I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of days.  Not quite sure what to make of it.  I see it praised on the internet as a giant step in the right direction, but could it just be another attempt for ACOG to win back women who otherwise have been making more independent and empowering choices?

Go ahead and google:  ACOG VBAC 2010 for the ACOG announcement and other - more insightful - blogs on this topic.  After so many years dedicated to this issue, I’m finding myself not really caring what the obstetricians of ACOG think.

Women have always had the ability to choose Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.  The question is, whose permission (other than their own) have they been seeking?

KQED Radio reports that a California environmental group has found lead in juice and packaged fruit popular with children. Many of the products contained amounts of lead exceeding state and federal limits for young children. The Oakland-based Environmental Law Foundation tested a wide range of brands, and found that a single serving of many of the products would put children aged six and younger over the daily limit for lead.

My husband and I condition our children to be water-drinkers from an early age. We rarely drink juice, and when we do, it’s juice from fresh organic fruits and vegetables juiced here at home. We have a dehydrator and find it very easy to make our own dried fruit pieces and fruit leather. I’ve generally been uncomfortable with the sugar levels of many of the pre-packaged products, and have asked other parents to refrain from serving them to my children at birthday parties, etc. The lead content is new to me - horrifying but not surprising, either. Please spread the word.

Here’s an article that just came through my inbox, about a class action lawsuit against the makers of birth control pills.  I have been amazed for some time that young women take birth control pills for acne, and have always wondered if they even tried to eliminate the acne through better diet and exercise.  Hopefully cases like this will get young women to re-think their choices - and their lifestyle - at an early age.

Calgarians join class action $15M lawsuit
against birth control makers

Eight months after Chloe Papparis began taking a birth control pill for acne, she almost died from severe side-effects, she says.

The teen started suffering from a bad migraine headache and frequent bouts of vomiting last August. Her family doctor thought it might be swine flu.

Six days later, however, Papparis was rushed to Foothills Hospital. Doctors told her she was 24 hours from dying.

“When I was in ER, the doctor by fluke said to give me a CT scan. They found five blood clots on my brain,” Papparis, now 18, said Thursday.

“I was told I had had a stroke and I wasn’t supposed to be living. If we had waited . . . I would have died.”

Papparis is among 800 Canadians taking part in class-action lawsuits against the manufacturer of two birth control drugs, Yaz and Yasmin, which they allege have caused severe reactions, including seven deaths.

All of the claims have been filed by Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group.

Fifty-four of the 90 Alberta plaintiffs in the $15-million lawsuit are from this city. That suit was filed at the Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary.

None of their allegations have been proven in court, and the defendants, all subsidiaries of manufacturer Bayer Inc., have yet to file statements of defence.

Merchant said Thursday his firm has filed or is about to file similar multimillion-dollar claims in all provinces except Prince Edward Island.

“The seven deaths are all similar in that they were all young women who were healthy,” Merchant said.

“One woman who died was 28, the rest were 14 to 19 years.”

“Of the 400 who do have problems, many have lost their gall bladder. All of them have continual blood pressure problems or blood clots related to blood pressure effects,” said Merchant.

In the claim, it is alleged the Bayer companies “participated in the common purpose of concealing the adverse effects of Yasmin and Yaz from regulatory authorities, the medical community, the public and class (action) members.”

It also alleges the FDA in the U.S. received more than 50 reports of deaths among users of the two drugs between 2004 and 2008.

“These reports include deaths associated with cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, intracardiac thrombus, pulmonary embolism, and stroke in women in their child-bearing years,” says the statement of claim.

It alleges the defendants knew or should have known that use of Yaz and Yasmin created an increased risk to consumers of personal serious injury, including but not limited to gallbladder disease, blood clots and strokes.

Papparis, meanwhile, spent six days in hospital and was placed on the anti-coagulant Heparin for six months to prevent clotting.

She is now off the drug but can never take birth control pills again. Doctors will have to be careful with her if she ever goes through surgery, for fear of more blood clotting.

Despina Papparis says her daughter was the first person to be admitted to the stroke clinic at Foothills Hospital because of reactions to Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella — all birth control pills with synthetic estrogen — but there have been several more since then.

“It was scary, it was horrifying, we’ve had nightmares,” she said.

“She started in December (2008), because she was graduating in May. She was taking it to clear up her acne for grad and her grad photos. The doctor handed it over and we didn’t think anything of it.

“We were lucky the doctor ordered the CT scan. He said had I not brought her in, she wouldn’t have survived Saturday. It was sheer luck. Why would I expect blood clots?”

Chloe said she doesn’t want anyone else to suffer.

“What happened to me is the worst thing of my life,” she said. “I don’t want other girls to go through it, too.”

By Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald
April 9, 2010

OK, here’s another petition, then I’m taking a break from these petitions….

Intact America is getting signatures for it’s Say No To Circumcision campaign.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is currently developing public health recommendations for the U.S. on male circumcision that could ignore the serious risks of this non-therapeutic surgery, and they want to reach 25,000 signatures by the end of March.  Here is the text of the petition, and the link is below.

As the foremost expert on public health in our country, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a responsibility to share the truth about public health issues that can affect millions of Americans.

Newborn male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure in the U.S. - yet this painful and unnecessary surgery carries serious risks, including hemorrhage, infection, surgical mishap, and death.

The role of circumcision in preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and other health claims has been investigated by public health researchers and remains highly debatable. Only safe sexual practices, such as the use of condoms and abstinence, can prevent STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Circumcision cannot be responsibly recommended as a way of preventing disease.

If the CDC chooses to promote newborn male circumcision, it is supporting a procedure called “non-therapeutic” by the American Medical Association - in favor of inconclusive and highly debatable research.

I ask that the CDC not recommend circumcision as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS and formally recognize the risks and harms of the procedure and the right of every child to bodily integrity.

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5922/t/6483/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=643

If you’d like to learn more about The Foreskin and Circumcision, our Intact Boy series is available 24/7 for your viewing.

To: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)

The purpose of this petition is to let ACOG know that women desire greater access to VBAC, or vaginal birth after Cesarean. The recent NIH VBAC consensus conference has stated “Given the available evidence, TOL (trial of labor) is a reasonable option for many pregnant women with a prior low transverse uterine incision.  When both TOL and ERCD are medically equivalent options, a shared decision making process should be adopted and, whenever possible, the woman’s preference should be honored.

We are concerned about the barriers that women face in accessing clinicians and facilities that are able and willing to offer TOL. Given the level of evidence for the requirement for “immediately available” surgical and anesthesia personnel in current guidelines, we recommend that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists reassess this requirement relative to other obstetrical complications of comparable risk, risk stratification, and in light of limited physician and nursing resources.” We, the undersigned feel that VBAC is unreasonably and unfairly restricted because of the current ACOG recommendation that a surgeon and anesthesiologist be ‘immediately available’ during a TOLAC (trail of labor after Cesarean). Far too many women are undergoing unwanted and probably unnecessary Cesarean surgery because of this.

We would like to note that the likelihood of the baby dying during a TOLAC is the same as the likelihood of the baby dying during a nulliparous (first time moms) labor, however ACOG doesn’t recommend a surgeon and anesthesiologist be ‘immediately available’ for first time moms going through labor. We find this discriminatory, inconsistent and unfair. We plead for ACOG to change the recommendations so that ALL low risk VBAC mothers across America can have the chance to give birth to their babies in a normal, safe, healthy way (VBAC).

Sincerely,

CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION

This was just sent to my inbox (although I just took the liberty of correcting some spelling mistakes), and there were only 481 signatures when I got on it.  This will need THOUSANDS to be effective.   Let’s go!

A central figure behind the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) claims disputing the link between vaccines and autism and other neurological disorders has disappeared after officials discovered massive fraud involving the theft of millions in taxpayer dollars. Danish police are investigating Dr. Poul Thorsen, who has vanished along with almost $2 million that he had supposedly spent on research.

