Megan Stark

Nikia Debates Breastmilk vs Coconut Water

Submitted by Nikia Lawson

Recently I attended the Eat Pray Doula, DONA approved Birth Doula Training in Ubud, Bali facilitated by Katherine Bramhall, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, and Robin Lim. This week-long training included birth doula education, postpartum care, childbirth education and breastfeeding support. The skills to become an effective birth doula were definitely the goal of the training, but what I was not prepared for was the adventure of sisterhood and connection that would happen in merely a week.

This trip to Bail, Indonesia was filled with “firsts”: my 1^st international flight, my 1^st time using a passport, my 1^st time walking through a “monkey forest” and my 1^st time being on a global stage talking about the benefits of breast milk! Yes, the latter was a 1^st for me and I have had many opportunities to share the benefits of breast milk in various settings.

On March 22 several of the EPD birth keepers and I attended the 7^th Annual Bali Spirit festival. When we arrived, we settled in to watch the local entertainers. When they finished performing, the crew began setting up for the next performers. To pass time, the MC came to the on stage and began to share some “interesting facts.” He began his chatter with a statement about kids and parents and eye color….interesting, but nothing mind-blowing. Then the gavel landed and he stated his fact that coconut water had the same ingredients as breast milk minus one thing….breast milk contained magnesium! I gasped! The other birth keepers gasped! We immediately went into a frenzy telling everyone around us that that was not accurate information that that there is absolutely no comparison of breast milk and coconut water in terms of beneficial properties to a baby’s needs and development!

I quickly ran toward the stage and engaged him in a dialogue about how making a statement, as a fact, could have grave ramifications on the efforts to get indigenous women to breastfeed. If women feel that breast milk and coconut water are equivalents, then they may feel no NEED to BREASTFEED! They could simply contend with coconut water, which is in abundance in Bali. Also, I shared two (2) KEY/ESSENTIAL ingredients that are in breast milk that could NEVER be in coconut water. We exchanged some relevant conversation and he asked me if I would like to grace the stage and share the FACTS about breast milk that I had so enlightened him on.

After that exchange, I was introduced and I ran on the stage to share my knowledge about breast milk. Here are the 2 life-changing ingredients that I shared with him that urged him to take the stage and admit to the crowd, “I have been schooled by my friend Nikia…. and I stand corrected!”

First, breast milk contains antibodies. Any foreign object that has ever been in mom’s blood stream OR any bacteria or virus that she’s ever been exposed to, her blood and plasma cells created antibodies to neutralize them. Thus, those antibodies are present in breast milk and colostrum. Babies that get mother’s milk, get their 1^st immunization to help build a healthy immune system and strengthen their sensitive little digestive systems with enzymes and antibodies to fight infection and bacteria. Second, breast milk contains human stems cells. These stem cells are life-saving; and, can possibly repair damaged, little organs due to the replication of the stem cells to build tissue and new cells. Human embryonic stem cells are very widely studied for their limitless regenerative properties and the ability to have specialized function in the new cells they produce.

Well, since coconuts are not human and do not have a blood stream, these are 2 very distinct and useful properties (not to mention that there are hundreds of other ingredients with benefits in breast milk that have yet to be identified) contained in breast milk that can never be in coconut water.

I finished my enlightenment opportunity with a lively chant: THE BREAST IS BEST! THE BREAST IS BEST! Empower the women in your life to breastfeed, because coconut water just won’t do it!

Learn how you can join the magic in Bali for Doula or Advanced Birthworker Workshop at Eat Pray Doula!

Biography: Nikia Lawson is the owner/operator of Birth Blessings Professional Birth and Doula Services, owner/Project Director of The Natural Way Birthing Project ~ Ft. Worth, and managing partner of Tarrant County Doula Associates. Nikia’s goal is to empower women to know that they are divinely designed to give birth; to learn to trust their bodies and listen to their inner spirit as they embark on their birth journey.

Nikia is a DONA birth doula, a 2010 DONA International Doula of Color Fellow and a DONA International approved, birth doula trainer and is an experienced childbirth educator and has taught classes for various community groups and hospitals since 2007. Nikia hopes to return to school complete her post graduate studies in Naturopathy and open her own maternity home for pregnant women.

Learn how you can join the magic in Bali at Eat Pray Doula!

Naomi Ruth Fleisher’s Healing Birth

Photos courtesy: Ela Alpi

I introduce this birth first and foremost as my second birth, my healer birth.

On a Monday night it began. I recognized the sensation, the roots of my being were beginning to quake. I called my midwife who stayed that night across the hall with our wonderful neighbors. I felt safe knowing she was so close by. I sang my daughter Alona Maya to sleep through my surges, and with help from two glasses of red wine and a nourishing dinner, I slept relatively soundly. I woke up in the morning, took a shower and stayed quiet. I took light steps and spoke quietly. I wanted to keep the holiness and remain concentrated. I remembered that when labor starts to pick up speed, there is nothing left to do but ride.

