Pregnancy in the 26th week. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So why is it that, over a decade later, when the evidence still supports a low-interventionist type of pregnancy and birth management for low-risk cases, we’ve made virtually no inroads to making birth more scientific in the United States.

The Atlantic published a great piece yesterday titled “The Most Scientific Birth Is Often the Least Technological Birth” by Northwestern University’s professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics Alice Dreger. I was both entertained and moved by this article to see a medical educator recognize the confusion that occurs between science and technology in relation to birth.

When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe a woman who wears long cotton skirts, braids her hair, eats only organic vegan food, does yoga, and maybe drives a VW microbus. What they don’t envision is the omnivorous, pants-wearing science geek standing before them.

I can’t help but think of the Saturday Night Live skit on natural childbirth.

Many medical students, like most American patients, confuse science and technology. They think that what it means to be a scientific doctor is to bring to bear the maximum amount of technology on any given patient. And this makes them dangerous. In fact, if you look at scientific studies of birth, you find over and over again that many technological interventions increase risk to the mother and child rather than decreasing it.

Medical technology is almost always assumed to improve health, and it most often does. I am extremely thankful for the advances in medical technology that saved my son born with a congenital heart defect.  That being said, if you have it, you use it.  Just because the technological tools exist and are in an OB’s practice or hospital setting, their use is not warranted unless an emergency situation occurs.

One of my home birth midwives was from Denmark. She used a wooden pinard horn fetoscope to listen to the baby’s heartbeat.   In contrast, every time I visited my parallel care provider, who was also a certified nurse midwife, a doppler was used.  A doppler may make it easier for the parents and doctor/midwife to hear the baby’s heart beat, but unless the heart beat is difficult to hear with a less technologically advanced tool, why use it.  My midwives used a doppler in labor. That was it.

But most birthing women don’t seem to know this, even if their obstetricians do. Paradoxically, these women seem to want the same thing I wanted: a safe outcome for mother and child. But no one seems to tell them what the data indicate is the best way to get there. The friend who dares to offer half a glass of wine is seen as guilty of reckless endangerment, whereas the obstetrician offering unnecessary and risky procedures is considered heroic.

I love the above comparison.  We do all want the same thing.

According to the best studies available, when it came time to birth at the end of my low-risk pregnancy, I should not have induction, nor an episiotomy, nor continuous monitoring of the baby’s heartbeat during labor, nor pain medications, and definitely not a c-section. I should give birth in the squatting position, and I should have a doula — a professional labor support person to talk to me throughout the birth. (Studies show that doulas are astonishingly effective at lowering risk, so good that one obstetrician has quipped that if doulas were a drug, it would be illegal not to give one to every pregnant woman.)

In other words, if the regular low-tech tests kept indicating I was having a medically uninteresting pregnancy, and if I wanted to scientifically maximize safety, I should give birth pretty much like my great-grandmothers would have: with the attention of a couple of experienced women mostly waiting it out, while I did the work. (They called it labor for a reason.) The only real notable difference was that my midwife would intermittently use a fetal heart monitor — just every now and then — to make sure the baby was doing okay.

Giving birth is the hardest thing I have ever done physically.  It is meant to be that way.  Why do we always try to make things easy?

We did end up with one technological intervention: because my son had meconium in his fluid (this means he’d defecated in the womb), the midwife explained to me that right after birth, the pediatricians would be scooping him up to suck out his trachea (his windpipe). The idea was to prevent pneumonia. They did this, and three months later over breakfast my husband presented me the results of a randomized control trial that had just come out: it showed that babies in this situation who only had their mouths and not their tracheas cleaned actually had lower rates of pneumonia compared to those who got the tracheal intervention. Another intervention that turned out not to be worth it.

There is also a false assumptions that midwives are not capable of interventions.  This is extremely inaccurate.  In both of my births, the midwives responded appropriately and professionally to both my needs and my babes.  I required manual contractions on my uterus when I was bleeding after a long labor.  My son required oxygen.  Midwives are trained.

Raymond De Vries, a sociologist in the University of Michigan’s Center for Bioethics and Social Science in Medicine, has compared birth in the U.S. to that in the Netherlands, where he is a visiting professor at the University of Maastricht. He finds that, in the U.S., “obstetricians are the experts and the experts have come to see birth as dangerous and frightening.” De Vries suggests that the organization of maternity care in this country — “the limited choices that American women have for bringing their baby into the world, what women are not told about dangers of intervening in birth, and the misuse of science to support the new technologies of birth” — actually constitutes an ethical problem, although we typically do not recognize it as one. Medical ethicists “would rather look to the [comparatively rare] problems of in vitro fertilization and preimplantation genetic diagnosis than to the every day issues of how we organize birth here in the U.S.; they would rather talk about preserving women’s ‘choices’ than to explore how those choices are bent by culture.”

I really like how this article makes the conversation about science and ethics.

I think of all the choices I made, the one that shocked my peers most was not getting a prenatal ultrasound. But just a few years before I became pregnant, a major U.S. study – involving over 15,000 pregnancies — published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that routine ultrasounds did not leave babies safer. That work was led by Bernard Ewigman, now chair of family medicine at the University of Chicago and NorthShore University Health System.

I also did not have an ultrasound.  My midwives explained the benefits, risks, and necessity of this “routine” test.  I wrote about my thoughts on ultrasounds two years ago.  It is nice to see them backed by science.

Our “fascination with technology” has interfered with rational decisions based on science when it comes to birth.  When we take the emotions out of our birth plans, whether thinking our families will be safer with a midwife or an OB, and truly look at the studies, we can see where medical technology and science do not support each other for normal pregnancies and births.

