link between misery and death

The pheromone myth: Sniffing out the truth - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

Fascinating read

Richard L. Doty is director of the University of Pennsylvania's Smell and Taste Center. His awards include the US National Institutes of Health's James A. Shannon award (1996), and the Association for Chemoreception Sciences' Max Mozell award for outstanding achievement in the chemical senses (2005). This essay is based on his book, The Great Pheromone Myth (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Richard Doty states:

"All in all, it looks as if "pheromonology" has become a modern-day phrenology, providing simple but false explanations for most chemically mediated social behaviours and endocrine responses, satisfying only those who seek simple answers to complex phenomena. Perhaps once the idea that mammals have pheromones is dispelled, we can work towards an appreciation of the real role chemicals play in their lives".

The pheromone myth: Sniffing out the truth - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

The title of this article about gene expression from New Scientist is misleading. Not so much 'dirty tricks' but fascinating negotiations! New insights into how genes express and are modified by environmental factors, known as the field of 'epigenetics' provide provide a better understanding of how we become who we are.

"The imprinted genes include several with a role in embryo growth and development, most of which are also expressed in the brain, meaning that key traits like body size, cognitive ability and personality might be moulded by epigenetic inheritance".

Dirty tricks of the egg and sperm race - 24 February 2010 - New Scientist

The Reinvention of the Self § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

"Elizabeth Gould overturned one of the central tenets of neuroscience. Now she’s building on her discovery to show that poverty and stress may not just be symptoms of society, but bound to our anatomy".

Brilliant article about the role of the environment in making us who we are:

"Subsequent experiments have teased out a host of other ways stress can damage the developing brain. For example, if a pregnant rhesus monkey is forced to endure stressful conditions—like being startled by a blaring horn for 10 minutes a day—her children are born with reduced neurogenesis, even if they never actually experience stress once born. This pre-natal trauma, just like trauma endured in infancy, has life-long implications. The offspring of monkeys stressed during pregnancy have smaller hippocampi, suffer from elevated levels of glucocorticoids and display all the classical symptoms of anxiety. Being low in a dominance hierarchy also suppresses neurogenesis. So does living in a bare environment. As a general rule of thumb, a rough life—especially a rough start to life—strongly correlates with lower levels of fresh cells.
Gould’s research inevitably conjures up comparisons to societal problems. And while Gould, like all rigorous bench scientists, prefers to focus on the strictly scientific aspects of her data—she is wary of having it twisted for political purposes—she is also acutely aware of the potential implications of her research".

The environment shapes us, from the very beginning to the very end.

"...As Nottebohm has said, “Take nature away and all your insight is in a biological vacuum.” Nottebohm discovered neurogenesis in birds learning to sing in their natural habitat". If he'd studied birds in cages, they would have been too stressed to sing and therefore wouldn't have grown new neurons.

The Reinvention of the Self § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

The implications for midwifery work with childbearing women is that midwives create the right environment within which women can explore becoming mothers in an optimal way.

Hansard 23rd February 2010

This is from Sen Julian McGauran, Liberal Sen for Victoria (page 4), said:

"Rest assured that I know all about the incompetence of Minister Roxon, who has flown under the radar. It is not just this issue; a whole array of issues in her portfolio ought to be brought out.......

I was in Ballarat recently for the community cabinet; it was Mr Rudd's sideshow. That was all it was. You should have seen the glum faces on all of the ministers who turned up. What a joke. In this portfolio is the midwives issue, denying women the choice to have home births. That was what dominated the community
cabinet. I got a guernsey; I was there in the front row. I could not believe it. It was a sight to see the one ego on display. He really does have a big ego. You have to see it to believe it, and you are all compliant to it. It is a joke. When are you going to stand up and speak on an issue?

This Prime Minister is so frightened of the midwives issue he is not willing to meet the public outside of a controlled situation. When he had to unveil the Kevin Rudd bust in Ballarat ‹as many of you know, in
the gardens there there are busts of every Prime Minister‹ he did not turn up. He left the council, the Mayor and everyone else standing there waiting for him to appear at 11 am. He just did not turn up. He did not even ring ahead to say he was not going to turn up. Can you imagine the embarrassment and the frustration? Do you know why? Because there were midwives protesting there waiting for him and wanting to speak to him. Of course, they have dubbed it as 'cowardly'. That is the portfolio I want to speak on".

