Blog Stuff

Merriam-Webster's says "blog" is the number one word of 2004.

Babies and Celebrities. What could be better. It's the Celebrity Baby Blog. Now, are they going to tell us the things that those of us in the Natural Childbirth/Natural Parenting community really want to know? Who went natural? Who's too posh to push? Who had a homebirth? Who's breastfeeding? Who's going to go on some talk show wearing the baby in a sling? The stuff of much speculation.

I enjoying reading One Sixteenth. Other than the fact that the author is Pagan and I am Christian (o.k., not a small difference, I realize) we are very much alike. She even lives in Texas. The title of "One Sixteenth" is explained by her tag line, "each pregnancy robs you of half your mental capacity". Ha! She recently wrote a nice piece about Classical Education. And she seems to be navigating the decisions, as are we, of just how to celebrate the holidays, which holidays to celebrate, how to infuse them with meaning, and so forth.

Saturday Library Trip - 12/04/04

This week's selection:

• Book: Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitues, Mary Eberstadt
• Book: Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos, Dore Gold
• Book: Iowa, Reshma Sapre
• Book: Light the Lights: As Story about Celebrating Hanukkah & Christmas, Margaret Moorman
• Video: Smile for Auntie and Other Stories [including The Snowy Day and Make Way for Ducklings]
• Video: Mighty Machines at the Construction Site
• Video: Toy Story

You've got to be kidding

Reuters is reporting that a California teacher was directed by his principal not to give students documents from American history which refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

California Yankee lists the blogosphere's reaction to this event (and the enevibable ensuing litigation), and includes a link to the Alliance Defense Fund's pleadings (PDF file).

As has been pointed out many times before, the phrase "separation of church and state" is not found in the Constitution. And anyway, it's the separation of church and state, not the separation of God and state. I don't belive that a mere belief in "God" is the same as adhering to a particular organized religion. Nevermind that the founders were trying to protect the church from the state, not the other way around.

News Link: Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School

Saturday Library Trip - 11/27/04

Nothing for me this week, just the kids:

• Book: Thomas's ABC Book
• Book: James in a Mess and other Thomas Stories
• Book: Rooster's Off To See the World, Eric Carle
• Video: Building Skyscapers
• Video: Bob the Builder: Building Friendships
• Video: Alef Bet Blast Off: A Chanukah Mitzvah
• Video: Snoopy Double Feature: Charlie Brown's All Stars/It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown
• Video: Big Machines: Road Construction

"Family Friendly Firms"

My Shingle's Carolyn Elefant has written an interesting piece called "Bloggers vs. the Bar: The Real Story About Family Friendly Firms". Although many firms are offering lawyers "part-time" and "80 percent" schedules, the reality (according to the bloggers) is that many lawyers are working the same number of hours but receiving part-time pay, with no hope of making partner. Only in the legal profession is working 40 hours a week considered "part time". Why do we put up with this?

Ms. Elefant writes: "More generally, most attorneys need to realize that law will come and go, but they'll only have one chance to develop and nurture a relationship with their children. Missing that opportunity, as the standard for TRO's goes, is irreparable." How true.

Saturday Library Trip - 11/20/04 - Thanksgiving Edition

This week's selection:

• Book: Thanksgiving Day by Dianne M. MacMillan
• Book: The Story of the First Thanksgiving by Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese
• Video: Meet Diego! (Dora the Explorer)
• Video: Blue's Big News (Blue's Clues)

Things I didn't know that I learned from the children's Thanksgiving books:

Nearly half of the settlers died that first year, and only 4 women were left. And on the first Thanksgiving, those 4 women did all the cooking.

In the 1800's, Godey's Lady's Book was the most widely read publication in the country for twenty years. It's editor, Sarah Josepha Hales, was responsible for getting Thanksgiving recognized first as state holidays, then as a Federal holiday.

