~Kristin Schuchmann
Executive Director, Charis Childbirth, Inc.
www.CharisChildbirth.org

Colorful Salad with Ginger-Orange-Cucumber Dressing

Equal amounts of Red Cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Kale, and Collard Greens torn into bite-size pieces

Raw Walnuts

Fresh Cherries, halved and pits removed (or dried if fresh is not available.  Another option is red seedless grapes.)

Dressing

Blend the following ingredients in the blender:

a 2 – 3 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and sliced

3 oranges, seeds and peel removed

2 cucumbers, seeds removed

1/2 C raw cashews

2 cloves of garlic

4 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 C extra virgin olive oil

2 t sea salt

Toss cabbage and greens in dressing and top with walnuts and cherries.   Enjoy!

Contact:
Midwives Alliance of North America
Geradine Simkins, President & Interim Executive Director
president@mana.org
info@mana.org
231.228.5857 (O)
231.590.3742 (C)

New ACOG Guidelines: Vaginal Birth After Cesarean is a Safe Option

Washington, DC – The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), a professional midwifery organization since 1982, commends the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for their updated practice guidelines on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) released July 21, 2010. ACOG’s recent guidelines are less restrictive than previous ones. The new guidelines state that VBAC is a “safe and appropriate choice” for most women who have had a prior cesarean delivery, including some women who have had two previous low-transverse cesarean incisions, women carrying twins, and women with an unknown type of uterine scar.

There has been a dramatic increase in cesarean delivery in the United States (from 5% in 1970 to nearly 32% in 2009) and a rapid decrease of VBACs (from 28% in 1996 followed by a decline to 8% in 2006). Lack of VBAC availability in U.S. hospitals due to practitioner and institutional restrictions, which diminished women’s choices in childbirth, is often cited as the reason for the conspicuous decrease in VBACs. In light of the VBAC restrictions that have become commonplace in most U.S. hospitals, it is noteworthy that ACOG’s new guidelines emphasize a woman’s right to self-determination. The new ACOG guidelines state that even if a hospital does not offer a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC), a woman cannot be forced to have a cesarean nor can she be denied care if she refuses a repeat cesarean. In addition, previous ACOG guidelines on VBAC stated that anesthesia and surgery must be “immediately available” for an institution to offer VBAC; the new guidelines have relaxed this restriction.

ACOG has seriously considered recommendations from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Meeting on vaginal birth after cesarean held in Washington DC in March 2010. Based on the scientific evidence, the NIH expert panel affirmed that risks in VBACs are low, similar to risks of other laboring women, and repeat cesareans expose mothers and infants to serious problems both in the short and long terms. The NIH expert panel concluded that in the absence of a compelling medical reason, most women should be offered a trial of labor after cesarean. The NIH expert panel further recommended that all women be given unbiased educational information during their pregnancies with which to make decisions regarding VBAC in partnership with their healthcare providers. Women should also be offered full informed consent and refusal during their labors.

“While we are pleased that ACOG has issued less restrictive VBAC guidelines and affirmed a woman’s autonomy in her childbirth experience, it is still up to women to take charge of their lives, educate themselves about childbirth practices, and put pressure on their healthcare practitioners to provide the safest birth options for their babies and themselves,” says Geradine Simkins, President and Interim Executive Director of the Midwives Alliance. The Midwives Alliance takes the position that the best interests of most mothers and infants are served when women are given the opportunity to birth under their own power and in their own way with the intention of avoiding primary cesarean deliveries and other unnecessary interventions. An impressive body of research literature shows that the midwifery model of care results in less intervention in the birth process and safe and satisfying outcomes for mothers and babies. In addition, evidence shows that birth in a woman’s home with a trained midwife, or in a freestanding birth center, results in decreased cesarean sections and other obstetrical interventions. “We want women to have all the choices they need to have healthy pregnancies and give birth safely,” say Simkins, “and we are pleased that ACOG’s new guidelines on VBAC will add another choice to the menu of maternity care options.”

For more information on the Midwives Alliance visit http://mana.org/. For information on practitioner and childbirth options visit Mothers Naturally atwww.mothersnaturally.org.

