Swine Flu, from Rosita in Belize

Those people that died in Mexico from this stain of influenza did not seek medical help until they had been sick for a couple weeks.Then the Doctors and Nurses that saw the people didn't know what to make of the problem and didn't give appropriate treatment.

Limit your intake of "Media Influenza".

Low Levels of Amniotic Fluid No Risk To Normal Birth

February 7, 2003

From Midwifery Today

Doctors may not have to deliver a baby early if it has low levels of amniotic fluid surrounding it, Johns Hopkins obstetricians report.

In a study to be presented Feb. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco, researchers show that babies born under such conditions fared similarly to those born to women whose wombs held normal amounts of amniotic fluid. No significant differences were found in the babies' birthweights, levels of acid in the umbilical cord blood, or lengths of stay in the hospital.

Typically, doctors have been concerned about women with low levels of amniotic fluid during the third trimester – a condition called oligohydramnios – because too little fluid can be associated with incomplete development of the lungs, poor fetal growth and complications with delivery. Amniotic fluid is measured by depth in centimeters. Normal amounts range from 5 to 25 centimeters; any amount less than 5 centimeters is considered low.

"These study results are very surprising – they go against the conventional wisdom," says Ernest M. Graham, M.D., senior author of the study and assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics. "Amniotic fluid stems from the baby's urine, and the urine results from good blood flow, so if we see low fluid we assume there probably is not good blood flow and the fetus is compromised. This study shows the fluid test is not as good as we thought, and there is most likely no reason to deliver the baby early if other tests are normal."

The researchers studied 262 women (131 with oligohydramnios and 131 with normal amounts of amniotic fluid) who gave birth at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between November 1999 and July 2002, comparing the babies' health at birth. Patients with oligohydramnios were delivered sooner, but were less likely to need Caesarian sections. Babies born to moms with isolated low amniotic fluid were normal size and were at no increased risk of respiratory problems, immature intestines or brain disorders.

Study co-authors were Rita Driggers, Karin Blakemore and Cynthia Holcroft.

Abstract # 318: Driggers, R. et al, "Are Neonatal Outcomes Worse in Deliveries Prompted by Oligohydramnios?"

Related Web sites:

Women's health services at Johns Hopkins
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/women.html

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
http://www.smfm.org

MEDIA CONTACT: Karen Blum
PHONE: 410-955-1534
E-MAIL: kblum@jhmi.edu

The Land Is Healing Me...

Fox Haven's Story

I exist within a nested web of being. I am a holon: simultaneously whole unto myself and a part of other living wholes. Long ago, people named this place Catoctin -"Land of Abundant Wildlife." I am a part of Catoctin, as many other beings are a part of me.

My body rests upon ancient bedrock bones, and my flesh, worn from those bones, covers itself with trees. I am a complex forest- this is my natural self-expression.

There was a time when the tissue of soil and plants over my bones was thick, rich, and resilient. People appreciated my wild nature. They gave me the gift of renewing fire, encouraging my fullest expression. In return, I gave them abundance: nuts and berries, and animals. We nourished each other.

Later, others came. When these people met me, they saw me as a savage to be tamed. They did not know that I could nourish them in my fullest expression, or that they could nourish me in return. I lost much of my tissue - plants, wildlife, and soil - in a very short time,
over and over again.

I always spring back. I am transformation. I unfold myself in every moment, each creation transcending a previous destruction. My slopes give a glimpse of how magnificently diverse I can be. I cover myself with beings within beings, nested one inside the other in glorious array.

-courtesy of H.C.

My Earth Day

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life
and my children's lives may be,
I go lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief, I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

-Wendall Berry

From Mothering magazine, safety of fetal ultrasounds

http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_preparation/ultrasound-risks.html

This Will Open Your Heart

This was sent to me from my beautiful friend Rose Khalsa, an incredible cranial sacral therapist practicing in Takoma Park....


DOWNWIND FROM FLOWERS

Several years ago in Seattle, Washington, there lived a 52- year-old
Tibetan refugee. "Tenzin," as I will call him, was diagnosed with one of
the more curable forms of lymphoma. He was admitted to the hospital and
received his first dose of chemotherapy. But during the treatment, this
usually gentle man became extremely angry and upset. He pulled the IV out
of his arm and refused to cooperate. He shouted at the nurses and became
argumentative with everyone who came near him. The doctors and nurses were
baffled. Then Tenzin's wife spoke to the hospital staff. She told them
Tenzin had been held as a political prisoner by the Chinese for 17 years.
They killed his first wife and repeatedly tortured and brutalized him
throughout his imprisonment. She told them that the hospital rules and
regulations, coupled with the chemotherapy treatments, gave Tenzin
horrible flashbacks of wha t he had suffered at the hands of the Chinese.

"I know you mean to help him," she said, "but he feels tortured by your
treatments. They are causing him to feel hatred inside - just like he felt
toward the Chinese. He would rather die than have to live with the hatred
he is now feeling. And, according to our belief, it is very bad to have
hatred in your heart at the time of death. He needs to be able to pray and
cleanse his heart."

So the doctors discharged Tenzin and asked the hospice team to visit him
in his home. I was the hospice nurse assigned to his care. I called a
local representative from Amnesty International for advice. He told me
that the only way to heal the damage from torture is to "talk it through."

"This person has lost his trust in humanity and feels hope is impossible,"
the man said. "If you are to help him, you must find a way to give him
hope."

But when I encouraged Tenzin to talk about his experiences, h e held up his
hand and stopped me. He said, "I must learn to love again if I am to heal
my soul. Your job is not to ask me questions. Your job is to teach me to
love again."

