Breastfeeding 1938

Coal miner's wife and child. Pursglove, West Virginia. 1938 Sept Here's the funny thing about these photos: During this time, it was the poor mothers who stayed fast to the natural art of breastfeeding, whereas metropolitan mothers and those who had better access to health care went to doctors who pushed formula and subsequently convinced them to feed their babies artificially.Now in 2008, poor, rural mothers statistically do not want to have anything to do with breastfeeding and mothers who are better off economically breastfeed in higher numbers -- what a flip-flop. Elita @ Blacktating Blog (not verified) wrote:

It's interesting that in order to provide free food to your baby you have to be well-off! Poor mothers can't afford breast pumps, don't get paid maternity leaves (if any leave at all!) and don't have the time or opportunity to pump. If I were faced with all of those challenges, I probably would've opted for the bottle, too.

The same with homebirth. It used to be that poor women could not afford the hospital delivery, so they delivered their babies at home with a granny midwife. Now, it is considered elitist to have a baby at home with a midwife since poor working women can only afford what their health care insurance will pay for - a hospital delivery.

"Baby" Gourds

Yesterday was refugee day at the clinic. I love Wednesdays. Many of our refugees are young married couples with little children. Last month I brought a basket of gourds in for decorations. It always amazes me what children will do to amuse themselves. Yesterday was no exception. The long gourds became babies that were rocked and "babied".

Pumpkin Bliss

I LOVE pumpkin, anything pumpkin - not to mention that it is an autumn fruit and love autumn and all the colors that go along with it. In fact, I bought BOXES of discounted orange lights on discount after that October holiday to put up around the farm for Thanksgiving. Look really cool at night along the fence.

Now that I am back on my no flour, no sugar LivIt, I was looking for something to finish off dinner tonight when pumpkin and tapioca came to mind. After some web searching (how did I ever cook with the computer) with nothing showing up that sounded good I just decided to combine the recipe on the pumpkin can with the recipe on the tapioca box.

Gran's Pumpkin Pudding with Tapioca

15 oz pumpkin

2 eggs

1 cup 1/2 and 1/2

1 cup 2% milk

1 t. vanilla

Mix well together

In a smaller bowl put

1 cup splenda (probably could use less)

1 t. Cinnamon

1/2 t. ginger

1/4 t. cloves

1/2 t. salt

3 T. tapioca

Mix well and add to pumpkin mixture.

Pour in container/s

I use a glass pyrex sprayed with PAM

Sprinkle nutmeg on top

Bake 350F until set in the middle - about an hour.

I need to tweak this of course. I like more spicey pumpkiny flavor.

Babies

Babies - God greatest gift to us after salvation and that is why I became a doula. I want to make sure that women accomplish birth the way they were made to.

As Nadine Goodman, Public Health Specialist, has put it: "What the medical profession has done over the past 40, 50 years is convince the vast majority of women that they don't know how to birth."

Saturday - Domestic Goddess Day

Beautiful sunny Saturdays always brings out the best in me. Sheets drying on the line, Soup bubbling on the stove, Soon to be baking pumpkin biscuits in the oven. This is the view that greet's me every morning. I love my maple tree, it holds its leaves longer than any of the others. It always made the best background for Christmas Family Photos.

I love gathering whatever is in the pantry and fridge and seeing what can be made. Today is no exception. Always on hand, besides typical staples, are celery, garlic, onions, potatoes - so there is no end to what I can create. Beginnings of a great meatloaf.

I also like to use up that last little bit of what ever so I can throw away the container. This morning it was that Krustez pancake mix that has been on the flour container near the stove since Kati and Tyler left in Sept. The men folk enjoyed delicious pancakes with REAL maple syrup. In the back of the cabinet above the fridge was a box, with just about 1 serving of cereal, that became my breakfast and there went another box. YES.

In between the chopping and cooking and boiling, I ran outside with more laundry. NOTHING is so satisfying as laundry hung on the line in its proper order. Got that obsession from my mom.

I will never forget how we would have these poles to hold the laundry off the ground and to let the wind blow easily through them. Laundry drying was such an art at our house: we had two lines under the back porch, one that ran from the porch to the maple tree (my favorite -cause it was on a pulley), and one that ran between to posts my dad put in along the back fence.

