Natural Family Awareness

Ever wonder where the phrase “not playing with a full deck” originated? How about “on the fritz?” Check out the Idiom Site to find out these and more.

Combine:

1 cup Flour
1 cup Salt
1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Add:
1 Tablespoon oil (I used olive)
1 cup boiling water

Stir in a bowl until cool enough to handle.

You can add food coloring to it, while heating, if you want.

Store in a sealed container for months of play!

Ever see a prefold and wonder how to put it on? There are many options, but Punkin’ Butt shows you two of the more popular folds on their folding cloth diapers page. (I used the Reverse Angel Fold on Ariana. When she was still having those breastmilk poop runnies I also used the jelly roll fold to prevent having to change her outfit as well.

-Lea

Punkin’ Butt has a great resource called The Diaper Dollar, by Susan Crawford Beil. In it, Susan breaks down the financial cost of diapering your baby. You may be surprised how much money you can save by using cloth diapers.

Many people assume that by the time you factor in the costs of laundering your own diapers, you may as well just buy disposables. Some choose a cloth diaper service, so they can have the benefits of cloth diapers without the cost and time spend laundering.

So how much does it really cost to purchase and wash your own cloth diapers? Read The Diaper Dollar and find out…

-Lea

(press release)

Pearblossom, CA - New research published in the International Journal of
Toxicology (IJT) by Gary S. Goldman, Ph.D., reveals high rates of shingles
(herpes zoster) in Americans since the government’s 1995 recommendation
that all children receive chicken pox vaccine. Goldman’s research supports
that shingles, which results in three times as many deaths and five times
the number of hospitalizations as chicken pox, is suppressed naturally by
occasional contact with chicken pox.

Dr. Goldman’s findings have corroborated other independent researchers
who estimate that if chickenpox were to be nearly eradicated by
vaccination, the higher number of shingles cases could continue in the U.S.
for up to 50 years; and that while death rates from chickenpox are already
very low, any deaths prevented by vaccination will be offset by deaths from
increasing shingles disease. Another recent peer-reviewed article authored
by Dr. Goldman and published in Vaccine presents a cost-benefit analysis of
the universal chicken pox (varicella) vaccination program. Goldman points
out that during a 50-year time span, there would be an estimated additional
14.6 million (42%) shingles cases among adults aged less than 50 years,
presenting society with a substantial additional medical cost burden of
$4.1 billion. This translates into $80 million annually, utilizing an
estimated mean healthcare provider cost of $280 per shingles case.

After a child has had varicella (chickenpox), the virus becomes
dormant and can reactivate later in adulthood in a closely related disease
called shingles–both caused by the same varicella-zoster virus (VZV). It
has long been known that adults receive natural boosting from contact with
children infected with chicken pox that helps prevent the reactivation of
shingles.

Based on Dr. Goldman’s earlier communications with the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Goldman maintains that
epidemiologists from the CDC are hoping “any possible shingles epidemic
associated with the chickenpox vaccine can be offset by treating adults
with a ’shingles’ vaccine.” This intervention would substitute for the
boosting adults previously received naturally, especially during seasonal
outbreaks of the formerly common childhood disease.

“Using a shingles vaccine to control shingles epidemics in adults
would likely fail because adult vaccination programs have rarely proved
successful,” said Goldman. “There appears to be no way to avoid a mass
epidemic of shingles lasting as long as several generations among adults.”

Goldman’s analysis in IJT indicates that effectiveness of the
chickenpox vaccine itself is also dependent on natural boosting, so that as
chickenpox declines, so does the effectiveness of the vaccine. “The
principal reason that vaccinees in Japan maintained high levels of immunity
20 years following vaccination was that only 1 in 5 (or 20%) of Japanese
children were vaccinated,” he said. “So those vaccinated received
immunologic boosting from contact with children with natural chickenpox.
But the universal varicella vaccination program in the U.S. will nearly
eradicate this natural boosting mechanism and will leave our population
vulnerable to shingles epidemics.”

For decades it was thought shingles increased with age as older
individuals’ immune systems declined. However, Goldman’s new research shows
this phenomenon seemed primarily due to the fact that older people received
fewer natural boosts to immunity as their contacts with young children
declined.

-Gary S. Goldman, Ph.D. served for eight years as a Research Analyst
with the Varicella Active Surveillance Project conducted by the Los Angeles
County Department of Health Services (LACDHS). The project was funded by
the CDC

On Citizens for Midwifery you can look up your state to find midwives in your area.

I have been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks now, but kept forgetting. Here is my experience with Arnica (homeopathic remedy) and bruising…

I was outside peeling logs for our garden, the hammer I was using to peel the logs slipped RIGHT onto my knee! Ow! It was so bad I couldn’t even talk or breath for a minute (a very long minute!) I had just gotten into homeopathy, and I had some arnica tabs on hand. I took one when I was able to hobble back in the house. By then it has lumped up and there was a red mark where the hammer hit (and I only had stretch pants on - not even work pants!) Anyways, I took one, and waited an hour and took another and then forgot about it…

The next day I was kneeling and I was like “wait a minute, this should be hurting, I killed my knee yesterday!”. I looked and not only was it not sore when I pushed on it, there was no lump, and I never got a bruise. That little red mark was there on the surface of my skin (happened on impact) but other than that it was perfect!

