ElementalMom

Pardon me in advance if this is incoherent and raging. It’s mostly because, well, I’m incoherent and raging currently.

So here’s the deal. The Lancet is going to retract Andrew Wakefield’s study about MMR and autism.

Just think about that for a moment.

I don’t give a wet slap about whether or not you think vaccines have anything to do with autism. Just throw that out of your heads for a minute. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Wakefield’s paper was the worst piece of garbage science you’ve ever seen. I don’t happen to believe that, personally, but go ahead and run with it, for the point of the argument.

The Wakefield study is 12 years old. T-w-e-l-v-e. Do you really, genuinely think, that the Lancet has only published one bullshit paper in twelve years?

OK, how about this? The Hannah Term Breech Trial. This one paper, published in 2000, is the reason that a breech baby is considered an automatic cesarean section. And it’s complete crap. Dr. Marek Glazerman ripped it apart (also in the Lancet), and Hannah herself also published a retraction of sorts which showed that her data was not spot on, but they should go ahead and cut women open anyway.

This particular piece of peer-reviewed dogmeat continues to be cited over, and over, and over again. And gee, you don’t see the Lancet retracting it, do you?

Vaccinations are more profitable than non-vaccinations (and I won’t even go into the profit involved in vaccine damage, because we’re playing along with the Wakefield-is-a-loony side for the purpose of argument).  Cesareans are more profitable than non-cesareans, and I’m not going to go into the profits of cesarean damage here either, I’ve done it elsewhere.

Maybe it’s just that my cynicism is showing, but I’m pretty sure that what we’re seeing here is not any sort of scientific method that Al-Biruni or Roger Bacon would recognize. Oh, that’s right. That’s because they were scientists, and what we’re seeing now is more the purview of economics.

Tags: Al-Biruni, Lancet retraction, MMR, MMR and autism, scientific method, vaccination, Wakefield

• Just had to boot up my old HP laptop to retrieve some FTP paths. Wish there was a way to resurrect it. #
• Still sick, but it hasn't stopped me from glancing at the phone every 15 minutes. Come ON Uberjob! You know you want me!!!! #
• The cool thing about editing for Hunt Press is that I get to read the coolness first. Zenschooling rocks! http://bit.ly/abLEHV #
• The Cove nominated for an Oscar! Go sign the petition to end the slaughter, here: http://bit.ly/4kim7 #Cove #
• RT @SeaShepherd: Aiding whaling could soon be a crime – http://bit.ly/cr3bGf YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #
• UberJob has decided I'm not their girl. Moping in my near future. Time to start hitting the grapevine: Hey folks, I'm looking for work! #
• Wow. Wind just *really* picked up. Boat's bouncing, and there are whitecaps in the marina with a southerly. Wheee! #
• Gorgeous morning of a dayful of possibility. #
• Checking out MacENC Marine Navigation Software. HT Syzygy. http://bit.ly/diWPIE #navigation #
• RT @ScottBourne: Story in the Times showing what happens when folks expect creatives to give it up for free – http://bit.ly/cCLCIg #

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Yes, you.

Look, all the great families of the Middle Ages and Renaissance were patrons of the arts. They recognized that life without art was nothing, and so they sponsored some of the greatest talents and finest minds of their time, with the end result that we’re still looking back on the heights that art attained during that supported period of time.

Today, not so much. I don’t know a single artist who isn’t having to be their own marketing department too, who isn’t taking time away from creation to hustle for the groceries. And frankly, that diminishes us all; every moment that great artists are holding down a desk or flipping a burger is a moment they aren’t spending creating works that inspire, that motivate, that energize and delight.

To that end, if you’re not familiar with it, I’d like to tell you about Kickstarter. In their own words, Kickstarter is:

… a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.

