Pica: Chalk Craving in Pregnant Women

Posted on 30 June, 2013 by Judith Halek

~ pica2 pica-31 pica-1 ~

When a woman, pregnant or NOT desires or craves chalk, for taste or the sensation of crunching, there is an iron deficiency in the woman and she is anemic (more tired, need energy building foods). Once she gets the iron balanced in her system, she will NO LONGER have the craving for the chalk.

When one supplement’s their diet with iron pills, it is important to take the iron pills with something acidic, like orange juice, BECAUSE it helps to ENHANCE the absorption of iron in your body.

rolaids1 When one takes rolaids, it is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE to the absorption of the iron in the body. Rolaids is an ANTACID, (not acidic) and you NEED acid to absorb the iron in your body. So, you are just canceling out the iron supplement each time a rolaid is taken. It doesn’t matter if one takes one or ten…IT IS NOT GOOD! Research shows if a pregnant woman has to choose between chalk and rolaids, the more favorable choice is the chalk. It doesn’t have the antacid element to it. STOP rolaids immediately if your doctor has suggested this as a solution away from the chalk.

Eating iron rich foods is imperative. If one needs to find foods that will satisfy a need to CRUNCH try something like ALMONDS or other kinds of seeds or nuts rich in iron. Leafy green veggies are high in iron and so are dried apricots which are ALSO high in Vitamin C, (an acidic source).

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Floradix is a liquid formula that will help to enhance the iron absorbtion in one’s body when eating iron rich foods.

Floradix Formula Iron (250mL) Brand: Flora

http://www.amazon.com/Floradix-Formula-Iron-250mLBrand/dp/B0002DUFKU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1254578184&sr=8-3

Uses: Energy, Anemia etc. The absorption rate of Floradix (liquid iron gluconate) is twenty-five per cent compared solid iron tablets that have an absorption rate of two to ten per cent. Floradix provides maximum absorption by using the most highly absorbable form of iron, iron gluconate. Floradix also contains B vitamins and vitamin C to enhance absorption, herbal extracts to increase digestion, and fruit juices to ensure proper stomach acidity. A twenty milligram dose of Floradix satisfies the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of fifteen milligrams of iron for women of child-bearing age.

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Homeopathic remedies to help get your minerals balanced in one’s body are:

1. Ferrous Phosphate: 6X or 12X strength, take 1-4 times per day, 4 pellets. This very useful cell salt is known as the “oxygen carrier”. It has the ability to carry oxygen to all the cells of the body for use in conversion to energy.

2, Bio-chemic Tissue Salts: take 5/6 of these COMBINATION 3-4X’s per day.

The 12 Tissue/Cell Salt Combination As the name implies, this is a combination of all 12 salts in a single tablet. This combination can be used daily in much the same way as you would take a vitamin or supplement. To treat specific conditions, however, select one of the single salts listed above. RECOMMENDED POTENCY – 6X is the most widely used potency. These are all the different MINERALS combined into the 12 Tissue/Cell Salts.Calcarea Fluoricum Calcarea Phosphoricum Calcarea Sulphuricum Ferrum Phosphoricum Kali Muriaticum Kali Phosphoricum Kali Sulphuricum Magnesia Phosphoricum Natrum Muriaticum Natrum Phosphoricum Natrum Sulphuricum Silicea (Silica)

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How Much Iron?
The recommendation increases to 27 mg for pregnant women.

http://www.healthcastle.com/iron.shtml
Iron Rich Foods containing Heme Iron (Iron found in animal protein):
Excellent Sources               Good Sources
Clams                                       Beef
Pork Liver                                Shrimp
Oysters                                     Sardines
Chicken Liver                           Turkey
Mussels
Beef Liver

Excellent and Good Sources of Iron Rich Foods containing Non-Heme Iron:

Enriched breakfast cereals
Canned beans
Cooked beans and lentils
Baked potato with skin
Pumpkin seeds
Enriched pasta
Blackstrap Molasses
Canned asparagus

Warning: Pregnant women should not eat liver because of its very high Vitamin A content. Large amounts of Vitamin A can be harmful to the baby.

The absorption of Non-heme iron can be improved when a source of heme iron is consumed in the same meal. In addition, the iron absorption-enhancing foods can also increase the absorption of non-heme iron. While some food items can enhance iron absorption, some can inhibit or interfere iron absorption. Avoid eating them with the iron-rich foods to maximize iron absorption.

Iron Absorption Enhancers (GOOD to eat)
Meat/fish/poultry
Fruits: Orange, Orange Juice, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapefruit etc
Vegetables: Broccoli, brussels sprouts, tomato, tomato juice, potato, green & red peppers
White wine

Iron Absorption Inhibitors (BAD to eat)
Red Wine, Coffee & Tea
Vegetables: Spinach, chard, beet greens, rhubarb and sweet potato
Whole grains and bran
Soy products

Is Spinach a good source of Iron? Written by Gloria Tsang, RD Published in May 2006 (HealthCastle.com)

Spinach and Iron has been a highly discussed topic in our free nutrition forum. Many readers know that spinach is a source of iron. However they are confused that spinach is said to contain an iron absorption inhibitor as mentioned in our Iron Rich Foods article.

Spinach – a source of Iron
Spinach is a source of non-heme iron, which is usually found in vegetable sources. Unlike heme iron found in animal products, non-heme iron is not as bioavailable to the body.

According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, one cup of cooked spinach provides ~3.5mg of iron whereas a cup of raw spinach only contains 1 mg of iron.

Spinach – also inhibits (stops) iron absorption.
Spinach also contains oxalic acid (sometimes referred as oxalate). Oxalic acid binds with iron, hence inhibiting its absorption.

Spinach is not the only food containing high levels of oxalic acid. Whole grains such as buckwheat and amaranth, other vegetables such as chard and rhubarb, as well as beans and nuts all contain significant levels of oxalic acid.

So Should you or Should you not eat Spinach?
You do not need to give it up if you are a spinach lover! Simply eat spinach with any foods containing iron absorption enhancers. Here are some examples:

Iron Absorption Enhancers (Good to eat)
Meat, fish, or poultry
Fruits: Orange, Orange Juice, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapefruit and other Vitamin-C rich fruits
Vegetables: Broccoli, brussels sprouts, tomato, tomato juice, potato, green & red peppers
White wine

Pelvic Bone Commentary

Posted on 30 June, 2013 by Judith Halek

~ pelvis3-150x150 pelvis_birth-150x150 pelvis4-150x150 ~

Pelvises I Have Known and Loved – by Gloria Lemay (Midwife)

(© 2003 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this article, you’ll enjoy Midwifery Today magazine! Subscribe now! [Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 50, Summer 1999 and is also available online in Spanish.])

What if there were no pelvis? What if it were as insignificant to how a child is born as how big the nose is on the mother’s face? After twenty years of watching birth, this is what I have come to. Pelvises open at three stretch points—the symphisis pubis and the two sacroiliac joints. These points are full of relaxin hormones—the pelvis literally begins falling apart at about thirty-four weeks of pregnancy. In addition to this mobile, loose, stretchy pelvis, nature has given human beings the added bonus of having a moldable, pliable, shrinkable baby head. Like a steamer tray for a cooking pot has folding plates that adjust it to any size pot, so do these four overlapping plates that form the infant’s skull adjust to fit the mother’s body.

