Secrets of a Homebirth Dad
April 23, 2008 at 8:04 am | In Birth | Leave a CommentTags: Homebirth
Written by a Dad after the birth of his second child at home in London – Secrets of a Homebirth Dad
All Dads-to-be are nervous, or at least skeptical, when their wife/partner first mentions the idea of having a home birth. This is nothing to be ashamed of – us guys are conditioned by a lifetimes constant bombardment that Doctors know best and that it is our patriarch’s duty to always make the safest choices. That’s why when my wife Bel first brought up the idea for the birth of our second daughter, my first train of thought was about risk. Images of John Hurt’s chest cracking open and a tiny, evil alien being screeching its bloody arrival to the universe ran through my mind. I looked up at the walls of our apartment and wondered whether an arterial spray of blood could ever be washed out of that particular shade of off-white.
Ten minutes’ googling dissolved my misconception that home birth is reckless (with Bel peering over my shoulder and directing me to websites she’d already read). In a nutshell, there are studies for and against, but if you listen to your own common sense you will probably agree it’s just as safe, if not safer. You can find all that stuff for yourself, what I want to really want to talk about is the second train of though that ran through my head – why?
Why have a home birth? My wife had her reasons and she laid them out for me. Bel had a horrible experience in hospital with our first daughter and that was a big part of it. As Bel explained it to me I nodded and said ‘umm’ a lot and was happy to go along with it because I knew it was what she wanted. But I never had reasons of my own – from my selfish perspective as a Dad – until after I had experienced it for myself. These reasons are the 7 secrets I want to share with you Dads now so that you can appreciate your home birth the first time round.
GO HERE for the secrets
Fertility
April 23, 2008 at 6:47 am | In Fertility | 1 CommentTags: Fertility
Whenever talking about fertility issues, I avoid using the term “infertility” as much as possible. People truly underestimate the importance of language, not just in birth which I have mentioned before.
The diagnosing of “infertility” is grossly out of proportion to actual incidence and can have a devastating effect on couples. Most couples are not “infertile” but due to our modern lifestyles are simply out of balance. For instance 78.4% of previously diagnosed “infertile” couples that follow the Foresight Preconception program have healthy babies. This is a program that is based on eliminating toxins, restoring nutrient balance and making lifestyle changes.
It’s just common sense that if you aim to IMPROVE health rather than circumvent ILL HEALTH then you are going to have healthier mothers and babies! Studies done by the Foresight Foundation have shown that there is a significant reduction in miscarriages, perinatal deaths and malformations with their program.
Chinese medicine has been used in fertility treatment for several thousand years. The beauty of this system is that it brings the body back to balance and it’s very successful. Acupuncture and chinese herbs can regulate the menstrual cycle, balance hormones, improve uterine blood flow, circulation and uterine lining quality. It improves ovarian function, egg quality and the number of follicles. It also promotes relaxation and decreases chances of miscarriage and most people going down the IVF route know that it improves chances of success if you do acu with IVF.
A great book for understanding how chinese medicine can help is “The Infertility Cure” by Randine Lewis and her website is also very informative.
Gauging a Woman’s Health by her Fertility Signals is one of my favourite articles for people who want to understand more about how Chinese Medicine looks at fertility.
Practitioner sites with good laypeople resources include:
OK, I stop me there…I could harp on about this stuff till the cows come home (when do cows come home?). Next time I will just do as I intended and share links rather than start harping 
Love
Heatherx
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