In 1939, FDR moved Thanksgiving from the 4th Thursday in November to the 3rd Thursday, for the sole purpose of giving retailers and extra week in the holiday shopping season. As a result, half the states celebrated the 3rd week, half the states celebrated the 4th week, with Texas and Colorado celebrating both days. Two years later, the date was firmly affixed as the 4th Thursday.

Firefox

Well, I jumped on the bandwagon and downloaded Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 browser. It's working pretty well, although my computer is crashing more often. A lot of that stopped when I got the flash/shockwave plugins downloaded properly. Still some bugs. I wholeheartedly agree with Dennis Kennedy of The Blawg Channel who writes, "Firefox has tons of potential, but it's clearly a version 1.0 product, not a version 2.0, 3.0 or even a 6.0 product."

What I like best about Firefox is the tab feature - the abillity to open up multiple web pages in the same window. Tabs are the main reason I was hanging on to Earthlink 5.0 - unfortunately no longer supported by the good folks at Earthlink. I have also just discovered Blog This! How did I ever blog without it?

Saturday Library Trip - 11/13/04

Re memes: it's only a meme if other people do it too.

This week's selection:

• Book: The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach
• Book: Sweet Expectations: Michele Hoskins' Recipe for Success by Michele Hoskins
• Book: My Visit With Periwinkle by Alison Inches (Blue's Clues)
• Video: Wiggly Play Time (The Wiggles)
• Video: Trust Thomas & Other Thomas Stories (Thomas the Tank Engine)
• Video: Stop, Look and Listen! (Blue's Clues)

Pregnancy & Childbirth News Briefs

A couple of items of interest in the news lately:

Pre-Pregnancy Multivitamins Prevent Prematurity - A new study shows that women who are taking a multivitamin before they conceive are less likely to have premature babies. Women who took vitamins starting in early pregnancy did not have the same lowered risk of prematurity. (Though of course, getting sufficient nutrients has other important benefits.)

Women's reproductive factors and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: Study suggests prolonged preventive effect of breastfeeding and links irregular menstrual cycles to increased risk of disease - Women who breastfed babies - regardless of how many children they had - for 13-23 months reduced their risk of rheumatoid arthritis by 20% compared to those who didn't. And women who had breastfed for at least 24 months increased their risk reduction to 50%. "Our data suggest breast-feeding confers long lasting protection against developing RA," Dr. Karlson states, "because the mean time since the last pregnancy among women with RA was 25 years."

Older brother learns truth about storks: "Dr. Devon," 5, as his mom calls him, helps her give birth at home while waiting for the paramedics. - O.k., this one is cute, and needs no further explanation. But a little rant from the Mommy Blawger: last I checked, doctors in California weren't doing homebirths. So perhaps the article should have said that little Devon received "unexpected training" as a midwife, not an obstetrician.

Saturday Library Trip - 11/06/04

Today I'm starting a new weekly feature. Perhaps it's a meme [what's a meme? note to self - research memes]. Anyhow, every Saturday I take the boys to the library. Each week I will blog what we checked out. It's kind of like bloggers who tell you what they are reading, except mine will also include what my husband is reading, what videos my kids are watching, and the books I thought looked interesting and later decided weren't, or didn't have time to read.

This week's selection:

• Book: Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by Siegfried Engelmann
• Book: Dora's Backpack by Sarah Willson
• Video: Pets in a Pickle, Bob the Builder
• Video: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
• Video: Building Skyscrapers, David Alpert Associates

So what did you check out this week?

Travelogue: Branson, Missouri

Greetings from lovely Branson, Missouri. We are here for 5 days, 4 nights with both sets of the boy's grandparents. My in-laws booked a time-share at Fairfield Resorts at Mountain Vista which is new and very nice. It has been cloudy, cold, and rainy which is fine since the resort has an indoor pool, although the boys seemed perfectly satisfied with the whirlpool bath tub in the room.

On the way here, we stoped at Shady Beach Family Campground and canoe rental in Noel, Missouri, which is owned and operated by my step-sister's family.