Every woman who is alive today is the result of millions of years of natural selection. Today’s women are the end result of evolution. We are the ones with the bones that made it all the way here. With the exception of those born in the last thirty years, we almost all go back through our maternal lineage generation after generation having smooth, normal vaginal births. Prior to thirty years ago, major problems in large groups were always attributable to maternal malnutrition (starvation) or sepsis in hospitals.

Twenty years ago, physicians were known to tell women that the reason they had a cesarean was that the child’s head was just too big for the size of the pelvis. The trouble began when these same women would stay at home for their next child’s birth and give birth to a bigger baby through that same pelvis. This became very embarrassing, and it curtailed this reason being put forward for doing cesareans. What replaced this reason was the post-cesarean statement: “Well, it’s a good thing we did the cesarean because the cord was twice around the baby’s neck.” This is what I’ve heard a lot of in the past ten years. Doctors must come up with a very good reason for every operation because the family will have such a dreadful time with the new baby and mother when they get home that, without a convincing reason, the fathers would be on the warpath. Just imagine if the doctor said honestly, “Well, Joe, this was one of those times when we jumped the gun—there was actually not a thing wrong with either your baby or your wife. I’m sorry she’ll have a six week recovery to go through for nothing.” We do know that at least 15 percent of cesareans are unnecessary but the parents are never told. There is a conspiracy among hospital staff to keep this information from families for obvious reasons.

In a similar vein, I find it interesting that in 1999, doctors now advocate discontinuing the use of the electronic fetal monitor. This is something natural birth advocates have campaigned hard for and have not been able to accomplish in the past twenty years. The natural-types were concerned about possible harm to the baby from the Doppler ultrasound radiation as well as discomfort for the mother from the two tight belts around her belly. Now in l999, the doctors have joined the campaign to rid maternity wards of these expensive pieces of technology. Why, you ask? Because it has just dawned on the doctors that the very strip of paper recording fetal heart tones that they thought proved how careful and conscientious they were, and which they thought was their protection, has actually been their worst enemy in a court of law. A good lawyer can take any piece of “evidence” and find an expert to interpret it to his own ends. After a baby dies or is damaged, the hindsight people come in and go over these strips, and the doctors are left with huge legal settlements to make. What the literature indicates now is that when a nurse with a stethoscope listens to the “real” heartbeat through a fetoscope (not the bounced back and recorded beat shown on a monitor read-out) the cesarean rate goes down by 50 percent with no adverse effects on fetal mortality rates.

pelvis5 Of course, I am in favour of the abolition of electronic fetal monitoring but it would be far more uplifting if this was being done for some sort of health improvement and not just more ways to cover butt in court.

Now let’s get back to pelvises I have known and loved. When I was a keen beginner midwife, I took many workshops in which I measured pelvises of my classmates. Bi-spinous diameters, sacral promontories, narrow arches—all very important and serious. Gynecoid, android, anthropoid and the dreaded platypelloid all had to be measured, assessed and agonized over. I worried that babies would get “hung up” on spikes and bone spurs that could, according to the folklore, appear out of nowhere. Then one day I heard the head of obstetrics at our local hospital say, “The best pelvimeter is the baby’s head.” In other words, a head passing through the pelvis would tell you more about the size of it than all the calipers and X-rays in the world. He did not advocate taking pelvic measurements at all. Of course, doing pelvimetry in early pregnancy before the hormones have started relaxing the pelvis is ridiculous.

pelvis11 One of the midwife “tricks” that we were taught was to ask the mother’s shoe size. If the mother wore size five or more shoes, the theory went that her pelvis would be ample. Well, 98 percent of women take over size five shoes so this was a good theory that gave me confidence in women’s bodies for a number of years. Then I had a client who came to me at eight months pregnant seeking a home waterbirth. She had, up till that time, been under the care of a hospital nurse-midwifery practise. She was Greek and loved doing gymnastics. Her eighteen-year-old body glowed with good health, and I felt lucky to have her in my practise until I asked the shoe size question. She took size two shoes. She had to buy her shoes in Chinatown to get them small enough—oh dear. I thought briefly of refreshing my rusting pelvimetry skills, but then I reconsidered. I would not lay this small pelvis trip on her. I would be vigilant at her birth and act if the birth seemed obstructed in an unusual way, but I would not make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. She gave birth to a seven-pound girl and only pushed about twelve times. She gave birth in a water tub sitting on the lap of her young lover and the scene reminded me of “Blue Lagoon” with Brooke Shields—it was so sexy. So that pelvis ended the shoe size theory forever.

Another pelvis that came my way a few years ago stands out in my mind. This young woman had had a cesarean for her first childbirth experience. She had been induced, and it sounded like the usual cascade of interventions. When she was being stitched up after the surgery her husband said to her, “Never mind, Carol, next baby you can have vaginally.” The surgeon made the comment back to him, “Not unless she has a two pound baby.” When I met her she was having mild, early birth sensations. Her doula had called me to consult on her birth. She really had a strangely shaped body. She was only about five feet, one inch tall, and most of that was legs. Her pregnant belly looked huge because it just went forward—she had very little space between the crest of her hip and her rib cage. Luckily her own mother was present in the house when I first arrived there. I took her into the kitchen and asked her about her own birth experiences. She had had her first baby vaginally. With her second, there had been a malpresentation and she had undergone a cesarean. Since the grandmother had the same body-type as her daughter, I was heartened by the fact that at least she had had one baby vaginally. Again, this woman dilated in the water tub. It was a planned hospital birth, so at advanced dilation they moved to the hospital. She was pushing when she got there and proceeded to birth a seven-pound girl. She used a squatting bar and was thrilled with her completely spontaneous birth experience. I asked her to write to the surgeon who had made the remark that she couldn’t birth a baby over two pounds and let him know that this unscientific, unkind remark had caused her much unneeded worry.

Another group of pelvises that inspire me are those of the pygmy women of Africa. I have an article in my files by an anthropologist who reports that these women have a height of four feet, on average. The average weight of their infants is eight pounds! In relative terms, this is like a woman five feet six giving birth to a fourteen-pound baby. The custom in their villages is that the woman stays alone in her hut for birth until her membranes rupture. At that time, she strolls through the village and finds her midwives. The midwives and the woman hold hands and sing as they walk down to the river. At the edge of the river is a flat, well-worn rock on which all the babies are born. The two midwives squat at the mother’s side while she pushes her baby out. One midwife scoops up river water to splash on the newborn to stimulate the first breath. After the placenta is birthed the other midwife finds a narrow place in the cord and chews it to separate the infant. Then, the three walk back to join the people. This article has been a teaching and inspiration for me.

pelvis21

That’s the bottom line on pelvises—they don’t exist in real midwifery. Any baby can slide through any pelvis with a powerful uterus pistoning down on him/her.