Writing Speeches For The Government

Writing Speeches For The Government

MYLES PETERSON

February 21, 2010

Midway through last year I was head-hunted by the federal Department of Health and Ageing to write speeches for their ministers - a surprise as I had no experience or qualifications. As far as the department was aware, my limited skills were derived from reviewing video games for The Canberra Times.
Perplexed and amused, I dusted off the suit and attended my one and only interview. ''I'll be writing speeches for who?''
''Minister Roxon,'' answered my interviewer.
''And you're going to pay me how much?''
''Eighty thousand a year. Will that be enough?''
So began my journey down the public service rabbit-hole. I would soon learn that swine flu and a raid on staff by another department were to thank for my recruitment.

Sigh! An article well worth reading. So this is what we are dealing with folks!

YouTube - Our bodies rally.wmv

On the 18th February, 2010 in 14 locations across Australia, 1000's of people rallied to register their protest at the Rudd Government policies that threaten to restrict options for women.

Jane Palmer's wonderful video montage of the rallies for women's right to choose what happens to their bodies in childbirth

And some media on the 'issue'


The Sunrise piece that seems to have stirred up the Government

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/play/-/6819641/

a TV piece from Chan 7 yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvZFZ0gd-Zw

http://www.facebook.com/l/64996;www.mybirth.com.au/19-02-2010/women-rally-at

Nicola Roxon's response to collaboration agreements.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/19/2824133.htm

Roxon says: "I'm unapologetically on the record as saying let's encourage people across the health services spectrum to work together and make sure that women can safely choose options that are good for them and suit them.." 

That's great in theory and obviously something that sounds very reasonable. 

The question then has to be asked: So why not restrict doctors work unless they collaborate - they are the ones who make things difficult! 

In reality, Roxon's 'encouragement' is only fueling the power imbalances and women are caught in the 'rip'.

 

 

 

Probing Question: Do emotions influence heart health?

Probing Question: Do emotions influence heart health?

"Can positive emotions like love, friendship and social connectedness improve health? It seems that way, suggests McDanel. Many studies have shown that patients who have caring support networks during health crises have better outcomes than those who do not, she said. A decade-long study on elderly Australians found that those with larger networks of friends were found to be 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends.
"Friendships and supportive social networks can definitely help people through times of sickness or emotional hardship," McDanel said. "We have to treat people with a holistic approach, treating their physical maladies, improving their diet and exercise, but also working on their emotions and giving them the tools to manage them better."
Reducing stress, anger and loneliness, she said, is a recipe for good health"

Just goes to show, we need to be there for each other and be good to each other. Support and kindness are life saving.

Resilience therapy empowers family violence survivors

Resilience therapy empowers family violence survivors

"Thousands of men, women and children experience family violence each year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Traditionally, therapy for violence survivors has predominantly focused on evaluating their trauma and pain. In contrast, a University of Missouri researcher broadens the therapeutic focus to empower survivors through highlighting their resilience, resourcefulness, and ability to overcome adversity".

Compared to current approaches that emphasize diagnosing symptoms and mental health issues, the strengths-based approach helps identify survivors' abilities, such as perseverance and overcoming, and how those skills can be used in their present-day lives.

"What are normally regarded as negative traits in survivors of family violence might actually be their survival strengths," Anderson said. "Traits that practitioners often try to change may be extremely important to maintain and can help survivors thrive in environments where there isn't violence."

Focusing on a strengths based approach to working with people is totally congruent with contemporary understanding about how the brain and nervous system works. Such an approach is capacity building and particularly useful for midwives working with childbearing women negotiating the changes that come with being pregnant, labour and learning how to be a mother with a new baby.

There are lessons to be heeded here:

"The strengths-based approach trains social workers, mental health practitioners, educators and students to uncover the positive in survivors' life stories—the skills gained by enduring and coping with immense adversity. This facilitates a more collaborative process, where the professional and the survivor each utilize their individual expertise to develop solutions.

"Victims of family violence find it difficult to see their own strengths and self-worth because it's often colored by shame and blame," Anderson said. "Similarly, practitioners find it difficult because they tend to focus only on victims' problems. Instead, they need to cast a light on survivors' abilities to cope and overcome the adversity brought on by family violence. This reveals hope that they won't always be victims of violence and they can achieve what they want in their lives, whatever their dreams are.