After a nap, a little play with my daughter, some movement and deep breathing, the team began to arrive; my midwife Valeriana, soon her assistant Gayla, my doula Debra, and a documentarian, Ela. I had opened up my experience, this was Ela’s first time witnessing a birth. These powerful women held the space for me immediately. The attention and care was overwhelming, even intimidating, but they helped to foster my power and strength. Since things were slowing down, my surges farther apart though still strong and deep, they all agreed I should take a walk with my husband Isaac. My daughter was with our mother’s helper, and I felt safe letting her go for now in my mind, which helped me to release even more.

Isaac and I took a walk in the park a block from home. The fresh air, the breeze and the trees calling out to me began to ignite my body. It was quickly time to head home. With Isaac’s help, while I swayed and held on, we made it in the door. With surges sending me into the walls and doorways, I made it into my room. From the moment I walked in the door, Isaac and Debra were in my ear and by my side. Their words of encouragement and support were empowering and grounding. I rocked on the ball, went to the bathroom, crawled to the floor, and was thrown into it all at full force. The deep rocking of the surges, and shifting tides within me, all the more powerful and quick. Even still, I was present, calm, and able to work with it. The midday sun filled our room and my focus narrowed to Debra’s voice guiding me and helping me down from the peak of pain. All around me my team was setting up our tub, cleaning our home, getting everything prepared. Caring for me in ways I couldn’t see, but could feel.

I made it to the tub, by then I could only focus on breathing through and falling into the sensations that were quickly becoming fast and intense, bringing me to my deepest level of strength. All the while held by these incredible people looking at me and keeping me safe. I sang out “I can’t do this, I can’t” and Debra responded with certainty and through a smile, “You ARE doing it!” In the water I danced and sang through it, through the deep pain and pleasure of birthing my child, I gave birth to my Advah Lily. Through profoundly intense pushing and releasing, my daughter came into being. I am forever grateful.

Alona Maya napped soundly through the birth. When she awoke on her own Isaac brought her in, her eyes still heavy with sleep, to meet her new sister.

7 Keys to a Blissful Birth

By: Latham Thomas, founder of Mama Glow, author of Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy

I remember the birth of my son like it was yesterday. Having the support of my midwife Stacy Rees and my boyfriend who both were keen on how to keep me comfortable, relaxed and in the zone was key! If you are pregnant or want to support someone in your life who is, please take these 7 tips to a blissful birth journey and add them to your arsenal. I was blessed to study under the tutelage of Debra Pascali Bonaro and as a birth worker Debra infuses love in to everything she does, she taught me that our goal is to really preserve the experience for the mother-to-be. Remember to practice what you preach and that will make you even more effective in assisting the mother-to-be.

Ways to Support the pregnant goddess:

1. Holding sacred space– a woman must feel safe in order to give birth, if the conditions are such that she is anxious or afraid, the progression of labor will slow down. This is often the case in hospital settings where the medical providers do not allow time, space, and ritual journey in birth to take place. If you are hooked up to monitors and getting poked and prodded under florescent light in a cool and sterile room, it’s not likely you would feel safe. Create a setting whether you are birthing at home, in the birth center, or in a hospital where the mother can relax and feel safe and carry out her birth ritual.

Ways to create sacred space include: lighting candles, burning incense, playing soothing slow music, run a warm bath, chanting, kissing your partner, putting a sign on the door- knock before entering.

Listen to Latham at the Orgasmic Birth Virtual Conference https://www.entheos.com/orgasmic-birth/Debra-Pascali-Bonaro

2. Encourage Sound– we spend so much of our lives focused on being quiet, in school, in church and places of workship, at work, in transit. We are constantly being told to shut up. When are we ever given permission to make noise- during sex and birth. It is every important for a pregnant woman to make sounds to connect with what is happening in her pelvic bowl. Sound amplifies sensation and really helps during labor. The hardwiring for our mouth and throat is directly connected to our pelvic floor and sacred passageway (birth canal). When you open and relax the muscles in the mouth and throat and make low and deep bellowing sounds, you also relax the muscles of the pelvic floor and make birth easier for both mom and baby. Conversely, if mommy tightens her jaws, scrunches up her face and closes her throat, the pelvic floor muscles will follow. Sound is a gift so use it.

Ways to incorporate sound include: taking deep breaths and sighing long on the exhale, deep Ahhh sounds, Oohhh sounds, the birth sound- Om can be chanted as well.

3. Practice Deep Breathing– your breath is an amazing bridge between the conscious and unconscious because the respiratory system is both voluntary and involuntary. You don’t have to remind yourself to breathe, it just happens. But when we are mindful of our breathing we can tap into an energy in the unconscious realm. What ever state you are in, your breath will follow. If you are anxious your breath will be quick and shallow, if you are calm and relaxed your breath will be long deep. You can also breathe to encourage different states. If you want the breath to take you to a relaxed state you can start breathing long deep full breaths and it will send signals to the brain to calming you down. This is so helpful for birthing women because the deep breath along with the sound enhances the trance state during labor. Women can not journey into their labor in a Beta brain wave state, or regular consciousness. They must enter an altered state of consciousness for the cascade of hormones to descend and the primal state to turn on.