Gloria Lemay is a private birth attendant in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Maternity Mortality In USA

Posted on 30 June, 2013 by Judith Halek

Maternal Mortality in the USA

A Fact Sheet

• The World Health Organization reported in 2007 that 40 other countries have lower maternal death rates than the United States.

• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that there has been no improvement in the maternal death rate in the United States since 1982.

• The CDC estimated in 1998 that the US maternal death rate is actually 1.3 to three times that reported in vital statistics records because of underreporting of such deaths. (1)

• The CDC reported in 1995 that the “magnitude of the pregnancy-related mortality problem is grossly understated.” (2)

• The rate of maternal death directly related to pregnancy or birth appears to be rising in the United States. In 1982, the rate was approximately 7.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. By 2004, that rate had risen to 13.1 deaths per 100,000 births. By 2005, the rate was 15.1 deaths.

• The CDC estimates that more than half of the reported maternal deaths in the United States could have been prevented by early diagnosis and treatment. (1)

• Autopsies should be performed on all women of childbearing age who die if there is to be complete ascertainment of maternal deaths.

• Numerous studies have found that in 25 to 40 percent of cases in which an autopsy is done, it reveals an undiagnosed cause of death.

• In the 1960s, autopsies were performed on almost half of deaths.

• The United States now does autopsies on fewer than 5 percent of hospital deaths.

• Reporting of maternal deaths in the United States is done via an honor system. There are no statutes providing for penalties for misreporting or failing to report maternal deaths.

• In the United States, the risk of maternal death among black women is about 4 times higher than among white women. For 2005, the rate was 36.5 deaths per 100,000 live births.

• Most countries with lower maternal death rates than the United States use a different definition of “maternal death”, which, unlike the United States’ definition, includes those deaths directly related to pregnancy or birth which take place during the period between six weeks postpartum and one year after the end of pregnancy.

• Complete and correct ascertainment of all maternal deaths is key to preventing maternal deaths.

• The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), which has functioned since 1952, is the system believed to have achieved the most complete ascertainment of maternal deaths while guaranteeing utmost confidentiality. See www.cemach.org.uk

• The maternal mortality rate for cesarean section is four times higher than for vaginal birth and is still twice as high when it is a routine repeat cesarean section without any emergency. (3,4)

• There is currently no federal legislation mandating maternal mortality review at a state level.

• Fewer than half of the states conduct state-wide maternal mortality review.

• Hospitals do not release reports of maternal deaths to the public; hospital employees are required to keep such information to themselves.

• The Healthy People 2010 Goal is no more than 3.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. This is a goal that other nations have achieved.

Notes

1. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 4, 1998, Vol. 47, No. 34.

2. Atrash HK, Alexander S, Berg CJ. Maternal mortality in developed countries: Not just a concern of the past. Obstet Gynecol 1995;86:700-5.

3. Petitti D et al. In hospital maternal mortality in the United States. Obstet Gynecol, Vol 59, pp. 6-11, 1982.

4. Petitti D. Maternal mortality and morbidity in cesarean section. Clin Obstet Gynecol,Vol. 28, pp. 763-768, 1985.

5. The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom, www.cemach.org.uk

Prepared by Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM, Coordinator for the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project, 149 Apple Orchard Lane, Summertown, TN 38483, www.rememberthemothers.net, www.inamay.com

Conscious Parenting

Posted on 14 June, 2013 by Judith Halek

~ “The children desire freedom! And every particle of their being from their Source says, ‘You are free. You are so free, that every thought you offer, the entire Universe jumps to respond to it.’ And so, to take that kind of knowledge and try to confine it in any way, defies the Laws of the Universe. You must allow your children to be free, because the entire Universe is set up to accommodate that. And anything you do to the contrary will only bring you regret. You cannot contain those that cannot be contained. It defies Law.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Atlanta, GA on Sunday, September 19th, 1999 #400

~ “The little ones still remember how to use the power of their imagination. They are still engaged in the utilization of their imagination — that is one of the reasons that keeps them so exhilarated.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Spokane, WA on Wednesday, July 7th, 1999 # 394.

~ “Babies Are Thinking and Attracting Before They Are Speaking… Even though you are only months old in your physical body, you are a very old and wise creator focused in that baby’s body. And you came with powerful intentions to experience contrast and to launch clear rockets of desire into your Vibrational Reality for the purpose of expansion. People often assume that because a child is not yet offering words, the child could not be the creator of its own experience, but it is our promise to you that no one else is creating your experience. Children emanate Vibrations which are the reason for what they attract – even from their time of birth.” – Excerpted from the book, The Vortex, Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships # 333.

~ “Parents don’t want their children to make the wrong decisions, so they don’t allow them to make the decision. And then the child becomes dependent, and then the parent resents that, and it gets off into a blameful thing early on. If you are encouraging children to do all that they can do — and not squelching the natural eagerness that is within them, so that they can shine and thrive and show you and themselves how good they are at adapting to physical experience — then everyone wins.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Dallas, TX on Saturday, March 13th, 1999 # 393.

~ “If we had a child, or anyone, and we caught them doing something inappropriate, we would not amplify it with our words. We would identify what it is we do not want, and then out of it would come the rocket of desire of what we do want, and then we would just visualize, visualize, visualize, until we find peace within our vision. When you make someone and their action the heart of a vision that you’ve spent time on — your relationship improves, your experience is better, and they receive the benefit of the experience. But if you catch them, and see them, and worry about it, and put mechanisms in place to prevent it, now you have not only amplified it, you have now made a commitment that is hooking you both into that, until usually it gets big enough that you break apart, and then you attract others to fulfill that role.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Chicago, IL on Sunday, April 25th, 1999 #588.

~ “The reason the grandchildren will benefit by the launched rockets that you’ve set forth; is because they’re born with no resistance to the rockets of desires that you’ve launched forth… You’ve seen those little ones on computers? They have no problem with that. They were born with computers in their life; they’re born cable-ready. They’re already up to speed with what you’ve launched into the vibrational future. And that’s one of the reasons that it’s nice when the old ones croak and the new ones come in, because it sort of dilutes the resistance factor that’s going on on this planet.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Tarrytown, NY on Saturday, May 14th, 2005 #504.

~ “Relative to our children or any children with whom we would interact, our one dominant intention would be to give them a conscious understanding of how powerful and important and valuable and perfect they are. Every word that would come out of our mouths would be a word that would be offered with the desire to help this individual know that they are powerful. It would be a word of empowerment. We would set the Tone for upliftment and understand that everything will gravitate to that Tone if we would maintain it consistently.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Chicago, IL on Saturday, July 19th, 1997 #469.

~ “Child of mine, I will never do for you that which I know you can do for yourself. I will never rob you of an opportunity to show yourself your ability and talent. I will see you at all times as the capable, effective, powerful creator that you’ve come forth to be. And I will stand back as your most avid cheerleading section. But I will not do for you that which you have intended to do for yourself. Anything you need from me, ask. I’m always here to compliment or assist. I am here to encourage your growth, not to justify my experience through you.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Seattle, WA on Sunday, July 4th, 1999 #453.

