Congratulations to TIF Member and guest author Joe Withrow and wife Rachel for bringing their beautiful daughter into the world the old fashioned way.

An excerpt from Joe's blog post with details is below. The full post can be found on his website at Zenconomics.com on  The Majesty of Childbirth.

Mrs. Cog

 

The Majesty of Childbirth

Madison made her entrance last week!

She was born on October 20 at 9:59 pm right here in Hot Springs, VA.

In our dining room.

Oh don’t worry, we put the dining room table out in the garage and replaced it with an Aqua Doula pool and a queen-size mattress.

The result: a healthy 7 lbs 11 oz baby girl born completely naturally with no invasive interventions or pharmaceutical drugs necessary. Just like childbirth has been done for thousands of years!

Wife Rachel said the homebirth experience has far exceeded her expectations in every aspect.

Instead of laboring on her back underneath fluorescent lights hooked up to an I.V., monitors, pain-killers, and labor-enhancing drugs, Rachel paced back and forth from our Great Room to our kitchen while verbally telling Madison she couldn’t wait to meet her. No one was around to bother her save her husband who valiantly tried to be a breathing exercise leader while also laboring himself to fill up the 170 gallon Aqua Doula pool. Needless to say, Madison did not wait around to test her sea legs and she was born very peacefully on dry land… into her father’s waiting hands.

Upon her birth, there was no one waiting to rush her off to be weighed, measured, poked, prodded, or checked so Madison had to settle for laying in her loving mother’s arms instead. While mother and baby bonded in those first few minutes of life, our midwife and doula worked gently to make sure both parties were in good health as the birthing process neared completion. Once confident in the health of mother and baby, our health care team worked diligently to clean and sanitize the area, provide food and water, do laundry, provide advice, tips, and reassurance, and countless other things that a star-struck father couldn’t possibly pick up on in the most defining moment of his life.

Our midwife and doula monitored the situation and provided sound counsel for roughly four hours post-birth as well. “This is what real health care looks like”, I thought. Our midwife came back out to our house for a 36 hour appointment and then again for a five-day appointment. She also answered several phone calls and text messages at weird hours during the stretch in-between appointments as well.

The result of such wonderful health care service is that both mother and baby are in terrific health despite not having left the comfort of their own home. It will be more than two weeks from birth before mother and baby will need to leave their home for another appointment.

The entire experience has confirmed what we knew all along – that natural childbirth at home is a much healthier and happier alternative to hospital birth for both mother and baby.

Of course few others understood this. Some just shrugged at the eccentricity of such an endeavor. Some turned their nose up in disgust. Some thought us to be ignorant, selfish, and cheap.

What they didn’t see were the countless hours dedicated to learning, study, and research over the course of nine months. They didn’t see the pages turning in the books that were read. They didn’t see the computer screen scrolling as medical studies and articles were mentally consumed. They didn’t drive an hour and a half to natural childbirth classes every Thursday evening for six weeks after a full work-day to increase their knowledge and understanding before driving an hour and a half back home to get ready for the following work-day. They didn’t watch the videos and the documentaries or practice the comfort techniques or study the possible complications and their signs. They didn’t sit up at night discussing emergency plans and precautions. They didn’t give up coffee, tea, and soda (caffeine) or dramatically reduce their intake of processed foods for nine full months. They didn’t eliminate glucose from their diet for a full week in the final week of their pregnancy.

But someone did do all of these things.

Someone put the time, effort, and work in to make sure they were making the best decisions possible and to make sure they were fully prepared for what was to come. Someone decided that she would be responsible for educating herself first rather than being wholly dependent upon the status-quo.

Someone decided she would be Super-Mom.

To her I pledge my eternal love, respect, and service.

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

by Mrs. Cog

As I begin to understand more about protecting my own health and that of my family, I find research now shows that as vital as avoiding exposure to a potential health threat may be, it is equally if not more important to condition my internal defense system. Because I cannot see the microscopic threats I encounter, I am excited to discover I can convert my body into a colonies of superheroes, ready to take on foreign invaders that would make me ill.

