Nausea is a common pregnancy complaint and a topic often talked about in the first trimester.  Today, I would like to give pregnant moms some helpful tips on how to lesson their nausea.

When discussing nausea in pregnancy there are two causes I like to address. The first one is nausea and how it can be related to low blood sugar.  Secondly, we want to make sure it is not an issue with an over congested liver who is trying to deal with the over load of pregnancy hormones on top of everything else we pollute it with.

How do you know if you have the first one or the second?  When are you feeling most nauseous?  Is it only before meals, and does eating relieve it?  If food releives the symptoms then it is probably just because of low blood sugar and the best way to deal with that is eating throughout the day.  Small meals and snacking throughout the day on proteins and fresh fruits and veggetables will alleiviate the problem if is it just low blood sugar.  It is important to cut out carbohydrates such as cakes, breads, pastas, white rice, potatoes, sugars, sodas, caffine, and anything that can cause spikes in the blood sugars.  Avoid fast foods and eating things from cans or boxes as well.  The more fresh you eat the better you will feel in the long run.  Many women make the mistake of eating junk food and sodas and such becuase it is the only thing that sounds good at the time and though it may help you initially to feel better, you will feel worse later on.

If  you have ruled out nausea caused by low blood sugar and eating does not help it or maybe it is an all day event for you, then it could be that your liver is overly congested. The liver has so much to process in a day.  Everything you eat, drink, breath, all your hormones, cleaning products, skin and hair products,  pesticides, medications, alchohol, herbicides, and so on has to go through the liver.  That is a lot for the liver to process all in a day.  If you don’t have a healthy clean liver to start with, which most of us don’t, you will feel very sick in the first trimester when your body is trying to process all the new hormones on top of all the toxins it normally has to.

Lets start with a healthy diet and some ways to gently detoxify the liver.  In pregnancy you have to becareful with detoxifying the liver.  You never want to do a full detox while pregnant.  Talk to your midwife before attemping any detox programs.  We will go over some safe and gentle ways to keep a clean liver and prevent further congestion in pregnancy.

Fresh squeezed lemon in your water

Fresh veggies and fruits

Cut out synthetic vitamins and change to food based ones

Fresh Jucing which I will give you some tips on later on

Cut out sugars and carbohydrates, which increase those insulin spikes which make is tough on the liver

Cut out caffine and sodas

Stick to more organic foods

Avoid using heavy and toxic cleaning products

Switch to natural body washes, tooth paste, deodarants, organic coconut oil as a lutricant, sunscreen or, moisturizer

Don’t put anything on the skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth

Stay away from things like paint fumes, hair sprays, other chemcial toxins that can be inhaled

Vitamin B6 helps the liver detox

Bentonite Clay absorbs toxins in the gut and helps to prevent neausea and vomiting as well as diarreah

Homeopathics such as Nux Vomica are also helpful

Always talk to your midwife too for more helpful tips when you are having persisitant nausea and vomiting

Fresh Jucing in Pregnancy

This is an excerpt from the book: Pregnancy Childbirth and Chldren’s Diets by Joel robbins DC, MD

“Morning sickness results when the body, realizing that it is pregnant,
undergoes some extra-ordinary house-cleaning in an effort to make as
healthy a situation for the growing fetus as possible. While the mother
is sleeping, her body is actively removing posisons and delivering them
to the liver and kidneys for elimination. If these avenues of exit are
already overloaded, nausea results as teh liver is forced to dump toxin
directly into the intestine prior to neutralizing them.

The best thing to do for mornign sickness is to drink only juice— as
little or as much as you want— and don’t eat solids for about three
days. This gives the liver a break from digesting food and thus it can
focus more fully on catching up on toxic elimination. Follow this
practice whenever morning sickness occurs.

The concern that most women have when hearing that they must only drink
fresh juice for two to three days for morning sickness, is that the baby
will be deprived of nutrition. What must be kept in mind is that the
embryo is extremely small at this time, and does not require much
nutrition. In fact, it requires little if any outside nutrition. The
placenta is loaded with all kinds of nutrients especially to feed the new
embryo during the first few weeks of life. if there is a need for outside
nutrition at this time, the morning sickness will subside and a normal
appetite will return.