~ “Nothing is more debilitating than to care about something you can’t do anything about. And you can’t do anything about your adult children. You can want better for them, and maybe even begin to provide something for them, but in the long run, you cannot do anything about someone else’s vibration other than hold them in the best light you can, mentally, and then project that to them. And sometimes, distance makes that much more possible than being up close to them.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Ashland, OR on Saturday, July 19th, 2003 #437.

~ “Children coming forth today have a greater capacity to deal with the greater variety of information that is coming forward than you did. They deliberately are coming forth into this environment where there is more to contemplate. This generation gap that you are talking about, it has ever been thus. Each new generation, every new individual, that comes forth, is coming with you having prepared a different platform for them to proceed from. There is this thing that gets in the way of that that says, ‘I’m the parent. I got here first. I know more than you do.’ From the children’s perspective, and from the purity of their Nonphysical Perspective, what they are saying is, ‘You’re the parent. You got here first. You prepared a platform that I am leaping off from — and my leap will be beyond anything that you have ever known.'” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in San Rafael, CA on Saturday, February 27th, 1999 #395.

~ “The child is thinking, and receiving vibrational thought from you on the day that he enters your environment. That is the reason that beliefs are transmitted so easily from parent to child, from parent to child, from parent to child. The child is vibrationally receiving your fears, your beliefs, even without your spoken word… If you want to do that which is of greatest value for your child, give thought only to that which you want, and your child will receive only those wanted thoughts.” Abraham, excerpted from “The Law of Attraction, The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham” #385.

~ “The most important thing that you can teach your children is that wWell-being abounds. And that Well-being is naturally flowing to them. And that if they will relax and reach for thoughts that feel good, and do their best to appreciate, then they will be less likely to keep the Well-being away, and more likely to allow it to flow into their experience. Teach them the Art of allowing.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Milwaukee, WI on Wednesday, July 5th, 2000 #363.

~ “Parents can’t choose the mates of their children or the behavior of their children. You actually can’t choose anything for your children without disempowering them.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Syracuse, NY on Thursday, October 17th, 1996 #347.

~ “When a child has a dream and a parent says, “It’s not financially feasible; you can’t make a living at that; don’t do it,” we say to the child, run away from home… You must follow your dream. You will never be joyful if you don’t. Your dream may change, but you’ve got to stay after your dreams. You have to.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Asheville, NC on Sunday, May 1st, 2005 #330.”Most people don’t think that new-born children could be the Creator of their own reality because they are not even talking yet. But the Universe is not responding to your language, anyway. The Universe is responding to your vibration — and your vibration is about the way you feel.” – Excerpted from the workshop in Seattle, WA on Saturday, June 20th, 1998. Jerry and Esther Hicks (Abraham).

~ “Your child is naturally joyful. Your child is naturally tuned in to Source Energy. And as he is diving through and digging through contrast, it is natural that there would be some things that might disconnect him. Just don’t let his disconnection then inflame your disconnection. Many parents have discovered that their children, for the most part, feel good when they do — and the ornerier you are, usually the ornerier your children are. They are a strong reflection of the way you are feeling much of the time.” – Excerpted from the workshop in San Antonio, TX on Saturday, January 26th, 2002. Jerry and Esther Hicks (Abraham).

~ “If you encourage your children to stay connected to Source Energy, they will remain clear-minded; they will remain optimistic; they will remain enthusiastic. They will remain balanced; they will remain flexible. They will remain in a state of grace. They will remain in a state of Well-Being. And they will make wonderful choices.” – Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Thursday, May 12th, 2005. Jerry and Esther Hicks (Abraham).

~ “The little ones still remember how to use the power of their imagination. They are still engaged in the utilization of their imagination — that is one of the reasons that keeps them so exhilarated.” – Excerpted from the workshop in Spokane, WA on Wednesday, July 7th, 1999. Jerry and Esther Hicks (Abraham).

~ “The most significant thing for a parent to contribute to anyone, is their own Connection and their own stability. An effective parent is a happy parent. An effective parent is a parent who laughs easily and often, and who doesn’t take things so seriously.” – Excerpted from the workshop in Albany, NY on Monday, October 1st, 2001. Jerry and Esther Hicks (Abraham).

~ “Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born.” – George Bernard Shaw

~ “The question is, ‘Well, what about the little ones? What about the (unhealthy) babies?’ And we say they’ve been exposed to a vibration, even in the womb, that caused them to disallow the Well-being that would have been there otherwise. But once they are born, no matter what their disability, if they could be encouraged to the thought that would allow it, then, even after the body is fully formed, it could be regenerated into something that is well.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Ashland, OR on Tuesday, May 16th, 2000).

~ “There are three reasons for breast-feeding: the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can’t get it.” – Irena Chalmers

~ “Parents often think that they are here to guide the little ones. When – in reality – the little ones come forth with clarity to guide you.” – Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Orlando, FL on Saturday, February 15th, 1997.

~ “A baby is something you carry inside you for nine months, in your arms for three years and in your heart till the day you die.” – Mary Mason

~ ”A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination, prepared to be herself and only herself.” – Maya Angelou

~ “Who you are and what you know when you are born is everything that you need to know to thrive. You are born with a sense of self and a sense of wanting self to feel good, and the mechanisms to bring it about.” Abraham, excerpted from the workshop in Kansas City, KS on Wednesday, September 17th, 2003.

Colony Collapse Disorder – The Tipping Point

Posted on 15 May, 2013 by Judith Halek

We have heard of ADD, (Attention Deficit Disorder) ADHD, (Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder) PIT, (Pitocin, an artificial oxytocin to get labor contractions started) ROM, (Rupture of Membranes, breaking of waters during labor), VBAC, (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) but have you heard of CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder? I hadn’t until I read the recent issue of Yoga + , (Spring 2009) Lorrain Dusky’s article on “The Future of the Bees”. Without the healthy cross-pollination of 25 million flowers per day…we can kiss many simple nutritional pleasures in our lives goodbye. Melons, apples, coffee, blueberries, cherries, cucumbers…shall I go on?

As I read the article, I began to see many correlations between the world of bees collapsing and the world of birth at a critical mass. And who is responsible for both? Of course, we humans.

Industrial beekeepers scratch their heads and wonder what the possible cause of CCD could be? Medical caregivers scratch their heads and wonder what the cause of the rise of inductions/epidurals/cesareans/infirtility could be?

In Rowan Jacobsen’s book, Fruitless Fall, he takes a look at how far the bees have been taken from their natural environment, where they ate a varied diet, and now attempt to thrive on the monocropped fields of industrial farming, where they struggle and die. Sound familiar? So what is this ‘industrialized agriculture disease?’ Chemically fertilized fields of single crops: no biodiversity, not local pollinators, no curbs on diseases than can spread across countries through the packing and shipping. Hmmmm…not only is the care in a disarray, the stress levels put on bees is outrageous: trucked around countries to do their pollination duties, viral infections on the rise mites, chemicals to kill the mites, exotic pathogens, antibiotics and on and on. Sound familiar? Diets of CORN SYRUP, for DECADES. As Jacobson states, “GIving them corn syrup is like giving us nothing but soda when we are sick.” As Dusky mentions in her article, “Migrant labor, bee style, One job to the next, no vacations and lousy food to boot.”