We believe that…

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

My brilliant, talented, gorgeous pal Angela has a Kickstarter project going that fully deserves to be funded and then some. Please go check it out, and become a patron of the arts. Especially now, when times are hard and the world is wooly, sometimes art is the best expression of what we’re capable of as a culture. If we want history to remember us for something other than Wall Street, we have to leave behind art that will speak for us. So step up to the plate, please, and consider patronage.

Tags: Angela Hunt, Art, Between Heaven & Hell, hunt press, Kickstarter

• Waiting by the phone like a lovesick teenager, for the UberJob to call back for the Round 2 interview. #
• Today's version of Chicken Soup for the Entire Family (all of whom are still sick) turned out darned fine, if I do say so myself! #
• RT @EFF: Why EFF's icon is dark today: http://www.internetblackout.com.au/ #nocleanfeed – thanks @OzNetBlackout #
• Off to get my hair done. Y'know, should the UberJob decide to call me back. #
• Just finished giving an *awesome* shiatsu session for an awesome friend. I love love loves me some shiatsu! #
• OK, so lunch made, boat straightened… must be time to resume pacing, waiting to hear from the UberJob. #
• Happy birthday Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! Thank you especially for the 41st in C Maj! #
• Oh, beautiful, the sun is shining! YEAH! #
• aaaaaand there goes the sun, behind a cloud again. Sigh. Well it was great while it lasted. #
• RT @quennessa: Kickstarter – Between Heaven & Hell Exhibition: http://bit.ly/69zSHk *smooch* #
• Very cool! WTG Ted and crew, at Urban Hunter Gatherer! http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/learning-to-love-roadkill/Content?oid=1564598 #
• So much for this morning's glorious sunshine. It's all overcast and crappy again. Sigh. #
• Got the winch for the main sheet and traveller reinstalled yesterday. Now, just eight more winches to go! ::sigh:: #sailing #
• Purging some great sailing and home/unschooling books. You know you want them. Go join PaperbackSwap! http://bit.ly/aVgwUU #
• @sufficiency OK, so for your next challenge… ever found a good, gluten-free challah? in reply to sufficiency #
• Still waiting on the UberJob. I am considering it to be an exercise in faith and perseverance. #
• @jonaiello "Asking a writer to edit their own stuff is a lot like asking an engineer to do their own QA. Both are doomed ventures." #editing #

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This just in from ACOG:

Ob-Gyns Encouraged to Screen Women for Depression During and After Pregnancy

“As ob-gyns, we recognize that postpartum depression is a serious health issue that we need to direct more attention toward,” says Gerald F. Joseph, Jr, MD, president of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Postpartum depression is the theme of Dr. Joseph’s 2009-2010 presidential initiative. “Screening for depression during pregnancy is also important to identify it early on and to help prevent a worsening of the condition after delivery.

“With over 4 million births in the US every year, we’re talking about a huge number of women with postpartum depression—between 200,000 to more than one million each year. Unfortunately, we don’t have the data at this time to support a firm recommendation for universal antepartum and postpartum depression screening,” says Dr. Joseph. “Nonetheless, we realize the importance of screening our patients so that we can start gathering the data for future evidence-based guidelines.”

Multiple depression screening tools are available, according to the new Committee Opinion. Women diagnosed with depression during pregnancy or postpartum should be referred for treatment and follow-up evaluation.

You have got to be kidding me. You think a lot of women have postpartum depression in this country? YOU ARE DAMNED WELL RIGHT THEY DO! AND THEY NEED SUPPORT, NOT TREATMENT!!!!!!!!!

I mean, can you imagine what would happen to postpartum depression diagnoses if new mothers were told “congratulations! Here’s your baby! And your freezer is now stocked with healthy, frozen meals, so you don’t have to shop or meal plan or cook for the first two weeks, and we’ll be sending someone over every day, so you can get a shower, and we’ve set a stack of “visitor guideline” brochures at your door, so everyone who visits brings food and knows to do a load of dishes or laundry when they visit. You’re all set! Happy Babymoon!”

But no. Right now, “treatment” for PPD is usually medication, and nothing else. Doesn’t actually help with any of the root causes of PPD, but makes the mothers less troublesome while they battle it out alone.