Most people find it difficult to see their own strengths and self worth, both necessary attributes for living a life of happiness and wellbeing. Midwives would do well to read this book and integrate the information into their practice so that the women they work with feel better about themselves when they leave their presence than when they came. That way women will also come to believe they can achieve what they want for themselves and their children.

Right to breastfeed - Local News - News - General - Bunbury Mail

Western Australia doesn't have a law that protects women's right to breastfeed and babies right to be fed breastmilk!  That's about  to be changed by a young woman who knows what is right.

Jess and her son Oscar

A LOCAL mother is taking on the State Government after she was humiliated for breastfeeding in public recently.
Jess Beven was out to lunch with friends and family when she discreetly began breastfeeding her nine-month-old son Oscar.
Using a blanket to cover herself she was dismayed when a man approached her and told her to move elsewhere "to do that".
"He made me feel humiliated," Mrs Beven said.
"I couldn’t believe he said that."

Read the rest of the story here:    Right to Breastfeed

Medical News: Developmental Delay Linked to 'Flat Head' Syndrome - in Pediatrics, General Pediatrics from MedPage Today

from MedPage

"Babies with misshapen heads from lying on their backs too long may be at heightened risk for developmental delays, researchers said, although they stressed that infants should still sleep in the supine position"

The worry about SIDS (Sudden Infant Death) is understandable. Parents have been terrified about the possiblity of SIDs and it is heartbreaking when SIDS occurs. The Back to Sleep campaign has reduced the number of SIDs cases, but parents have become terrified to put their children in any other position than on their backs.

SIDS has been linked to low levels of a hormone called Serotonin and the enzyme that makes it in the baby's brainstem.  Brainstem circuits control breathing, blood pressure, and heart rate during sleep, Hannah C. Kinney, MD, of Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues reported in the Feb. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. A baby with an abnormality in control of these systems might not be able to respond to a life-threatening challenge like asphyxia by rousing from sleep or turning its head the researchers explained.

 These researchers suggest that the back to sleep campaign has saved those babies who would not have been able to move their heads or bodies in response to changing physiology. 

Now researchers are saying that flat heads from back lying are associated with neurodevelopmental delay. A fascinating and troubling finding. The authors are at pains to say that these babies may have developed plagiocephaly because they already had a problem and caution that parents should still ensure babies lie on their backs to sleep.

I wonder if we are not having a problem that is self perpetuating here.  Neurophysiologists like James Prescott (a hero of mine) tell us that the brainstem gets 'set' at birth by the environment the baby meets. If the baby gets skin to skin with his/her mother, the brain stem gets set for love, happiness and contentment - states associated with serotonin.  If babies are whizzed off to the resuscitaire, their brain stems are set for fear and distress. That state is associated with a lack of serotonin.

These days, with the back to sleep campaign, many children are not having any tummy time, they are not being carried and they are certainly not sleeping with their mother, all of which adds up to mean they are not having the stimulation from movement and touch that they get from being held, carried and laid in different positions. I suspect the brainstem issue could relate to how they are treated at birth and the neurodevelopmental delay that is associated with plagiocephaly could be due to lack of stimulation.

Babies need to be carried, they need to sleep with their mothers to get the stimulation necessary for optimal brain growth . One of my many heroes, Dr James McKenna at Notra Dame University has done many mother-infant sleep studies.

Go to  Dr McKenna's home page to find the latest research and information about the sleep studies.

Dr McKenna's sensible and baby/mother friendly suggestions for babies sleeping safely can be found at this link:    Babies Sleeping Safe



CO-SLEEPING RESEARCH

The psychophysiological effects of sleep-sharing are studied in sleep laboratories that mimic, as much as possible, the home bedroom. Over the past few years, over a million dollars of research money has been devoted to sleep-sharing research. These studies have all been done on mothers and infants ranging from two to five months in age. Here are findings based on mother-infant pairs studied in the sleep-sharing arrangement versus the solitary-sleeping arrangement (Elias 1986, McKenna 1993, Fleming 1994; Mosko 1994):

1. Mothers and babies who sleep together are more 'in sync' than those who do not: when either the mother or the baby moved, stirred, coughed or changed stages of sleep, the other would change in synchrony, without waking.