Some Branson attractions of note:

The Chateau on the Lake overlooks Table Rock lake. The hotel has a castle-like appearance, and the main meeting room (huge!) has murals of European castles painted on the walls. The lobby features a 2-story waterfall and river surounded by a variety of real (caged birds, fish) and fake (vines, beaver) plants and animals, including what has got to be the largest artificial tree in existance. I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw the stuffed squirel.

Shoji Tabuchi is a Japanese violinist who plays country music. Really. His theater, where he performs twice-daily, has restrooms that can truly be called amazing, are described on the website as follows:

"The ladies' powder room is complete with wainscoting and ceiling reproduced from the 1890's Empire Period. To the ladies amazement, there are live cut orchids at every granite and onyx pedestal sink. Add to all that stained and jeweled glass and magnificient chandeliers! The gentlemen's lounge is no less imposing, with black lion head sinks imported from Italy, black leather chairs and a marble fireplace. The billiard room [in the men's restroom] contains a hand carved mahogany billiard table, a viewing gallery, and a burled walnut mirror that was built in 1868."

Both restrooms also feature changing stations stocked with several sizes of diapers. However, the show itself rated only a 4 out of 10, according to my parents who attended.

Grand Country Inn is an all-in-one entertainment complex, with a hotel, show theater, video arcade, shopping, country-style buffet, Branson's only indoor miniature golf complex, and an indoor/outdoor water park. The buffet is only so-so, but the whole complex is worth a look-see, and great if you have older kids or a range of age groups and interests that all want to do different things.

The Stone Hill Winery is the oldest (150 years) winery in Missouri. Prior to Prohibition, the winery produced over a million gallons of wine every year. Stone Hill makes about 18 different varieties of wine. The actual vineyard and the majority of the wine production takes place in Hermann, Missouri, but two varieties are aged and bottled in Branson. Tours and wine tasting are free.

Broadway it's not, and Orlando it ain't either, but all in all, our time in Branson was a great trip and we survived our first major (8 hrs. each way) road trip with 2 kids under the age of four. Can't wait to go home so we can get some rest...

Birth Story

Eva Lorine Lund was born October 10, 2004, at home in the water; and her family has put together a lovely slide show. Takes a while to load - and be sure you have your sound on.

Link: http://www.lund-fam.org/Slideshow/

And if you liked that, you'll love the birth slide show of Jude Roman Fairbanks.

Misleading Antioxidants

A new study published in The Archives of Disease in Childhood reports that breastmilk that has been refrigerated or frozen has lower levels of antioxidants than fresh milk. However, it is important to note, even breastmilk that has been frozen has higher levels of antioxidants than artificial baby milk (formula).

Well, duh. Prety much every fresh fruit or vegetable looses nutrients when frozen, canned, cooked, or processed. And since infant formula contains synthetic vitamins, stands to reason they would not break down as easily. Either in the freezer or in your baby's digestive system or bloodstream. :)

However, I became absolutely livid after reading this headline from The Scotsman:

"Freezing breast milk could harm babies, says new study". Oh, but we don't want to "make women feel guilty" for using formula, which can harm babies even more than freezing milk.

The Wall Street Journal article - which I haven't read (don't have a subscription, and don't want to take the time to fill out a 4+ page questionaire to get a 2-week trial) - reportedly does not mention the low levels of antioxidants in formula, either.

Kudos to The Times (UK) - "Milk of Human Coldness" - whose story included a graphic comparing the fresh, refrigerated, and frozen varieties of both formula and breastmilk. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here's a sample of how other news sources handled the same information:

Canada.com - "Freezing, refrigerating breast milk lowers its antioxidant content: study"

New York Times/Int'l Herald Tribune - "For a healthier baby, fresh breast milk may be better"

Indy Star - "Breast milk is best if fresh, research finds"

Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Study: Breast Milk Is Best When Fresh"

Post-Gazette [Pittsburgh] - "Storage depletes breast milk"

Blogging Baby [hey! GoogleNews considers this blog a news source!] - "Breast milk loses antioxidants when stored"

Flu Shots Revisited

Hey this is nice:

The San Francisco Chronicle writes: "6 million doses of suspect vaccine in U.S. warehouses Quarantined since August pending tests".