Now, I am not suggesting that there aren’t women out there who are genuinely in need of chemical intervention, because that’s the nature of their depression. For those women, pharmaceuticals are a boon. But for the vast, vast majority of women, it’s the combination of the crappiness of the birth experience combined with the complete lack of support from their families and their communities. It’s an established fact that women who have consistent, solid support postpartum have far less PPD than women who don’t.

Once again, ACOG misses the mark.

Tags: ACOG, postpartum depression, PPD, support not drugs

• RT @huntpress: New post – Love Your Authors – http://bit.ly/8jGfbo Thank you Dianne Hales! #bellalingua #
• Huge thunder, lightning, and hail, plus whitecaps inside the marina. Awesome!!!! #
• the sky is black, the sun is shining, and there's a double rainbow over us! #
• Barometric pressure is dropping so fast my watch can't keep up. Down around 980 or so. Wind is howling, and the boat is being tossed around #
• OMG Uber-cool job opp just asked for a prelim phone interview. SQUEEE!!! Keep yer everthings crossed for me! #
• @purpleanvil YEAH! Let's go make some (electronic) noise!!! Can't wait! in reply to purpleanvil #
• Had prelim interview, and I'm more excited about this job opp than I was before! Possible 2nd interview next week… keep pulling for me! #
• In a twist of irony, Jason's passport expires the day before our appt at the Italian Consulate. Fate much? #
• @jonaiello That's a silly question. *Martians*, of course! #mars in reply to jonaiello #
• When life gives you smooshy bananas in the lunchbox… make banana bread. Mmmm. And it keeps the boat warm and smelling good! #
• RT @jonaiello: Whoa. Tornado Warning in the Bay Area. Specifically Discovery Bay area. http://tinyurl.com/ye77vu4 #
• HA! Just say no. http://bit.ly/55DBsa HT:@Webmink #
• A boat just drove by. The skipper was texting. I think I need to scream now. #

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I recently made a comment on my Facebook page about our family being in the process of getting Italian citizenship. The number of questions we received about it, both online and off, told me it was time to blog about it. So la, here we go.

First, the how.

Italy, ever-gracious and unique among nations in bestowing it, says that if you are descended from someone who never renounced their citizenship, or if your ascendants were born before your Italian ancestor renounced their citizenship, then you can claim Italian citizenship. The process is called jure sanguinis. It’s just a matter of bringing the correct paperwork proving this to the Italian Consulate and getting them to approve it. “You are already Italian,” one website states, “we are merely formalizing it.”

Sounds simple, yes? No. We’ve been at this for nearly two years. Just getting an appointment at the Consulate in San Francisco can take years. And assembling the paperwork? Insane. Birth and marriage certificates proving the chain of descent, all with apostilles, all with Italian translations. Letters of explanation and correction for any irregularities — like the fact that Jason’s grandmother was married at least once before she married his ascendant grandfather, so I have to get the marriage certificates showing that name change, even though that marriage has nothing to do with the line of descent or of the application, it’s just to show why the name is different. And if the names still don’t match (and they might not; she was married nine times, and has lost track of a few), then I need to track the others down, too. Letters from various government agencies that record citizenship. Census bureaus, county courthouses, you name it. Bits and pieces, all verified, notarized, translated… the stack of paper in my office is over an inch thick at this point.

And that’s just for Jason and the kids. I’m not eligible. I have to wait until Jason is approved. Then we register our marriage in Italy. Then I can apply. That process, jure matrimonis, involves FBI background checks, fingerprints, and all kinds of other madness. But it’s probably years off, so I’m not freaking out about it just yet. Besides, between my jure matrimonis application and the awarding of their jure sanguinis application, is the application for all of their passports.