2. Both mother and baby generally spent more time in the same stage of sleep and for longer periods when they slept together.

3. Mothers sleep better even though their babies sleep deeply for shorter periods when they sleep together: thought to be a protective mechanism. Mothers tend to stir and babies follow if baby sleep is deep for any length of time.

4. Sleep-sharing infants arouse more and breastfeed more than babies who sleep separately; mothers to not report waking more frequently than those who slept separately.

5. Sleep-sharing infants tended to sleep more often on their backs or sides and less often on their tummies, a factor that could itself lower the SIDS risk.

6. Mothers and babies who sleep together, touch and interact a lot, even when sleeping: each affects the night time behaviour of the other.

Insightful mothers have always felt better sleeping with their babies. Babies suffer separation distress when they are apart from their mothers.

In my view, plagiocephally (flat back of head) is an iatrogenic problem. The neurodevelopmental delay associated with plagiocephaly results from the lack of stimulation caused by the 'lie your baby on its back dictum' is, also, in my view, iatrogenic.

Our culture is really weird. Anything that is good and wholesome, like birth at home with those you love, sleeping with your baby and attachment parenting is branded medically suspect. I guess the beneficiaries of the regular doctor visits, helmet makers and surgeons who correct misshapen heads have to make a living.

Promoting healthy behaviour in expectant mums / Current news / The University of Newcastle, Australia

Tuesday 16 February 2010
From the University of Newcastle website:

"Researchers at the University of Newcastle say many pregnant Australian women have difficulty exercising enough and consuming the recommended levels of nutrients.
A report on women's reproductive health — released by the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP — is the latest from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Now in its 16th year, the ALSWH has surveyed more than 40,000 women across three age groups.
"While women generally improve their diets when pregnant, many consume less than the recommended levels of folate and iron," report contributor, Jennifer Powers, said. “Many women quit smoking and stop drinking alcohol during pregnancy, but a small percentage of women continue to smoke and drink alcohol at levels considered unwise for pregnant women.
"Our research suggests there is an ongoing need for targeted public health messages that promote healthy behaviours during and after pregnancy."
The survey also showed that around 10 per cent of women who had given birth within a three-year period reported a diagnosis of post-natal depression.
"This diagnosis was less likely in mothers who had good social support networks," report contributor, Catherine Chojenta, said.
Ms Powers said the health and wellbeing of mothers could also be influenced by their attachment to the paid workforce.
"Women who took 12 or more weeks maternity leave reported higher energy levels than women who took less time off work.
"These findings support the Australian Government's initiative for a minimum amount of maternity leave for all women."
The ALSWH is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Health and Ageing.
The report Reproductive Health: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health is available at the Women's Health Australia website and the Department of Health and Ageing website.
Jennifer Powers and Catherine Chojenta are members of the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) Public Health Research Program".
HMRI is a partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health and the community.



Promoting healthy behaviour in expectant mums / Current news / The University of Newcastle, Australia"

Birth: a woman's right to decide?

A sobering article on Essential Baby site

What Women Want's Founder Justine Caines shares her views on the proposed maternity reforms.
Soon after the 2007 election, Nicola Roxon announced maternity reform that would enable women to choose a midwife to care for them for their pregnancy, labour, birth and for up to six weeks postnatally. This was to be funded under Medicare. The fantastic part was that it would be one midwife, enabling a woman to form a relationship, knowing who would share her birth experience with her and also provide home based post-natal care. Maternity reform advocates were excited and heralded this as a landmark.

Over the last year, however, we've seen intense lobbying from the Australian Medical Association (AMA). Late last year, the proposed reform was altered. Medicare funded midwifery would not go ahead unless a doctor 'signed off' the practices of the midwife, giving an individual doctor veto power over a midwife's practice and woman's decision making.

Read the rest of the article by clicking this link
Birth: a woman's right to decide?

