Pregnancy Resources Malka Reichman

Pregnancy resources

Pregnancy is a beautiful and miraculous life process. Just like the baby is created without any human third party help, the birth process miraculously happens on its own. There is a fetal ejection reflex that humans like other mammals have to automatically eject the baby. There is no third party help necessary to birth a baby (in nearly all cases). The medicalized view is that pregnancy is almost a disease or an emergency waiting to happen. And in medicalized prenatal care, a pregnant woman is offered a range of routine testing for a range of ‘what ifs,’ none of which are necessary unless a person has distinct symptoms that indicate that there is a concern. Many women completely opt out of any kind of outsourced medicalized prenatal care and take care of themselves and their fetus well by only eating organic unprocessed food and walking 1-2 miles every day. See the What to Eat section on the website. Sleeping on the left side on a roll body roll pillow like from Yogibo is a comfortable pregnancy sleep position. Jumping on a trampoline can help ease the baby to a proper birth position.

Herbs for common concerns:

nausea

Ginger root made into teas. Use a Microplane shredder to grate 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger root and add boiling water and let it sit for 15 minutes. A fresh ginger root can be purchased at Whole Foods and stored in the freezer to have it fresh and available on demand.

headache

Rub on the temples peppermint essential oil, diluted with a bit of coconut oil so it is not too strong for the skin. A person should drink half their body weight in fluid ounces. Drinking more than

varicose veins

Regular walking for exercise helps keep blood circulating properly to prevent varicose veins. Veins unlike arteries do not have a pulse and need movement to keep optimal blood flow. Sleeping with legs slightly raised is preferred. Horse chestnut is a herb that may help with varicose veins, but not to be taken during pregnancy.

yeast infection

Raw garlic clove as a vaginal suppository; dilute tea tree essential oil with coconut oil and smear on a small piece of (preferably organic) cotton fabric to use as a vaginal suppository; Both these options need to be remembered to be removed.

UTI

Uva ursi tincture; unsweetened cranberry juice or more potent pureed cranberries; removing sugar from the diet; juniper berry

Medicalized prenatal care has risks but they are never mentioned.

Sonograms have been outlawed in Germany for low risk women and the FDA approval for them in the US is for only in extreme medical necessity, since the risk to the unborn baby is unknown. Sonograms never had FDA approval to be used for every woman, every visit! These sonogram machines cost thousands of dollars and having a sonogram technician is another salary to pay, so scanning every woman every visit makes fiscal sense for the doctor but not for the health of the woman and unborn baby. There are many so called genetic issues that are much more prevalent in the US than in Europe and it makes one wonder if ultrasound exposure to a fetus has what to do with it. Sonograms are non-ionizing radiation. They are not ‘just sound waves.’ Ultrasounds have been linked to autism, early miscarriage, infertility and cancers. The earlier in pregnancy the greater the sonogram risks to the fetus.

Jeanice Barcelo wrote a book expose on the serious dangers of ultrasound called The Dark Side of Prenatal Radiation. It can be purchased on her website Birthofanewearth.com. The fetal monitor that can be declined at birth uses uses ultrasound.

The doppler gives off radiation. To hear a heartbeat without any radiation, you can listen to a fetal heartbeat by yourself with a $15 fetoscope like from Dixie brand on Amazon. On Youtube you can learn where to position it.

What to be careful about in pregnancy

drinking enough filtered water

A person needs to drink half their body weight in fluid ouncers everyday. That means a 150 lb person, needs to drink 75 ounces of water everyday. There is an increase of 50% more blood volume during pregnancy so more water intake than usual is necessary. Not enough water can cause low amniotic fluid, premature labor, birth defects and later, not enough milk production. Drinking enough in addition to supporting the body and pregnancy, will prevent constipation, lower the risk of UTI and reduce swelling.

Not overeating

Pregnancy is not ‘eating for two’ adults since the fetus is tiny. A pregnant woman only needs 250-300 calories additional per day starting only in the second trimester. There is no additional calories needed in the first trimester. These additional calories should be from nutrient dense foods, like raw and cooked vegetables. It is not healthy and will cause unnecessary weight gain to eat after nightfall. A person pregnant – or not – should only drink water after nightfall.