Thorsen was a leading member of a Danish research group that wrote several key studies supporting CDC’s claims that the MMR vaccine and mercury-laden vaccines were safe for children. Thorsen’s 2003 Danish study reported a 20-fold increase in autism in Denmark after that country banned mercury based preservatives in its vaccines. His study concluded that mercury could therefore not be the culprit behind the autism epidemic.

His study has long been criticized as fraudulent since it failed to disclose that the increase was an artifact of new mandates requiring, for the first time, that autism cases be reported on the national registry. This new law and the opening of a clinic dedicated to autism treatment in Copenhagen accounted for the sudden rise in reported cases rather than, as Thorsen seemed to suggest, the removal of mercury from vaccines. Despite this obvious chicanery, CDC has long touted the study as the principal proof that mercury-laced vaccines are safe for infants and young children. Mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, has relied on this study as the basis for its public assurances that it is safe to inject young children with mercury — a potent neurotoxin — at concentrations hundreds of times over the U.S. safety limits.

Thorsen, who was a psychiatrist and not a research scientist or toxicologist, parlayed that study into a long-term relationship with CDC. He built a research empire called the North Atlantic Epidemiology Alliances (NANEA) that advertised its close association with the CDC autism team, a relationship that had the agency paying Thorsen and his research staff millions of dollars to churn out research papers, many of them assuring the public on the issue of vaccine safety.

The discovery of Thorsen’s fraud came as the result of an investigation by Aarhus University and CDC which discovered that Thorsen had falsified documents and, in violation of university rules, was accepting salaries from both the Danish university and Emory University in Atlanta — near CDC headquarters — where he led research efforts to defend the role of vaccines in causing autism and other brain disorders. Thorsen’s center has received $14.6 million from CDC since 2002.

Thorsen’s partner Kreesten Madsen recently came under fierce criticism after damning e-mails surfaced showing Madsen in cahoots with CDC officials intent on fraudulently cherry picking facts to prove vaccine safety.

Leading independent scientists have accused CDC of concealing the clear link between the dramatic increases in mercury-laced child vaccinations beginning in 1989 and the epidemic of autism, neurological disorders and other illnesses affecting every generation of American children since. Questions about Thorsens’s scientific integrity may finally force CDC to rethink the vaccine protocols since most of the other key pro vaccine studies cited by CDC rely on the findings of Thorsen’s research group. These include oft referenced research articles published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the New England Journal of Medicine and others. The validity of all these studies is now in question.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/central-figure-in-cdc-vac_b_494303.html

Citizens for Health

www.citizens.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 8, 2010

CONTACT: Glenn Turner, 917-817-3396 or Shayna Samuels, 718-541-4785

McCain / Dorgan “Dietary Supplement Safety Act” Would Cripple Nutritional Products Industry While Doing Nothing to Protect Consumers from Dangerous Performance Enhancing Drugs, Says Nonprofit Consumer Group

Interviews Available with Jim Turner, Chair of Citizens for Health
& Leading Expert on Consumer Access to Dietary Supplements

On Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) of 2010. This bill would amend the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), undermining, if not entirely eliminating, consumer access to valuable dietary supplements, according to Jim Turner, Citizens for Health Board Chair.

The bill would reverse supplements’ 100 year long status as foods, create onerous requirements for supplements not applied to other foods or even to prescription drugs, and wipe out significant numbers of small supplement manufacturers and sellers.

“This bill, typical of Washington’s destroy the economy, wipe out consumer rights, and undermine individual health mentality, thoughtlessly reinforces the costly, unresponsive, dangerous policies that have created an unsafe and depleted food supply and a bankrupt health care system” says Turner.

James S. Turner is a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Swankin & Turner, formed in 1973, and Board Chair of Citizens for Health, the consumer voice of the natural health community. In 1994, he worked with the newly created Citizens for Health to send over a half million communications to Congress in support of DSHEA, which then passed.

Citizens for Health Analysis of the McCain / Dorgan Bill:

Introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) on February 4th as the “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010,” S. 3002 is designed, says the bill preamble, to “more effectively regulate dietary supplements that may pose safety risks unknown to consumers.”

Following a surge of anti-doping initiatives and announcements dating back to a September 29, 2009 — when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs heard the testimony of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency USADA), and to a December 2nd, 2009 USADA press conference — the proposed bill would dramatically: cripple the nutritional products industry, harm consumers and do absolutely nothing to stem the tide of laboratory-concocted, performance-enhancing drug hybrids masquerading as dietary supplements.

Problems in the bill serious enough to make the bill a completely un-fixable and untenable piece of legislation include:

1. Creating completely outrageous facility registration requirements for all brands, products and ingredients, similar to the unworkable European Food Supplements Directive (EFSD) despite the fact that US food facilities are already required to be registered;
2. Effectively removing the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status of most major herbs and botanical ingredients, thereby deeming most (if not all) herbals as “adulterated” unless they are included on the FDA’s “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” list;
3. Mandating the creation and maintenance of voluminous safety dossiers on every dietary supplement and ingredient;
4. Requiring that “all adverse events” (not just serious adverse events) relating to supplements be reported, including non-serious, trivial and unsubstantiated reports which will make the effective adverse reporting system supported by Citizen For Health unworkable; and
5. Codifying arbitrary and capricious cease and desist and recall authority based merely on the FDA’s “reasonable probability” that an item is adulterated or misbranded — this action can be taken regardless of whether the manufacturer is properly challenging the order;

This bills’ proposed establishment of an approved list of ingredients (much like EFSD’s approved lists of supplement ingredients and ingredient forms) is something to which the U.S. government (specifically the U.S. Codex delegation) has been adamantly opposed — so why would that same U.S. government endeavor to create “lists” within America’s own borders that it sees fit to battle against internationally?

The proposed provision that would require adverse events to be reported would bog the AER system down with hundreds if not thousands of trivial and product-unrelated reports; this would serve to bury reports noting potential areas of concern (signal events) in a garbage heap of useless information.

We ask all members of the U.S. Senate to NOT sponsor this misdirected, supplement-scapegoating bill that does nothing to fix the performance-enhancement spiking problems endemic within professional sports today. We also ask members of congress to demand that FDA use its existing ample authority to force off the market all products falsely branded as herbal products or dietary supplements particularly those that contain dangerous ingredients that the law already makes illegal.

# # #

THE NEW YORK TIMES
January 6, 2010
Popular Drugs May Help Only Severe Depression
By BENEDICT CAREY

Some widely prescribed drugs for depression provide relief in extreme cases but are no more effective than placebo pills for most patients, according to a new analysis released Tuesday.

The findings could help settle a longstanding debate about antidepressants. While the study does not imply that the drugs are worthless for anyone with moderate to serious depression - many such people do seem to benefit - it does provide one likely explanation for the sharp disagreement among experts about the drugs’ overall effectiveness.

Taken together, previous studies have painted a confusing picture. On one hand, industry-supported trials have generally found that the drugs sharply reduce symptoms. On the other, many studies that were not initially published, or were buried, showed no significant benefits compared with placebos.

The new report, appearing in The Journal of the American Medical Association, reviews data from previous trials on two types of drugs and finds that their effectiveness varies according to the severity of the depression being treated.

Previous analyses had found a similar pattern. But the new study is the first to analyze responses from hundreds of people being treated for more moderate symptoms, as are most people who seek care.

“I think the study could dampen enthusiasm for antidepressant medications a bit, and that may be a good thing,” said Dr. Erick H. Turner, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University. “People’s expectations for the drugs won’t be so high, and doctors won’t be surprised if they’re not curing every patient they see with medications.”

But Dr. Turner added, “The findings shouldn’t dampen expectations so much that people refuse to even try medication.”

A team of researchers, including psychologists who favor talk therapy and doctors who consult widely with drug makers, performed the new analysis, using government grants. The group evaluated six large drug trials, including 728 men and women, about half of them with severe depression and half with more moderate symptoms.

Three of the trials were of Paxil, from GlaxoSmithKline, a so-called S.S.R.I., and the other three were of imipramine, an older generic drug from the class known as tricyclics. The team, led by Jay C. Fournier and Robert J. DeRubeis of the University of Pennsylvania, found that compared with placebos, the drugs caused a much steeper reduction in symptoms of severe depression (cases scoring 25 or higher on a standard scale of severity, putting them in the top quarter of the sample). Patients with scores of less than 25 got little or no added benefit from the medications.