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I am always looking for healthy recipes that taste really good.  This one was inspired by the raw borscht recipe in the book “Eating Without Heating” by Sergei and Valya Boutenko.  It looks beautiful in the bowl and tastes great!

Directions:
Place the following in the blender, blend thoroughly, and set aside in a large serving bowl.  (If you have a small blender, you may need to divide it into 2  batches.)

1 C water
2 medium beets
1 1/2 -inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced
2 large cloves of garlic
2 fresh bay leaves

Place the following in the blender, blend briefly (30 sec.), and pour into the same large bowl.  (If you have a small blender, you may need to divide it into 2 batches.)

1 C water
1 medium carrot
1 stalk of celery
1/3 C raw walnuts
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 oranges (remove peel and seeds)
1/2 T raw honey
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste

In a food processor, chop the following into confetti-sized pieces and add to the blended mixture and stir.

1 medium carrot
1/4 of a small head of red cabbage
1 small handful of fresh parsley

Serve this delicious gazpacho chilled or at room temperature.  Do not heat.

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by Dr. James J. McKenna, Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Center for Behavioral Studies of Mother-Infant Sleep, Notre Dame University

Excerpt from: Breastfeeding Abstracts, February 1993, Volume 12, Number 3

Mother-infant co-sleeping often accompanies nighttime breast-feeding. New research suggests that co-sleeping affects infant physiology and patterns of arousal, raising questions about currently accepted norms for “healthy” infant sleep.

Judging from the infant’s biology and evolutionary history, proximity to parental sounds, smells, gases, heat, and movement during the night is precisely what the human infant’s developing system “expects,” since these stimuli were reliably present throughout the evolution of the infant’s sleep physiology. The human infant is born with only 25 percent of its adult brain volume, is the least neurologically mature primate at birth, develops the most slowly, and while at birth is prepared to adapt, is not yet adapted. In our enthusiasm to push for infant independence (a recent cultural value), I sometimes think we forget that the infant’s biology cannot change quite so quickly as can cultural child care patterns.

An infant sleeping for long periods in social isolation from parents constitutes an extremely recent cultural experiment, the biological and psychological consequences of which have never been evaluated. Most Americans assume that solitary sleep is “normal,” the healthiest and safest form of infant sleep. Psychologists as well as parents assume that this practice promotes infantile physiological and social autonomy. Recent studies challenge the validity of these assumptions and provide many reasons for postulating potential benefits to infants sleeping in close proximity to their parents – benefits which would not seem likely with solitary sleeping. Current clinical models of the development of “normal” infant sleep are based exclusively on studies of solitary sleeping infants. Since infant-parent co-sleeping represents a species-wide pattern, and is practiced by the vast majority of contemporary peoples, the accepted clinical model of the “ontogeny” of infant sleep is probably not accurate, but rather reflects only how infants sleep under solitary conditions. I wonder whether our cultural preferences as to how we want infants to sleep push some infants beyond their adaptive limits.

To explore this possibility further, Dr. Sarah Mosko and I are studying the physiological effects of mothers and infants sleeping apart and together (same bed) over consecutive nights in a sleep lab. Our two pilot studies conducted at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, showed that the sleep, breathing, and arousal patterns of co-sleeping mothers and infants are entwined in potentially important ways. Solitary sleeping infants have a very different experience than social sleeping infants – although we do not know yet what our data mean.

Funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Developments, this research will help us to evaluate the idea that infant-parent co-sleeping may change the physiological status of the infant in ways that, theoretically, could help some (but not all) SIDS-prone infants resist a SIDS event (McKenna 1986: McKenna et al. 1991: McKenna et al., in press). One of the suspected deficits involved in some SIDS deaths is the apparent inability of the infant to arouse to reinitiate breathing during a prolonged breathing pause. Our preliminary studies show that mothers induce small transient arousals in their co-sleeping infants at times in their sleep when, had the infant been sleeping alone, arousal might not have occurred. We have suggested that perhaps co-sleeping provides the infant with practice in arousing. Before we can draw any conclusions, more work is needed.