Some experience extreme morning sickness, to te point that the only thing
that will quell the severe nausea is toast, bread, crackers, etc. These
are acceptable at this time, eating minimal amounts to keep the nausea at
bay. Some additional things to consider with morning sickness is to take
the following:
Chromium, sometimes known as GTF (Glucose Tolerance Factor)
Vitamin B6
Both of these can be found in health food stores. Take double the
recommended dose listed on the lables.

There are also those new mothers who find that with or sometimes without
morning sickness, their tastes and cravings change to the point that some
or all raw fruites and vegetables are repulsive. to these i recommend
that they listen to their body and avoid these foods, eating steamed
vegetables, whole grains, white meat, attempting now and then to consume
some fresh and raw. Usually at the end of the first trimester, the
appetite for fresh and raw fruits and vegetables returns, and these
should then be added back into te diet. Again, there is no need for
concern that the mother and baby are being deprived of nutrition for not
eating the fresh and raw during this time. The whole grains, steamed
vegetables, etc., do contain viable nutrition. pages 20-21

As far as juicing another book by Dr. Robbins called Health Through
Nutrition talks about juicing.
Commercially produced juices are pasteurized which means dead no living
enzymes and full of sugar, food colorings, perservatives. Useless! Health
food store brands are better.
Sip juice slowly is allows for better digestion
Drink juice alone not with solid food. It is like a meal itself
Do not combine fruits and vegetables as these require different digestive
processes, fruits need to be separated from vegatables thus: All fruits
may be mixed together. All vegetables may be mixed together. All melons
may be mixed together. Except Lettuce and celery can be combined with
either fruit or vegetalbe juice and apples will mix with vegetable
juices. When making vegetable juice make it predomiinately 80% either
carrot juice or tomato juice and mix with celery, cucumbers, greeen
peppers, etc. While vegetalbe generally do not contain as high amounts of
glucose as fruits, carrot juice and tomato juice are both relatively
sweet, and will carry the tast of other nutritious vegetable if mixed in.
Be sure to put celery and/or lettuce in every glass fruit or vegetable.
This increase the calcium and B-vitamins input that is so important
during pregnancy and nursing. Pg 49-51″

I recommend for nausea 80% carrot, 2-3 stocks of celery and a wedge of
beat the size of an orange segment. The carrot gives the base and live
enzymes, the celery has the calcium and B vitamins, and the beat is good
for liver support and detock so important in helping with morning
sickness.

Children are being taken from their very own bedrooms, schools, betrayed by “family friends” and much more.  How can it be?  The missing person’s report goes up every day for young teen girls, many are said to be run-aways.  The truth of the matter is many of these girls are finding themselves in the hands of evil men who will abuse and sell them in the sex trade.

Why is this not being talked about more?  These are our children we are talking about.  Lets not turn a blind eye to this people!  My heart is breaking for your children.  It is our responsibility to protect these kids and put a stop to this madness.

You may ask your self, how can I make a difference, I am only one person?  The start of it is bringing awareness!  Informing yourself and your own children of this problem and reporting suspicious men with underage girls.  Be approachable to your children, so that they can tell you anything without fearing your response.  Not putting your kids in situations that can lead to them becoming captives to it.  These pimps will take girls from malls, streets, pose as friends from school, boyfriends and so much more.  Be-careful who you allow your kids to be friends with and who they are allowed to spend the night with.  Sometimes the enemy is someone you trust!

This problem has exploded since the start of the internet and websites such as craig’s list and My Space where many of these girls are being exploited.

Check out this website: http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/child_sex_trafficking_in_america_pimp_control

Thank you for listening to me rant on this.  I am just finding myself feeling like my eyes are really being opened to this for the first time and I am ready to make a difference.

Children are being taken from their very own bedrooms, schools, betrayed by “family friends” and much more.  How can it be?  The missing person’s report goes up every day for young teen girls, many are said to be run-aways.  The truth of the matter is many of these girls are finding themselves in the hands of evil men who will abuse and sell them in the sex trade.

Why is this not being talked about more?  These are our children we are talking about.  Lets not turn a blind eye to this people!  My heart is breaking for your children.  It is our responsibility to protect these kids and put a stop to this madness.