“We were able to give an overall estimate of effectiveness for the first time in this more moderate severity range, from 14 to 20 on the scale, in which there’s no question that doctors would likely consider prescribing medication,” Dr. DeRubeis said.

His co-authors included Steven D. Hollon and Dr. Richard C. Shelton of Vanderbilt University, Sona Dimidjian of the University of Colorado, Dr. Jan Fawcett of the University of New Mexico and Dr. Jay D. Amsterdam of Penn.

The effects of other popular S.S.R.I.’s like Lexapro and Prozac are not likely to be much different than those of Paxil, experts said.

Dr. DeRubeis and others said antidepressants’ inability to outperform placebos against moderate symptoms stemmed partly from the sustained attention that patients in drug trials received from top doctors - which itself can help relieve symptoms, drug or no drug. For some people, too, the drugs’ side effects may cancel any benefit.

“The message for patients with mild to moderate depression,” Dr. DeRubeis said, “is, ‘Look, medications are always an option, but there’s little evidence that they add to other efforts to shake the depression - whether it’s exercise, seeing the doctor, reading about the disorder or going for psychotherapy.’ “

Since moving to Israel this past summer, I’ve been a little out of the loop as to the US financial crisis; almost nothing is being reported here, and most Israelis are still under the impression that gold grows on trees in the US.

Back in August, NPR reported that one in nine Americans receive government assistance to buy food, which amounts to 34 million people receiving food stamps.  Check out the NPR blog site for more information.   Read more…

Thanks to my old neighbor and current Facebook friend Joseph Dassaro for bringing this information to my attention.

On Facebook’s Circle of Moms, there was recently a heated discussion on co-sleeping. I am still amazed by the number of people who think that sleeping with your children increases the risk of SIDS. They hear it once from someone they trust, convince themselves that their personal experience is the only experience, and their mind is shut unless something drastic happens to open it.

We are co-sleepers.  There is no room in our bedroom for a family bed, but we have baby Gabriel sleep with us (the girls are right across the hall - and one of them winds up in our bed every so often, and I end up squashed between too many bodies).

So I’ve decided to put together a co-sleeping section in the Conscious Woman resources. As I work on this, I enjoyed coming across this very funny sketch with Dylan Moran. The last couple of minutes is an hysterical commentary on children in our beds.  Enjoy!

U.S. health authorities have made pregnant women one of the highest priority groups for getting the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, but is it actually safe for pregnant women and their babies? Well, the truth is that miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine are starting to pour in from all over the nation. Vaccines and pregnancy simply do not mix safely. In fact, the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established.  Read more…

MEDIA RELEASE
Natural Solutions Foundation
The Voice of Global Health Freedom™
http://www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org/

For Immediate Release:

“STOP THE SHOT” Litigation Filed
Health Freedom Advocates and NY Health Care Workers
Seek Protection from DC Federal Court in
Legal Effort to Void FDA Swine Flu Vaccine Approval

Washington DC – October 9, 2009:

Despite the FDA’s intention to begin delivery this week of the n ovel “Swine Flu” 2009-H1N1-A live virus nasal mist vaccine to 90,000 government-approved locations nationwide, six New Yorkers and several NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) filed for an Emergency Injunction in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent the distribution of what they believe are illegal, unnecessary and dangerous vaccines.

The case of Null, Laibow et al. v FDA et al. [Docket No. 1:09-cv-01924]challenges the legality of the September 15th licensing of four vaccines prior to any safety testing for what the government calls a “novel flu virus with pandemic potential.” The complaint alleges that the government failed to follow its own rules and applicable legislation in rushing the vaccine approvals in the absence of any of the requisite minimum scientifically sound and appropriate testing for both safety and effectiveness as required by law since 1964.

Link to Complaint:http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=3619
Link to Brief: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=3624
Link to Action eAlert: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3635
Link to “I’m Not a Pharma Serf” Action Item: http://bit.ly/4FxB4r

The New Yorkers are all health care workers who are therefore subject to that State’s new legal mandate (promulgated August 13, 2009) requiring that nearly all of the State’s half million health care workers receive all Federally recommended flu vaccines or lose their jobs. This requirement puts the health care workers in significant jeopardy since these newly approved vaccines have never been tested for either safety or efficacy and may carry major risks.

The lawsuit, announced at a demonstration by the health care workers last week at the State Capitol in Albany on September 29, 2009, is expected to be just one of the suits filed challenging various government “emergency” actions for a flu that has proven (during the just concluded Southern Hemisphere flu season) to be neither pandemic nor virulent despite dire predictions to the contrary and despite a Health Emergency declared by the CDC on April 25, 2009, 11 days after the first alleged death from Swine Flu on April 14, 2009 and a Level 6 Pandemic declaration by the World Health Organization followed on June 11, 2009 (which was only possible since W.H.O. downgraded the definition of a “Level 6 Pandemic”).

The Plaintiffs include health care professionals such as Dr. Gary Null, PhD, a well-known New York nutritionist, Rima E. Laibow, MD, a New York licensed physician who is Medical Director and a Trustee of the Natural Solutions Foundation, Dr. Tedd Koren DC, head of Foundation for Health Choice and four other health care workers covered by the mandate, including a Registered Nurse who has had prior adverse reactions to flu vaccines; a pregnant Nurse’s Aide, a health care student who has been told that she cannot see the patients whom she must see in order to finish her training, and a woman who works in the billing department of a hospital. All have been denied exemptions and told they will lose their positions under the new mandate if they are not vaccinated with all flu vaccines, including the new “Swine Flu” vaccine.

The Complaint alleges that the FDA erred in determining that safety testing was not needed because the 2009-H1N1-A vaccines are a mere “change of strain” not requiring safety testing. The Plaintiffs claim there is no significant scientific agreement that supports the government’s actions. The experts presented by the Plaintiffs include Sarah Schon MD, a Board Certified Immunologist and Paul G. King PhD, a noted analytical chemist with decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Plaintiffs further allege that the Live Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV) nasal mist vaccine could trigger the very pandemic the government claims people should fear, calling the decision to allow a LAIV vaccine using a WHO and CDC declared “novel pandemic virus” an “arbitrary and capricious decision without any basis in the scientific record.”

Citing HHS Secretary Sebelius’s September 15th testimony before a Congressional committee when she announced the vaccine licensing, that even the FDA’s own scientists would not “sign-off” on the use of the most toxic vaccine ingredients (known as “oil in water adjuvants”) the Plaintiffs allege the government has a plan to nonetheless approve these substances, never before approved for drug use in the United States, under an “Emergency Use Authorization” (EUA) permitted by the 2005 Project Bioshield Act. On July 13, 2009, according to a press release on the www.HHS.gov web site, the government purchased nearly a half billion dollar’s worth ($485 Million USD) of the deadly adjuvnt squalene, an oil in water adjuvant, blamed by many nongovernmental physicians as a “Gulf War Syndrome” causative agent in more than 25% of the soldiers who were subjected to an experimental anthrax vaccine, Vaccine A, containing squalene. Vaccine A was later authorized under an EUA propmpting a Court ruling that makes its use legal only in voluntary situations. The government’s stockpile is enough squalene to “stretch” the 167 million doses of “Swine Flu” vaccine the government has purchased to cover the entire American population since the purpose of an adjuvant is to increase immune response to the injected material. The FDA web site indicates that the adjuvanted vaccines will be provided under an EUA which will allow the agency to skirt “Good Manufacturing Practices” and any issue of whether squalene is too dangerous to be permitted.