Ways to incorporate deep breathing include- bringing soothing familiar scents into the room and taking long slow deep full inhales through the nose and exhaling through the mouth (as it releases some of the internal heat energy)

4. Get Moving– Staying in a static position is a sure way to slow down the labor process. Moving around during labor is normal and it’s primal. Its part of how we manage the intense surges of energy in the body. Finding ways to move the body to promote comfort and and opening is key during labor. All of those prenatal yoga hip opening exercises, spinal flexions, rolls. Movement not only encourages the baby to move down it feels good for mommy too. Walking and hip swaying are especially helpful as women create more wiggle room in their pelvis and squatting increases the pelvic opening by 30%, which doesn’t sound like a lot but when you are pushing out a baby, it’s tremendous.

Helpful ways to get moving include: slow dancing, belly dancing, walking, hip rolls, cat/cow, squatting, showering

5. Practice Visualization Exercises– Visualization exercises are a part of every major spiritual practice as a tool to support entry into an altered state. I mentioned that women can not give birth in a normal state of consciousness- when thinking about their dry cleaning, their phone bill, or whether or not they look fat, etc. This sort of jumpy linear thinking is our brain operating on beta waves and when we are in that state we are not producing the cocktail of hormones that we need to progress in labor. The mundane has to be transcended for a mother to begin the ancestral ritual journey that takes her into her birth trance. This also includes fear. Fearful thoughts will shut labor down, so powerful visualizations are key. The shift from Beta waves to Alpha waves where the mother enters an altered state is much like when we enter into meditation, or a good daydream, that’s the place where labor begins and from there the brain waves can lead to deeper altered states. Why this is important to know is because there is so much distraction around women these days no matter where they are birthing. Having a set of tools to transcend the mundane and the fear will help labor progress naturally.

Tools for visualization exercises- practice envisioning the baby moving down the birth canal at each contraction, find a few symbols that can help anchor you into the space ie, lotus blossoms, the ocean, candle light

6. Offer TLC through Touch– Touch transmits feeling and intention. If you can place loving hands on a woman and also know when to not touch her it is a huge asset. At certain stages of labor touch is very helpful. Caressing while sharing calming and affirmative words of support are very helpful at certain stages of labor. Be observant and see what the moment calls for: foot rub, massage of her sacrum, caressing the forehead, etc. Our emotional energy field will transmit what we are experiencing onto others. Pregnant women are so sensitive in labor and can pick up on any frenetic, or ungrounded energy around them. Make sure to calm yourself and be prepared to learn and serve.

Ways to incorporate touch- use therapeutic essential oils and rub your hands together, place firm hands and offer warm touch

7. Practice Affirmations– Courage is feeling the fear and rising to the occasion anyway. When we encourage with loving words we help others move beyond fear, inspire them to keep the faith, and keep on moving. Affirmations are positive phrases. Speak in this love language of encouragement to help support the mommy-to-be. Trust me, it really helps.

Ways to incorporate affirmations- write them on cards, say them aloud, record them and play in the birthing room.

Latham Thomas: Mama Glow

Latham Thomas is a maternity lifestyle maven, wellness & birth coach, and yoga teacher on the vanguard of transforming the maternal & women’s wellness movement. A graduate of Columbia University & The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Latham is the founder of Mama Glow a holistic lifestyle hub for women to explore their creative edge through wellbeing. Her practice provides support to pre/postnatal women along their journey to motherhood offering culinary and nutritional services, yoga, and birth coaching services. She lives in New York City with her son Fulano and their turtle Climby. Latham’s first book was just published in November- “Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy”, foreword by Christiane Northrup, M.D., with Hay House. Latham is helping to green the planet one belly at a time.

Link to: www.mamaglow.com

Twitter: GlowMaven

Overshare Show: An Orgasmic Conversation about Orgasmic Birth

The OverShare Show recently interviewed Debra Pascali-Bonaro about her film “The Orgasmic Birth,” and the subsequent social movement in her wake. Debra is an advocate for women taking back their birthing process, and her documentary is a revolutionary look at birth that explores the pleasure, love, joy, and empowerment women can experience. Birth should not be viewed through a lens of fear, and it is time to break open the cultural dependence on the medical process. The notion of an “orgasmic” birth perhaps may be provocative, but Debra’s impassioned and well-informed view point is not only convincing, but seductively logical.

Download it HERE or jump on over to the Overshare Show to listen!

Enjoy this and want more?

Orgasmic Birth launches a FREE Virtual conference October 13-17, 2014.

20+ experts, including health professionals, doulas, midwives, and other birthing gurus, pull back the curtain and tell you everything you always wanted to know about birth. Learn how you can have a safe, joyful, orgasmic birth!

What You Need to Know

When: October 13-17, 2014
Where: Online!
Cost: Sign up FREE HERE

10 Things I Wish All Pregnant Women Knew About Labor & Birth

By: Aviva Romm, M.D.

When I was pregnant, I seemed to be a magnet for birth war stories – cords around the neck, emergency cesareans, and more. It took a lot of inner conviction to believe in birth as a natural, beautiful event that my body was capable of, rather than a “disaster waiting to happen,” as one obstetrician warned me it was.

But inner conviction I decided to have, and my four children were born at home, peacefully, and without drama or trauma. I made sure I was in awesome health throughout my pregnancies, eating an organic, plant-based diet. I did yoga daily, spent time in nature, and meditated on the type of birth I wanted to have.