Founders of British obstetrics 'were callous murderers' | UK news | The Observer

Founders of British obstetrics 'were callous murderers' | UK news | The Observer

"They are giants of medicine, pioneers of the care that women receive during childbirth and were the founding fathers of obstetrics. The names of William Hunter and William Smellie still inspire respect among today's doctors, more than 250 years since they made their contributions to healthcare. Such were the duo's reputations as outstanding physicians that the clienteles of their private practices included the rich and famous of mid-18th-century London.
But were they also serial killers? New research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) claims that they were. A detailed historical study accuses the doctors of soliciting the killing of dozens of women, many in the latter stages of pregnancy, to dissect their corpses.
"Smellie and Hunter were responsible for a series of 18th-century 'burking' murders of pregnant women, with a death total greater than the combined murders committed by Burke and Hare and Jack the Ripper," writes Don Shelton, a historian. "Burking" involved murdering people to order, usually for medical research."
"Motivated by ego, personal rivalry and a shared desire to benefit from being acclaimed as the foremost childbirth doctors of their time, Hunter and Smellie sacrificed life after life in their quests to study pregnancy's physical effects and to develop new techniques, the author says. "Although it sounds absolutely incredible, the circumstantial literary evidence suggests they were most likely competing with each other in experimenting with secret caesarean sections on unconscious, or freshly murdered, victims, with a view to extracting and reviving the babies," Shelton told the Observer".
Another founder of obstetrics, Dr Marion Sims, who has the Sim's speculum named after him, was also callous about women and their bodies and performed hundreds of operations on black women slaves without anaesthetic.

          Sims contended that ‘Black women don’t feel pain'

Modern obstetrics evolved from this era.

When you consider the foundations of anything, the foundations do influence the structure of what comes after. Modern obstetrics imposes an impersonal, efficiency model onto women's organic, dynamic birthing processes. There are, of course, doctors who treat women individually and take into account what women want - they are however, not in the majority.

I'm not talking about those women-centred doctors here.

I'm talking about the 'cookie cutter' approach to labour and birth adopted by obstetrics generally. The process that women are subjected to has been linked to the industrial age Taylorist ideas of factory processing - speed, efficiency and cost containing - supposedly.

Many women emerge bruised and shattered from their birth experience having been 'done to' by the 'machine'.

Meanwhile, midwifery emerged from millions of years of women helping women during their life cycle events such as the birth of children. Midwifery remains woman focused and has sought and is seeking to keep birth normal, keep maternity care woman focused, accommodating women's individual needs, desires and dreams for her baby and her experience.

That is where the 'rip' is - the two tides of beliefs, attitudes, values, historical underpinnings, philosophy (etc) come together and create a field of dissension and distress for both women and midwives.

Many theorists are saying how invasion, genocide, penal colony origins, drunkenness, murder and mayhem were the foundations of contemporary Australia and underpin the rules, regulations and behaviours of 'mateship' - football culture, 'tall poppy' syndrome and other rather distasteful aspects of our culture.

In terms of modern maternity care and the 'turf wars' together with rising rates of surgical birth and maternal depression, as we look through the lenses of the foundations of medicine and midwifery - makes us think doesn't it.

          What do you make of all this?

          Update 25 August 2017 

          In the USA  Black Women are protesting Sims' statue

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

A study of the children of 120 disadvantaged mothers from South London, reported in the January/February issues of Child Development, provided more evidence of the compelling need to take care of childbearing women and in particular, to provide support for disadvantaged and marginalised women, who were more likely to be depressed and have experienced conduct problems themselves as children. Researchers found that children whose mothers were depressed were twice as likely to display antisocial behaviour than those whose mothers weren't depressed.

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

The researchers "explored several potential mechanisms for the link between maternal depression and a child's behavior problems:

• Direct effects on the fetus from biological correlates of the mothers' depressive symptoms
• Depression in pregnancy as a sign of environmental adversity
• Re-exposure to maternal depression after birth
• Indirect effects of depression on the developing fetus driven by mothers' smoking, drinking, and drug taking during pregnancy
• A genetic explanation whereby women who experience depression in pregnancy may also have a greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior, which they pass on to their offspring

Hay and her colleagues noted that these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive".