"Chiron Corp. shipped 6 million doses of its now-suspect flu vaccine from its British plant to the United States before the company's own tests uncovered evidence of bacterial contamination....The Chronicle has learned that vaccine shipped across the Atlantic has been sitting since August in the warehouses of American drug distributors, under a Chiron-imposed 'quarantine' but outside the direct control of the company or U.S. regulators."

Why No One Uses Midhusbands

Cute birth cartoon here.

Flu Shots

Ok, imagine that shipments of, say, strawberries from, say, Mexico were stopped at the border because they were contaminated with a bacteria - say, listeria. As a result, all strawberry shipments coming from Mexico were halted until it could be determined how the contamination happened. However, since approximately half of the strawberries sold in the US come from Mexico (say), this means that there will be half as many cartons of strawberries available in the stores this week. What is your first inclination? Will you:

A. Run out and buy up all the strawberries you can, because there's going to be a shortage;
B. Avoid buying strawberries this week, until you know that none of the strawberries already in the stores are contaminated either; or
C. Avoid buying strawberries for a while, because the thought of bacteria-laden strawberries is somewhat unapetizing.

Am I missing something here? On Wednesday, a 79-year old woman died while waiting in line with hundreds of others for a flu shot. Nevermind that it's not even flu season yet. But for every one article I read assuring the public that the FDA would have caught the contamination had the British regulators not, there are 50-100 headlines about long lines at doctor's offices and county health departments. Even fines or jail time for health care workers who do not comply with rationing laws. But no one is asking the question about the flu shots that thousands of are most vulnerable are rushing out to get: are they safe?

Blogging Blogs

I don't usually spend much time reading other people's blogs. But this evening I decided to check in with Mommies At Law since it had been a while. I clicked on a link from their blog, then I clicked on a link from that blog... and before you know it, its an hour later and my boys are on their third Blue's Clues video.

Anyway...I found the NursingMom.com Web Log/Blog, which "features news stories from other sites concerning Nursing and Breast Milk Pumping." And
Dot Moms has a whole link list of "Moms who Blog". Where I learned that there are blogs entitled "The Mommy Blog" and "The Baby Blog" (I've already set up "The Baby Blawg" in anticipation of my next pregnancy. I plan to blog while in labor).

Don't Let the Sun Set on Texas Midwives

Periodically, each administrative/regulatory agency in Texas undergoes what is known as "Sunset Review". During this process, the Sunset Commission decides if the agency undergoing review should continue in its current form, be changed, or discontinued. (The Texas Bar, for example, underwent Sunset Review last year, and emerged unscathed. But I'll let you draw your own conclusions.) This year, the Midwifery Board is up for Sunset Review.

Should the Midwifery Board be abolished, it would effectively mean the end of direct-entry midwifery care in Texas, and the ability of families to choose homebirths would be severerly curtailed or eliminated. Other bad things could happen, such as the MB being placed under the auspices of the Board of Nursing Examiners (BNE), which would give the Texas Medical Association (TMA) the power to review and rewrite the Midwifery Rules. It would also allow the TMA to require that Texas midwives have Physician back-up in order to practice. This plan worked great in California, where none of the 130 or so lisensed midwives were able to find a doctor who would supervise them. [sarcasm mode=off]

Note: this Sunset Review does not affect Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) who are regulated by the BNE and primarily attend hospital births. It DOES affect all direct-entry Midwives (CPMs/DMs) who primarily attend homebirths and births at freestanding birth centers.