You may ask your self, how can I make a difference, I am only one person?  The start of it is bringing awareness!  Informing yourself and your own children of this problem and reporting suspicious men with underage girls.  Be approachable to your children, so that they can tell you anything without fearing your response.  Not putting your kids in situations that can lead to them becoming captives to it.  These pimps will take girls from malls, streets, pose as friends from school, boyfriends and so much more.  Be-careful who you allow your kids to be friends with and who they are allowed to spend the night with.  Sometimes the enemy is someone you trust!

This problem has exploded since the start of the internet and websites such as craig’s list and My Space where many of these girls are being exploited.

Check out this website:

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/child_sex_trafficking_in_america_pimp_control

Thank you for listening to me rant on this.  I am just realizing my eyes are really being opened to this for the first time and I am ready to make a difference.

I strongly recommend getting proactive and getting your immune system up and running so that you can fight these things off when they come around.  One of the reason the flu is associated with the fall and winter months is due to the lack of Sunlight.  The sun provides us with a very important immune support through Vitamin D.  Our bodies use Vitamin D to help strengthen the lungs and respiratory system.  We really do ourselves a huge disfavor by staying out of the sun altogether.  Many American put sunscreen on to prevent the UV rays from the sun.  It is hard to know if it is the sun or the lotions that are causing all the problem with skin cancer. (That is for another topic someday)  Everything in moderation I guess.  In the winter months we wear clothes that cover our skin preventing our exposure to adequate absorption of D.

One article I read  says, “Vitamin D has a profound beneficial effect on your immune system. For one thing, it dramatically stimulates potent anti-microbial molecules found in your white blood cells and in the lining of your respiratory tract.”

 ”Ultraviolet radiation (either from artificial sources or from sunlight) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections, as does cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D).

There are many other ways one can support their immune response when it comes to flu season. 

Going back to the basics

A healthy diet and life style counts for something.  

1.  Lets start with sleep, with out adequate sleep one is bound to lower their immune system. The average person needs a full 8 hours a night.  Living in a busy fast past world makes this very difficult to do now days.  

2. Nutrition is key!  Increasing daily fruits and vegetables is a good start.  Remembering to take your supplements daily.  Staying away from the holiday treats is difficult, but too much sugar will weaken the adrenals and immune response.  Water intake is another consideration.  Each person should be getting about 1/2 their body weight in ounces to stay well hydrated.  Keep flushing those toxins out, the longer they sit there the great chance of coming down with something. 

3. Exercise  We all know how important this one is, but…there are no buts about it!  Exercise will keep you feeling healthy and energized.  Keep doing it, or start if you haven’t already.  

This brings us to the final list of supplements you can take to build a healthier immune system.  I am only going to mention the top five I recommend patients. 

Thymex by Standard Process 

Congaplex by Standard Process

Colloidal Silver

Echinacea

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Homeopathics are another way to go if you begin to feel flu like symptoms.  Check out these two websites Borion or Homeopathics

There are many more to choose from if you are needing more suggestion

Here is some information on Tamiflu which is the standard of care most people get from their medical doctor.  http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?k=tamiflu

It is common practice for pregnant women to receive this drug even though it is a class C drug in pregnancy. 

I hope this helps to lesson the fears people are having about the flu.  Feel free to leave your suggestions and comments below.

I am going to start blogging my new recipes I get that are all natural and healthy

Italian Dressing By Sarah Jones

Balsamic Vinaigrette 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups

Organic Garlic powder or fresh 2 pinches

Organic onion powder 2 pinches

Sea salt one pinch

Italian seasoning 3 pinches

Mustard seeds, crushed 3 pinches

Organic Dijon mustard 2 tsp

Organic Honey 1 to 2 table spoons

Olive oil 1/2 cup

Shake well before use.  Add Fresh avocado, Tomatoes, Green peppers, cucumbers.  Cut into small pieces and soak in dressing for an hour in the refrigerator.   It is to dye for.  I love this salad. 

It is common practice to give cattle estrogen to increase their size and profits for farmers.  However the side effect is creating cows that are estrogen dominant, in turn causing the consumer to also gain high levels of synthetic estrogen.  It is no wonder we have girls as young as 4, 5 and 6 developing breast tissue along with some young boys.  Other girls are getting their periods at the ages of 6 or 8 years old.  Estrogen dominance can have many harmful side effects which I will cover in a later blog, one of which increase the risk for estrogen dominant cancers.