I wish I had paid attention to see how quickly it worked, but I guess the fact I forgot about it spoke volumes.

I highly recommend having some on hand. You can get it in the homeopatic remedy form, or even as a topical ointment or tincture. Grow some in your garden and make up your own tincture! Either way you can, have some on hand.

- Lea

It’s not easy to explain why one person gets ill and another doesn’t. But there are general patterns to figure out what things we do or eat that can increase our chances of getting ill.

A risk factor is something that increases your chance of getting ill or developing a disease. Protective factors are those that decrease your chances. Some of the risk factors for a disease can be avoided, and some can’t. Although you can choose what your diet consists of, you can’t chose what genes you inherited.

Although many risk factors are avoidable (such as smoking cigarettes), avoiding risk factors won’t guarantee you will not get ill. Also, those with inherited risk factors for a certain disease won’t necessarily get the disease.

The only thing you have control over is lowering your risk factors, and increasing your protective factors. That is no easy task, as many of our diets and lifestyle habits can be improved. But do what you can, that’s all that matters.

- Lea

The Cost of Not Breastfeeding

• U.S. families spend $2 billion a year on human milk substitutes such as artificial milk, otherwise known as formula.
• It costs an additional $1.3 billion to cover sick-child office visits and prescriptions for respiratory infections, ear infections and diarrhea in nonbreastfed infants during the first year of life.
• In the first year of life, it will cost more than $25,000 to treat lower-respiratory infections in 1000 never-breastfed infants.
• The cost of treating Type I diabetes in formula-fed children is more than $1 trillion.
• Private and government insurers spend a minimum of $3.6 billion a year to treat medical conditions and diseases preventable by breastfeeding.
• Formula has a long history of recalls for bacterial contamination or mis-manufacture that has in many cases resulted instances of illness, permanent injury of death.

— “Breastfeeding Is Priceless” (excerpted from a CIMS Fact Sheet) in The Birthkit Issue 40, Winter 2003

Shoulder Dystocia
Obstetrical solutions for stuck shoulders evolved without the advantage of listening to midwives. Thankfully, midwives have traditional strategies of their own for shoulder dystocia.

Squatting and Standing: Moving into a squat may shift the pubic bone and roll the shoulder out from under the pubic bone. The widening of the ischial spines will increase room in the transverse. In this vertical position, uterine contractions may be stronger and more efficient. Moving the mother to a standing position can work as well. The pelvis may be more mobile when a mother stands with knees slightly bent. A strong helper can hold her under the arms to stabilize and support her. Standing allows a hand in, if needed, more than does squatting.

Gaskin Maneuver: Simply flip the mother over onto her hands and knees. The motion can cause an inner rotation of the shoulders. Remember, to move the baby, move the mother. Notice if the head now restitutes and look for a lengthening neck. If yes, pushing will now bring the baby.

“Running Start”: What if the baby still doesn’t come out? With mother on her hands and knees, she quickly lifts a knee and sets the foot down flat. At the same time, since verbal instructions are difficult for the mother to process at this time, the midwife or assistant grasps whichever leg is handy and moves it up to the new position with the foot flat on the bed. The mother now has one knee down and one knee up, a bit like a runner waiting for the signal to begin. This move rotates the symphysis pubis joint and rolls the shoulder off and into the open pelvis. The symphysis shrugs off the shoulder, like the lumberjack rolling off the log. The pelvis widens on the side that the knee is raised, so the midwife may want to raise the knee on the side where she suspects the baby’s back is. Often the mother’s right leg is the one to lift. But in a flurry, just grab a leg and lift it. Immediately, the posterior shoulder should slide out and with it, the entire child.

Praying Hands Rotation: If the baby is still stuck, the next step can be done quickly also. The midwife slips the fingers of both hands inside. With flat palms, one hand braces the baby’s back and the other hand braces the chest, like a prayer around the baby. Thumbs are not required and can stay out of the mother. The baby is rotated so that the posterior shoulder moves toward the chest. The baby is essentially spiraled out.

Lift the Sacrum: If the posterior arm can’t move, it may be that the baby is too large to rotate easily in the praying hands rotation. The midwife uses her dominant hand to attend the posterior shoulder. She uses the back of that hand like a wedge between baby and sacrum and lifts the sacrum up with her knuckles while her fingers sweep the posterior arm to baby’s chest (and into the oblique diameter). Opening the sacrum enlarges the pelvic outlet diameter.

Bring the Posterior Arm Out from the Hands and Knees Position: Whenever success at bringing the baby’s shoulder into the oblique fails to bring the baby, the midwife should go after the posterior arm and bring it out. For the mother already on her hands and knees for the birth, it is easy for the midwife to slip the four fingers of her hand inside along the mother’s thigh. She will want her hand along the baby’s back, not the chest. She should then sweep the fingers upward toward the tailbone. This act alone may move the posterior arm into the oblique.

— Gail Tully, excerpted from “Shoulder Dystocia: The Basics,” Midwifery Today Issue 66