Modern Medicine May Not Be Doing Your Microbiome Any Favors

I subscribe to NPR's Fresh Air podcast, and an episode came up recently that really rang all of my bells.

Since autism invaded our life, I've been doing an insane amount of research. Much of what I've learned has pointed back to gut flora, and how crucial it is that we have healthy and diverse good bacteria in our guts.

Just for a very basic introduction, we all have good bacteria and bad bacteria in our guts (known collectively as our microbiome). Many things affect what bacteria is in our guts and which of those strains thrive inside us, including our mother's gut flora, how we were born, whether we were breastfed and for how long, our diet, our hormones, and the medicines we take. Unfortunately, the bad bacteria is stronger and more aggressive than the good stuff, so it tends to take over easily.

So much of Terry's interview with Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues (affiliate link), reinforced what I'd already learned about the gut. I was blown away, though, when he started talking about how babies born via c-section had different (and poorer) gut flora, because they don't get exposed to the good bacteria that other babies get when they pass through the birth canal. He said his wife is researching something that I've only every heard extreme hippies talk about, which is the importance of, in a c-section birth, swabbing the mother and transferring that good bacteria to the baby manually. I was just so excited to hear that a real scientist is studying it! If you are pregnant or ever hope to be pregnant, you really don't want to miss this interview!

My one critique of this interview is that he doesn't mention diet as a factor in our gut health. As a doctor who is an expert on the human microbiome, I have to assume that he is aware of this, but his focus for this book and interview was limited.

Regardless, another interview from NPR, this time on Science Friday, makes a good companion piece to the Blaser interview. If you are interested in learning more about how diet affects your microbiome, I'd highly recommend reading or listening to this interview with Michael Pollan about his new book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (affiliate link). I heard this interview several months ago and it has really stuck with me.

I'm so encouraged by the things that we are learning about the gut microbiome and its importance for health. I'm so eager for this information to make its way through the medical community and through the population at large. There is so much that needs to change about the average American (or any developed country, really) lifestyle if we are going to be healthy people and have healthy children and grandchildren.

If you are interested in a really beautifully made and easy-to-understand introduction to all of this, then you may enjoy this video below. I've watched it probably a dozen times now, and I still enjoy it every time.

Resources for Expectant Parents

**Updated August 2016**

A close friend of mine who is pregnant recently asked me if there were any books or websites that I recommended checking out. I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into by asking me this... when I was pregnant with Jude, I think I read almost 15 books just about birth! So even though this list seems long, know that it is much pared down from what I actually read, and I've only included here the books and websites that I found the most helpful.

There are a lot of decisions to make surrounding birth and babies, and there is freedom for each of us to make the decisions that we feel are best for our babies and our families. I believe that all parents should have access to the resources necessary to make the most informed decisions possible. Your informed decisions may be different than mine, and that is okay with me.

By posting this list, all I am saying is that these are some resources that we found very helpful for making informed decisions when I was pregnant with Jude (and beyond), and I'd like to recommend them to any of my friends who are expecting. With that said, here they are:

About Pregnancy

The Pregnancy Book by Dr. Sears

-Loved it. Don't even bother with What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Get this instead.

About Birth
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer

-If you can only read one book about birth, let it be this one. A must read. She details every decision you may have to make about birth and gives the pros and cons of each. She is very fair and balanced, maybe leaning slightly toward natural birth, but I may have read that into the text because I personally lean toward natural birth, I'm not sure. No matter what kind of birth you are planning or where you are planning on having it, this is a great resource for everyone.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

-The first half of this book is all very inspiring birth stories, and the second half is the nitty-gritty of childbirth. Ina May is an experienced midwife who runs a birth center in Tennessee, and she is to natural birth what Billy Graham is to Evangelicalism. This book is very empowering and leaves you with an, "I can do it!" attitude.

The Birth Book by Dr. Sears

-Basic and thorough look at all of the aspects of birth and what to expect.

The Business of Being Born by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein

-This is a great documentary about birth in America, and it also follows Abby through her first pregnancy and birth. We watched it before I was even pregnant and really enjoyed it.

Bradley Childbirth Classes

-We took a Bradley class from a woman in Louisville who later went on to become our doula and good friend. The classes are once a week for 12 weeks, which is a lot, but it was so worth it. It helped us both be more prepared for birth, especially Josh. On the Bradley website, you can search for teachers in your area.