Over 400 studies have been published on the comparison between organic foods and non-organic foods, showing the health effects, nutritional content and food safety in consumers.  A dramatic decline was observed in mineral levels in the fruits and vegetables over the past 50 years in the non-organic foods.  There is less and less food available in your food.

Organic foods are higher in Vitamin C and phytonutrients, which are compounds that not only protect plants from pests and disease, but are also beneficial in the prevention and treatment of cancer. 

Normal functioning of the female endocrine glands depends on trace elements (minerals and vitamins).  Each of your hormones is activated by the mineral in the center of it. “For example, the thyroid must have sufficient quantity and quality of the trace element iodine to form the hormone thyroxin and the mineral selenium to activate it. The pancreas requires trace minerals, and zinc to make insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar.  The sex steroid hormones of the gonads require Vitamin E, selenium and fat-soluble vitamin factors as precursors.  Magnesium and Vitamin E are vital to pituitary hormone Production, while Vitamin D is very similar to the Calcium-controlling parathyroid hormone. Estrogen production is dependent on copper.  Therefore, sufficient real, live, whole food vitamins and minerals are required for a healthy hormonal state.”

Pretty interesting, don’t you think!

Last night I laid awake thinking about my midwife experiences here in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex.  I have been truly blessed to be apart of such a great team of midwives in the Dallas and Fort Worth area.  These midwives have sewn so much wisdom and knowledge into me.  When I first came to DFW I started to work with Gentle Beginnings Birth Center in Hurst.  This birthing center has changed my life.  I have grown to understand more about the holistic side of midwifery and enjoyed using the tremendous resources all around.  

One of those resources is using Chiropractic care during a woman’s pregnancy.  Gentle Beginnings is located in the same building as our wonderful Chiropractors, doctors Jim Bob and Cindy Haggarton at Lifetime Family Wellness Center.   They have taught me so much about healing the body through nutrition, herbs and holistic care.  We are a culture of pill poppers.  When we have a problem we go to the doctor for something to cover up the symptoms, not heal the cause.  It seems we are missing something if we are not getting to the route of the problem.  In this day and age if the symptom persists we will probably just get it removed, such as our gallbladder, appendix or pancreas.  Holistic care is about healing from the inside out.  We can heal our bodies through better nutrition and a healthier life style.  It is crazy to me that we are such a developed society, yet we are suffering from malnutrition from poor eating habits.  If McDonalds and Burger King are our Child’s favorite places to eat, it is no wonder we have such a high volume of heart disease, diabetes,  obesity, and the list goes on.  I am sure that some of you are thinking what does this have to do with Chiropractic care or even being a midwife.  Well let me tell you, it really does have so much to do with it.   I used to think Chiropractors were about bone crunching  I soon discovered this is not the case.  It may be for some of them, but the ones I have met here in the DFW have been amazing men and women who truly respect the human body and the need for whole foods to begin the process of true healing.  I have seen women who were considered infertile by the medical world get pregnant with a change in diet and lifestyle.   Children with chronic allergies and asthma were cured in a matter of days with dietary change, usually taking dairy out and just feeding them real foods.  Some of you know exactly what I am talking about too!  There is so much more!  The other side that I have seen is regular Chiropractic adjustments through the pregnancy can really help to make a woman’s labor quicker and more efficient.  There have been women in my care that would have ended up with a C-section if it were for a Chiropractor coming to them in labor to adjust their pelvis or sacrum.  The DFW is full of great resources!  We need to take advantage of these and start spreading the word, so that we can reach a lost generation.  I don’t feel like this is common knowledge now days.  Somehow the truth feels lost.  It seems our grandmothers knew some of the tricks to a healthy diet and lifestyle that our parents didn’t. 

It is my hope that I can continue to learn new things.  I never want to think I know it all or that I can’t learn something new, for if I did I would miss out on something that may change a generation to come.  There are so many aspects to midwifery care.  My goal is to bring as much awareness and education as I can to families that I help during their pregnancy and birth.  I want it to be a lifetime investment. 