Queen bees are dying off in 6 months instead of a couple of years! The baby bees are weak and subject to all sorts of viruses. Forager bees are listless and exhausted, a perfect breeding ground for the mites. Bees die off in the fields. Not only is this happening in the United States, but Canada, Asia, South America and China. Sound familiar in the birth world?

Jacobson even suggest, “If the bees lived a life they evolved for, staying in one place, having a variety of flowers to visit, which would give them the different nutrients they needed, the corn syrup addition might be okay.” Dusky continues with, “But when a cheap diet of sucrose comes at the end of a long list of stressors, you get a tipping point and …CCD.”

So what is our ‘tipping point’ in the birth world? The fact that in 3 decades cesarean sections have gone from under 7% nationally to 35+% today. Faster, easier, more convenient and financially profitable procedures. Why waste the time on letting a woman’s body go into labor naturally when the drugs and pharmacuticals exist today to expediate the process. Step away from nature, at what cost? The World Health Organization (WHO) states that no region in the world is justified in having a cesarean rate greater than 10-15%.

“Inductions and epidurals?’ Another ‘tipping point’ in the field of birth. All creating more opportunities for us to distance ourselves from nature and our own natural chemicals and allow the ‘machines’ to determine, when, how long and how much time.

I remember seeing a birth film by, David Sotnik, “Fate of the Earth, Fate of Birth,” (1997) where midwife Candace McCracken stated, “I’m worried that natural childbirth is becoming an endangered species.” Birth and cultural anthropologist, Robbie Davis Floyd draws a line between women who choose to ‘drop down into biology’ and those who do not choose to ‘drop down into biology’, thus creating two completely different cultures. One that tunes in and trusts the nature of their bodies and the other that sees and experiences their bodies to be a ‘vehicle’ and the baby to be the ‘end result’. A culture of a mechanistic, detached society that does not choose to be in their bodies by even breastfeeding. Where do you draw the line?

There is hope for the bees though, with a Buddhist, Bee Mystic, in Vermont, Kirk Webster. Instead of opting for chemicals to kill his crop of mites, he allowed the bees to die, took the survivors and bred them with each other and introduced hardy Russian bees into the hive. Patience was the key, because he had to wait a decade without income. (OH HORRORS for the industrial world of bees). The result was developing bees largely resistant to mites and letting the bees build their own V-shaped organic hives. No bad diets…only a variety of apple blossoms to feed off of. Staying local, no trucking around the country. The Bee’s needs were met.

As with any collapse or disorder, there is a silver lining. Colony Collapse Disorder opended the world’s eyes to the fact that agriculture depends on honeybees. Biodiversity is what we humans crave and need for survival.

So, what is our silver lining in the birth world? What are we going to do to bring back our connection to nature, our natural secretion of hormones, healthy vibrant food sources and trusting the process of labor and birth? I put it in your hands, your words, your actions.

If the bees can make it with the help of one small farmer at a time, remembering it takes patience, trust, good strong genes and getting back to nature…it might be a helpful formula for the birth community to regroup, realign and tip the point in another direction.

“HeartKeepers,” Birth Caregivers for the 21st Century

Posted on 25 January, 2013 by Judith Halek

HeartKeepers™

by Judith Elaine Halek and Sondra Wynne Fields

& the Foundation for Conscious Evolution)

One-heartedness occurs when every single life form lives in harmony and balance with every other life form. It’s our true nature…encoded in our DNA. – John Kimmey (Last Carrier of the Hopi Prophesy, founder of The Sustainable Native Agriculture Center in New Mexico and author of Light On The Return Path.)

Introduction

The archetypal Wise Old Woman can be seen as the ultimate Heart Keeper as she is the mid-wife of both birth and death. She issues the beating heart of each Being into the world and when the time of the beating heart has ceased, she assists each Being on its evolving journey.

Prior to ten years ago, there was a group of Balinese men called ‘tukang kandung’ which translates as a ‘womb worker’. They assisted hundreds of babies using massage techniques and traditional herbs. These men received information about the traditions of this work from their fathers on their deathbeds. So generation after generation, only the male lineage would receive this sacred and privileged information.

These men could be seen as co-creating with the wise old woman as heart keeper by tapping into this most ancient of feminine archetypes.

Delving into the mystery and intrigue of the heart, take the word earth, put the ‘h’ at the beginning of earth and the new word is heart. Earth and heart are one.

The first peoples of Turtle Island, also known as the United States, honor the beating heart at all ceremonies. For them the beating of the drum represents the heartbeat of mother earth; the heartbeat of the people. For many indigenous people at the center of mother earth and her drum resides the hearth, (earth and heart combined) the center of nourishment brought forth by grandfather fire.

The Virtual SynCon must have a hearth that warms the heart and sustains it’s bright burning fire.

Labor Support Doulas assist women and their partners during labor and birth as Heart Keepers. They ‘hold the space’ for semblance and symmetry. This is done when someone on the birth team, (doctors, midwives, nurses, anesthesiologists, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, friends) becomes out of resonance with the core couple (mom/partner and baby). It is up to the Doula to help bring back the energy through communication, compromise and breath. Doulas help the couple to look at their options and ultimately encourage them to make the final decisions. A Doula, Heart Keeper, requires an inordinate amount of patience, ability to release ego, keep calm and quietly redirect the mother and/or partner into their bodies, breath and connection to their baby. ‘Doula’ is a Greek word meaning, “woman slave.” In Zulu, the word, ‘Dula’ means “To Be.

Doulas and Heart Keepers are ‘Be-ers’ in the group.

Definition and Duties

The Heart Keeper, female or male, attuned to the this ancient feminine energy, welcomes each beating heart into the group heart and stands available to assist each individual as they come forth to contribute and share their gifts. In this way the heart beat of the group is sustained and nourished. Likewise, if a heart no longer is willing or able to beat with the whole, it is the Heart Keeper who helps with the transition out of the group.

The heart is the first organ to develop in the fetus. It begins beating at 3 weeks and one day from fertilization and a group of organs called the circulatory system is the first body system to reach a functioning synergistic state. There are three basic components to the circulatory system. The heart serves as the pump, blood vessels carry the blood throughout the body and the lungs and the heart supplies oxygen.

Like the heart in the physical body, the Heart Keepers become the primary force within the body of the group. They pump support toward the life energy of each of it’s members by reminding everyone to ‘breathe’ when the supply of oxygen has become depleted. Oxygen depletion is indicated through a lack of individual or group resonance. How the Heart Keeper might implement is mentioned below.

In labor and birth when a woman chooses not to cut the umbilical cord and allow the natural uninterrupted detachment from the baby to it’s cord, it’s called a ‘lotus birth.’ The lotus bud blossoms on a flower and offers it’s pure beauty. The ‘lotus mudra’ in yoga represents the awakened heart initiated by Divine Grace. The Heart Keeper is like this lotus blossom. They quietly and succinctly like the flower, respond to the energetic exchanges of sound, breath, air and quiet.