Speaking of our doula, I cannot recommend getting a doula highly enough!

The Evidence for Doulas 
-This is a very thorough article about what doulas are and aren't, as well as lots of research and evidence for why you want to hire one.

4 Reasons Why DAD Deserves a Doula
-Lest you think that your super supportive husband will be all you need, this childbirth educator gives you 4 good reasons why doulas are helpful for dads, too.

For Dads

The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin

-Great book that will really prepare him to help you through the birth. Josh was very scared of the whole thing before reading this book, but afterwards he was empowered and confident.

About Breastfeeding
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Diane Wiessinger

-I didn't personally read this one, but it's the gold-standard of breastfeeding books.

The Breastfeeding Book by Dr. Sears

-We referenced this book so many times the first few months. It was an invaluable resource to have on hand.

KellyMom.com
-Great website about breastfeeding, started by an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). There are lots of FAQs about nutrition, nighttime parenting, starting solids, and more. The thing I referenced most on this website is the "Is This Safe While Breastfeeding?" page. Any time I thought about taking a medicine or herbal remedy, I checked out this list first.

Breastfeeding Tips & Guide by Sara Spencer, RN, MSN, Clinical Nurse Specialist 

-Helpful and comprehensive intro to breastfeeding all on one page.

About Vaccines
The Vaccine Book by Dr. Bob Sears

-He goes through each vaccine-preventable disease and what is in each shot, why some parents may have concerns with some of the ingredients, and what he recommends. It is pro-vaccine in that he ultimately recommends all of the shots, but on a delayed schedule. If you do decide to vaccinate, he gives a good delayed schedule to use.

Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents Guide by Aviva Jill Romm

-She does a similar thing as Dr. Sears, but has different recommendations. She also gives ways to stay healthy and keep your immune system strong, as well as how to treat the diseases if your child does contract one. I really, really liked this book, and if you only have time to read one book about vaccines, I strongly recommend that it be this one.

When we were looking for resources to help us make the decision about vaccines (or perhaps I should say "decisions," as each vaccine is an individual decision), we wanted books that contained information about the specific diseases and shots, and also gave as unbiased of a view as possible. Dr. Sears's book is probably the least biased of all the pro-vaccine books, and Romm's book is probably the least biased of all the anti-vaccine books. I think these two books together make for a very balanced examination of the vaccine issue.

About Babies
 Spirit-Led Parenting: From Fear to Freedom in Baby's First Year by Megan Tietz and Laura Oyer
-This is a fairly new book that I have just loved. It's two mothers' stories about how they found freedom in learning to trust the Holy Spirit and their God-given intuition with parenting their babies, instead of trusting in the self-proclaimed experts and in their own ability to be super moms. This book is a must-read for every Christian mom, no matter how old your "baby" is or if you are having your first baby or your fifteenth.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
-I wish we'd found this book when Jude was smaller, I think it could have saved us a lot of sleep. She recommends very gentle ways to help everyone in the family get the best night's sleep possible, and I like her style because it's not, "here's what you should do and if you don't do what I say, then you're going to ruin your baby," but it's very, "here are several suggestions, you pick the things that are the best for your family."

The Baby Book by Dr. Sears
-Another invaluable resource for us the first few months. I feel like we went running to this book multiple times a day trying to figure out if what was happening was normal or what to do in certain situations. Dr. Sears is very much like Elizabeth Pantley in his "here are several suggestions, you pick the things that are the best for your family" approach, which is part of why we have really enjoyed everything we've read of his.

10 Decisions for Parents of Newborns: Part 1 & Part 2 
by Stephanie of Keeper of the Home
-Stephanie takes an approach to the decisions you'll need to make for your newborn that is similar to the vaccine books. For each decision, she discusses why you might want this, and why you might want to opt out. This is a great summary of the barrage of important decisions you'll be met with in baby's first days, and these will be decided for you by hospital staff if you haven't made an informed decision beforehand.

About Babywearing

When Jude was little, we had a soft structured carrier that was handmade by a work at home mom who has since stopped making carriers. I wore Jude in it EVERYWHERE (less so as he got bigger, but Josh still wore him a LOT on our vacation to Greece when he was 1.5 years old) and it was so great to be able to carry him and still have our hands free.

For Man Cub, we bought a Tula and we are loving it.