Thank you for listening and I hope you will share your knowledge and experience with the rest of us.  Please leave your comments below.

So. . . . when I found out I was pregnant again, I wanted to have a home birth.  At only a couple of weeks into my pregnancy I started researching midwives in our area.  I found that there were lots and lots who went from one end of the midwife spectrum to the other.  Nurse-midwives who only delivered in hospitals to midwives who encouraged having your baby with no help outside help at all unless absolutely necessary.  

I met with probably half a dozen ladies.  Some were too far to agree to a home birth others had a policy where you got the midwife who was “on duty” when you went into labor.  No one seemed quite what I was hoping for, and I almost didn’t keep my appointment with Sarah Jones at the Gentle Beginnings Birth Center because I was sure I was going to be disappointed again.  But afterwards I saw God’s guiding hand in my choice because I decided to give her a chance and met with her.  She was so wonderful.  She seemed quite young, several years my junior but very confident and caring, and so very sweet and happy to sit and answer question after question that I put to her.  The birth center was a lovely place, and I had a hard time deciding between birthing at home or there because it was so nice (I decided against because I couldn’t imagine driving for an hour while in labor).  Sarah was wonderful at every one of my prenatal visits and seemed as excited and full of wonder as I was every time we heard my little son’s heartbeat!  We were even able to meet with a sonographer at the birth center and see our little guy.  Sarah encouraged me to stay fit and eat well (although I have to admit the food diary just about drove me nuts – as hard as I tried to “get enough protein” and “drink enough water” I never felt like I was quite doing enough – no offense Sarah. )  Again in the last few months my blood pressure started rising, and I started to experience some swelling.  Sarah advised me to take Gotu Kola Complex, and I’m here to tell you, that stuff WORKS!  When I ran out, my swelling got worse very quickly, but when I started taking it again I saw improvement within a few hours!  

I had Braxton-Hicks contractions from about 4 months on out, steadily getting stronger as I went along, but I wasn’t at all concerned because I had experienced the same thing with William.  My husband, Alex, and I went on a week and a half “baby-moon” in Maine when I was seven months pregnant.  We relaxed and hiked and had some lovely alone time.  Sarah went to visit her parents in China for a few weeks when I was at 7 ½ months, and left me in the very compassionate hands of her associate, Christy.  It was excellent to meet with Christy because she was supposed to be Sarah’s assistant at our birth.  I was very happy to learn that she was a kindred spirit, and we seemed to get on wonderfully at our first meeting.  

On Wednesday, December 3, (one week after Thanksgiving, less than a week after my 29^th birthday, and more than two weeks before my due date of December 18) we decided to go Christmas tree shopping.  Alex said that if we didn’t get it soon I would go and have the baby, and he’d have to decorate it all on his own. So while we decorated our house and trees with multi-colored Christmas lights and shopped for a tree I experienced some very strong contractions.  I had to squat down and breathe through several of them in between decorating.  I kept thinking, “maybe this is it!”  But I didn’t want to jump the gun, and sure enough, the contractions went away with a warm bath.  Thursday morning, afternoon, and evening went by without more than the regular Braxton-Hicks, and Friday morning I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but just to be sure, I called up my friend who’d given birth a few months previously and asked if she might loan me her birth pool.  Several people I know had used one and said it helped immensely with the pain.  She said sure, and at about 3:30 in the afternoon she brought it over, and I helped her unload it into the garage.  Our bigger boys, who are about the same age, wanted to play, so she stayed for a bit, and I was enjoying her camaraderie so much that when her husband called her to let her know he was on his way home, I told her to tell him to come on over, and I’d fix them dinner.  So he did, and I did, and when Alex got home we all feasted on quiche and fresh tomatoes and egg custard!   

After they went home we decided it was high time to decorate our tree!  So we got to work on it, and by the time we were done, my back was killing me, and I spent an hour relaxing and trying to work the kinks out of my back by lying on the couch.  We went to bed, but after several hours of trying get comfortable, I decided those weren’t kinks and no amount of relaxing was going to get rid of them.  I woke Alex at 11:00 PM, and told him I thought we’d have a baby tomorrow, and I called Sarah to give her a heads up.  She told me to try to get some sleep and called me if things progressed.  