What has been referred to as the Vagus Nerve Breath is a helpful breathing technique for increasing the flow of oxygen and relaxation into the body. This is a recommended tool for Heart Keepers to use and teach other group members:

Take a deep, deep breath into your belly

Let the breath out with an enjoyable, audible sigh…ahhhhh.

You will automatically smile

Your being will begin to open and relax

Breathing in this way activates the vagus nerve, a part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which releases the “cuddle hormone” oxytocin. This breathing technique could be utilized at the beginning of the meeting lead by the Heart Keeper and/or implemented throughout the meeting when the Heart Keeper deems it necessary.

Look at the core word in both heart and earth; ear. It has been said that “the eyes are the window to the soul yet, it is through the voice that we touch the soul.”

One of the duties of a Heart Keeper is being attuned to the individual voices within the group.The Heart Keeper listens to the underlying messages found between the words and underneath the expressions as guides to understanding

When a voice(s) is out of resonance a Heart Keeper will gently and lovingly bring that voice back into resonance if she/he feels this is a disruption to the group resonance.

The heart is the core, the center, the beating pulse. The Heart Keeper could begin and/or end a meeting with a beautiful drum beat after the resonance has been established reminding us all of the importance of keeping the heart of our group in its rhythmic beat.

The Heart Keeper is one who ‘holds the resonant heart space’ for the group to express individually and collectively. To accomplish this the Heart Keeper must be attuned to the heart pulse of the group using their highly sensitized antennae.

How to Sensitize The Heart Keeper Antennae

http://www.heartmath.com/Personal-Growth/Quick-Coherence-Technique.html

The Quick Coherence® Technique helps you create a coherent state, offering access to your heart’s intelligence. It uses the power of your heart to balance thoughts and emotions, helping you to achieve a neutral, poised state for clear thinking. It is a powerful technique that connects you with your energetic heart zone to help you release stress, balance your emotions and feel better fast.”

The Quick Coherence Technique takes–One Minute.

1. Step 1: Heart Focus–Focus your attention on the area around your heart, the area in the center of your chest.

2. Step 2: Heart Breathing–Breathe deeply but normally and feel as if your breath is coming in and out through your heart area.

3. Step 3: Heart Feeling– As you maintain your heart focus and heart breathing activate a positive feeling. Recall a positive feeling, a time when you felt good inside and try to re-experience the feeling. One of the easiest ways to generate a positive, heart based feeling is to remember a special place you’ve been to or the love you feel for a close friend, family member or treasured pet. This is the most important step.

Suggested Methods for Reestablishing Resonance

• First, use breath techniques, your own or those presented here, to bring yourself into coherent resonance and connection with the Divine Source within.

• Through the heartbeat of the drum — in the beginning, middle or end of the meeting — tune into Divine Source, the heart center of each in the group and establish energetic connection.

• Sound the drum for 30 seconds, pause in silence for 30 seconds and take the group through Quick Coherence Technique at the beginning of the meeting. This technique could also be used throughout the meeting requested by the group facilitator or initiated by the Heart Keeper.

• The Heart Keeper communicates with the group with gentle comments or questions to help empower people to speak their truth.

• Observe and witness the group as children in their fascination, curiosity and joyful discoveries.

• Recognize coherent and incoherent feelings in your body at the beginning, during and after the group gathering.

This will help to:

• Create a safe and secure environment for all individuals to speak and be heard.

• Generate a sense of belonging and connectedness.

• Set the tone for honoring each person’s place in the group.

Purpose

The Heart Keeper is here to sustain the group field of energy. The following is a story of how an indigenous culture in Mexico keeps their community in a healthy state by allowing the ebb and flow of life to unfold naturally.

The Huichol Indians of Mexico have access to a kind of genetic memory called the Iyari that connects them with all that has ever been and always will be. Traditionally, “Huichol people remembered this memory and acknowledged it daily.” The Iyari is described by some as being like a cord of light or energy that emanates from a person’s heart connecting one to this ancient memory, not unlike the core of the evolutionary spiral of which Barbara Marx Hubbard speaks. One can “know” or “remember” when the heart is open.

Huichol men still following the traditional way of life have soft feminine faces. Their “feminine side,” psychologists in this country would say, is well integrated; they find great joy in their children, are gentle, firm

Preparation (Before)

The Heart Keeper prepares him/herself by creating an intention to be keeper of heart communication. Space is made conducive to ‘attentive listening’ by closing the door, turning off disruptive rings, knocks or interruptions to create a quiet uninterrupted place.

Helpful Skills for a Heart Keeper to Cultivate

When there is peace within the heart, there is resonance. The Peace Keeper and Heart Keeper share the common goal of creating a peaceful harmony that nurtures creative growth. The following skills were inspired by the teachings of peace keeper, James O’Dea.

Preparation (Before)

Elemental Concepts and Skills to Remember:

1. Everything is frequency–vibrating resonance. Everything is pulsing.

2. These frequencies synchronize with the universe in both qualities and quantities. It is helpful to strive to become a precise interpreter of energy.

3. With energy and consciousness patterns are created.

out and help to find resolution regarding the suggestion or conflict.

1. A non-judgmental mind allows one to see the pattern.

2. Lead from your center, your ground of being.

3. Negative energy is transformed when you speak from your core to the core of another.

4. Use Spiritual Akido. Go around the dissonance by going to the heart or soul of another. Using Spiritual Akido you act to transform the problem, to awake a solution.

5. Find common ground. Breath in new energy.

Energy does not go away: it waits to be transformed. When out of sync energy is present, a Heart Keeper can either step into it in a way that disarms the discordant aspect or step away from it, breathe and become the observer. Either approach will potentially place you in the center of the vortex where stillness and clarity abound.

Procedure (During)

At the beginning of each meeting the Heart Keeper requests everyone to set an intention to proceed with open hearts. While intentions are being initiated, a soft drumming could be sounded for 1 minute, followed by 1 minute of silence, broken by the sound of one drum beat.

SyncCon Pub

As stated in the introduction, every SynCon must have a hearth, (earth and heart) where people can come to kindle and rekindle the warmth of the group heart. That heart center is the SynCon Pub as illustrated in the story below.

In a little mountain town there was once a pub that came to be known as the “town womb.” Much like the pubs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic, The Lord of the Rings, this pub was a place where folks came to meet, share good food, drink and laugh together. In this little pub, in this little mountain town much heartfelt news was shared over the years. They celebrated births, graduations, promotions, mourned deaths, supported each other through crisis and generally made it possible for all to remain in this rather rough and sometime difficult climate. Rich, poor, town officials and day labors, educated and uneducated, religious/nonreligious, it didn’t matter; all were accepted for who they were.

At this time in the history of this mountain community there were those who swore that the heart of the town kept beating because of this all inclusive meeting place. Spats and disagreements somehow got worked out and the town maintained it’s integrity. Things were down home, out in the open (it’s hard to hide in a small town) and real.