Regardless of what our own research will reveal, there already exists enough scientific information to justify rethinking the assumptions underlying current infant sleep research, as well as pediatric recommendations as to where and how all infants should sleep. Especially needed are new studies which begin with the assumption that infant-parent co-sleeping is the normative pattern for the human species – and that our own recent departure from this universal pattern could have some negative effects on infants and children. We need to determine if unrealistic parental expectations, rather than infant pathology, play a role in creating parent-infant sleep struggles – one of the most ubiquitous pediatric problems in the country. It may well be that it is not in the biological best interest of all infants to sleep through the night, in a solitary environment, as early in life as we may wish, even though it is more convenient if they did so.

Co-sleeping is often discussed as if it were a discrete, all-or-nothing proposition (i.e., should baby sleep with parents?). Many parents fail to realize that infants sleeping in proximity alongside their bed, or with a caregiver in a rocking chair, or next to a parent on a couch, in a different room other than a bedroom, or in their caregiver’s arms all constitute forms of infant co-sleeping. I studied the location of infants and parents in their homes between 6:00PM and 6:00AM and found more infant-parent contact than parents describe.

I prefer to conceptualize infant sleep arrangements in terms of a continuum ranging from same-bed contact to the point where infant-parent sensory exchanges are eliminated altogether, as, for example, infants sleeping alone in a distant room with the door closed. Nowadays, one-way monitors often broadcast infant stirrings to parents in these situations, compensating for the loss of sensory proximity.

I am amused by this baby monitor phenomenon, primarily because we Americans seem to have gotten it all backward. Rather than parents monitoring the infant, a great number of developmental studies suggest that it should be the other way around, with the infant processing parental stirrings (especially breathing sounds and vocalizations). Infant sleep, heart rate, breathing, and arousal levels are all affected by such stimuli, probably in adaptive ways to facilitate development and to maximize adjustment to environmental perturbations (Chisholm 1986). At the very least, monitors should be broadcasting sound in both directions!

Given the human infant’s evolutionary past, where even brief separations from the parent could mean certain death, we might want to question why infants protest sleep isolation. They may be acting adaptively, rather than pathologically. Perhaps these infant “signalers,” as Tom Anders calls them, have unique needs and require parental contact more than do some other infants, who fail to protest. It’s worth considering.

Cake

3 C ground raw almonds

Peel from 4 tangerines (or tangelos) ground thoroughly

½ C raw cocoa powder (or carob powder)

½ C dates (soaked for 1 hour and chopped finely)

1 t sunflower oil (2 t if using carob)

½ C raw honey or agave nectar

½ t salt

1 t vanilla extract

Combine the almonds, tangerine peel, and cocoa.  Mix the rest of the ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing bowl and then gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.  Form the thick mixture into a cake shape on a plate.

Topping

Juice of 1 medium lemon

3 T raw honey or agave nectar

½ C olive oil

1 t vanilla extract

½ C ground almonds

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend well.  Spread over the top of the cake.  Decorate creatively with your favorite fruit.  It is especially delicious with assorted berries.  Chill before serving.

This cake recipe was inspired by a similar recipe in the book Eating Without Heating.

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with pine nut ricotta, pistachio pesto, and rich tomato sauce

Pine Nut Ricotta

2 C raw pine nuts, soaked 1 hour

2 T fresh lemon juice

2 T nutritional yeast

1 t salt

6 T pure water

Place pine nuts, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt in the food processor.  Pulse until thoroughly combined.  Gradually add the water, a little at a time, and blend until the mixture looks much like ricotta cheese.  Set aside.

Pistachio Pesto

2 heaping C well-packed fresh basil leaves

2/3 C unsalted raw pistachios

1/3 C extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 t salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients into the food processor and process until well combined.  Set aside.

Rich Tomato Sauce

1 ½ C sundried tomatoes, soaked in water a couple hours (do not soak if they come already soaked in oil)

2 medium tomatoes, diced

½ small sweet onion, diced

2 T fresh lemon juice

¼ C extra virgin olive oil (less if using sundried tomatoes soaked in oil)

4 t raw agave nectar or honey

2 cloves garlic

2 t salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Squeeze as much of the water (or oil) as you can from the sundried tomatoes.  Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until very smooth.  Set aside.