I tried to rest.  I honestly did! But that baby didn’t have resting on his mind.  The contractions kept getting stronger and coming very regularly every 10 or so minutes and at about 1 AM to tell her that I was pretty sure this was it.  She said to try to rest between contractions and call her when the contractions got to be about five minutes apart.  At about four I called her again and told her I was ready for her to come, and she said she would be on her way as soon as she could get her things together.  I called my sister, Paige, who lives about an hour away, and told her I was ready for her to come get William.  At about five Sarah showed up.  She checked my vitals and the baby’s position and said, “yep, you’re in labor.”  Paige showed up and after I gave him a distracted hug and kiss goodbye she tenderly took Liam off with her.  Sarah was wonderfully calm and quiet and caring as I paced from our bedroom to the hall then the kitchen and back to our room.  She would quietly ask if I was having a contraction and time it.  Alex was in the kitchen putting the birth pool together and getting it hooked up to the sink.  After a while I couldn’t handle the contractions on my own anymore, and whenever I’d have one Alex would come to me, and we would kneel down together, and he would help me breathe through them.  Sarah checked me again sometime in there and said that I was progressing nicely and in good time.  Christy showed up around at about 7 or 8.  I think I got into the birth pool for the first time sometime around 9ish, after I got to about 7 centimeters, and we were pretty sure it wouldn’t slow down labor.  The water felt amazing, and I was still lucid enough, and “modest” enough, that I insisted on putting on my bathing suit.  After a bit I got out and Alex and I attempted to walk around the block, and I’m not sure but I don’t think we even made it to the end of the block.  It was really cold, and I felt conspicuous when I had to kneel down on the sidewalk to get through my contractions.  After our walk I got back in the pool, and around ten in the morning Christy started cooking the after-birth herbs and getting towels and washcloths warm.  I was out of it enough that I didn’t realize it, but Alex later said that they were expecting the birth fairly soon at that point.  I remember getting a little annoyed with Sarah when she started talking to me during contractions and asking her to quit talking.  After the contraction ended I apologized, and she said not to apologize but to feel free to tell her what I needed.  If I hadn’t been soaking wet and in pain I would have hugged her.  I needed to hear that just then.  I also remember asking Christy to take the herbs out because the smell was making me sick.  All this just made them more sure that baby was going to arrive soon. 

But then . . . Sarah started wondering how things were progressing, and when she checked I was still only at 7 centimeters!  Oh, I thought I would cry.  She and Christy went off and chatted a bit, and when Sarah came back she said that at this time they had to tell me that we needed to make a decision.  I had progressed so little in the last few hours I think by then it was about 2 in the afternoon) due to the baby not being fully engaged in the birth canal (the little stinker had backed up and was trying to come out at an angle) that I could either: transfer to the hospital (near tears), drink a bit of wine and try to stop labor and call them back when I was more rested, or see if I could go to a chiropractor for an adjustment and get the baby moving.  I really, really did not want to transfer to the hospital because I was sure I would end up with a caesarian.  We couldn’t get in touch with a chiropractor here in our town, and mine was an hour away and off for the day.  So we opted for the wine and relaxation.  It did help me to relax, and Alex said I slept pretty hard in between contractions, and when I woke up they said they had gotten in touch with Dr. Shane (my chiropractor), and he had agreed to come up and give me an adjustment so long as there was someone here to watch his little boy who he’d have to bring along!  Praise God for Dr. Shane and his willingness to come!  While he was on his way, I got out of the tub, and Alex helped me do some exercises to try to move baby down and get labor going again.  At this point I was at a really low place emotionally.  Sarah came into my room where I was laboring (and suffering so much!)  She knelt beside me, and encouraged me in her tender way, and then asked so sweetly if she could pray with me.  I said, “Yes.  Please!”  It was such a perfect thing for her to do.  I needed that so much just then.  I had been praying in my head, but just about all I could manage was, “Dear God, help me!”  She closed her eyes and held my hand and simply asked the Lord to be with me, and to give me the strength and courage to continue and to help baby to move so that I could deliver him.  It was such a simple prayer, but it was said with such sincerity and love and compassion.  It really moved me, and I felt strengthened and encouraged after it.   