I recommend buying from:

Frog Mama Baby Carriers

-This is an online friend of mine who sells a big selection of name-brand carriers. All proceeds from her sales go toward her family's upcoming adoption, so you can know that your purchase is benefitting a real family and not just some big corporation. She also has a lot of info about choosing a carrier, instructional videos for how to use them, as well as a few other things like cloth diapers, nursing bras, and nursing necklaces.

I used a Moby Wrap with Jude when he was tiny and it was great. Ring slings are popular, but I got mine when Jude was really too heavy to carry around much, so I can't say a lot about those from personal experience. I got my backpack carrier when Jude was about 4 or 5 months old and I don't think you would really want to use one much sooner than that.

With Man Cub, we used a Baby K'Tan, which is similar to a Moby Wrap, but easier to tie. We honestly didn't use it that much, because it was so thick and cumbersome. We got the Tula when Man Cub was only a couple of weeks old, and used it right away with a baby blanket rolled up under his bum.

About Cloth Diapers

We used all BumGenius 3.0 One-Size pocket diapers with Jude and were very happy with them. They are very easy to use, just like disposables but made out of cloth! They are expensive in the beginning, but after 4 months of use, you break even compared to what you would be spending on disposables, and after that you're just saving money every day.

With Man Cub, we are mostly using Flip diapers, a 2-in-1 system where you lay the insert in the cover. I found myself really tired of stuffing and unstuffing the pocket diapers, and searched for something different this time around. So far we are really happy with the Flips. I tried a few other brands of 2-in-1 diapers, but settled on the Flips primarily because I feel like the stretchy tabs and two rows of snaps gave the best fit. 

Getting Started with Cloth Diapers
-This is a good introduction to the different kinds of cloth diapers available, complete with pictures. I do have to argue with her though, that one-size pocket diapers even out to be just as economical as prefolds and covers, because you have to buy new sizes of prefolds and covers as your baby grows, but one-size diapers are a one-time investment.

Jillian's Drawers

-This is where I bought our diapers. They have an abundance of helpful information under the "New to Cloth?" and "Resources" tabs, and they regularly have sales and free shipping promotions. They also have a program where you can try cloth diapers for 21 days for only $10.  I did this and was really glad I did. This website has a LOT more than just cloth diapers, too.

Congratulations, Pode!

You went from this:

to this:

In just 8 months.  Isn't it wonderful?? :D

Urgent: Contact your Congressman about Certified Professional Midwives

This is a really easy way to make a BIG difference in the battle for legal midwives! There is a meeting in congress Thursday morning, and we want our Kentucky congressmen to be there!

Here is a flier for the event

For more information about Certified Professional Midwives and the campaign for women's access to them nationwide, visit The Big Push for Midwives.

To find out who your congressman is and how to contact them, visit Contacting the Congress.

Here is the email that I just sent to my congressman, John Yarmuth:

Dear Congressman Yarmuth,

As a citizen of the 3rd district of Kentucky, I am writing to encourage you to attend the briefing on Thursday morning at Capitol Hill about out-of-hospital maternity care.

Studies show low-risk women who plan their births with out-of-hospital midwives have outcomes equal to low-risk women who deliver in the hospital, but with far fewer costly and preventable interventions. The recent Milbank report conservatively estimates that if we can get our cesarean surgery rate down from 31.8% to 15%, that we’d save at least $2.5 billion a year. The legalization of out-of-hospital certified midwives in Kentucky is a crucial issue for the health of Kentucky's women and children.

Many, many women here in your own district are already having homebirths with underground midwives because they strongly believe that it is the best choice for their family. Legalizing certified midwives would make birth safer for those who are already making that decision by regulating midwives' practice and giving OB/Gyns freedom to partner with the midwives in the rare event that a woman/baby needs more invasive medical care.

Please consider attending this issue briefing and making the legalization of certified midwives an issue of priority here in Kentucky.

Thank you very much,

Stacy Hutchens

Adjusting to being Mommy

Nobody ever talks about how hard it is to adjust to being Mommy.

I mean, you think you're ready, but then you have this tiny person who needs you every moment of the day, and it can be really exhausting.  And you've heard about postpartum hormones, but still didn't think you'd cry or sweat THAT much.  And you're so exhausted that just unloading the dishwasher wears you out, much less thinking about tackling Mt. Laundry or straightening the living room.