Things to avoid

Aspartame (fake sugar) is toxic and can interfere with neuro fetal development. Medications are not tested on pregnant women (or fetuses). Even one dose of Tylenol can cause asthma in the baby, in addition to damaging the woman’s liver. Only herbal options should be used for nausea as these medications can cause fetal deformity.

A woman has options on where and what position to give birth.

It is only in the last 100 years that women routinely give birth in a hospital. Since birth is not a medical emergency, but rather a natural life event, low risk women have better outcomes giving birth at home. A licensed midwife is covered by most insurances. And they bring equipment for the very rare emergency. A good midwife will not interfere with the birth process at all and will just provide practical support for the laboring woman.

A birthing clinic is another option for a woman who doesn’t want to birth at home but doesn’t want the risks of unnecessary interventions in a hospital.

There is also an option called unassisted birth or ‘freebirth.’ A woman births wherever she wants without any professional present. Since labor happens best unhindered and it is a natural process that miraculously unfolds by itself, there is no need for professional help if a person is more comfortable birthing without it. You just apply yourself for a birth certificate and social security card at the government office.

If you are giving birth in a hospital, what to avoid or decline

epidural

This begins a cascade of medical interventions. These narcotics have never been tested for their effects on a fetus or a pregnant woman. An entire pregnancy women are told not to take any drugs because of unknown risks to the fetus and ironically at birth, a whole pharmacy of drugs is thrown at them, none which were tested on pregnant women and fetuses.

electric fetal monitoring (EFM)

EFM has three major concerns. It involves non-ionizing radiation like sonograms. Having a tight strap with around a waist during contractions makes birthing very uncomfortable and can slow down labor. And, it is a major cause for C-sections because all it does is measure heart rate and doctors don’t really know what the changes in heart rate really mean. Dr. Aaron Caughey, chief of obstetrics in Oregon Health Science University, told this to NPR in 2014. Trials show it does not improve newborn death, NICU admission or other complications. Cerebral palsy develops in utero or infancy and rarely a result of labor and delivery. Hospitals love it because EFM elevates the total cost of a hospital birth and are a record of what staff did during a birth which is helpful when there’s a lawsuit. The fetal monitoring market is big business and will be worth $5.2 Billion by 2026.

induction

Inductions involve toxic drugs to force labor prematurely. Inductions are very common in US hospitals and happen in about ⅓ of births.

clamping the cord

In hospitals and some homebirths, the cord is clamped even before the placenta comes out! The cord is rich oxygenated blood that belongs to the baby. By cutting the cord and tossing a placenta full of blood into the trash, they are essentially throwing out ⅓ of the baby’s blood. This makes most babies anemic. Delayed cord clamping means not touching the cord until all the blood from the placenta transfers to the baby. Then the cord turns from warm and pulsing with blood to blue, cold, and limp. This takes about 3 hours and then the cord can be cut with scissors and no clamp is necessary since no more blood is passing through.

antibiotic eye cream for the newborn

There is no medical need to put this on the delicate newborn’s eyelids. Babies were meant to come through the birth canal and they build immunity this way by healthy bacteria going into their eyes and nose on their exit out. Antibiotics damages the eyes and has been linked to so many kids needing glasses. Some hospitals still use colloidal silver which can cause blindness.

vitamin K vaccine for the newborn

Babies are born with less vitamin K than adults for a reason. Routinely injecting a newborn with thousands of times the amount of Vitamin K a newborn is born with comes from people thinking science and drugs are there to harness nature. Science should be trying to understand nature, not try to control it. Vitamin K vaccine also has ingredients has preservatives that are toxic and the drug insert lists leukemia as a side effect. A pregnant woman can eat vitamin K rich foods if she wants but either way the pre-milk (colostrum) that a newborn gets from the mother right after birth is rich in vitamin K.