Lasagna “Noodles”

3 medium zucchinis (peeling is optional), ends cut off and sliced lengthwise in very thin, 3-inch lengths (I use a mandoline slicer)

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T chopped fresh oregano

1 T chopped fresh thyme

Pinch of salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Gently toss the zucchini “noodles” in the olive oil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Lasagna “Meat”

3 medium tomatoes, sliced thinly

Garnish

Fresh basil leaves

Assembly

Layer 1             Zucchini Noodles

Layer 2             Tomato Sauce

Layer 3             Dollops of Pine Nut Ricotta and Pistachio Pesto

Layer 4             Tomato Slices

Continue layering until all ingredients are used up.  Top with Basil Leaf garnish.

This can be made in a casserole dish or on individual plates.  I use room temperature ingredients and serve the lasagna room temperature.  (Do not cook it!)

This lasagna recipe was inspired by a similar recipe in the book Raw Food, Real World.

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Though cranberries are tiny, they are potent. Packed with nutrition, they are high in vitamin C and in fiber. But cranberries, like their relative the blueberry, also contain antioxidants in abundance which has antibacterial effects on the body.

In documents that have survived since the 17th century we have learned that cranberries were used then, not for their nutrition, but for an assortment of medicinal purposes: stomach ailments, liver problems, and blood disorders. Cranberries traveled to sea as a protection against scurvy. Though vitamin content as part of our daily nutrition was not known at the time, it was the high vitamin C content in cranberries that was valuable.

According to the USDA’s largest study, measuring both the concentration and the antioxidant capacity per serving size, cranberries, blueberries and black berries shine as the brightest stars.

Cranberries are tart to our tongues, but they are even tarter when confronting free radicals which goes beyond the nutrition of vitamins. What are free radicals? They are atoms that scour our bodies’ cells, harming them so that the immune system is too weakened to resist disease. Plant foods provide anti-oxidants which fight free radicals. Cranberries are among the highest of the antioxidant plants. Drink cranberry juice, eat fresh cranberries in season and dried cranberries out of season. Pack in the nutrition.

Proanthocyanidins, also called tannins, prevent bacteria (including Escherichia coli) from adhering to the urinary tract. We have long used cranberries as a cure for urinary tract infections. This also protects the cranberry itself and may have evolved to prevent it in the damp climate in which it lives.

The major flavonoids in freshly squeezed cranberry juice are quercetin and myricetin.

Quercetin is found to be the most active of the flavonoids in studies. Quercetin has anti-inflammatory activity because it inhibits some of the process of inflammation at the onset.

Myricetin is a flavonoid (pigment) and is considered an antioxidant. Fighting free radicals, it is thought to have anti-cancer properties, including the ability to lower the chances of prostate cancer. Myricetin may also lower cholesterol levels.

Oxalates. Cranberries’ are high in oxalates, which can rob the body of calcium and can be a cause of kidney stones.

Terpenes create the spicy scent and combined with other phenolic compounds give it its tart, astringent taste.

Click here for a recipe for delicious Cranberry Relish.

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For a long time, Christians have shied away from yoga because of its connection with Eastern religions.  In our home, however, we do yoga-type exercise as a way to remain fit.  It is EXCELLENT exercise and fun for the whole family.  My husband has significantly decreased his back and joint pain by strengthening his core through yoga-type exercise.  He does a simple routine every morning and every evening.  There are many other Christians like us who have discovered that this kind of exercise is not religion, but a wonderful way to care for our bodies.

My clients who have done yoga-type exercise throughout their pregnancies have been in great shape for delivery and find it very easy to assume whatever labor or delivery position is needed.  They also have a quicker recovery after giving birth.

I am aware of two Christian yoga organizations, “Yahweh Yoga” and “Holy Yoga”, but there may be more.  I recently discovered that “Holy Yoga” has DVDs that are specifically for pregnant women.  This would be a great way to introduce beneficial yoga-type exercise to Christian friends and clients who may have been hesitant to consider it in the past.

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Ingredients:

12 oz fresh cranberries (not dried)

1 orange, peeled and seeds removed

1 apple, cored

8 – 10 oz. dates, stems and pits removed

2/3 C raw walnuts

Juice of 1 orange

Directions:

Place all ingredients (except orange juice) in a food processor and process until coarsely chopped.  Place in a beautiful bowl and mix in the orange juice.

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