If you want to help ensure the future of Midwifery care in Texas, and the ability of
families to choose how and with whom to have their babies, I urge you to do the following:

• Visit the Texans for Midwifery Sunset Review website at
  www.tfmidwifery.org/Sunset.htm


• Write a letter and send it to every member of the Sunset Commission as well as your local representatives.


• Visit any members of the Commission who have offices in your area. Go in small groups. Call ahead and make an appointment, or just drop by. Take the letters you have written.


• Join Texans for Midwifery - it's only $15, and every Texas Midwifery Consumer needs to be represented.


• If you are from out-of-state (or out of the country), you can still help. Information for Out of State support is here. You can also make a donation to Texans for Midwifery.

The deadline for Consumer input is October 12, so there is no time to loose. Please make your voice heard!

Twenty Questions

Watch out, this is addictive:

Twenty Questions

Florida: The Hurricane Magnet

What's it like to ride out a hurricane? The Weather Channel has a reporter (meteorologist?) blogging Jeanne from Daytona. You can access Stephanie Oswald's journal here.

Track Hurricane Jeanne (National Hurricane Center)

Infant Mortality

Occasionally, I hear someone state that the U.S. has the best health care system in the world. This is a common misconception, especially during campaign season. True, we've got excellent trauma and critical care. And we spend more per capita than any other nation. But the U.S. ranks 41st in the world in terms of its infant mortality rate. Get these and other fascinating statistics from NationMaster.com.

Children at Birth

Now, from time to time we hear of babies being born in the backs of taxi cabs, in hospital or gas station parking lots; or, in the case of home births, into Dad's hands before the midwife arrives. But this article, As dad sped home, children helped mother give birth from the Detroit Free Press caught my eye.

Baby Isabella of Waterford, Michigan, was born while mom was home alone with the three older siblings, ages 3, 6, and 9. What struck me about the article was how calm everyone seemed, both during and after the birth. You see, the Spry family had planned a home birth, and had prepared their three older children to witness the birth if they wished.

My oldest son (2 at the time) was present at the birth of my younger son, and I have never regretted that decision. Children do great at birth if they are properly prepared. Here are two books I especially recommend:

Welcome With Love by Jenni Overend from Amazon or UBB's Natural Family Boutique.

Baby on the Way by Dr. William and Martha Sears from Amazon or UBB's Natural Family Boutique.

The Alia Blawg

Today I was sitting down at the computer, about to blog something, when my dear husband asked me to blog something in particular.

Me: "Write it on your own blog."
DH: "I don't have a blog."
Me: "Well, get one."
DH: "Make one for me."

So, I did. Took all of about 15 minutes (thank you, Blogger). Here it is: aliablawg.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Hurricane Ivan

You can get a neat map of the latest hurricane track from the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center. Just scroll down to the storm of your choice and click on "Maps and Charts".

3-Day Ivan forecast graphic

Unassisted Births

The Pensylvanian Times Leader has published a story, Charged midwife's clients making other plans for home births about the options left for clients of Judy Wilson, the midwife arrested in April (see my April 29,2004 post).

One caveat: Vicki Pasterik, the client quoted in the article, has since claimed the reporter distorted what she said, saying: "The fact is, the first quote and the last attributed to me in the article are accurate. The rest are not." She does not promote unassisted birth, and has not yet contacted any other midwives, as the article states.

Nevertheless, the article brings up a good point, one that I have observed myself from women across the country who do not have access to homebirth midwives: many will "go it alone" at home rather than opt for a hospital birth.

Those who believe that homebirth is unsafe do women and babies no service by legislating or prosecuting out of existence those who attend homebirths. A better course of action would be to make homebirth safer (it is already safe, but that is another post) by ensuring that attendants such as midwives have access to quality training, are authorized to carry life-saving drugs such as pitocin and oxygen, and do not fear criminal charges or social disapprobation when properly transfering a patient into the care of doctor or hospital when compilcations arise.

Links:
Times Leader article.
Same article from PennLive.com.
Ebay auction for Judy's Legal defense.