Secretary Sebelius further testified before Congress that a single company will be contracted by the government to deliver the vaccines to 90,000 locations around the country. The FDA site further indicates that the squalene will be mixed with the approved vaccines at those sites before administering the shots, without regard to normal pharmaceutical manufacturing requirements. The Plaintiffs claim that this will result in dangerously adulterated vaccines that may cause much more injury than the infamous 1976 “Swine Flu” vaccine program that killed hundreds and maimed thousands before it was stopped just ten weeks after it began, with nearly fifty million Americans having received that deadly shot or the dangerous squalene-adjuvanted Vaccine A which caused so many cataclysmic illnesses and deaths in Gulf War I military personnel. These shots, too, were both unnecessary and untested.

In their submitted Complaint, Brief and Certifications the Plaintiffs remind the Court that as early as 1905, even before the Federal authorities had the legal power to license vaccines, the Supreme Court stated, in Jacobson v Massachusetts (197 U.S. 11),

“We are not to be understood as holding … that the judiciary would not be competent to interfere and protect the health and life of the individual … ‘All laws,’ this court has said, ’should receive a sensible construction. General terms should be so limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression or absurd consequence.’ …”

The lead attorney for the Plaintiffs, Leslie Fourton JD, of New York, is working with the respected Washington regulatory law firm of Swankin and Turner and a team of legal experts from around the country, including Larry Becraft JD, Alabama, Alan G. Phillips JD, North Carolina, and Ralph Fucetola JD, New Jersey.

Counsel Fourton stated,

“Without taking into account serious objections raised by many scientists, FDA approved four “Swine Flu” 2009-H1N1-A Vaccines without enough concern about any definitive safety testing and the quality thereof. The Secretary of Health and Human Services testified before Congress, announcing the approvals and a program to widely distribute the Vaccines which were purchased by the federal government. The administrative record appears to be defective in that the record as posted on the Agency web site does not include, for all the approved Vaccines, a drug package insert or label with an accurate list of ingredients. We don’t know what was approved or how dangerous it may be. The Plaintiffs seek immediate relief.”

The nongovernmental organizations who are supporting the New Yorkers threatened by the “Swine Flu” vaccine approvals, by joining in the legal action, are the National Solutions Foundation (www.HealthFreedomUSA.org), whose President is Maj Gen Bert Stubblebine (US Army Ret.), Dr. Tedd Koren’s Foundation for Health Choice (www.FoundationforHealthChoice.com) and the Gary Null organization (www.GaryNull.com).

For further information contact:

Ralph Fucetola JD – 973-300-4594

Natural Solutions Foundation Counsel and Trustee

ralph.fucetola@usa.net

PRESS RELEASE
WHO WILL LISTEN TO OUR PLIGHT AND PAIN?

My name is Bhagwati Jerambhai Parmar. I live in Paliyad village in Botad taluka of Bhavnagar district. I am 13 years old. I live with my mother. My father was suffering from kidney stone and he went through medical treatment but did not survive. I left going to school from year 2004 and I have passed 3 rd grade. After leaving my school, I used to go with my father to dump the garbage in the village panchayat. I go to clean and sweep when someone calls me. I go to do cleaning work in Darbargadh for 2 to 3 times in a month. I go alone to get leftover food. I also drag dead dogs and for that I get 5 Rupees. There is lot of money problems in my house so I go with other girls to pick plastics and I get 5 to 15 rupees which I use to buy milk for our tea. After the death of my father, my brother has joined in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in Rakhial area. He works as man-hole worker. I am sad about it because I know many people die in the man-hole. Despite that to fill up our stomachs, to do begar we have sent our brother.

My name is Gautamkumar Ratilal Valmiki. I am 13 years old. I am living in Harij town of Patan District. Right now I am studying in Standard 8th. We the valmiki community students face discrimination during the mid-day meals in our school. The other community students also abuse us on the basis of our caste. These students belong to Prajapati and Thakore community. I also do the cleaning work of my school class room everyday. I also go in the Ambika nagar area twice or thrice in a week in place of my father who is employed by Harij Municipal Corporation to do sanitation work. My father is drawing Rs. 1500/- as monthly Salary. Every day I also go to Ambikanagar area to collect leftover food. If we drag a dead dog or cat we are given Rs. 8/- or 10.3.

My name is Gautamkumar Ratilal Valmiki. I am 13 years old. I am living in Harij town of Patan District. Right now I am studying in Standard 8th. We the valmiki community students face discrimination during the mid-day meals in our school. The other community students also abuse us on the basis of our caste. These students belong to Prajapati and Thakore community. I also do the cleaning work of my school class room everyday. I also go in the Ambika nagar area twice or thrice in a week in place of my father who is employed by Harij Municipal Corporation to do sanitation work. My father is drawing Rs. 1500/- as monthly Salary. Every day I also go to Ambikanagar area to collect leftover food. If we drag a dead dog or cat we are given Rs. 8/- or 10.

My name is Shailesh Batukbhai Vegad. I live alone in Vallabhipur city in Vallabhipur taluka of Bhavnagar district. I am 14 years old. My mother was suffering from cancer and father committed suicide by hanging. I failed again and again so I left my school from 7th standard in year 2008. I go for private cleaning work 8 to 10 times in a month. I get 50-60 rupees/day. I do not go to beg leftover food, but I eat anywhere in Valmiki vas. I drag dead dogs and cats and for that I get 50 to 60 Rupees. I have no parents so I feel lonely. I have no support from anybody.

My name is Umesh Bharatbhai Vegad. I live with my Parents in Vallabhipur city in Vallabhipur taluka of Bhavnagar district. I am 13 years old. I study in 8th standard. We are seated on the floor in school and other caste children sit on the bench. Teachers and children from Patel and Darbar caste keep discrimination with us. I clean my class twice in a month. I clean toilet and urinal every Saturday.

These are glimpses in to the lives of children from the manual scavenging community. Manual scavenging is one of the most obnoxious practices existing since the origin of the caste system in India. It is a forced caste based occupation where more than 1.3 million people in India are affected by this practice.

Despite constitution and legal mechanisms, manual scavenging and related caste based occupations exists in crudest forms in the rural and well as urban areas across India.

Navsarjan is a state level human rights organization existing for past 20 years in Gujarat. Navsarjan took up this issue in the state of Gujarat from one village called Ranpur in Ahmedabad district and made it a state level campaign filing petition in the High Court of Gujarat as well as in the Supreme Court of India.

Since year 2003, Navsarjan has been working on the issues of discrimination against Dalit children both in the government schools and in private spheres. While involved in this program, we have found that the Dalit children and mainly the scavenger community children who are called as Valmikis are forced to do menial work like cleaning class rooms, toilets and urinals in the school where they go to study. They are also discriminated by the school teachers and children from other castes which results in to high drop out of these children from the schools at a very young age. They also are involved in doing other caste based occupations like dragging or pulling of dead dogs, cats and pigs in return of 5 to 10 rupees. They also do collection of scrap, waste paper and rag picking. They go with their parents to get left over food in the village. They beat drums, etc.

Navsarjan’s organizes protest day against the manual scavenging practice in Gujarat every year and this year on 17th August 2009 1000 children both girls and boys from the valmiki community will be speaking about their plight and pain of being born in the lowest caste. These children would be coming from 43 talukas i.e. blocks covering 13 Districts of Gujarat. A document highlighting the voices of these children would be also released.

The venue of the event would be Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad. The program would be held from 12 noon to 4 pm. At 12 pm the rally would start from Vadaj Bus stand and then would proceed to the Gandhi Ashram. The voices of the children would be heard after 1 pm.

To learn more about Navsarjan and its Executive Director, Manjula Pradeep, see our Conscious Woman of the Month article about this remarkable woman and her crucial work on behalf of human rights in India. 

If the specter of obesity and diabetes wasn’t enough to turn you off high- fructose corn syrup (HFCS), try this: New research suggests that the sweetener could be tainted with mercury, putting millions of children at risk for developmental problems.

In 2004, Renee Dufault, an environmental health researcher at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), stumbled upon an obscure Environmental Protection Agency report on chemical plants’ mercury emissions. Some chemical companies, she learned, make lye by pumping salt through large vats of mercury. Since lye is a key ingredient in making HFCS (it’s used to separate corn starch from the kernel), Dufault wondered if mercury might be getting into the ubiquitous sweetener that makes up 1 out of every 10 calories Americans eat.  Click here to read more….

