Re: Wise Traditions - GAPS

January 27, 2008

Thanks, Dora!

I can't wait to try it.

Dawn

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of Dora

Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2008 4:46 PM

Subject: Re: Wise Traditions - GAPS

I can't remember what it is called but we plan

> to go buy it.

It's called a supplementary nursing system or SNS. If you search the

net for a Medela dealer they will have it.

Dora

January 28, 2008

>

> > I think Dawn made a good point though, about the changes in skeletal

> > structure causing thinner, narrower faces and hips. This may one of

the

> > important factors for the increase we have seen in c-sections.

>

> Then how come midwives continue to have such low C-section rates in

the face

> all off of these deformities? What about midwives in the rest of the

> industrialized world? Why are their transfer and C-section rates so

low

> considering the poor nutrition in some other first-world countries?

I believe the answer is that midwives typically pay more attention to

optimal fetal positioning. I read that when they pay attention to the

babies position (I don't mean just head down, there is an exact

position that facilitates birth) the C-section rate dropped. Anyone

who is interested should search optimal foetal positioning.

Dora

January 28, 2008

>

> I believe the answer is that midwives typically pay more attention

to

> optimal fetal positioning.

Really, midwives (not medwives!) pay more attention to optimal mama

positioning! Lying in the lithomy position, even on a slant, as OBs

have you do greatly decreases the size of your pelvic aperture, and

puts pressure on the ischial spines and sacrum, increasing pain. My

first birth was at a great hospital, with hot tubs (I stayed in the

water until after transiton), private birth rooms, and a medwife (my

midwife was absent that day). I was also unemployed when I got

pregnant- 3 weeks after my wedding (did I mention it was kind of

unexpected since dh had had a vasectomy? The medwife tried to push

pitocin, and said some crappy things. She implied it was taking to

long (I went into labor at 7am and she was born at 3:50- just a day's

work). Her cord was around her neck and so it was more work to get

her out for me. . . .they carried her to the table, against the birth

plan, and I sat up and threatened them and they brought her to me.

My second labor was at home in the claw foot tub, started at the same

time and she slid out at 1:30. I found that the water also amplified

some sensations, and that I was able to calm down and control more.

I experimented, and found that I was able to consciously open my

cervix more during contractions by using visualization techniques,

but it took a phenomenal amount of effort, and since I had been

through worse pain before, and everything was going quickly I decided

just to relax the mental effort and let the primitive brain stem take

over.

I am sorry that so many of you have suffered birth rape. Hospital

birth is just. . . .panic. Labor is a fine tuned primeval process,

and when we move from our safe havens, into cars and danger, it

stalls the process. Invasive vaginal exams, and strangers in and out

of rooms also stall the process. Lying down stalls the process. All

of our system dooms women, who are deficient in magnesium, so unable

to contract and relax the uterus for 18 hours, anyway. You all

should check out www.primalhealth.org - devoted to the research of

the impact of birth and the first year of life. I recall some

interesting research there about the drugs a mother is given during

childhood, and the child's propensity for addiction later in life.

To the mama who was cut because the doctor said that the pressure on

the head would hurt the baby. . . . that's not true, according to

midwifery texts or my personal experience. The baby might have birth

scars, swellings, etc. that either go down with age or are easily

fixed. The doctor doesn't want to get sued. A dear friend was in

labor for 48 hours, and the baby did have an unsightly 3-D

strawberry, about an inch in diameter. It is nowhere to be seen now,

she is 8 and beautiful. My four year old does have a strawberry

blush at the back of her neck still (she kept getting sucked back in

by the cord so I had to push her out a few times).

Birth is not merely being cut from the womb. It is a highly specific

evolutionary process, the result of which is a totally healthy mother

and child. Being squeezed through the birth canal stimulates the all

of the baby's bodily processes to function. . . .respiratory, gi,

skin/nerve response, etc. In a classic, 'normal' birth with a

vertex presentation, the baby slides down the birth canal and the

head comes out with the face towards the anus. Believe it or not,

the anus secretes a mucus high in vitamin K at that time (making a

shot unecessary for a k-sufficient mother baby dyad, but I digress).

Usually the mom will pause a bit with the head out (baby is probably

first opening the mouth, and innoculating herself with bifidus from

the colon) and then the shoulders emerge as the baby is turning and

the birth ejection reflex does the rest of the work for mom. It

seems gross, but really it is a highly specific process. A non-

drugged infant can wiggle it's way to mom's breast if mom cannot

grasp it, I have seen videos from the studies. Most epidural babies

could not move to do so- though some could. As far as I understand

it, even the unhealthy colon harbors bifidus. The digestive tract of

the infant is in some respects nearly sterile as it is being born,

before it emerges and opens the lips. Additionally, the infant has

not eaten and stimulated HCL production. I wonder what the pH of the

stomach is at birth, and whether waiting to nurse effects the ability

of microbes to adhere to the gi tract? I also know that breastmilk

is completely bifidus dominant and that any infant probiotic must

have similar make up- up to weaning age (4 years).

I have a friend who gave birth to two breech babies at the Farm, home

of Spiritural Midwifery's author, Ina May Gaskin. The second birth

was difficult, but the Farm midwives have a lot of breech

experience. Ann Marie, if you read Gaskin's book, then you would

know that c-section for breech is an elective procedure. She has all

the specific grasping and guiding techniques for all the different

breech presentations outlined in the book. I have a dear friend

whose wife just fell for this breech must cut idea, and their baby

(now 1) has had GERD and major c-section syndrome, as does my niece

(whose mother was given antibiotics during labor to kill strep b, and

all her other flora). Be so very glad that you found the homemade

formulas and good probiotics- the other babies suffer so! - but don't

be happy with a lactation consultant's system that only got you to 3

months, work or no. I have wondered about breech and vegetarians,

and concomitant deficiencies such as vitamin A. The Farm midwifes

are hippy Christian vegetarians, and most of my friends with C-

sections are also vegetarians. When I was a vegetarian, dating a

vegetarian, we had a miscarriage- no suprise to me now.

I recommend the book Birthing From Within, for conquering your fears

about an upcoming birth. But if you really don't want another c-

section, or even an expletive episiotomy, Henci Goer's books The

Thinking Woman's Guide to A Better Birth and Obstetrical Myth vs.

Research Reality are indispensable.

Desh

January 28, 2008

Thank you, Desh. I appreciate the long and detailed post. I will get those

books and I have a lot of study and research to do before the next child so

this doesn't happen again.

Best regards,

Dawn

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of desh

Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 11:52 PM