HEPB vaccine for the newborn

A baby cannot cannot catch HEPB who is born to a non HEPB positive mother since it is a STD disease. HEPB contains 250 mcg of aluminum, which is 70x the FDA allowable ingestible amount of aluminum. And injecting aluminum is 1000x more potent than ingesting aluminum. Aluminum toxicity causes neurological damage like ADHD, autism, learning disabilities and systemic issues like autoimmune and gut conditions.

episiotomy

This is a very invasive procedure that involves cutting the perineum to ‘prevent’ a natural tear. Cutting these muscles is very painful and threatens the organs, joints and muscles involved in sitting, walking and movement. The baby comes out easily without tearing when the birthing woman is birthing in a natural position that works with gravity like squatting or on all fours. Laying down flat makes it very hard to birth. If someone tears naturally, it is a superficial cut, but an episiotomy is through layers of muscle and is real bodily injury. To prevent tearing, no one should even touch the perineum.

laying flat on back birth position

The laying flat, half reclined, feet in stirrups position destroys the pelvic floor muscles. And makes it very hard to push out a baby since it is against gravity and human anatomy. Natural positions to push out a baby are squatting and on all fours.

pelvic exams

Pelvic exams are completely unnecessary during pregnancy and labor and are done out of tradition. Especially after labor starts, cervical checks introduce bacteria that can cause infection. Cervical checks also create false expectations of dilation since each woman dilates at a different pace. (They shouldn’t be done when a woman is not pregnant either.)

hospital staff bathing the newborn

Hospitals use chemical grade soap on the newborn which can cause neuro damage. Besides, they aren’t gentle and treat the baby like a chicken which can cause lifelong birth trauma for the newborn. You can ask for a wet rag to be passed to you and you can wipe down the baby’s head easily yourself.

letting the baby go to the hospital nursery without parental supervision

The only way you will be assured that your baby won’t get routine medications or injections if it never leaves your side. Any ‘must’ examinations should only be in a parent’s presence. Also it can cause lifelong birth trauma for an newborn to be separated from its mother at birth.

formula given to the baby

This stretches out the newborns tiny stomach, which is only the size of a cherry, with too much ‘food.’ A new mother has colostrum which is called ‘liquid gold’ since it helps the newborn get immunity and vitamin K and exactly what the newborn needs.

baby separated from the mother right after birth

The baby doesn’t need to be ‘disinfected.’ Vernix, the magical white stuff on the baby, gets absorbed into the baby’s skin after a few hours and protects the baby from infection. The baby needs to be immediately handed to the mother or she should it pick up herself and hold it for immediate skin to skin bonding and try to nurse the newborn. Taking away the baby right after birth makes the birthing woman’s body and hormones process the baby not present as a ‘loss’ and this can trigger postpartum depression. The newborn’s sucking stimulates milk production.

internal monitoring

This is a very invasive procedure which is obviously very painful to the baby where electrodes are placed on the baby’s scalp to measure the heart rate.

Cesarean surgery

One in 3 US hospital births are with a C-section! This is much higher than other Western countries. C-section is not necessary to birth twins or breech babies. These types of deliveries can be delivered at home or in a hospital naturally. Breech Without Borders is an organization that trains providers to deliver these births naturally and can help someone find a local who trained with them. (Some people actually choose to freebirth these kinds of births.) Two hospital practices cause the most unnecessary C-sections. One is the diagnosis ‘failure to progress’ (dystocia) and the other is the electrical fetal monitor. Failure to progress is based off of a 1955 study that found that active labor starts at 4 cm and the average length it takes until the cervix is diluted 9 cm. This is called the Friedman curve. Most say the data studied is skewed and that active labor begins when a woman is dilated to six, not four cm. This study only looked at dilation time of women who are birthing with Pitocin and nearly all had epidurals. Half of all C-sections are because of this so called failure to progress time limit set by this Friedman curve which means is that they are cutting into people to extract a baby before active labor even started.

Compared to normal delivery, the odds of suffering a major complication of birth, like hemorrhage, sepsis, organ injury, things that are life threatening, are about three times more likely to happen with a C-section than without one. C -section risks also include stroke, blood clots, major organ dysfunction, intensive care unit admission and can disrupt milk production. Cesareans create scar tissue along the abdomen wall which can lead to complications in a new pregnancy called placenta accreta, where the placenta burrows into the uterine wall.