And then I surrendered to the forces of nature. The power I experienced as a woman has given me confidence in so many areas of my life and I so wish this for other women.

Sadly, however, natural birth is becoming endangered! About one in three women in the US will have their babies by cesarean section. Maybe that sounds like no big deal – but actually, it’s major abdominal surgery and increases your risks of complications over natural birth.

Cesareans are grossly overdone in US hospitals. And they often make recovery and breastfeeding much more challenging. They expose your baby to an antibiotic (all moms having a cesarean are given antibiotics at the time of surgery) before she or he is even born. And most of the ones that are performed turn out to be unnecessary.

Also, many more women will have their labor induced or experience some form of obstetric intervention. The downturn in natural birth is so significant that a group of researchers wanting to study the natural course of labor couldn’t find a large enough group of women birthing naturally in any one place to study them!

But we can’t let natural birth go extinct because it’s way more than just a romantic ideal. Babies born vaginally (and without medication) have many health advantages. For example, just being exposed to mom’s flora on the way out of the birth canal decreases the lifetime likelihood of developing digestive problems, allergies, and even obesity.

While we can’t fully control what happens in our births, and of course, sometimes interventions are necessary (though often they aren’t!), you can embrace core beliefs that will increase your chances of having the birth experience that is optimally healthy for you and baby.

Here are the Top 10 philosophies that helped me have my babies naturally and that I have used to support thousands of women in their birthing experiences, and that can help you have an optimal birthing experience – maybe even the birth of your dreams!

1. Birth is a spiritual journey; it’s also primal.

Birth is, to say the least, an intensely physically and emotionally demanding experience. Approaching the challenge as a spiritual journey can help you dig deep into your core for the resources to persevere, and to learn about yourself and your innate strength and power.

Though a spiritual journey, it is not all incense and candles. It asks us to call upon our primal instincts – and sometimes even to get primal – making animal sounds, assuming poses that have us buck naked on our hands and knees, moving our hips in deep sultry belly dancing undulations.

Planning to take a deep dive into your subconscious and intuition to let your primal self emerge can allow you to open and birth your baby with a raw strength and power you might not now even realize lives within you.

2. Birth should not be taken lying down.

Lying down simply doesn’t let gravity do the work of helping baby come down and out! Walking, moving your hips like a belly dancer, and generally staying active facilitates a more physiologic process for baby than lying on your back in a hospital bed, which increases your chances of a cesarean.

3. Contractions are amazing sensations that get your baby born.

During my own births I used my imagination and awareness to dive deep into the sensation of my muscles working to help my baby get born. This focused awareness transformed by perception of the pain of birth into the power of birth.

I even used the term expansions rather than contractions to help me think about the sensation in a new way. It did not make them less intense, but it made the sensation my ally rather than my enemy. As I welcomed each new wave of labor, I knew I was closer to bringing my baby into my arms.

4. Fear stops labor.

Mammal mommas have powerful instincts that allow us to keep our babies safe from harm. For example, momma giraffes on the savannah will spontaneously stop labor if they sense a predator in the area, rather than dropping a helpless newborn to the ground. We too, have hormones that can stimulate labor (oxytocin) and those can stop labor if pumped out early because of fear (adrenaline).

So learning to transform fear into power and confidence is essential for a smooth birth. How is this done? Make sure you feel safe where you are birthing, that you have good support in labor, and that you have talked with your birth provider about any fears you are harboring or repressing about your health and safety, baby’s health and safety, or the birthing process. Being educated and informed can help you to dispel fears.

5. Question Authority (or Nice girls can ask questions – and say, “No”).

Obstetrics practices are not always based on the best science. The September 2011 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the official publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), reported that only one third of all obstetrics guidelines in the US are based on good scientific evidence, one third are based on limited or inconsistent evidence, and the remaining third are based on expert opinion, which is “subject to bias, either implicit or subconscious.”

So just because a doctor (or midwife) tells you something is required (lying down in labor, having a vaginal exam, wearing an external fetal monitor for your entire labor, having an IV drip routinely), doesn’t mean you have do it unquestioningly — or at all. As girls and young women, many of us learn not to question authority — just be a “good girl,” and don’t be the geek who asks questions. Many of the procedures done in hospitals are done “just because” they are routine but often not necessary.

So if something is recommended or expected that makes you uncomfortable or you’re not sure of the reason, ASK! And if you’re not comfortable with the explanation, you can decline. Having an advocate there who can help you sort through decisions, especially when you are otherwise occupied doing the work of labor, is especially valuable.

6. Women should eat and drink during labor.

Current scientific evidence has demonstrated that low-risk women who eat and drink in labor are not at significantly increased risk of food aspiration in the event of a cesarean, which has been the much-feared reason for keeping women on an ice-chips and fruit-pops-only regimen in labor for the past few decades.

In fact, keeping up your energy with light and nourishing fare has been found, by many midwives and mamas, to facilitate labor and reduce the likelihood of labor petering out, or needing Pitocin or a cesarean.