One of the producers of this documentary asked for me to help spread the word - sounds like a fabulous piece:

Turly Pictures is making a full-feature documentary film on Millennium Development Goal 5- to reduce maternal mortality, specifically in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Guatemala, and the United States. Many people in the US will find it shocking to know that the US is ranked 41 in safe motherhood. Our goal with this film is to raise awareness of the issue of preventable maternal deaths. We are currently seeking out stories that would best tell this story of maternal mortality in the US, and welcome any personal stories and insight you or someone you know may have that relates to this issue. Please send all emails to info@turlyinc.com.

Laura Shanley just sent me a pretty good article about unassisted childbirth in Israel.  Well written, balanced, and fair portrayal of the reasons some women choose to birth alone.  As for the doctor’s comments, it looks like the same old garbage is going on all over the world (why am I not surprised).

And what is this about midwives not permitted to attend to VBACs there?  What kind of nonsense is that?  Don’t they realize that the risk of being killed by a crazy Israeli driver on the way to the hospital is FAR greater than the risk of uterine rupture? (no offense intended, my mother is a crazy Israeli driver).

Check out the article at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1095684.html.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 22, 2009

A group of parents, pediatricians, health activists, and human rights attorneys today announced the launch of a nationwide campaign to change the way America thinks about male circumcision, arguing that painful and medically unnecessary surgery to remove healthy genital tissue from non-consenting baby boys violates medical ethics and human rights.

Intact America - which unveiled its informational and advocacy website (www.intactamerica.org) at a Manhattan press conference - was joined by Soraya Miré, the Somali filmmaker and activist who has become a global leader in the fight against forced female circumcision.

“The same universal human right to an intact body that I have fought for on behalf of women and girls must apply to boys as well, especially those who are too young to make an informed decision about the integrity of their bodies,” said Miré. “We need to ask ourselves: How can it be wrong to surgically alter the genitals of a baby girl without her consent but okay to surgically alter the genitals of a baby boy?”

The Intact America campaign kickoff comes at a time when the Centers for Disease Control is reviewing studies of adult African male circumcision in the context of the HIV epidemic in Africa, with the goal of developing a recommendation to be released here in the United States.

“Studies of adult men in Africa cannot be used to justify subjecting non-consenting American baby boys to irreversible surgery that will remove healthy tissue from their genitals for the rest of their lives,” said Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America. “Let young men make decisions about their own bodies, when they reach an age to make that decision for themselves.”

“Before subjecting their newborn sons to painful, risky and irreversible genital surgery that is medically unnecessary, parents should ask themselves if they would do the same to their daughters,” said Chapin.

Chapin was also joined at the press conference by two physicians - Dr. Robert Van Howe, a pediatrician, from Marquette, MI, and his wife Dr. Michelle Storms, a family practice physician and Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

“Physicians have an obligation to look after the well-being of their patients. The child is the patient, not the parent. Neonatal circumcision is definitely not in the patients’ best interest,” said Dr. Van Howe, noting that the surgery yields more harm than benefit for the baby boy who cannot give informed consent. “It is a violation of the child’s most basic human rights, and a violation of a physician’s oath to do no harm.”

“As an adult, I can say yes or no based on informed consent,” said Dr. Van Howe. “An infant obviously cannot do that.”

Dr. Storms, who is also Research Director in the Family Medicine Residency Program at the MSU medical college, said she stopped performing circumcisions in 1988 when she could not ignore the fact that there was no medical justification for the surgery.

“I realized I was cutting off healthy tissue from a baby that couldn’t say no,” said Dr. Storms. “I wasn’t treating or diagnosing disease. It violated my sense of ethics and everything I was taught in medical school about my obligation to heal the sick and do no harm.”

“Clearly, circumcision is harming these infants,” Storms said. “Physicians should just say no to neonatal circumcision.”

Dean Pisani, a Texas businessman, made a $1 million commitment to assist Intact America’s campaign after he and his wife, who did not know the gender of their children before their births, were pressured by his wife’s obstetrician and doctors in Illinois hospitals to perform a circumcision if they had a son.

“My wife and I did our research and could find no rational or persuasive argument to subject a baby to surgery that had no medical benefit,” said Pisani. “We came under pressure from doctors prior to the birth of both of our children, but none could substantiate the medical necessity to perform the surgery. The pressure from doctors was both inappropriate and indefensible.”

Male circumcision is the most commonly performed surgery on infants in the nation, and one that is medically unnecessary.

The United States is the only industrialized nation (other than South Korea, which was influenced by the United States in the 1950s) that continues to circumcise a majority of baby boys for non-religious reasons, and it also has a higher rate of HIV infection than other industrialized nations.

If circumcision were an effective means to prevent potential HIV infection, logic would suggest that the U.S.’s high rate of male circumcision would yield a lower rate of HIV infection, but it does not. The only reliable means of preventing sexual transmission of HIV remains abstinence or use of a condom, not circumcision.

Approximately 75% of the men in the world are not circumcised and remain intact throughout their lives. Even in America, which continues to lead the industrialized world in male circumcision of infant boys, the rate of circumcision has dropped from 85 percent to less than 60 percent as parents learn facts that for years have gone unexamined. Intact America is working to promote awareness about the normal, intact body and the value of the male foreskin as a normal, sensitive and functional part of the body. The foreskin serves to protect the penis from injury and contamination, and also has a role in sexual pleasure, due to its specialized nerve endings and its natural lubricating function.

Doctors began routinely circumcising infant boys in the last decades of the 19th century, when it was viewed as a means to discourage masturbation, and the evils that were believed to be associated with masturbation. Claims over the years that circumcision prevents various diseases - including, in recent decades, sexually transmitted diseases - have been found to be mistaken or exaggerated.

The most common method of circumcision involves the infant being strapped to a board. In some cases, an analgesic is applied to the baby’s pubic area to somewhat lessen the pain, but many circumcisions are performed with no pain control at all. A metal instrument is used to forcibly separate the foreskin from the head of the penis, and the foreskin is then cut off. The surgery takes up to 15 minutes. The open wound it creates is exposed to urine and feces for several days as it heals. In addition to pain, the baby is subjected to the potential complications that accompany any surgery including, as occurs more than 100 times annually, complications leading to death.

Lesser but more common complications include abnormal bleeding, infection of the penis, scarring resulting from the removal of too much skin or, in rare cases, removal or subsequent loss of the entire penis. A case in point occurred recently in Georgia, where a family won a $2.3 million judgment after a botched circumcision accidentally removed a third of their son’s healthy penis.

No professional medical authority recommends routine circumcision as a medical procedure, including the American Association of Pediatrics, which has said there are no benefits associated with male circumcision to justify recommending it.

Sixteen states refuse to cover non-medically-necessary circumcisions under Medicaid. Nationally, costs related to circumcision exceed $1 billion annually.

http://www.intactamerica.org/node/23

I’m not much into research studies.  Not one of them has ever convinced me of anything, but I’ll get into the reasons for that another time.  Here’s a hilarious one, though.  Hilarious because it demonstrates how far we’ve gone into needing evidence-based studies to verify for us what should be common sense:

Hospital’s Oxytocin Protocol Change Sharply Reduces Emergency C-Section Deliveries

By Betsy Bates
Elsevier Global Medical News
Conferences in Depth
June 22, 2009

CHICAGO (EGMN) – The modification of the oxytocin infusion protocol at a large university-affiliated community hospital nearly halved the number of emergency cesarean deliveries over a 3-year period, reported Dr. Gary Ventolini.

As oxytocin utilization declined from 93.3% to 78.9%, emergency cesarean deliveries decreased from 10.9% to 5.7%, Dr. Ventolini said at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Other birth outcomes improved as well at an 848-bed community hospital that serves as the primary teaching hospital of the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

These included significant declines in emergency vacuum and forceps deliveries and a sharp reduction in neonatal ICU team mobilization for signs of fetal distress (P = .0001 in year 3 compared with year 1).