Very rare situations actually require a C sections: placenta previa, when the placenta covers the cervix; vasa previa when fetal blood vessels move into the uterus, putting it at risk for rupture; and umbilical cord prolapse when the umbilical cord blocks the baby’s exit. These make up only 4% of the total C -sections, which means the other 96% are unnecessary. C-section recovery is also much harder than after a natural delivery. A woman can do a VBAC (natural delivery after a C-section) and shouldn’t do a C-section just because a previous pregnancy was a C-section.

Why useless baby hats?

I wonder if the reason hospitals routinely put baby hats on newborns which end up limiting skin to skin bonding between mother to newborn are to hide the baby’s wounds from the barbaric ways of grasping a baby’s head to yank it out like with forceps or a vacuum, or from electrodes placed on the scalp from internal monitoring. In a natural birth position like squatting or on all fours, there shouldn’t be perineum tearing or a need to yank a baby out. The baby – no matter the size- slips out easily.

Hospitals are not a safe place to birth for low risk women

Controlled birth leads to mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. They disempower the woman to be a bystander in her own body process and most of the time she will come out from the drugs and interventions less healthy than how she started out.

US hospitals have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the entire world because of their high C- section rates. This means women giving birth in US hospitals have a much greater chance of dying in childbirth than women giving birth in much poorer countries. An American mom today is 50 percent more likely to die in childbirth than her mom was, since maternal death rates increased by 50%.

Breastfeeding

Breastmilk is a miraculous food that is custom designed for a baby’s development. Human milk changes as a baby’s nutritional needs change as it grows. Milk starts off as colostrum, the ‘pre-milk,’ which is is called ‘liquid gold’ because it is vital to help build a newborn’s immunity. It is also full of Vitamin K which the baby only has naturally once 8 days old.

Breast milk is alive and teems with microorganisms that build immunity. Even though scientists don’t understand what milk is composed of, we know human milk is a very complex living substance with live cells, nutrients, enzymes, hormones, vitamins A, C, and B complex, binding proteins, antibodies, and other bioactive components needed to grow a healthy human. Human milk is not consistent body fluid like blood. It changes based on the interaction of the baby and the mother’s body. Breastfed babies have a lower chance of SIDS, fewer ear infections and respiratory illnesses, and healthier gut. The tongue placement needed for sucking helps develop myofascial muscles for proper face structure and straight teeth to come in later when the child gets older. A baby needs both the foremilk – which is high in carbohydrates – and the hindmilk – which is high in fat – so the baby needs to suck long enough to access the hindmilk.

The way to produce milk is two simple things: having the baby suck and drinking enough water. Nearly all women who don’t have enough milk because they aren’t drinking enough water. The body creates milk based on demand, the more the baby sucks, the more milk is produced. Immediately after birth, the newborn should be placed on the mother and the baby should be encouraged to latch on to nurse to stimulate milk production. If the baby is separated from the mother at birth, this can complicate milk production.

Infant formula is not food fit for human consumption. It’s a toxic ultra-processed blend of high fructose corn syrup, synthetic GMO DHA and AHA oils using chemical neurotoxic hexane solvent, and anticaking agents like aluminum. Formula companies claim DHA and AHA synthetic fatty acids made into GMO DHASCO/ARASCO mimic the natural fats in mother’s milk critical for proper brain and eye development but algae DHA is structurally different than human DHA. Also, human acids perform very differently in human milk than artificially constructed GMO fats in chemical formulas. Organic goat milk – raw only – is most similar to human milk (though it is missing folic acid). Processed cow milk causes cancer and is very different from human milk. Formulas do not need to be FDA-approved. Scientists have argued for years that infant formula actually needs more regulation than regular food. Infant formula is absolutely nutrient-inadequate. DHA-ARA formulas report the most adverse reactions.

Growth charts that doctors use are based on data from formula-fed babies which is very different from weight gain and growth development in breastfed babies. Breastfed babies grow faster during the few months of life and then tend to lean out from month 3 to month 12 when compared to formula-fed babies. This causes doctors to misdiagnose breastfed infants as ‘failure to thrive’ and to recommend formula! Excessive weight gain by formula-fed babies can lead to obesity.