Granted, I had a little bit harder postpartum than most mamas (c-section and rehospitalized for an internal infection that still gets sore 2 months later if I'm off the couch too much in a day), but I think that we all should give ourselves permission for things to be a lot less perfect than we thought they were going to be.  As a friend of mine says, you didn't just give birth to a baby, you gave birth to a mother.  And just like it will take J time to learn how to do things like crawl, walk, and talk, it is okay for it to take me some time to learn how to be a mommy.

My friend I quoted above has four children and is a retired homebirth midwife.  She wrote a blog post that I have referred to frequently before and after J's birth, and every soon-t0-be or new mother would be greatly encouraged to read it:

The Reality of Postpartum Life, or 12 Week Magic


Gotta go... J's waking up.  :)

Midwives Deliver Better Birth Care

The LA Times recently ran an article about what expanded midwifery care could do for the US.  In addition to the overwhelming health benefits for mothers and babies, there are equally overwhelming economic benfits.

Some excerpts:

Not only is childbirth the most common reason for a hospital stay -- more than 4 million American women give birth each year -- it costs the country far more than any other health condition. Six of the 15 most frequent hospital procedures billed to private insurers and Medicaid are maternity-related. The nation's maternity bill totaled $86 billion in 2006, nearly half of which was picked up by taxpayers.

But cost hasn't translated into quality. We spend more than double per capita on childbirth than other industrialized countries, yet our rates of pre-term birth, newborn death and maternal death rank us dismally in comparison...   The U.S. ranks 41st among industrialized nations in maternal mortality. (Emphasis mine.)

The most cost-effective, health-promoting maternity care for normal, healthy women is midwife led and out of hospital... This model of care is not just cheaper; decades of medical research show that it's better. Mother and baby are more likely to have a normal, vaginal birth; less likely to experience trauma, such as a bad vaginal tear or a surgical delivery; and more likely to breast feed. In other words, less is actually more.

To be frank, the U.S. maternity care system needs to be turned upside down. Midwives should be caring for the majority of pregnant women, and physicians should continue to handle high-risk cases, complications and emergencies. This is the division of labor, so to speak, that you find in the countries that spend less but get more.

Click here to read the entire story.

Due Dates: A Cruel and Dangerous Lie!

As soon as a woman finds out she's pregnant, the countdown begins to her "due date."  But have you ever thought about where that 40-week calcuation comes from?

It was actually started by Dr. Naegele, a doctor in Germany in the 1850s.  Without any scientific evidence, he observed that his patients' pregnancies lasted around 10 lunar months.  He developed a calculation for estimating a woman's due date by figuring that her pregnancy would be 280 days (40 weeks)  from the first day of her last period.

Read more about that here.

So, despite all of the advances in medicine and research in the past 150 years, we are still basing our calculations on this man's less-than-scientfic calculation.  Does anything seem wrong with this picture??

A study at Harvard in 1990 found that uncomplicated pregnancies that are allowed to go into labor spontaneously actually averaged a gestation of 41 weeks and 1 day... significantly longer than Dr. Naegele's estimate, which is universally used by practitioners in the US.  And that's the average.  Think about how many women spontaneously go into labor much sooner than that.  In order for that to be the average, many women must also go into labor much later, and it is perfectly normal.

I say that this 40 week due date is a cruel lie because it is telling women to expect to have their babies much sooner than is actually probable.  Only 3-5% of babies are actually born on their due date.  When you are 40 weeks pregnant, tired, uncomfortable, and anxious to meet your new baby, every extra day can feel like an extra year.  Especially when you are hearing "overdue" everywhere you go and everybody you know is asking, "haven't you had that baby yet??"  If we didn't expect our babies until significantly later, then gestating beyond 40 weeks would not be so mentally taxing.

I say that this is a dangerous lie because, even in the face of MUCH more recent and more scientific evidence, practitioners still cling tightly to this 40 week due date as the limit for a healthy pregnancy.  Therefore, many labors get induced before the baby is ready to be born, just because the mom is "overdue."  Doctors use scare tactics like, "the baby is going to get too big," "the placenta will degrade," or "the amniotic fluid is getting too low" to get reluctant mothers to agree to induction (which is in and of itself a whole 'nother rant for another day).  These may be good reasons for induction in rare cases, but it is much more rare than you would think by listening to doctors of women who haven't had their babies by 40 weeks.

Babies are born when they are ready!