Not long after that Dr. Shane arrived, and he was so great!  When I asked how I should be for the adjustment he said, “You just do what you need to, and I’ll work around you.”  So while I stood or kneeled he worked on me a bit.  After a while, Sarah checked me, and said I was progressing again.  Dr. Shane adjusted me (and baby) some more, and after a while said baby was good to go!  Sarah checked the baby and me, and said I was at nine or so, and I was really feeling the urge to bear down.  This was a totally new sensation to me.  I had not felt it at all with Liam.  Sarah said there was still a bit of cervical lip, and I needed to resist pushing if I could.  She told me to blow out my lips like a horse to help combat the need to push.  I felt like an idiot (even at that stage), but man, it worked!  She got the lip out of the way, and for the next 30 minutes or so I knelt on the bed leaning into and on Alex.  Thank you, Alex, for you strong arms supporting me and your tender hands holding me, and you encouraging words whispering in my ear!  Thank you!  Christy and Sarah kept urging me and encouraging me, and finally after what seemed a lifetime they said they could see his head.  But then, oh then . . . Christy said I needed to turn on my side because baby couldn’t get out.  Oh, my word, trying to turn when baby was partly out was just misery!  But I managed, and Christy held my leg, Sarah encouraged, and Alex held my hand, and after a while I started to see my baby’s head coming out!  It was terrifying and wonderful all at once.  I pushed and pushed, and thought I was splitting in half.  And finally with Sarah’s hands pulling him, and my body pushing him with all its might, our baby was brought into this world!  They laid him on my chest and tried to get him to nurse.  I didn’t care what he or anyone did, I just relaxed.  I guess my whole body relaxed because soon (it was really a couple of hours) Sarah said I really needed to try to deliver the placenta.  I did what I could to encourage the baby to nurse.  Sarah gave me a couple of shots of pitocin, and then threatened to give me a catheter.  I didn’t want that, and I guess it was enough of an incentive to get my brain to tell my body to get that thing out of me because it did! Then finally I was in my “mom soup” with my tiny new beautiful son.  He was 8 pounds 5 oz and 21 inches long.  It was the most wonderful, horrible, exciting, miserable day of my life!  But it was so empowering and inspiring!  It made me so grateful for a wonderful husband and birth helpers!  Thank you, God!

Here is an interesting chapter I read about the birth control pill from Pamela Levin’s book The Female Hormone Journey.  Please feel free to leave your comments below.  I would love for you to share your thoughts, other helpful resources and any concerns you may have. Thank you!

“Birth control pills have changed the lives of women and their families by giving them the most reliable form of birth control available, short of abstinence, hysterectomy or having their tubes tied.  They have also increased women’s breast cancer risk by a factor of three.  Three hundred million women worldwide have used “the pill”, an estimated 100 million currently take it.

Recently doctors have been prescribing a new kind of low-does birth control pill for non-birth control purposes.  Products such as Alesse, EstraStep, and Loestrin are being used for minimizing perimenopausal symptoms such as bad menstrual cramping, hot flashes, confusion, vacillating blood sugar levels, trouble sleeping, irritability, heave menstrual bleeding, mood swings, difficulty focusing and memory problems.  However, carefully consider all their effects, not just those that control fertility or menopausal symptoms before staying on them for any length of time.

Both regular birth control pills and the newer, low dose pills work by providing a combination of progestin (synthetic progesterone) and estrogen, which make your body’s levels greater then usual.  That signals your pituitary that your levels are sufficient, and so it does not release the hormones that signal your ovaries to stimulate ovulation.  Failure to ovulate means failure to get pregnant.  In other words, birth control pills turn off regular ovulation and substitute the estrogen and progesterone your body produces with the synthetic ones in the pills. After suppressing your own hormone production, they make your body estrogen dominant via this synthetic route.

(This is not always the case….some women still will have break through ovulation with can lead to unforeseen miscarriages while taking the pill)

If the “up” side is almost totally reliable birth control if you remember to take all the pills, what’s the “down” side?  Some possible side effects while taking the pill include weight gain, emotional swings, circulatory and vascular symptoms, including increased blood pressure, gastrointestinal upset, blood clots, liver problems and even cancer.  Oral contraceptives increase glucose -intolerance, while progestin (not natural progesterone) create insulin resistance and raise triglyceride levels.