Technically, it should be Jason doing this, but ours is a marriage of differing skills, and after he took one look at the list of documents required and broke out in a sweat, we decided I should take the lead on this, and leave him to less daunting (to him) pursuits, like totally rebuilding the engines in the boat. Thank goodness I’m good with paper. Thank goodness also that one of Jason’s cousins, eligible through the same ascendant great-grandfather, has already been completely through the process and can hold my hand a bit when I freak out completely. Having his completed file as a reference for ours will most likely speed the process along a bit, which is big, since approval once the file is complete can also take years.

I mentioned above that everything must be translated into Italian. I found a lovely professional translator here in Berkeley, (more about her in a future post), who also told us “Italians are passionate people. Therefore, if you write a “love letter” to Italy and put that on top of your packet, it’ll help.” Can I just say, I love the idea that that matters? That pouring your heart out about why you care about this process is likely to sway them favorably? In my dealings with American functionaries, I’ve found emotion to be a liability, not an asset.

There are entire forums dedicated to helping people out with this process. You can find tales of woe, tales of success, and cautionary tales. It’s fascinating to see who is doing this, and why.

Next post, I’ll cover the why.

Tags: becoming Italian, Citizenship, Italy, jure sanguinis

My sister-in-law, Ria, is pregnant with my first niece. I’m totally, totally stoked about it. And as my readers know, I’m a bit of a birth freak. No, really. And when I first found out about Ria’s pregnancy, I swore up and down that I was going to keep my mouth shut, let her make her own way, and keep my very strongly held opinions out of it.

And then she emailed me, to specifically ask for my help in getting the birth she wants. Eeek!

I rapidly realized that about 90% of everything I have in my arsenal is completely inappropriate. The videos friends have made talking about how much their cesareans suck and how important the battle for VBAC is are completely inappropriate (and probably terrifying) to a healthy, normal, first-time mother. I was out of my depth, and put a call out for some solid, inspirational, “you bet you can do this!” kinds of birth videos.

One of my ICAN list sisters sent a link to a film I hadn’t even heard of, “The Other Side of the Glass.”

I really thought I was past the point where birth videos, let alone birth documentary videos, made me cry. I was totally wrong. I can’t wait to see the actual film. For now, here’s the trailer. Enjoy!

Jonathan sent me this link the other day, possibly in response to my whining:

Raising kids may lower blood pressure

They turn Dad’s hair gray, but children can now take partial credit for the health of Mom’s heart. A new Brigham Young University study found that parenthood is associated with lower blood pressure, particularly so among women.

…

“While caring for children may include daily hassles, deriving a sense of meaning and purpose from life’s stress has been shown to be associated with better health outcomes,” Holt-Lunstad said.

Fascinating. So they’ve proven that meaning and purpose have health benefits. Can I have a great big fat duh here? But what I find really interesting is that they are taking as written that raising kids does confer that sense of meaning and purpose. I don’t find that to be a given at all, for a lot of parents. What do you think?

Tags: children, families, meaning and purpose, Parenting

The amazing Gloria Lemay put together a video montage of her memories of the 2008 Trust Birth Conference. Startlingly, Yours Truly figures in it. Cool!

If you can manage to get to the 2010 conference, you should. It’s amazing.

• Lovely paddle out in the Bay this morning. No baby harbor seals jumping on the boat today, though. #kayak #
• Vaguely freaking out about running down all the fiddly bits of documentation for our Italian citizenship. Bureaucracy intimidates me. #
• @jonaiello oh, it absolutely is. You have to really be serious about some things. in reply to jonaiello #
• RT @quennessa: Kickstarter – Between Heaven & Hell Exhibition: http://bit.ly/69zSHk still could use help and love! #
• Just finished the mother of all resume reworkings. Wish me luck; this is an *awesome* job opp. #
• Nothing cooler than lunch with @MissAdventuring #
• Beautiful pre-storm paddle this morning; really nice weather-watching and some fun swells n waves! #kayak #
• Quite possibly the best blog about the finance disaster, ever. http://bit.ly/4AvUCs Go Squid! #
• Help Haiti by Knitting: http://bit.ly/6g40Po #
• Skipped the morning paddle; still no wind, but it's dirty weather out there. #kayak #

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I have been fretting on whether or not to write this post since Christmas. Bear with me, folks. I hate walking the fine line between opinions and manners, and I feel like I there’s no way I can say this without pissing someone off. But since it’s a matter of physical harm, the right choice is to speak up.