“More and more data are showing us that we are using too much oxytocin too often,” Dr. Ventolini, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the university, said in an interview.
“Our pivotal change was to modify the oxytocin infusion from 2 by 2 units every 20 minutes to 1 by 1 unit every 30 minutes. And we see the results,” he said.

Outcomes of 14,184 births from 2005, 2006, and 2007 were retrospectively analyzed to determine any impact of the change in an oxytocin protocol implemented in 2005. Patient characteristics were similar in all three calendar years.

The most profound changes were in emergency deliveries, including caesarean deliveries, vacuum deliveries (which dropped from 9.1% to 8.5%), and forceps deliveries (which fell from 4% to 2.3%).

The overall cesarean section rate remained unchanged, as did the rates of cord prolapse, preeclampsia, and abruption.

Dr. Ventolini cited a recent article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that suggests guidelines for oxytocin use, including avoidance of dose increases at intervals shorter than 30 minutes in most situations (Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 2009;200:35.e1-.e6).

Dr. Ventolini and his associates reported no financial conflicts of interest relevant to the study.

Here is the actual link to the story: http://egmn.idsk.com/stories_global/35_ds_7863805.jsp

A friend just sent me a link to this video clip.  This lady is so confident, smart, self-assured - and cute! What an inspiration (you can filter out the gun part if you wish).

That’s my goal in life, to be an awesome little old lady:

PS If the authors of this story wanted to encourage me to value my used car - they succeeded!

Although I had a home birth and have never taken my new son to a doctor’s office, I somehow managed to be targeted for the “Strong Moms” (TM) campaign.  The initial mailings were generic take-care-of-yourself promotions, with cute images of babies and healthy-looking women.  I honestly could not figure out what they wanted from me.

Yesterday, all became clear when I received two complementary cases of Similac.

Being a healthy, breastfeeding mother, I have never had reason to look at formula ingredients.  Only one of my children ever needed formula (5 bottles total); after catching an upper respiratory infection that landed me totally dried up in the emergency room, my husband fed her something (I know not what), and she became so constipated he had to give our then-5-month old an enema.  After getting 3 bags of IV into my system, I pumped every 15 minutes for a full day until my supply was back, and treated sick people with hostility for the following year.

At any rate, I decided to look at the ingredients of this gift for me - one of the “Strong Moms” (TM)  targeted in this campaign - and my jaw literally dropped to the floor.  I’m sure the lactation people out there know all this, but here’s a reiteration of a few of the main ingredients of one the cans of Similac that was mistakenly mailed to me, with a little of my own online research thrown in:

43.2% Corn Syrup Solids.  Corn syrup, which consists mostly of dextrose, is a sweet, thick liquid made by treating cornstarch with acids or enzymes. It may be dried and used as corn syrup solids in coffee whiteners and other dry products. Corn syrup contains no nutritional value other than calories, promotes tooth decay, and is used mainly in foods with little intrinsic nutritional value.  http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

14.6% Soy Protein Isolate.  A very large percentage of soy - over 90% - is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages contamination by pesticides of any of the foods we eat.  Soy protein isolate (SPI) is not something you can make in your own kitchen. Production takes place in industrial factories where soybeans are first mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution.  Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into the final product. As a result, soy-based formula also has over 1000% more aluminum than conventional milk based formulas. Finally, the resulting curds are spray-dried at high temperatures to produce a high-protein powder. A final hardship to the original soybean is high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion processing of soy protein isolate to produce textured vegetable protein.  Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying, and a toxin called “lysinoalanine” is formed during alkaline processing.  Numerous artificial flavorings, particularly MSG, are added to soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein products to mask their strong “beany” taste.  http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/soy.htm

10.3% Sugar (Sucrose). Added sugar in infant formula, specifically sucrose, is linked with several health risks, including damage to tooth enamel, a preference for more sweet foods and the inclination to overeat. Research shows that babies and children prefer sweeter foods and tend to eat more of it than foods that are less sweet. Babies who overeat and have rapid weight gain in the first year are more likely to become obese during childhood.  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113347.php

The materials they sent with the formula include an attractive little booklet with 7 pages on how to breastfeed, then 6  pages on how to pump and store breastmilk, then 16 pages on the basics of formula and supplementing for the busy mom, then 14 pages of advertisements on the varieties of Similac formulas.

Abbott Laboratories has gone to a whole new level with their newest campaign. Perhaps we need a short addendum to Cate Colburn-Smith’s program, which highlights the strategies and effectiveness of the marketing of these “cans of crap”.

I like to think of myself as one of the “Strong Moms” (TM).  However, it took very little strength to pick up these cans and throw them into the nearest trashcan.

Brava to Jessica Clements for organizing the following interdisciplinary symposium.  I hope to see many new names and/or topics presented there - it’s time for a little freshness and variety in our birthing gatherings!

CALL FOR PAPERS
Submission Deadline: July 13, 2009

PERINATAL
A Symposium on Birth Practices and Reproductive Rights

Wednesday 7th October 2009 (tentative) at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

Forty years ago, the feminist movement advocated for reproductive rights.  Over the years, childbirth was dropped from the agenda. Why? What has this meant for women? How are women organizing for change?

We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, artists, mothers and others who work or research in this area. Comparative and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. Feminist inquiries are explicitly sought, although all submissions will be considered. We encourage a variety of types of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines, workshops, creative submissions, performances, storytelling, visual arts, and other alternative formats.

This symposium is interdisciplinary.  Possible topics include:

• Cultural myths and expectations around birth (written, verbal, or visual
  culture)
• Rethinking maternal-fetal conflict
• The psychological impact of contemporary birth practices
• Developments in midwifery, homebirth, and unassisted birth
• The symbolic significance of birth practices as socialization
• The evolution of contemporary birth practices and taboos
• Maternal resistance to birth practices
• The feminist movement and birth

If you are interested in being a presenter, please send a 250-500 word abstract and a 50 word bio by July 13, 2009 to: Jessica Clements (jmooreq@gmu.edu). Late abstracts will be considered and accepted if possible.

Please send the abstract as an attachment, not in the body of an email, in either PDF or Word DOC format. Include Title, Abstract (250-500 words), Name, Institutional Affiliation, Address, Phone, Email Address, Brief Bio (50 words).

I just received word that there is a lawyer in Maryland offering free legal help to women in that state facing VBAC bans.  I haven’t had a chance to follow up on this, but here is the email I received.  I don’t quite understand why the lawyer’s name and email is not included, and it’s not quite clear whether inquiries should be sent to the email in this announcement (I’m not on that list, it was forwarded to my email).

Please comment if you have anything to add (and/or clarify!):

“I am excited to announce that we now have a lawyer right here in Maryland who is offering free legal help to women facing VBAC hospital VBAC bans. Her availability to do this work is between now and the end of the summer so it is important that we find a woman as soon as possible who is currently pregnant and facing one of the VBAC bans in our state. Maryland currently has bans in place in Cecil County, Garrett County, and in Easton. Please email any Maryland lists you are on and ask people to help spread the word so that we don’t miss the opportunity to possibly be the first state in the country to take this kind of legal action. Feel free to include my email address ICANofBaltimore@ comcast.net on all postings. Thanks.

ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN: Support Women to Breastfeed by mobilizing public opinion through one million signatures, demanding support for women to breastfeed.

The campaign has been initiated by International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and has more than 200 public interest groups working around the world to improve infant feeding practices and save lives of infants and young children. 

http://www.onemillioncampaign.org/en/Details_Petitions.aspx

Conscious Woman is getting hotter! I see that some companies are “on fire”! Let’s get Conscious Woman there and on the general public’s map!  Bookmark it - you can vote every day!

I see that one of the advisors to the  sponsors of this competition is with the What To Expect Foundation.  Getting Conscious Woman into the top 20 of this competition would be a  fabulous way to alert that organization to our programming!

Six years ago today, at this very minute, I was on an operating table having what I referred to for many years as an “unnecessarean.”  My daughter Amelia, who is joyously celebrating her sixth birthday today, was extracted from my body in a most degrading manner after a series of unnecessary medical interventions.  More than 20 people “handled” my body during that pregnancy, labor and delivery, and I left the hospital a physical and emotional wreck.