In addition, they create certain nutritional deficiencies, most notably the B vitamins, folic acid, B12 and B6.  Without B6, for example, your body will not be able to release hormones into the circulation, even if enough are made in your ovary or adrenal glad.  Other deficiencies include zinc and vitamins C, E, and K.  Especially significant if you want to become pregnant, taking the birth control pills strip your body of folate (folic acid), the lack of which causes fetal abnormality spinal bifida and cleft lips and palate.  These drugs may also raise your copper and iron levels, which in turn can contribute to depression and emotional symptoms, some of which may reverse by supplementing manganese and zinc.  If you are currently taking birth control pills or have recently stopped, it is essential to your own health as well as the health of a potential baby should you become pregnant, that you supplement to provide the above nutrients.  These artificial female hormones can also build up in your liver. 

But the biggest risks are that while taking the pill you are at a slightly increased risk of cervical cancer, breast cancer, stroke, and other diseases of your own circulatory system.  And if you smoke, the risk is substantial.  The pills make you estrogen dominant, and cancer cells love estrogen.

A 25-year, long-term study of 46,000 women who took the pill when they were younger concluded that there were no long-term negative effects.  However, it is worth seeing how the study was designed before breathing a big sigh of relief.  First, the study only looked at women who had stopped using the pill for 10 years or more.  Second, although its conclusion stated these women had no more health risks them women who never used the pill, how these health risks were defined were not reported.  For example, the study looked at the risk of dying rather than at the risk of breast cancer, a method that averaged risks of other varieties and skewed the results so the conclusion that there were no greater health risks could be stated. It was not reported who paid for the study.

According to John Lee, M.D>, author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Menopause, synthetic ehtinyl estradiol, which is the molecule commonly used in estrogen supplements and contraceptives, is even more of a breast cancer risk then estradiol, which is what your body makes.  (Estradiol is 1,000 times more potent in its effects the on the breast tissue then estriol.”)  It is slowly metabolized and excreted, which means it builds up in your body.  Some brand names of such birth control pills include Alesse/ Apri / Brevicon/ Demulen/ Desogen/ Estrostep/ Genest/ Levlen/ Levlite/ Lavora/ Loestrin Lo/ Ovral/ Mircett/ Modicon/ Neolova/ Nordette/ Norinyl/ Ortho Cyclen/ Ortho-Cept/ Ortho-Novum/ Ovcon/ Ovral/ Tri-Levlen/ Tri-Norinyl/ Triphasil/ Trivora/ Zovia.

Two products, which are only synthetic progestin without the synthetic estrogen, are Depo-Provera (injected with a needle) and Norplant (placed under the skin).  A recent study confirmed that women using Depo-Provera lost an average of 2.8% of bone after one year of use and 5.8% after 2 years.  Provera costs ten time more per month then transdermal, bioidentical progesterone.  Like other synthetic hormones, it is a substitute for your body’s own hormone production, and as such, can lower your blood levels of real hormone or even shut their production all together.  Whether delivered by patch, pill, injection, or implant, and whether designed to be taken daily or four times a year, prescription birth control is still all synthetic hormones.

 (This includes the ring and IUDs)

Last, en effect you probably weren’t informed about involves your effect on drinking water if you’re taking the pill.  That’s right – your urine contains birth control pill residue, affecting the ecosystem as it moves through the water table.  As your birth-control laden urine moves through sewage systems, the waste water that flushes out after processing still contains the synthetic estrogen.  This water, whether contaminated from birth control pills or synthetic hormone replacement therapy, has the effect of feminizing male fish, meaning some male fish exposed to the residue can develop eggs in their testes or can’t reproduce.  Scientists are investigating whether estrogen and other chemicals that act like estrogen might be effecting human males as well.

What You Can Do

The thing to remember is that, since birth control pills are made of synthetic estrogen and synthetic progestin, and because they can build up in your liver, they create the problems of estrogen dominance (I will discuss more about estrogen dominance in a later blog) and those that occur when taking synthetic progestin.

Last, if you go off the birth control pill to get pregnant, before becoming pregnant be sure to take a whole food source of folic acid to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida.  As stated previously, birth control pills strip your body of folic acid.  Pages 164-168

here are some other resources to look into:

Breast Health and the Pill