In a virtual SynCon community, it is paramount as proceedings unfold to openly voice and reinforce the understanding that differences are not just allowed; they are welcomed and embraced. No one need fear being the “odd man out” or the proverbial “rotten apple” disrupting the resonant field of the group. The intention is not to seek out conflicting thoughts, but to allow, accept, appreciate and make room for valued truth and honesty that is inherent in feeling free to voice differences. Differing ideas are welcomed. Questions about orchestration or implementation of group happenings are considered a vibrant and vital element of healthy community building.

SynCon Pub Follow Through

If a situation is too complex or involved to go into depth at any particular meeting, then the SynCon, Heart Keeper Pub is the next step, the safe place for the person(s) to go to express themselves. So often groups shy away from discord because they don’t know how to handle disagreement in a productive manner. They don’t have a pub to go to or a heart keeper to listen.

The Heart Keeper Pub is a virtual forum open 24/7 where members can go to safely have their voice heard if they felt not heard, start a dialogue regarding a disagreement or make suggestions to enhance certain procedures. With permission from an individual, the Heart Keeper can share with the group in the next meeting, what came up and out and help to find resolution regarding the suggestion or conflict.

Malcom Gladwell wrote the book, “Outliers”. Outliers is noun with the definitions: 1: Something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body, 2: a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.

In the introduction to “Outliers,” Gladwell writes about a community of people, migrating from Roseto Valfortore, one hundred miles southeast of Rome in the Italian province of Foggia. In January of 1882, a group of Rosetans, ten men and one boy, migrated to New York. They relocated to ninety miles west of New York City to the town of Bangor, Pennsylvania. In 1883, fifteen Rosetanas left Italy and joined the original eleven. In 1894, twelve hundred Rosetans migrated to Pennsylvania and left their old village abandoned.

In the 1950’s, studies were conducted by physicians and sociologists on the Rosetan’s and the results were as follows: there was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction and very little crime. No one was on welfare, no peptic

The Heart Keeper Pub is a virtual forum open 24/7 where members can go to safely have their voice heard if they felt not heard, start a dialogue regarding a disagreement or make suggestions to enhance certain procedures. With permission from an individual, the Heart Keeper can share with the group in the next meeting, what came up and ulcers or heart attacks before 65 years. People were dying of old age. So why were these people, this community considered outliers? And what initiated or supported these kinds of statistics? Was it diet, exercise, genetics, water or location?

After much investigation it was reported the single most crucial element for the health and well being of these people was the fact they lived, related and functioned as a community. People of all walks and economic status ate together, socialized together, and helped each other

There were no divisions or separations. It did not matter if there was someone acting as a Heart Keeper. They were Heart Keeper’s to each other. This community is a key example of how Heart Keeper Resonance is infiltrated within a large group of people where the health of the individuals and the community is influenced.

We can postulate what keeps a community healthy and vital is a strong shared purpose or desire. The Huichol People were bonded together by the spiritual path they walked. The Mountain People were bonded together by their love for the mountains and the environment in which they lived. The Rosetan People shared a deep cultural bond that literally migrated them as a whole community to a new country that offered a potential their country didn’t. Barbara Marx Hubbard, with her visionary eyes of an evolving humanity is the cohesive factor in attracting and holding together like hearted people that compose the SynCon.

“Harness the energies of love, and so for the second time in the history of humanity discover fire.”- Teilhard de Chardin

Closure

• Records any notes needed for further reminders and situations of attention.

• Closes the space energetically.

• Creates a gratitude prayer.

• Is available if an individual is needing a compassionate listener after the program is concluded.

Multi Media Presentation

1. http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=21409

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eFn8Cgcx8g

Delayed Cord Clamping

Posted on 25 January, 2013 by Judith Halek

I have always believed the delayed cord clamping would be beneficial for the baby as well as the mother. The paper below presents control studies indicating the BENEFITS of delayed cord clamping for the baby. IF you are going to proceed with cord blood storage, you will NEED to cut the cord IMMEDIATELY in order to preserve the precious stem cells into the vial for potential future use. It is ONLY as a result of this preservation that the cord be cut immediately. We have YET to see controlled studies about the benefits for the mother as well. Enjoy!

Academic OB/GYN December 3, 2009 Nicholas Fogelson

Delayed Cord Clamping Should Be Standard Practice in Obstetrics

There are times in our medical careers where we see a shift in thought that leads to a completely different way of doing things. This happened with episiotomy in the last few decades. Most recently trained physicians cannot imagine doing routine episiotomy with every delivery, yet it was not so long ago that this was common practice.

Episiotomy was supported in Medline indexed publications as early as the 1920s(1), and many publications followed in support of this procedure. But by as early as the 1940s, publications began to appear that argued that episiotomy was not such a good thing(2). Over the years the mix of publications changed, now the vast majority of recent publications on episiotomy focus on the problems with the procedure, and lament why older physicians are still doing them (3) (4). And over all this time, practice began to change.

It took a long time for this change to occur, and a lot of data had to accumulate and be absorbed by young inquisitive minds before we got to where we are today, with the majority of recently trained OBs and midwives now reserving episiotomy only for rare indicated situations.

Though this change in episiotomy seems behind us, there are many changes that are ahead of us. One of these changes, I believe, is in the way obstetricians handle the timing of cord clamping.

For the majority of my career, I routinely clamped and cut the umbilical cord as soon as it was reasonable. Occasionally a patient would want me to wait to clamp and cut for some arbitrary amount of time, and I would wait, but in my mind this was just humoring the patient and keeping good relations. After all, I had seen all my attendings and upper level residents clamp and cut right away, so it must be the right thing, right?

Later in my career I was exposed to enough other-thinking minds to consider that maybe this practice was not right. And after some research I found that there was some pretty compelling evidence that indeed, early clamping is harmful for the baby. So much evidence in fact, that I am a bit surprised that as a community, OBs in the US have not developed a culture of delayed routine cord clamping for neonatal benefit.

I think that this is a part of our culture that should change. This evidence is compelling enough that I feel like a real effort should be made in this regard. So to do my part in this, I am blogging about it.

As this is Academic OB/GYN, of course I am going to lay out this evidence I speak of. But before I do that, I want to present some logical ideas under which this evidence ought to be considered.

Prior to the advent of medical delivery, and for all time in animals, it has been the natural way of things for a baby to stay on the umbilical cord for a significant period of time after delivery. Depending on culture and situation, the delay in cord separation could be a few minutes or even a few hours. In some cultures the placenta is left on for days, which of course I find excessive and gross (5). But whatever the culture and time on cord, the absence of immediate cord clamping allows fetal blood that was previously in the placenta to transfuse back into the baby. Studies have demonstrated that a delay of as little as thirty seconds between delivery and cord clamping can result in 20-40 ml*kg-1 of blood entering the fetus from the placenta (6).

Considering this data, I have to think about evolution and function. I am a strong believer in evolution, but even under creationist thinking I have to believe that if the system meant for babies to have been phlebotomized of 50-100 cc of blood at birth, we would have been born with higher hemoglobins. Clearly the natural way of things is for this not to happen.