There is no more “sting” in my recollection of the cesarean.  A little grief at what was lost (for both of us) is all that remains.  Today, I am the proud mother of three amazing children.  I have had two VBACs (vaginal births after cesarean), the most recent one at home just three weeks ago.

More pervasive in my memory now is the respectful and supportive way that I was treated by the two people present at my recent homebirth; that is what will remain ingrained in my memory, in the cells of my body, as what childbirth was for me.  The rest is history.

Happy Birthday my dear Amelia.  I can now rejoice in the celebration of your birth and I thank you for being the catalyst for all I am today.

A bit of humor, courtesy of my husband, Jacob:

Father:
“Son, what do you think about being circumcised?”

Son:

Father:
“OK, we won’t do it to you.”

Son:

Thank you for your wonderful and supportive congratulatory messages!

I have received so many fabulous congratulatory notes and emails on the announcement of Gabriel’s birth. I had debated whether or not to make a public announcement of our decision to leave our son intact, and am so glad I did.   The response has been fabulous.  I’d like to share some excerpts of just a few of the many wonderful emails I received following that announcement:

“As the mother of two intact Jewish boys who also blazed a trail in their family, I applaud you for that…”

“I let my son be circumcised 40 years ago but wouldn’t do that today. My daughter and husband listened to the new evidence and their boys are intact.”

“…As a Jewish mother who also did not circumcise her son, I am thrilled for you and your precious angel, that he, indeed, your whole family, remains intact, un-traumatized and whole.”

“A big thank you for letting us know that Gabriel will remain intact, it really helps others who are in a similar situation to know they are not alone. I am supporting a Jewish couple birthing in a few weeks time who are very conflicted on this and at the moment they are planning to circumcise due to the pressure from family, even though they are not entirely happy with their decision. I will let them know about you!”

“And I have to tell you how happy it makes me to hear about yet another Jewish non-circumcising family. What a blessing for your little one.”

“I am so happy about your decision to keep your boy intact.  You guys have guts (and lots of smarts too, obviously).”

“I remember the conversation with my dad when I decided our son would remain “intact.”  It was wonderful and supportive.  I do recall one funny thing he said, “Just don’t tell your mother.”  Ha! As though she wouldn’t notice…”

“..kudos on the natural and honoring birth Raquel… and the decision to let the little guy remain as God designed him.  We know that can bring up a lot of issues with family.”

Actually, my family has been supportive of our decision to leave Gabriel intact.  My mother and stepfather participated in our Intact Boy series; Gillian Longley’s two lectures were enough to make them seriously think about circumcision for the first time.  By the end of Gillian’s first lecture, The Foreskin, their attitude of “circumcision is really no big deal” turned to “Harvey wants his [foreskin] back!” (which came through in the Q&A box, making a few of us chuckle).

Circumcision in Israel - Impressions

After attending The Intact Boy series, my mom has become more vocal herself about this issue! She was in Israel at the time of Gabriel’s birth, and after proudly announcing that she is a grandmother (again), people would ask if she was going back home early for the bris.  Although my mother spared my 95 year-old great aunt the news, she was quite open with others.

Her cousin’s response: “Lots of people here aren’t doing that anymore.”

A few months ago I met a delightful Israeli woman at the local public library, who told me that she and most of her friends back home in Israel did not circumcise their sons.  When I mentioned this to my mother, she informed me that for a few years now, she has received birth announcements from Israeli friends who - instead of announcing the day and time of the bris for all to come witness and “celebrate” - made a notation on the birth announcement that the bris will be “among the family members only”.

Did they actually perform the bris?  Who knows?  But the privacy announcement is encouraging.  The Israeli departure from the public exhibition of the Brit Milah is an important first step in the abandonment of this outdated and barbaric tradition.

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to our family,

GABRIEL ASHER
“strength” “happiness”

Born into his father’s loving hands on December 22, 2008 at 10:17 p.m.

Weight: 7 pounds
Length: 19 inches
Head Circ: 14 inches
Most Importantly: nursing like a champ

* Raquel’s second VBAC and first homebirth *

Big sisters Amelia and Sofie are thrilled with their little brother, and mom is thriving as all (new) mothers should.

Gabriel Asher will be the first male child in our longstanding Jewish family tradition to remain intact.

A special thanks to Gloria Lemay for her phenomenal care during the labor, delivery and postpartum, and to our local backup midwife Kristine Lauria for her support and encouragement while Gloria was on her way to Colorado.

Happy (Belated) Holidays
and
Happy New Year!

Laureen and I are delighted to announce that we have inspired Gloria Lemay to start a blog! Check it out at http://www.glorialemay.com/blog. 

WHERE IS YOUR BLOG?

We are in the process of setting up a new discussion forum and blogging network in preparation for some blog carnivals. Let’s get all the health and environmental topics we care so much about higher and higher on the search engines through a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration!

Conscious Woman Online: Create Your Blog
The women who are giving birth nowadays are digital natives; they have grown up with the internet and the internet is their main source of information. Put your books aside for an hour, and join us in learning how to tap effectively into this population. Do you really want women to learn about childbirth from Christina Aguillera’s or Dr. Amy’s blogs? We believe that yours would be a far better resource! Let Conscious Woman help you get yours on the net! Learn from the Master of it all, Laureen Hudson.

ONLY TWO MORE SESSIONS REMAINING!

Friday, September 19 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific / 3:00 p.m. Eastern (hey, that’s tomorrow!). Click here to register for this session.

Monday, September 22, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Click here to register for this session.

Program Length: 1 hour

Cost: $35

Don’t miss out - space is limited to 48 attendees per session, to allow for maximum interaction with Laureen and with the other attendees. In order to maintain the quality of our highly interactive sessions, we use a teleconference format (you need a telephone); there is no VoIP through your speakers - we want you to participate!

Monday, August 11, is my younger daughter Sofie’s 4th birthday. Most of my education regarding childbirth and health in general took place while she was in utero, and her VBAC birth was the beginning of my true healing journey. Sofie marked the beginning of my consciousness and the wisdom I have gained (I named her for it). She is a beautiful, affectionate, and fiesty little redhead whose self-confidence and love for others knows no bounds. 

We’re doing plenty of celebrating around here.  We have had a stream of visitors coming in and out all summer, and Sofie’s birthday party took place last weekend with a children’s yoga class and waterplay. That was a bit wild, since Sofie invited more boys than girls to the party.  

At this point in their lives, my daughters know my work only as something that keeps their mommy from giving them all of her attention; since there is little I can do about my time at the screen, I feel compelled to give something in honor of their special days.  As I did on my older daughter Amelia’s birthday, I’m offering discounts for Sofie’s as well.  Enter discount code SOFIE (case sensitive) into the Gift Voucher/Discount area at checkout for $5 off any of our live programs.  This discount begins right now and ends on Tuesday, August 12. This is IN ADDITION TO any early bird discounts that are currently being offered.  

A special thanks to our current Conscious Woman presenters (they get a percentage of our income) for participating in this special day.

I hope you enjoy celebrating with us!

Well, it has been a 3 month, rather than a 9(+) month gestation, and the new registration system is here! Nearly all of our Fall 2008 programs are now available, with 4 programs offering significant EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS (hint: check out the current course listings and find them!).

NEW SYSTEM HIGHLIGHTS
We are still working through all the bells and whistles of this system, but the live program registration is up and running beautifully. Here are a few highlights of some of the new system’s features:

1. A shopping cart. What a novelty! You will be able to register for more than one course at a time now.
2. Flexible payment options. You can now pay via credit card or through your Paypal account.
3. Account credit. If you need to reschedule a class for any reason, your account credit will be stored in the system and can be claimed by you at any time for another course. More control for you, and less administrative time for us!
4. Discount coupons. More discount coupon options that are not limited to a single course.
5. Other products for sale. This new system accomodates the Conscious Woman recorded archives (coming soon!), Conscious Woman e-books (coming Fall/Winter 2008) and other products (although I’m not sure what they will be yet).
6. Subscriptions/Memberships. We won’t be implementing these just yet, but it’s in the new business plan!
7. Security. Top security for all credit card transactions has always been a top priority; this system meets the highest standards available on the web.
8. And more!