As the effect of the social environment upon the individual becomes more widely recognised and the way the building of a healthy sense of self in a baby/child is inextricably linked to the presence of a moment by moment, congruent, consistent, warm, responsive interactive relationship with the mother, it is no longer possible to ignore the responsibility of society to help childbearing women in every way possible. Apart from addressing basic economic necessities, a fundamental and important capacity building initiative is to provide one to one midwifery care. The provision of a trusting relationship with a known midwife in a continuity of care model, supports pregnant women's growth and development, providing the opportunity for early identification of potential problems and instituting remedial action and targetted solutions before the problems begin.  Authentic midwifery care, education, good nutrition, exercise and as already  noted, acupuncture all work together to alleviate and minimise depression and the associated problems with depression for childbearing women and their children.  Providing adequate resources for intervention in the beginning of life is an excellent public health strategy as it avoids the huge financial and societal cost of antisocial behaviour later on.

Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis from PhysOrg

"The Barker hypothesis is named after epidemiologist David Barker, who during the 1980s began studying links between early infant health and later adult health. The theory, also known as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis (DOHaD), has expanded into wide acceptance.

As one of the founders of the field of bioarcheology, Armelagos studies skeletal remains to understand how diet and disease affected populations. Tooth enamel can give a particularly telling portrait of physiological events, since the enamel is secreted in a regular, ring-like fashion, starting from the second trimester of fetal development."

Da Vinci

Disruptions in the formation of the enamel, which can be caused by disease, poor diet or psychological stress, show up as grooves on the tooth surface.


Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis

Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood: prospective cohort study -- Christensen et al. 196 (2): 126 -- The British Journal of Psychiatry

Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood: prospective cohort study -- Christensen et al. 196 (2): 126 -- The British Journal of Psychiatry

Background
Research has reported that pregnant women and mothers become forgetful. However, in these studies, women are not recruited prior to pregnancy, samples are not representative and studies are underpowered.
Aims
The current study sought to determine whether pregnancy and motherhood are associated with brief or long-term cognitive deterioration using a representative sample and measuring cognition during and before the onset of pregnancy and motherhood.
Method
Women aged 20–24 years were recruited prospectively and assessed in 1999, 2003 and 2007. Seventy-six women were pregnant at follow-up assessments, 188 became mothers between study waves and 542 remained nulliparous.
Results
No significant differences in cognitive change were found as a function of pregnancy or motherhood, although late pregnancy was associated with deterioration on one of four tests of memory and cognition.
Conclusions
The hypothesis that pregnancy and motherhood are associated with persistent cognitive deterioration was not supported. Previous negative findings may be a result of biased sampling.


This study is interesting on many points. One interesting point is the way the researchers concluded their paper by stating:

"Obstetricians, general family doctors and midwives may need to use the findings from this study to promote the view that ‘placenta brain’ is not inevitable, and that perceptions of impairment may reflect emotional or other unknown factors. Not so long ago pregnancy was ‘confinement’ and motherhood meant the end of career aspirations. Our results challenge the view that mothers are anything other than the intellectual peers of their contemporaries".

 An important point to make!

 The researchers state that:

"one of the weaknesses of our study was our inability to link cognitive change with biological changes associated with pregnancy"

What would have been really interesting is to see the neurological changes that were taking place in women's brains as they were questioned by the researchers.  Emerging insights from neuroscience indicate that different attentional networks are operating, depending upon the task at hand.  Different attentional networks trigger different autonomic nervous system 'states' with correspondingly different biochemical responses and levels.

Pregnant women do not suffer cognitive 'impairment' that much the research has demonstrated, however, the researchers dismisses the fact that many women do forget things in pregnancy, relegating the 'forgetting phenomenon' to the basket of emotionally related factors.  Dismissing women's experience as merely emotionally driven is, in my view, dangerous thinking.

Emotions are powerful chemicals for one thing and have a great deal to do with day to day health and long term wellbeing for both mother and baby.

A far better conclusion is that the pregnant woman's body and subconscious processes are very busy building a baby.  Our innate intelligence has a way of rerouting attention from less important to more important activities. Nothing, in terms of nature's agenda (healthy reproduction) is more important than building a healthy baby.

With an understanding of neuroscience and attentional networks, the fact that a pregnant woman becomes forgetful about 'boring' tasks and 'work' related activities is perfectly understandable and has nothing to do with her intellectual ability and cognition. When a woman's attentional networks are triggered to pay attention, she will, demonstrating, as this study shows that her intellectual ability is 'normal'.

Pregnant women can be assured that forgetting mundane, wordly things is actually very normal and very understandable. Their body intelligence is very consumed in growing a baby and is not bothered or very interested in outside worldly pursuits.