7. Your body is a marvelous, perfectly crafted force of nature.

Believing in yourself is powerful medicine! Yet most of us go into labor believing our bodies might be lemons – the reject in the batch that just doesn’t work properly and needs to be sent back to the factory on a recall!

The reality is, nature is amazing at creating powerful systems that work. Setting intentions and learning to have confidence in the birthing process – and your body – are among the most powerful tools you can use to go with the natural flow of labor and birth and gain some self-enlightenment in the process.

8. Obstetrics is BIG Business.

There is a whole system of medicine out there, called obstetrics, making a fortune off of your body! In fact, there is enormous financial incentive for obstetricians to do ultrasounds (in my community, a doctor’s office charges the insurance company $700 per ultrasound), offer endless tests, and big bucks when it comes to doing a cesarean rather than supporting a natural, vaginal birth.

Want to avoid unnecessary medical interventions? Then make your body your business by getting educated. Read about birth. Some good places to start: Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth, Henci Goer’s The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, and my book, The Natural Pregnancy Book.

9. Birth is something you do, not something that is done to you.

Whether you dance, groan, or hypnobirth your way through labor, it ain’t called labor for nothing. It takes work, focus, and sweat to get a baby out. Powerful muscles move a 6 to 8 pound being (on average) a short distance through a relatively small space. This means EFFORT is required.

Just as with any hard task, being realistic about what’s involved, setting your mind and heart to it by getting psyched ahead of time, and then having strategies to call upon when your energy or determination wavers will get you to the other side of the finish line with power and pride.

10. Birth can be ecstatic.

While there might be some huffing and puffing, grunting and groaning, and even a holler or two if you need to vocalize the intense energy moving through you as you bring your baby out into the world, birth can be an ecstatic experience, particularly when you appreciate yourself for the accomplishment of a hard job done with determination and experience the ecstasy of holding your new baby in your arms.

As you get closer to your baby’s birth, and even in labor, here’s a simple mantra to tell yourself, “I’ve got this!”

Wishing you an ecstatic birth,

For more of Aviva’s wisdom visit her at http://avivaromm.com/

Human Rights: Infant Rights at Birth by Ibu Robin Lim

7 June, 2014

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, families, midwives, doulas, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and legislators… we are BirthKeepers. It is our responsibility to ask the next and the next question, for as BirthKeepers, it is we who are given the sacred responsibility to protect our incoming humans, the newborns, at birth and as they grow, for they are the future EarthKeepers. My question now is: “Are we allowing our health providers to rob our babies, of their full potential of health, intelligence, immunity and longevity, at birth?”

According to the Red Cross, children under the age of 17 (16 with parental consent in some States) are not eligible to donate blood. Blood donations are generally no more than 1 pint, which is 1/10th of the average adult blood volume. Blood donors must weigh at least 110 lbs (49,895 kg).

Yet, all over the world, in nearly every single medical institution where babies are born, Newborn infants (usually weighing only between 2 and 5 kilograms) are being denied up to 1/3 of their blood volume.

At the moment of birth newborn infants are estimated to have a blood volume of 78 ml/kg (X 3.5kg = 273 ml) with a venous hematocrit of 48%.

When the umbilical cord-clamping was delayed for 5 minutes the blood volume increased by 61% to 126 ml/kg (X 3.5 kg or 7.7 lbs. = 441 ml). This placental transfusion amounted to 168 ml for an average 3,500 g infant, one-quarter of which occurred in the first 15 seconds, and one-half within 60 seconds of birth. Baby Blood Is taking 1/3 of a mammal’s blood supply harmful? How then can it be legal, for hospital protocols and practices to harm newborns, by robbing them at birth, of so much of their blood? I have reviewed the research and the evidence, and found absolutely NO benefits for newborn babies, when their umbilical cords are immediately clamped and cut at the time of birth. In fact the studies prove this to be a harmful practice. I am quite sure that if I went removed 1/3 of even one adult patient’s blood, without his or her consent, it would be considered a crime. There would be media outcry against me, and I would be prosecuted. How then is it that people tolerate the same unfair treatment of human neonates?

A mountain of research does point to the fact that by simply delaying the clamping and cutting of babies’ umbilical cords, our newborn children would suffer less trauma, fewer inner cranial hemorrhages, have higher stores of iron at 4 months of age, and even up to 6 and 8 months after birth. , , The nutrients, oxygen and stem cells present in the blood transfused into babies by the placenta, when cord severance is delayed ensures the bodies’ tissues and organs are properly vitalized, supplied with energy, and nourished. This translates into improved health, heightened immunity, more intelligence and perhaps, potential for increased longevity.

In addition, by not severing the umbilical cord at birth, the baby must stay skin to skin with mother. This eliminates or greatly reduces the potential for birth trauma. Research has proven that babies born without trauma enjoy an intact capacity to love and trust. (Michel Odent OBGYN “The Scientification of Love.)

The simple, natural, common-sense practice of giving the placenta time to do its job, of delivering to the baby, his or her full blood supply, has been criticized and NOT implemented by the very doctors and hospitals who have taken an oath, to “Never Do Harm.”

An intervention, by definition is an action or process of intervening, or interfering, and so, the clamping and cutting of human babies’ umbilical cords is an intervention. However, in the medical literature, I have repeatedly seen the delay of umbilical cord severance called, an “intervention.”