Perhaps you have heard that the human body is full of both beneficial and harmful micro-organisms, even when you are in a state of excellent health. The bacteria in your body outnumber your body's cells by 10 to 1. With many trillions of them co-existing inside of you, maintaining good health or succumbing to dis-ease is often as simple as finding a good internal balance within your inner physical world.

Many species of microbes live inside our digestive systems and are often referred to as gut flora. Lining the inside of the “gut system” are many millions of neurons, more than are located in the spinal cord, making it the only organ in the human body with its own independent nervous system that can continue to function even after communication with the brain is disconnected. This extensive system and the ecosystem which lives there interact with each other to ultimately determine the strength of your immune system.

It is a bit misleading to label these micro-organisms as “good” or “bad” because their presence is usually beneficial… until it is not and the balance becomes skewed. Not only do various colonies of these micro-organisms exist to keep each other in check, as well as to shut down bacteria, viruses and fungi which do not belong, but they also cue the creation and balance of brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine which we have all come to know and love.

Understanding our automated immune responses is vital to staying healthy because it is directly influenced by what we eat, drink and expose ourselves to. Here are some important points to note in order to optimize our internal eco-systems.

First and foremost, when our routines include substances that are antibacterial, pasteurized, processed and irradiated, we are setting the stage for greater susceptibility to sickness as beneficial microbes are also targeted making us weaker. Genetically modified foods (GMO) and antidepressants also have drastically negative impacts on friendly bacteria. Conversely, whole, natural, raw, unprocessed and organic foods encourage a healthy balance and allow our immune system to do the job it was created for.

Probiotics are beneficial micro-organisms which we introduce to our system. A trip down the aisle at the grocery or drug store is all one needs to gasp at the prices of these for they are very expensive. Yogurt contains probiotic qualities, but are often processed or treated to render them minimally effective. All probiotics are not made equally, and as with most things I advocate looking into making your own simple, potent and cheap at home. This can be accomplished through fermented foods.

An entire market for self-fermented foods has recently burst onto the scene, although the traditions of preserving food and benefiting from the process are ancient and have been documented throughout time. From the research I have begun it seems one can ferment almost any vegetable and use a variety of methods, ranging from simple to complex, to arrive at the end result.

In our home, we have kept it simple thus far and embarked on an adventure of homemade raw sauerkraut.  The simplicity of this delivery system introduces lactobacilli adding huge advantages to our immune systems as well as helping to reverse prior damage resulting in food allergies and even gluten intolerance.

The time to do away with the “kill all bacteria” mindset is here. By taking a bit of time to understand that our natural state IS one of good health and how to regain that level of immunity, we can better withstand whatever nasty bugs the world may toss in our direction.

 

Gut Flora Accounts for up to 80% of Immunity, Not Vaccinations Natural Society

Gut Flora Wikipedia

How microbes in the gut influence anxiety, depression Natural News

That gut feeling The APA Monitor

Gut Health Point of Return

Think Twice: How the Gut's "Second Brain" Influences Mood and Well-Being  Scientific American

Probiotics: Essential Supplements Or Waste Of Money? Waking Times

How microbes in the gut influence anxiety, depression Natural News

Psychobiotics: Bacteria For Your Brain? GreenMed Info

6 Surprising Facts About the Microbes Living in Your Gut Healthline

The Extreme Importance in Maintaining Second Brain ‘Gut’ Health Natural Society

Gut bacteria linked to immune system cancer, lymphoma Medical News Today

A Diet Rich in Animal Products Alters Gut Bacteria Rapidly and Profoundly Natural Society

Prebiotic vs Probiotic – What’s the Difference? Global Healing Center

Does Sauerkraut Have All the Probiotics I Need? Livestrong

Fermenting Foods—One of the Easiest and Most Creative Aspects of Making Food from Scratch Mercola

Fermented Food for Beginners: Lacto-Fermented Vegetables Nourishing Days

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