A SPECIAL THANKS
A very special thank you to Melissa Collins, who has worked selflessly in the programming of this new system and in the upgrades to the Conscious Woman website.  Melissa, your gifts are many and are most appreciated!

A slide from Sarah Buckley’s lecture on Epidurals: Impact on Mother and Baby (part of the Gentle Birth: The Science and the Wisdom series):

At the end of her What Would Mammals Do? presentation, the internationally renowned lactation consultant Diane Wiessinger stated: “For the past 30 years, I’ve been looking at the wrong end of the mother!”.   Here’s what Diane had to say after participating in Sarah Buckley’s class on epidurals:  “I’m an IBCLC.  But I’m more and more in awe of the effect the birth has on breastfeeding, bonding, and the future well-being of both mothers and babies.  Sarah Buckley is presenting a knock-your-socks-off 6-part series on the effect of birth interventions.  I’m oh-so-glad I’m seeing them all.  The one on epidurals gives us the science behind our suspicions.”

We would make so much more progress on both the birth and lactation fronts if we worked together.  What will it take?

I just received another email regarding the Daily Mail article that quoted Michel Odent as  having said that men should not be at the birth of their child.  Being too impatient to take the time to figure it out, I emailed Dr. Odent directly.  He responded within an hour:”About the pages in Daily Mail, first I was not the author of the article. It was written by a journalist after an interview on the phone. Also it is probable that people just read the sensational title. In fact I have never said that men  â€˜should not be at the birth of their child’.  Warmest regards, Michel”

I hope that clarifies things for those of you who have been questioning that piece (which -as you may notice - I am not linking to).  Beware the media, especially when it comes to childbirth!

One of my favorite people to visit with is my dear friend, midwife and author Nancy Wainer.  She has a fabulous house in Needham, Massachusetts that is filled with birth artwork, sculptures, a framed scrabble game with birth words, an uncircumcized penis costume, and so much more .  The last time I stayed with her, Nancy was called to a birth and I did something that I had desired to do since I first set foot in that place.  I took all of the comics and quotes off her refrigerator and cabinets, ran to the copy machine, and xeroxed nearly everything (note that I put everything back in its place, and all with fresh tape).  

One of my favorite quotes - taped on the cabinet with the mugs, if I remember correctly - seemed fitting for an Earth Day blog entry.  I don’t know who the author is, but I found a link to where you can buy a poster of it online:  http://www.northernsun.com/n/s/4426.html:

“I pledge allegiance to the Earth
and all the Life which it supports.
One Planet
in our care,
irreplaceable,
with sustenance and respect for all.”

Happy Earth Day.  

I was just sent a long, but interesting YouTube video on the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs, vaccinations, and more.  Had I done it, I would have included my references (and added a little something about childbirth) - but this still worth watching.    Click here: YouTube - Why I Left Mainstream Medicine - From A Nurse

I would welcome emails and/or comments below on your thoughts, critiques and/or verification of the claims made on this video.   Note that Tedd Koren covers the dangers of vaccinations in detail in his Childhood Vaccination series (only one more run, in June/July), and Jim Turner of Conscious Activism (coming back next month!) is a tremendous source of information regarding artificial sweeteners.  Also, Sarah Buckley describes the impact of pitocin, epidurals and cesareans on mother and baby in her Gentle Birth: The Science and the Wisdom series, and Sharon Storton covers the postpartum effects of medical interventions in Mother-Friendly Mental Health Care - which is open to care providers of all disciplines as well as the general public.  Participants in these webinars have had quite an education these past few months!

The comments and follow-up to the Maddy Oden Conscious Woman of the Month article are still coming in.  Gloria Lemay just sent me a reference to an older case involving cytotec and failure to obtain informed consent - this one with a large verdict. Maddy has informed me that there is also a cytotec lawyers site - she is not sure how successful they are in gathering and winning cases, but some are won. Apparently most are settled out of court with gag clauses.

$2 million
Failure To Obtain Consent For Off-Label Use Of Cytotec
Case name withheld.
Plaintiff’s Counsel: Joseph J. Wadland and James L. Ackerman, Wadland & Ackerman, Boston and Andover
The plaintiffs were a 38-year-old woman and her husband who were expecting their first child. At about 41 weeks of gestation, the decision was made by her primary Ob/Gyn to induce her labor. A dose of 25 micrograms of Cytotec, a drug that the FDA has approved for the prevention of gastric ulcers, but not for the induction of labor or cervical ripening, reportedly was given vaginally. The care providers did not obtain the mother’s informed consent for the use of Cytotec that was being administered for an “off-label” indication in a high-risk situation. A series of complications arose, including the deceleration of the fetal heart rate and the baby was delivered via Caesarian section. The baby was lifeless and resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The mother also required a hysterectomy as a result of off-label use of Cytotec. When the claim settled on Aug. 7, 2001, it was the first reported settlement or verdict in Massachusetts involving the drug Cytotec.  And a few more maternity related lawsuits among the largest settlements in MA in 2001: http://www.masslaw.com/reprints/breakstone011402.htm 
 

Although the facts of this case are horrific, it is encouraging to see this as nearly all verdicts against OB/GYNs are for failing to do a cesarean or failing to do one soon enough.  These kinds of verdicts play a major role the rise in the cesarean rate - for every woman who sues for those reasons, hundreds of others are cut unnecessarily, causing unnecessary trauma and increased risk to the mothers and their babies.  Defensive medicine at its worst. 

Furthermore - and worthy of similar attention and concern - new obstetricians are no longer taught the skills necessary to handle out-of-the-ordinary vaginal births.  If your birth doesn’t go like clockwork, you’re off to the OR.  If your baby isn’t in a good position, you’re off to the OR.  Breech? Forget it - directly into the OR. Vaginal breech birth is no longer part of the curriculum. I could go on and on — and I know there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare.

More widespread publicity of cases such as the following is essential - the public needs to know about the dangers of these drugs, among others and of the risks inherent in many obstetric practices.    And that babies don’t all come out “on time” and in the same presentation.

I am delighted with the response we have received to the article I wrote on Maddy Oden, our Conscious Woman of the Month.  Commentaries and references to this article have been appearing on numerous blogs, including Laureen Hudson’s ElementalMom, Heather Crawford’s Birthing Spirit (Australia), I Am A Monkey’s Mamma, and in online discussion forums - including ICAN’s main (international) list.  I hope that everyone on the Conscious Woman listserve (soon to exceed 600!) takes the time to read about Maddy and the Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation.  Maddy - with the assistance of our own James S. Turner  - will be going back to the FDA this June in an effort to put an end to the off-label use of Cytotec for labor inductions.  Perhaps some of the other dangerous labor-inducing drugs will follow Cytotec into oblivion in years to come. 

The women of ICAN understand this all too well.   Many of the ICAN women - myself included - began with an unecessary labor induction and ended up in the OR - what I recall as an unnecessarian preceded by a little bit of hell.  We can count our blessings that we did not meet Tatia’s fate - but blessings are still few after a birth experience like that, especially when the experience is followed by some real education and raised consciousness about what could have been.  For a terrific dose of quality childbirth education,  check out Sarah Buckley’s Gentle Birth: The Science and the Wisdom (Part II:  The Impact of Interventions, focuses on induction of birth).  Gloria Lemay just completed her workshops on Induction of Birth, but they are still available as unedited recordings for those who sign up for the Advanced Doula Training series; also, keep an eye out for a repeat of this series and edited recorded archives this Fall. 

April is Cesarean Awareness Month - consider joining ICAN for $8 off any of Dr. Buckley’s lectures or $50 off her entire series (that more than pays for your membership fees!).  To get the member discount code, contact ICAN’s Education Director, Lisa Houchins at education@ican-online.org.   Also, check out ICAN’s gorgeous new website at www.ican-online.org - beautifully done by Melissa Collins and Laureen Hudson.