Surgery is an intervention, in some cases a life saving one. I wonder, how not interfering with a natural, healthy process may be deemed an intervention. The imposed medical habit of immediately clamping and cutting babies’ umbilical cords has not been with us so long (just over 200 years) and yet, it is considered “normal” and “necessary.”

“Another thing very injurious to the child, is the tying and cutting of the navel string too soon; which should always be left till the child has not only repeatedly breathed but till all pulsation in the cord ceases. As otherwise the child is much weaker than it ought to be, a portion of the blood being left in the placenta, which ought to have been in the child.” Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, 1801

The habitual practice of immediate umbilical cord clamping and cutting began in the 1960s when a hypothesis arose among physicians thinking that immediate cord severance would prevent jaundice. If this was true why do so many babies who had their cords immediately clamped and cut, need phototherapy for pathological jaundice? Research has proven that there is no greater risk of pathological jaundice for newborns whose cord clamping and cutting was delayed.

Another theory was that early cord clamping would prevent Polycythemia, or too much hemoglobin. Some research does show an increased concentration of hemoglobin in the delayed cord clamping group, but it has not harmed babies, nor is it a significant argument for immediate cord severance.

When immediate umbilical cord clamping and cutting was introduced, it was never questioned. NO research was conducted to determine if it was a safe practice. It was just done for convenience. Doctors, nurses and midwives began to follow the trend, like sheep wearing blinders. Later, they justified it with myths about delayed cord severance causing jaundice. Few asked the questions I am asking today; “What about the Baby?” “What are the Babies’ human rights?” “Is the practice and protocol of immediate umbilical severance harming our children?” “Is it sabotaging breastfeeding and bonding?” “Is it impairing our children’s birthright to their full potential of health and intelligence?” At this junction on herstory and history, many BirthKeepers are asking these very questions.

The research proves that immediate or early umbilical cord severance is detrimental to our newborn children, but no one seems alarmed? Are we hypnotized? Why are we trusting medical professionals, who profit from denying our offspring their very blood?

Thinking, caring parents and grandparents have concluded that OBGYNs and midwives, who insist on habitually severing the umbilical cords of newborn babies, immediately, are simply protecting their right to practice with impatience, and what they deem ‘efficiency,’ with no regard for the rights of the baby, who cannot protest.

Due to imagined Fear of litigation. In 1995 the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released an Educational Bulletin (#216) recommending immediate cord clamping in order to obtain cord blood for blood gas studies in case of a future lawsuit. They did this because deviations in blood gas values at birth can reflect asphyxia, or lack of. Lack of asphyxia at birth is viewed as proof in a court of law that a baby was healthy at birth.

Following an unpublished letter sent to ACOG by Dr. Morley, ACOG withdrew this Educational Bulletin in the February 2002 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the ACOG journal. This action released them of liability resulting from their previous bulletin #216 of 1995. Parents and all BirthKeepers must ask; WHY, if ACOG has withdrawn its erroneous instruction to doctors, to immediately clamp and cut babies’ umbilical cords, is it still universally and dangerously practiced? Midwives and doctors who propose to preserve the healthy process of placental transfusion at birth, by delaying umbilical cord clamping and cutting, are criticized and charged with the burden of proving that letting nature take her course is, safe!

At Bumi Sehat we have received nearly 7,000 babies safely into the world, in high-risk, low resource settings. ALL of them enjoyed delayed umbilical cord clamping and cutting. Normally we wait 3 hours before doing anything with the Babies’ umbilical cords, and many parents choose cord non-severance, or, “Full Lotus Birth.” My grandsons, had what is called, “Full Lotus Birth” their placentas were left intact. Full Lotus Birth is simply allowing the baby, umbilical cord and placenta to stay intact, until the cord naturally dries and falls away, with no violence. Partial Lotus Birth happens anytime we see the baby, cord and placenta trinity. This means we do not clamp or cut the babies’ umbilical cords, before the placenta has been safely born. Certainly we would never clamp and cut a baby’s cord, until all pulsation has stopped.

At Bumi Sehat we have experienced NO ill effects for the babies, even though we do not immediately sever their umbilical connection to the placenta. A small study was done which compared a small sample of 30 babies from Bumi Sehat (greatly delayed cord severance) and 30 babies from a local hospital with immediate cord severance. There was NO increased rate of Jaundice and the delayed cord severance group from Bumi Sehat enjoyed higher hemoglobin.

Our MotherBabies enjoy a breastfeeding rate of 100% upon discharge from all of our three Childbirth centers, in Indonesia and the Philippines. We attribute the success of Mother’s to breastfeed to the bright, enthusiastic way in which babies, born at our birth centers, bond wide-eyed, and go directly to the breast to self-attach and feed. Also the support of our midwifery team, for each MotherBaby, protects breastfeeding start-up. There is absolutely NO infant formula supplied or promoted at Bumi Sehat.