Parents are often, but not always, aware of issues that non-child-having people aren’t, because they’re simply not on their radar. This is fair; there are many, many issues in this world that I’m oblivious to. I like to think I surround myself with people who can illuminate me. So please, if you’re “The Person” and you’re reading this, please don’t be hurt, please don’t be upset. Whoever you are, I hold you in high esteem for what you did, and I’m trying to help you out with what you don’t know.

Everyone confused yet?

Here’s what happened. On Christmas, some gorgeous, generous, fabulous person dropped two full garbage bags of carefully-wrapped, individually tagged gifts for my children, on our boat. This is real salt-of-the-earth stuff. They also left not a single identifying marker. I can’t place the handwriting, and I can’t figure out who the heck it was. Total Santa Moment, and I have teared up a few times over it.

Jason brought the bags to Nevada with him, and we opened them there. And then I figured out that our anonymous benefactor was not aware of what’s going on with toys.

There were approximately four gifts, in the entire two bags full, that I could allow my children to keep. You see… they were all made in China. They were painted with lead. They were contaminated with cadmium. They were plastics that would leach Bisphenol A into my children’s bodies. I spent the morning not playing joyfully with my kids, but explaining to them what kind of poison was involved with each toy that I (once Mommy, now Grinch) was not going to be allowing them to keep.

Thank God I am blessed with wise children, who get it, and there was minimal trauma involved.

As I cringed from the rotten position I’d been put in, I found myself raging, yet again, at a system that makes it a good idea for someone, somewhere, to make their money by poisoning kids, and that also keeps the public mostly unaware of this.

So what to do? If you’re going to give kids toys, the best guideline is to ask their parents first, and to stick with fewer, higher-quality, organic toys. I know this is the massive buzz-kill, but believe me, it’s better than forcing that kid’s parents into a position of literally taking the new toy out of their hands and pitching it into hazardous waste disposal, so that it can’t go on to hurt any other kids. Generally, things that your great-grandparents would recognize as toys are good bets: Blocks, play silks, carved wooden animals, handmade dolls. Something made, rather than something bought.

I haven’t even touched on issues of child labor, sweatshops, fair wages, or any of the other ethical issues in toymaking. I am only focusing on pure physical harm and poison. And I am frankly horrified at the idea that someone who didn’t know any better could have picked a totally beautiful and random set of toys and ended up with so very many things that would permanently damage kids. I am completely flipped out by the thought that there are a gazillion other American kids out there whose parents didn’t know, who got to play with that stuff, and whose brains and bodies are shriveling under the onslaught right now.

Heaven knows I’m not a luddite by any stretch, but since I had to go through my kids’ toys and purge for lead once already, I’m a little sensitive. And apparently not without good reason. It’s gotten really dangerous out there, and we live in a world where profit is more important than children’s health.

Tags: bisphenol A, cadmium, children's toys, ethical toys, lead, lead in children's toys, toy safety

• Brilliant! Just say no thank you to privacy invasion for your children. http://tinyurl.com/ychxhnw #

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One of the most frustrating things I face, in the battle to help women get the births they deserve, is the fact that it’s often husbands, not women, who have the most paralyzing fear, and because of their fear, they’re willing to condemn their wives to the birth they themselves feel “safe” with. Usually, despite offering discussion, reference, and everything else I can think of to turn them around, they are steadfast in their (incorrect) belief, because they have nothing to lose; their wife does.

I wish with all my might I could introduce each and every one of those men to Lee Miller. Lee is the amazing husband of my pal Shaye, who I’ve blogged about here and here. Following is a letter Lee wrote to his Senator, regarding some bills that are coming up in his home state regarding midwifery.