The science of how labor begins is still not totally known, but it is believed to be instigated by a hormone that the baby secretes whenever he or she is fully developed and ready to come out.  Go figure... God knew what he was doing when he designed this whole process!  ;)

 So the morals of the story are:

• Don't get too attached to your due date.  Expect pregnancy to be longer and you won't be disappointed by being "overdue."
• Ask lots of questions and make a truly informed decision about induction if you do go past 40 weeks.  Know the significant risks present for you and your baby if you agree to be induced.  Don't just think, "well the doctor wouldn't do it if it wasn't best."
• It is YOUR decision.  NOT your doctor's. 
• Trust your body, your baby, and the Lord who created both.

Industrial Childbirth- "Revisiting my son's birth has made me angry."

I just finished reading a powerful personal reflection by one woman of her son's birth.   I think that it is SO important that women think through the process of childbirth much more deeply than many of us do.  It is so much more than we have come to believe, and it is time that we rediscover the rich emotional and psychological potential of one of the biggest events of our lives.

Three great excerpts:

Our collective idea of childbirth is pretty nasty – blood and fluid, panting and screaming, stretched anatomy, the emergent gooey greyish-purple alien… horrible! Remember when you first heard about sex? Remember how horrible that seemed? But sex isn’t horrible, is it? What’s missing – and indescribable to a virgin child – is the emotional element. Sex is a natural and beautiful process, all entangled with love and passion. So too, and a million times more, is birth. In essence, our modern patriarchal institutionalized world has a childish view of childbirth. It can’t imagine that something that looks so gruesome could be anything but a horrendous experience and one that should be shortened and medicated. But childbirth is not a medical procedure any more than sex is.

It is my belief that at some deep level, we all feel that we have been robbed. We pass through our childbirth initiation to become disempowered, disconnected, long-suffering, patriarchal mothers. We tell our horror stories as just that, or we say nothing at all. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If I ever have another child, it will not be in the same way. And it doesn’t stop there. I will never again blindly place my trust in authoritarian professionals and institutions. I will recognize all capitalist patriarchy for what it is and I will do my best to speak out against it.

I wish that we talked about it. That we could stop reveling in horror stories and better place our fingers on the reason for our traumatic births – not the curse of Eve medicated to by our benevolent system – but the systematic violence that delivers our babies for fear that we might give birth to them ourselves. For in the process we might begin to understand our own strength and find words for our anger. We might begin to disobey.

Read the full article here.

Attention All Pregnant Ladies!

I just finished the most amazing book and I just had to pass the word on to all of my pregnant friends.

Henci Goer's The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth is an absolute MUST READ for any woman who is pregnant or hoping to get pregnant.  Some of you may know that I am planning a natural childbirth, but this is NOT a natural childbirth book, it is, as her website states, an "Informed Choice in Childbirth" book.

In the book, Goer discusses the pros and cons, risks and benefits to many of the typical options that face women when it comes to childbirth: Cesarean section, breech birth, induction, IVs during labor, failure to progress, epidurals and narcotics, episiotomy, labor support, choosing a caregiver and birthplace, and more.

I can't say it enough... if you read nothing else during your pregnancy, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

The Medicalization of Birth Hasn't Made it Safer

Today, with advances in medical technology, drugs for pain relief during labor and birth, and an increase in the number of neonatal intensive care units, people might think that women have more birthing options than ever before.  They may also believe that birthing is safer than at any other time in history.  This is not neccessarily true.

The United States offers the most technically advanced obstetrical care in the world.  Ninety-eight percent of all births in the United States take place in hospitals, and the majority of them are attended by physicians.  Yet when this country is compared with others worldwide, it ranks only thirty-first in maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates, with 6.63 newborn deaths for every 1,000 live births.  (Mortality reflects the number of deaths and morbidity reflects the number of illnesses associated with birth.)  Every single European nation has better maternal and infant outcomes than the United States.  As of 2004 one of the safest countries in the world in which to have a baby was Sweded, with only 2.7 deaths per 1,000 births.  The majority of the industrialized nations that have good statistics have one thing in common that the United States lacks- midwives, and lots of them, who see birth as normal and natural and are the gatekeepers for all pregnant women.

While there are additional factors to consider when comparing birth outcomes in different countries, such as socialized medicine and access to care, it cannot be denied that there is a strong case for reconsidering the consequences of the "medicalization" of childbirth.

-From Gentle Birth Choices, by Barbara Harper, R.N.