Babies who are compromised by newborn anemia, caused by the immediate or early clamping and cutting of their umbilical cords, are withered in comparison, and have more difficulty finding the energy required to self-attach and robustly feed at Mother’s breasts. After all, babies who suffer the routine medical habit of immediate cord severance, only seconds after birth, have been denied up to 1/3 of their divine right to their natural blood supply and stem cells, of course they have trouble breastfeeding. Sever anemia makes any and all newborn activities; gazing, crawling toward the breast, nuzzling, staying awake, latching and suckling, nearly impossible. I sing praises to the determined mothers who manage to bond and breastfeed their infants, in spite of immediate cord severance. Humans are super resilient, but that is no excuse to abuse them at birth.

No other Mammal, except humans, routinely interferes with bonding and breastfeeding by quickly severing the umbilical cords of their offspring.

No matter if you are rich or poor; educated or not; brown, black, white, red, yellow or of mixed race, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Pagan, Catholic, Jewish or Agnostic, very young or getting older, if you go to a medical institution for childbirth, your baby will be robbed of up to 1/3 or 33% of his or her natural blood supply.

Why? Stem cells are valuable, blood is valuable, some hospitals sell babies’ blood for transfusions and for research. Many parents are asked to donate their babies cord blood to science or to help others. Is this blood not meant to help the baby it belongs to? If adults may only donate up to 10% of their blood, why are doctors taking up to 33% of our babies’ blood, without consent. There are hospitals and clinics who impede the natural transfer of blood from placenta to baby, only to throw it away as medical waste. Umbilical cords are marketed for transplants. Placentas have been sold to cosmetic companies to be used in beauty supplies.

Just say “NO, I will not allow anyone to abuse my newborn by immediately clamping and cutting my Baby’s umbilical cord!”

If you were born in a hospital or clinic, it happened to you. If you plan to have your birth in nearly any medical institution on earth, it will happen to your baby, unless YOU stop it. Immediate or early clamping and cutting of babies’ umbilical cords is the biggest most widespread, medically sanctioned Human Rights issue on Earth!

Join us for Eat Pray Doula: A Gentle Birth Workshop where you will visit Bumi Sehat Clinic, connect with other BirthKeepers from around the world, and learn from Ibu Robin and Debra Pascali-Bonaro.

Ibu Robin Lim is an internationally-recognized midwife, well-known author and talented poet. She was awarded the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year Award, and was nominated for the 2016 CNN Superhero award. Her non-profit Indonesian birthing and educational clinics Bumi Sehat have saved hundreds of lives and delivered thousands of babies over the last decade, serving the poor and medically disenfranchised citizens of Bali and, far away, in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh, Sumatra. After years of service and frequent financial challenges, “Ibu” (Mother) Robin and her organization remain indefatigably committed to changing the world, one gentle birth at a time. Please consider supporting Ibu Robin and her clinic by donating to Bumi Sehat Foundation, or adding Bumi Sehat Foundation International Inc as your Amazon Project SMILE link. (shop from http://smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate t the charity of your choice.)

The Four Biggies …for Dads/Partners at Birth

By Patrick Houser

Most fathers/partners are strangers to the birth environment. Additionally, they typically have had little if any opportunity to prepare for it. In my opinion, this is society’s responsibility and we all need to raise our game in the support of new families during this crucial time of family foundation building and bonding.

Towards that end, I have four ‘topics of awareness’ that dads/partners would do well to have support on in order to make a more useful contribution during the mother’s labour and their child’s birth.

1. PAIN: Men typically know pain as it relates to injury, football, falling off a bike, hitting their thumb with a hammer etc. With this as their point of reference, or default setting, for pain if the one they love is experiencing pain during labour they can, knowingly or unknowingly, revert to their ‘known experience’ and assume that injury or damage is being done to her. They need to be informed, perhaps even convinced, that if there is pain during labour it is safe, intermittent, cyclical and also creative. They also need to know it is not their role to try and do something about it i.e., fix it. In addition, it is possible to transmute ‘pain’ and transform it into pure energy…rather than something that hurts. The word YES is key.

2. TIME: How much time will the birth take? How long is a piece of string? Birth takes as long as it takes. Fathers need to know this and to relax around the time thing and to be present with her and in each moment with her. This knowing and attitude from him will support her to relax more easily and be in the zone with her labour. All in good time.

3. NOISE: She may make loud and/or unusual sounds, perhaps unlike any he has ever heard from her before. This is normal, good even. This comes from deep inside her, from that ‘instinctual mother’ place in her. Welcome it.

4. SAFETY: Is she safe? Is our baby safe? Here is where experienced advise is needed from the professionals in the room. They have attended many births. Trustfully they have learned what it is like and have a deep knowing that birth is safe. It is important to communicate this to the father/partner. Let him know through a look, a touch, a kind and gentle word that all is good and going according to nature’s plan. Trust birth!

Patrick Houser consults with hospitals, birth centers and organizations regarding fathering policies and procedures. He offers study days, workshops and keynote lectures in various formats to support working relationships with fathers during the time of pregnancy, birth & breastfeeding. His Fathers-To-Be Handbook is very supportive for professionals working with families during pregnancy and birth. F2B Handbook also available at 50% discount for selling-on or giving to clients as part of information/support packets. www.FathersToBe.org info@fatherstobe.org

Learn about Debra’s upcoming From Pain to Power online childbirth experience!