Finished the day with delicious baked macaroni and cheese with broccoli and homemade cookies for dessert. Debi, Jeanne, James and Douglas are playing pinochle.

And now I am relaxing with a cup of coffee, feet up and watching the Hallmark Channel. aaahhhhh

Mom fires OB during birth when threatened with a cesarean!

Now this is some woman. If we would all be this assertive when it comes to our bodies, outcomes would be so different. Talk about empowering. I remember it took everything within me to tell the surgeon during James' birth that if my husband wasn't going to be allowed in the OR then I would be leaving - very soon - and going to a hospital that would.


Mom fires OB during birth when threatened with a cesarean!
June 1, 2010 by enjoybirth
I LOVE this birth story, because it shows how moms can be so powerful during their births! Mom was induced at 42 weeks, but insisted that the pitocin was turned up slowly and refused to have her water broken.
Read more herehttp://hypnobabies.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/mom-fires-ob-during-birth-when-threatened-with-a-cesarean/

It's My Baby, My Body, My Birth

Tina | Myspace Video

Last night was our monthly CNY doula meeting. It amazes me that 7 first born women can actually get something accomplished. Last night was one of those nights. We talked alot but got a lot done. Plans for the next 6 months are in the works. Plus we view the video My Body, My Baby, My Birth - what an awesome movie and if you ever get the chance - check it out. Hopefully, we will be able to offer this at an upcoming meet and greet.

Here's a link as well http://itsmybodymybabymybirth.com/Home.html that tells more about this awesome video

Clinic FLowers

I LOVE orchids. Especially the large white ones. My son buys me a phalaenopsis orchid every Mother's Day and it seems that the clinic is the perfect place for growing these lovelies. My home is .... not so nice. I watched three die just this past summer.

My mom always had orchids on her window sills. She had one like this that would flower for 3-4 months at a time.

Villonia in Barneveld

Today was my last out of the office flu clinic. In a way, I am glad they are over but I do enjoy visiting the different villages and towns. Today was one of my favorites - The Senior Center in Barneveld. Barneveld is such a typical new england like village with a lot of history. Plus, they have a very active senior group. I have always said when I retire this is the group I'm going to spend time with. Today they had several groups playing mah jong as well as Uno, Canasta and Pitch. I loved the close country community of the people there too.

After we were finished giving all our flu shots and the nurses had packed up to leave, I took the time to find out what this sign I saw coming in was all about.

Vallonia - notice that "n". carved backwards - a mistake?? and the shadow of what looks like a "1" underneath it.

It is said that this word was part of a motto on Gerrit Boon's barn.

This mill was built in the area where the Steuben and Cincinnati Creek come together and flow south to the West Canada Creek. Boon thought he could make a yearly business of producing Maple Syrup but his venture wasn't successful.

I would love to know what this motto was. If anyone has insight into this please email me.

Jesus Loves Us...

Today was my turn with the babies, well 3 yr olds and under, for Sunday School. Rene and I share Sundays because last year there were only two children in nursery. Her grand child and mine. Faith is still there and Tyler has return to Kentucky but now we are joined by Zachary. I think he is the one responsible for me always saying "oh no" or is it the other way around. Or maybe we all say that and don't even realize it. Tyler's favorite exclamation was "Oh Maaan".

Today we learned about Jesus and little people. Well, actually, every Sunday we learn about how much Jesus Loves Us.

Here we are learning about sharing. I love this age. We get to learn about moms and dads and brothers and sisters and how much they love us and how much Jesus loves us and it is just plain cool talking with these youngsters.

This is Faith. She has a big sister and a soon to be born little brother and a sweet brown doggie names Holly.

And this is Zachary. He and I love to play with the building blocks. Today we tried to see how high we could build them.

Boring PODS

With Fall comes the dreaded flu clinics. I can't believe that I am actually admitting that I liked the very very busy too many people ones over what we have had this year.

PODS - point of distribution training for future emergencies was the highlight of this weeks flu distribution. Now, you might look at the photo below and think, wow, they look like they are working hard. HA HA - they were all playing cards because in the three hours we were there we only gave 30 vaccines. See we are getting so good at these PODS that the word must be out and people don't even show up so we can practice.
In reality, people are realizing the need for flu vaccines, especially in the younger crowd, and are taking advantage of the various places to get a flu vaccine other than through public health clinics.