I took a deep breath. I asked him, "So, how can I help you love again?"

Tenzin immediately replied, "Sit down, drink my tea and eat my cookies."
Tibetan tea is strong black tea laced with yak butter and salt. It isn't
easy to drink! But that is what I did. For several weeks, Tenzin, his
wife, and I sat together, drinking tea. We also worked with his doctors to
find ways to treat his physical pain. But it was his spiritual pain that
seemed to be lessening. Each time I arrived, Tenzin was sitting
cross-legged on his bed, reciting prayers from his books. As time went on,
he and his wife hung more and more colorful "thankas," Tibetan Buddhist
banners, on the walls. The room was fast becoming a beautiful, religious
shrin e.

When the spring came, I asked Tenzin what Tibetans do when they are ill in
the spring. He smiled brightly and said, "We sit downwind from flowers." I
thought he must be speaking poetically. But Tenzin's words were quite
literal. He told me Tibetans sit downwind so they can be dusted with the
new blossoms' pollen that floats on the spring breeze. They feel this new
pollen is strong medicine. At first, finding enough blossoms seemed a bit
daunting. Then, one of my friends suggested that Tenzin visit some of the
local flower nurseries. I called the manager of one of the nurseries and
explained the situation.

The manager's initial response was: "You want to do what?" But when I
explained the request, the manager agreed. So, the next weekend, I picked
up Tenzin and his wife with their provisions for the afternoon: black tea,
butter, salt, cups, cookies, prayer beads and prayer books. I dropped them
off at the nursery and assured them I would return at 5:00.

The following weekend, Tenzin and his wife visited another nursery. The
third weekend, they went to yet another nursery. The fourth week, I began
to get calls from the nurseries inviting Tenzin and his wife to come
again. One of the managers said, "We've got a new shipment of nicotiana
coming in and some wonderful fuchsias and oh, yes! Some great daphne. I
know they would love the scent of that daphne! And I almost forgot! We
have some new lawn furniture that Tenzin and his wife might enjoy."

Later that day, I got a call from the second nursery saying that they had
colorful wind socks that would help Tenzin predict where the wind was
blowing. Pretty soon, the nurseries were competing for Tenzin's visits.

People began to know and care about the Tibetan couple. The nursery
employees started setting out the lawn furniture in the direction of the
wind. Others would bring out fresh hot water for their tea. Some o f the
regular customers would leave their wagons of flowers near the two of
them. It seemed that a community was growing around Tenzin and his wife.

At the end of the summer, Tenzin returned to his doctor for another CT
scan to determine the extent of the spread of the cancer. But the doctor
could find no evidence of cancer at all. He was dumbfounded. He told
Tenzin that he just couldn't explain it.

Tenzin lifted his finger and said, "I know why the cancer has gone away.
It could no longer live in a body that is filled with love. When I began
to feel all the compassion from the hospice people, from the nursery
employees, and all those people who wanted to know about me, I started to
change inside. Now, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to heal
in this way. Doctor, please don't think that your medicine is the only
cure. Sometimes compassion can cure cancer, as well."



We all...must take Time...to smell the flowers and observe the nature...all around us...we will have a smoother Journey...to the next...Paths...

Colleagues' Creation

April 20, 2009

Wild Feminine: Tami Lynn Kent

Entrant: Sarah E. Wylie, ND Midwife
Nominee: Tami Lynn Kent, Women’s Health Physical Therapist

Tami Lynn Kent is a scribe for those of us pioneering back into the frontier we collectively left behind, the Wild Feminine. Tami’s gift is to illuminate, and create a specific language for us to communicate about the female energetic presence within our flesh.

Tami Lynn is a mother to three sons, and women’s health physical therapist. Her hunt for the Wild Feminine, our divine femininity has brought us riches! She has sat with us, hours with hundreds of women, who have complaints that would otherwise fall on deaf ears. She is the healer who listens to the vagina, the sentient organ who never lies. Tami has brought relief to hundreds of ladies who couldn’t enjoy sexual intercourse, or suffer with vague or specific feelings of pain and unrest, or struggle with post-partum hurts.

This year Tami has presented us with a book, “Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit, & Joy in the Root of the Female Body,” that clearly connects us to what she has discovered in her uniquely defined profession. This book brings together all that she has learned about the pelvic bowl, the wellspring of creative and healing spiritual energy, the place where spirit becomes matter.

This book covers the physical as well as the spiritual-energetic systems of the female body. It is written from a truly a unique perspective and will weave together the lessons we have learned from our great teachers, Dr. Northrup, Dr. Arvigo, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Caroline Myss and Ina May Gaskin — to name just a few. This book is also written in a way that all students of natural medicine and women’s health, regardless of experience or training can comprehend.

Tami’s pioneering work is also reflected in her way of being. She is the least conflicted self-employed mother that I know. From her grounded pelvic bowl, she seems to know exactly how and where to set limits upon her work in the world outside her family. As a working mother, I reference her and then remember to connect to my pelvic bowl whenever I feel conflicted about the demands from my professional relations. Mothering our children and our masterpieces comes from this core space in the pelvic bowl. Tami, by way of her awareness, intelligent perspective and artful writing, is offering us the opportunity to dig in to our birthright, the divine feminine who lives within each of us.

Tami Lynn Kent is a true hero for the female body and the feminine within all bodies. Let us make her book Wild Feminine a classic now, so that together we can heal the earth and her peoples, from this place of centered femininity.