Happy Graduation! Debra’s Advice to Budding Midwives

In May, Debra had the honor of delivering the keynote address to the New York University Midwifery Program/College of Nursing Graduation’s Blessingway. Here are some excerpts from her keynote about advice to budding midwives.

Affecting change in childbirth & “with woman”…

I am honored to be here with you today as you are entering a new phase of your life, as a midwife. Maternity Care is changing…. Changing in ways that will call upon each of you as midwives to have a crucial role in contributing to create a healthy safe, respectful, quality model of MotherBaby Maternity care in the U.S and around the world.

I have had the great privilege of traveling the world to both teach as well as learn about childbirth. To see where systems work well, where there are gaps and where there are abuses of power and money. I have learned that women’s bodies are the same and women mostly desire the same things in birth all over the world. Respectful, safe and healthy care. The best models, those with the best care and best outcomes are countries and places where there are strong autonomous midwives.

As a midwife, you are not only caring for MotherBaby’s you are touching women’s family’s, how you care for women will effect a woman’s self esteem, her ability to parent, and how she feel about herself will effect how she contributes to our community’s and society. Your care truly can change a woman’s perception of herself and her abilities.

I hope each of you will…

Allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to face your own fears and barriers to seeing birth as whole, powerful, and transformative, As like me, women will look to you to hold their fears and provide a healthy strong belief that natural birth is every woman’s birth right.

I hope you will always value the process as much as the outcomes.

That you will bring respect to MotherBaby, father, partner, family and colleagues.

That you will advocate to rebuild our broken system.

To create home birth opportunities in hospitals with rooms that offer women true choice of a full range of comfort measures.

My dream is that you will help to develop an autonomous midwifery council and model in the U.S.

And that you will greet these challenges with love. Love is healing; Love is nurturing and being born into love will transform our world.

Follow your intuition…

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself. – Alan Alda

How do you make time to connect to your intuition? To encourage each woman to tap into her own intuition as a labor and birthing women and as a mother. This is not something we can read in a book and take in; it is a daily practice that only you can define that will take you deeper into the miracle of your own heart and wisdom and to see more fully the opportunities that each birth provides for you and the women you serve. I feel that every birth holds a mirror before you that will reflect into your soul and how you allow that image to reflect with not only strengthen you as a midwife, but we as birth workers are so blessed to be on a path that holds the richness of life in every moment for us as well. The long hours, sleepless night, challenges and joys will provide you with a deep wisdom that few people truly know and a connection to life, love, and the divine if you allow yourself to connect to this deeper inner knowing we call intuition. I have attended many a birth that the midwives intuition kept birth safe, long before any machine or technology gave us signs.

Midwives are the gatekeepers of gentle, respectful beginnings and the joy of being able to honor and inspire new midwives as they begin their careers filled me with joy.

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Learn how you can join the magic in Bali for Doula or Advanced Birthworker Workshop at Eat Pray Doula!

Learn how you can join the magic in Bali at Eat Pray Doula!

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7 Keys to a Blissful Birth

By: Latham Thomas, founder of Mama Glow, author of Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy

Overshare Show: An Orgasmic Conversation about Orgasmic Birth

10 Things I Wish All Pregnant Women Knew About Labor & Birth

Human Rights: Infant Rights at Birth by Ibu Robin Lim

The simple, natural, common-sense practice of giving the placenta time to do its job, of delivering to the baby, his or her full blood supply, has been criticized and NOT implemented by the very doctors and hospitals who have taken an oath, to “Never Do Harm.”

No other Mammal, except humans, routinely interferes with bonding and breastfeeding by quickly severing the umbilical cords of their offspring.

Join us for Eat Pray Doula: A Gentle Birth Workshop where you will visit Bumi Sehat Clinic, connect with other BirthKeepers from around the world, and learn from Ibu Robin and Debra Pascali-Bonaro.

The Four Biggies …for Dads/Partners at Birth

Learn about Debra’s upcoming From Pain to Power online childbirth experience!

Happy Graduation! Debra’s Advice to Budding Midwives

Sign-up for Debra’s weekly enews or upcoming Pain to Power online childbirth experience.

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Megan Stark

Learn how you can join the magic in Bali for Doula or Advanced Birthworker Workshop at Eat Pray Doula!

Learn how you can join the magic in Bali at Eat Pray Doula!

By: Latham Thomas, founder of Mama Glow, author of Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy

The simple, natural, common-sense practice of giving the placenta time to do its job, of delivering to the baby, his or her full blood supply, has been criticized and NOT implemented by the very doctors and hospitals who have taken an oath, to “Never Do Harm.”

No other Mammal, except humans, routinely interferes with bonding and breastfeeding by quickly severing the umbilical cords of their offspring.

Join us for Eat Pray Doula: A Gentle Birth Workshop where you will visit Bumi Sehat Clinic, connect with other BirthKeepers from around the world, and learn from Ibu Robin and Debra Pascali-Bonaro.

Learn about Debra’s upcoming From Pain to Power online childbirth experience!

Sign-up for Debra’s weekly enews or upcoming Pain to Power online childbirth experience.

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