So does this mean that early cord clamping is necessarily harmful? Absolutely not. But what it means is that the burden of proof is on us to prove that early cord clamping, which amounts to planned fetal phlebotomy, is a beneficial thing. Otherwise, all things being equal we ought to give the tykes a few minutes to soak up what blood they can from the placenta before we cut’em off.

Check out this video by Dr. Stuart Fischbein: Delayed Cord Clamping: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-WWCOzkSe85M/dr_stuart_fischbein_delayed_cord_clamping/

So the question is whether or not there is strong data either way.

It is easy to imagine a randomized study of immediate vs. delayed cord clamping, with quantitative analysis of fetal lab values and clinical outcomes. So easy in fact, that it has been done many times – and in just about every study, there is a clear benefit to delaying cord clamping, even if it is just for 30 seconds after delivery. These benefits include important outcomes such as decreased rates of intraventricular hemorrhage and necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm neonates. Furthermore, aside from some intermittent reports of clinically insignificant polycythemia and hyperbilirubinemia in term infants, there appears to be no harm that can be linked to delayed cord clamping. It feels like being a doctor 10-15 years ago looking to see if there is any data about episiotomy, and finding that there’s a lot, and it says we’ve been doing it wrong for awhile now.

So here’s the data:

Delayed cord clamping in very preterm infants reduces the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage and late-onset sepsis: a randomized, controlled trial(7)

Randomized 72 VLBW infants (< 1500 grams) to immediate or delayed cord clamping (5-10 vs. 30-45 seconds). Delayed cord clamp infants had significantly less IVH (5/36 in delayed group vs. 13/36 in immediate group, p = 0.03) and less late onset sepsis (1/36 vs. 8/36, p = 0.03).

The Inﬂuence of the Timing of Cord Clamping on Postnatal Cerebral Oxygenation in Preterm Neonates: A Randomized, Controlled Trial (8)

Randomized 39 preterm infants to immediate clamping vs. 60-90 second delay, and examined fetal brain blood flow and tissue oxygenation. Results showed similar blood flow between groups, but increased tissue oxygenation in the delayed group and 4 and 24 hours after birth.

Effect of timing of umbilical cord clamping on iron status in Mexican infants: a randomized controlled trial(9)

Randomized 476 infants to immediate or 2 minute delayed clamping and followed them for 6 months. Delayed clamped babies had higher MCVs (81 vs. 79.5), higher ferritins (50.7 vs. 34.4), and higher total body iron. Effects were greater in infants born to iron deficient mothers. Delayed clamping increased total iron stores by 27-47mg. A follow up study showed that lead exposed infants with delayed clamping also had lower serum lead levels than immediate clamped infants, likely due to iron mediates changes in lead absorption.

A randomized clinical trial comparing immediate versus delayed clamping of the umbilical cord in preterm infants: short-term clinical and laboratory endpoints(10)

Infants delivering at 30 to 36 weeks gestation randomized to immediate vs. 1 minute delay. Delayed group had higher RBC volumes (p = 0.04) and hematocrits (p < 0.005), though there was no difference in RBC transfusions. There was a small increase in babies requiring phototherapy in the delayed group (p = 0.03) but no difference in bilirubin levels between groups.

Immediate versus delayed umbilical cord clamping in premature neonates born < 35 weeks: a prospective, randomized, controlled study (11)

Randomized 60 infants to clamping at 5-10 seconds vs. 30-45 seconds. Delayed clamping infants had higher BPs and hematocrits. Infants < 1500 grams with delayed clamping needed less mechanical ventilation and surfactant. Trend towards more polycythemia in delayed group, but not statistically significant.

And that’s just some of it. I’ll be happy to send you an Endnote file with a pile more of you’d like it. If the burden of proof is on us to prove that immediate clamping is good, that burden is clearly not met. And furthermore, there is strong evidence that delaying clamping as little as 30 seconds has measurable benefits for the infant, especially in premature babies and babies born to iron deficient mothers.

So basically, we should be doing this. I’m going to try to effect some change in my department, but there are a lot of things that need to happen for us to change as a general culture. It can’t just be the OBs. L and D nurses and pediatricians need to buy in as well.

Some people will argue that premature babies need to be brought to the warmer right away for resucitation. I don’t know the answer to this, but it’s worth study. One might think that it is important to intubate a very premature baby right away, but I have to wonder if that intact cord will be better at delivering oxygen to the baby for 30-60 seconds than the premature lungs. Particularly in cases of fetal respiratory acidosis, there is strong logical argument that a baby might be better resuscitated by unwrapping the cord and letting it flow a bit than trying to oxygenate it through its lungs. Until that placenta is detached, you have a natural ECMO system. Why not use it? Certainly there are exceptions to this logical argument, abruption being the biggest one, and perhaps even severe pre-eclampsia and other poor feto-maternal circulation states.

I wonder at times why delayed cord clamping has not become the standard already; why by and large we have not heeded the literature. It is sad to say that I believe it is because the champions of this practice have not been doctors, but midwives, and sometimes we are influenced by prejudice. Clearly, midwives and doctors tend to have some different ideas about how labor should be managed, but in the end data is data. We championed evidence based medicine, but tend to ignore evidence when it comes from the wrong source, which is unfair. It is fair to critique the research and the methods used to write it, but it shouldn’t matter who the author is. In this case, Mercer and other midwives have done the world a favor by scientifically addressing this issue, and their data deserves serious consideration.

To quote Levy et al (12) “Although a tailored approach is required in the case of cord clamping, the balance of available data suggests that delayed cord clamping should be the method of choice.” We ought to heed this advice better. Like episiotomy, this change in practice may take awhile, but we should get it started. I’m going to work on it myself. How about you?

1. Martin DL. The Protection of the Perineum by Episiotomy in Delivery at Term. Cal State J Med 1921 Jun;19(6):229-31.

2. Barrett CW. Errors and evils of episiotomy. Am J Surg 1948 Sep;76(3):284.

3. Rodriguez A, Arenas EA, Osorio AL, Mendez O, Zuleta JJ. Selective vs routine midline episiotomy for the prevention of third- or fourth-degree lacerations in nulliparous women. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2008 Mar;198(3):285 e1-4.

4. Gossett DR, Su RD. Episiotomy practice in a community hospital setting. J Reprod Med 2008 Oct;53(10):803-8.

5. Westfall R. An ethnographic account of lotus birth. Midwifery Today Int Midwife 2003 Summer(66):34-6.

6. Weeks A. Umbilical cord clamping after birth. Bmj 2007 Aug 18;335(7615):312-3.

7. Mercer JS, Vohr BR, McGrath MM, Padbury JF, Wallach M, Oh W. Delayed cord clamping in very preterm infants reduces the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage and late-onset sepsis: a randomized, controlled trial. Pediatrics 2006 Apr;117(4):1235-42.

8. Baenziger O, Stolkin F, Keel M, von Siebenthal K, Fauchere JC, Das Kundu S, et al. The influence of the timing of cord clamping on postnatal cerebral oxygenation in preterm neonates: a randomized, controlled trial. Pediatrics 2007 Mar;119(3):455-9.