5 January 2010

RE: LB 481, LB 457, & LB 406

Dear Senator Stuthman:

I am writing to ask you to prioritize LB 481, LB 457, and LB 406 – in that order – in 2010. I could cite altruistic reasons for this. I DO object to the masculinized scientific model of medicine that informs standard practices in hospitals and in OB/GYN offices. I AM troubled by the continued institutionalized oppression of women through practices that divorce women’s selves from their bodies without consulting them. And it IS important to me that lawmakers seek ways to liberate their constituents from legal constraints that require the wasting of vast human and economic resources. For me, this IS a matter of challenging western assumptions about knowledge (scientific or otherwise), capitalism, and gender. However, all those things aside, I write you today because I am a HUSBAND.

It would be all too easy to see LB 481, LB 457, and LB 406 as representing issues primarily associated with women – mothers and midwives. However, continued legal restraints on access to midwifery services, within and without hospitals, severely reduces awareness about these issues among both women and men. As it is right now, women in Nebraska are virtually powerless to assert themselves in the face of a legally supported system that does not do enough to interrogate its own practices and beliefs. And to the degree that this limits access and awareness to women, it does so even more with men, who have a longer road, I believe, to understanding the nature and importance of these issues.

I have been that husband in the sterile delivery room, completely dependent on an “expert,” trained in pathology, surgery, and policy. I’ve been there as the “expert” came and went, as nurses used unnecessary interventions without explaining (perhaps not understanding) the consequences, and as my wife went through the whole experience completely alone. And I’ve been there as the “expert” told me in no uncertain terms that, if this were his wife, “we’d be getting that baby out.” Thankfully, I have also been there as a Certified Nurse Midwife, trained in birth, nurtured the delivery of our third child. This time, our child was not cut out of my wife, and I was not cut out of the experience. Unfortunately, not only was this after two hospital cesarean births, but because we live in Nebraska, we had to drive 175 miles in the middle of the night amidst snow and freezing rain in order to employ the services of a midwife outside of a hospital. As best I can tell, this situation exists only to protect the interests of the medical establishment and the insurance companies (and their shareholders) to which they answer. I urge you to prioritize LB 481, LB 457, and LB 406 in order to change this. Thank you.

Sincerely,

B. Lee Miller, Ph.D.

I am so stoked to see a piece of reporting in a major news venue that gets it so very, very right, and also features a friend of mine, the inestimable Christie Craigie-Carter!

Obstretricians debate whether Caesarean section is always best for breech babies

Some American doctors still do breech deliveries if the mother requests it and the circumstances permit.

“If you select your breech patient carefully and thoughtfully, then it’s as safe for the baby as having a Caesarean section, and in some cases may be safer,” said Stuart Fischbein, a California obstetrician. He has delivered about 200 breech babies vaginally but in August was told by his hospital to stop. “The bottom line is litigation mitigation and economics,” he said. Regardless of expert guidelines, the reality is that few doctors who graduated in the last decade have the skills to deliver breech babies naturally. Lawrence said American medical students are taught the theory behind vaginal breech deliveries and have access to computer simulation training, but exposure to real cases is limited to residents who happen to be on call when a mother presents with a breech baby in advanced labor and it is too late to perform a Caesarean.

Canada faces the same problem. Having changed its guidelines, Lalonde’s group has put out a call to older physicians with the skills to deliver breech babies naturally to teach younger doctors. “The response has been good,” he said. “We’re going with the approach that this is something that has to be offered to all women, in all hospitals.”

Craigie-Carter, for one, would approve of that approach. After Joshua was born, she went on to have two more breech babies. The first was delivered by C-section. But for the second one, she found a skilled midwife near her New York home who was willing to help her deliver naturally. Her son Ryan was born without complications.

Tags: Andre Lalonde, Birth, breech birth, Breech Birth Coalition, Stuart Fischbein