Nursing benefits for the mother

Nursing does not cause breasts to sag! Excessive weight gain in pregnancy causes breasts to sag. Wearing a restrictive bra causes sagging breasts because it artificially supports them and causes the breast ligaments to become weak. Exercise without a bra to strengthen and help make breasts tighter after birth. Best to limit the use of a restrictive bra in general. Restrictive bras are the cause of breast cancer because they interfere with lymphatic drainage so toxins accumulate in the breast with nowhere to drain and then cause cancers. Breastfeeding has many important health benefits for the mother and helps protect from ovarian cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Nursing releases the hormone oxytocin which helps the uterus return to its normal size. Nursing also does not cause weight gain! It cause weight loss since about 500 calories are lost everyday with full time nursing. A nursing mother only needs to drink a lot of extra water but eat a normal intake of nourishing foods to have breast milk.

Infant formula is big business.

The American Academy of Pedatrics (AAP) was first created in 1930 to distribute formula. The thirty-five physicians who founded it saw formula as the revolution for sick or orphaned infants. Formula manufacturers needs a wider customer base than orphaned babies so it relies on convincing women that they can’t make milk. AAP’s top corporate donors are Nestle, Abbott, and Johnson, the largest infant formula companies. The AAP’s biased recommendation that infants need to be breastfed for one year creeped into American society when babies really need to be breastfed for minimum 24 months. In the Bible, in Genesis, Sarah made a weaning party for Issac when he was 24 months old. It is well established that breastfed infants are healthier than those who are formula fed. It is estimated that over 800,000 lives could be saved every year if all infants were breastfed. Failure to breast feed increases the risk of SIDS, pneumonia, diarrhea, leukemia, diabetes other illnesses and conditions. Breast feeding also has a positive health effect for the mother and helps protect her from ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and diabetes. Unfortunately, aggressive advertising and promotion of formula has convinced many women who might otherwise breast feed to give formula instead. The formula industry is at $70 billion annually.

Mental illness after a controlled birth

Traumatic birth by medical interventions can cause PTSD or P-PTSD, anxiety or depression. This is exacerbated by the antibiotics given in medicalized births which can cause mental health problems because antibiotics indiscriminately kill crucial microorganisms.

Resources on pregnancy and birth

The Business of Being Born movie documentary on the huge monies involved in epidural, Pitocin and Cesarean surgeries and how homebirth is a real option.

Evidencebasedbirth.com has a lot of resources on risks and lack of evidence to use EFM, pitocin, and other unnecessary routine birth interventions.

On Health by Aviva Romm MD podcast discusses why to decline all pelvic exams since they are unnecessary. Pelvic exams during active labor introduce bacteria in a sterile environment and they should be declined as well.

Having a Baby, Naturally by Peggy O’Mara

Your Best Birth by Rikki Lane and Abby Epstein who created the famous must-watch documentary The Business of Being Born

The Natural Pregnancy Book by Aviva Romm (midwife, herbalist and MD)

Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon on risks of routine interventions and how to have a natural birth the way Dr. Robert Bradley, a trailblazing OB, taught. As one of many hospital birth interventions to avoid, this book details three different types of episiotomies, each one more grotesque and debilitating than the next, to empower the reader to make sure not to have this done. Some women are cut without even being asked! McCutcheon explains that an episiotomy is when a doctor uses a knife to slash through thick muscle and skin 2-4 inches along the perineum. There is no 2-4 inches of spare skin to cut on a perineum in normal life. This huge cut is made externally while the baby’s head is crowning so the skin is very stretched. After the baby is out, half of the cut becomes internal which exacerbates how debilitating an episiotomy really is.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth By Ina May Gaskin, a famous midwife, this book is a classic

Hypnobirthing by Marie Mongan (can help contractions not feel as painful)

Childbirth Without Fear by Grantly Dick-Read

Youtube has so many videos under ‘homebirth’ where you can get a good sense of what a physiological birth is like. It is a great way to learn about birth.

Katie Hinde a lactation researcher discusses in a Ted Talk that we know more about a tomato than the composition of human milk.

Books on unassisted birth

Unhindered Childbirth by Sarah Haddock

The Birthkeepers by Veronika Robinson

Podcasts Indiebirth and Free Birth Society.

Youtube has so many videos under ‘unassisted birth’ where you can get a good sense of what a physiological birth is like. It is like going to a birth to learn about birth without actually being there.