Technology Vs. Science: Natural Birth Scientifically and Ethically Safer is a post from: Eco Child's Play

More on some of these great concepts

From Cleantechnica: Microalgae Lamp Absorbs 150-200 Times More CO2 than a Tree!
From PlanetSave: Drink Your Pee!: The Future of Water Filtration
From Treehugger: “Eco-Friendly” Mobile Phone Runs on Coke
From MNN: 12 cool urban bicycles ready to replace your car

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.
Go Cubs!

Hank D and the Bee: Drink Your Pee, and Go Cubs! is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Say NO to Climate Denial in Our Schools is a post from: Eco Child's Play

by Stephanie Phoenix, Social Media Apprentice, Healthy Child Healthy World

Smart phones are nothing if not useful. And in this day and age, most parents have one (and often a tablet, too). If we’re going to have these know-it-all devices, we might as well put them to work for us, right? Which is why we’re happy to present this round-up of great apps for parents that we’ve collected from the Healthy Child archives and our community. They range from apps that will help you create a healthier home to apps that will help you track development. Enjoy! (And, please feel free to let us know in the comments if we’ve missed any of your favorites!)

From the Healthy Child archives:

• We gathered some great apps a few months ago to help families eat clean and healthy. Check them out here.
• For new parents, we also like The Peaceful Nursery, which is a comprehensive guide to creating a clean and healthy nursery for baby.

From our Facebook community:

• Teresa and Colleen both love Baby ESP (Android) to help keep track of nursing, naps and diaper changes.
• Michelle: Yours! I think the GoodGuide will be great once it is built up. Also like Greenopia
• Estee: All of the EWG Environmental Working Group apps are good ones.
• Sarah Jayne: Total Baby (iPhone) Can track nursing/feedings, naps, diaper changes, baths, growth, doctor’s visits, milestones, and has a diary (plus more)…love it!
• Jenny: I love this app. Helps you to identify dangerous food additives and cosmetic ingredients The Chemical Maze

And a few great app suggestions from our Tweeps, too:

• MindfulMomma: @GoodGuide has a product ratings app!
• GoodGuide: GoodGuide’s new Transparency Toolbar!
• KimRosas: my Cloth Diaper Resources App for iPhone/ Droid

A few more apps that look great for parents…

• Parents of eco-minded older children will love Al Gore’s Our Choice app for teaching their children all kinds of important information about global warming.
• Web MD Mobile is a great free medical resource. Check symptoms, access drug & treatment information, get first aid essentials, and check local health listings on the go, from the most trusted brand in health information.
• If you’re potty training, have a small child, or are pregnant, SitorSquat is vital. SitorSquat: Bathroom Finder lets you know what bathrooms are nearby. They’ll show up on a map based on your current location, and you can see which ones are open as well as read reviews from actual restroom users. It also notes which restrooms have changing stations.

And, of course, there’s our very favorite app of all: Our own! Download our free guide to safer shopping that includes label reading tips, brand recommendations, DIY cleaning and care product recipes, and more!

Note: We do have one word of caution about these modern day conveniences. While these apps may be handy, there are recent studies showing that radiation from cellular phones may be dangerous. You can find information about the studies here. If you are going to use a cell phone or tablet, please be sure to do it safely – use headsets or speakerphones when talking and avoid keeping the phone directly on your body for extended periods. Here are ten ways to reduce your risk from cell phone radiation exposure.

What are your favorite apps?

What Are The Best Apps For Healthy Homes & Parenting? is a post from: Eco Child's Play

In lieu of carrying a giant cartoon bee from place to place, you can also help bees by participating in this year’s Bee-a-thon.

For more on the 2011 Bee-a-thon check out this article on NaturalPapa. And for info on what you can do about Colony Collapse Disorder, read “Silence of the Bees” on the PBS website.

Bee thanks you!

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: Help a bee is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Related info (about DIY energy projects, not ESP)
From Treehugger: DIY Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (Video)
From Cleantechnica: Man Creates Homemade Biodiesel from Algae
From Mother Earth News: Do-It-Yourself Solar Heat
From Treehugger again: Ingenuity + Wind + Text Book = Home Made Electricity

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: Mothers “no” best is a post from: Eco Child's Play

1. Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred: Seriously Geeky Stuff to Make with Your Kids:  Seriously Geeky Stuff to Make With Your Kids by David Erik Nelson

My nine-year-old is a scientist!  She loves to experiment and build, and the internet has been a great resource for her explorations. Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred: Seriously Geeky Stuff to Make with Your Kids is right up her alley.

Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred is packed with fun craft and toy-making projects for geeks on a budget. Inside, you’ll find illustrated instructions for 24 quirky playthings. Part I: Kid Stuff contains child-friendly projects like the Lock-N-Latch Treasure Chest and a PVC TeePee; Part II: The Electro-Skiffle Band is devoted to homemade musical instruments; and Part III: The Locomotivated showcases moving toys, like a muzzleloader that shoots marshmallows and a steam-powered milk-carton boat.

Each project costs just $10 or less to make and is suitable for anyone, regardless of experience level. As you build, you’ll learn useful sewing and carpentry skills, and the appendix offers a primer on electronics and soldering.

Not only is this book filled with great ideas, these projects are a wonderful way to spend quality time with your children.

I do have to warn green parents to use caution when approaching these projects.  For example, I would not use PVC to make a didgeridoo, let alone burn it. I can only imagine the toxins this would give off.  There are plenty of other projects, like NASA’s Finest Paper Airplane that are perfectly non-toxic.

Would I buy this product? No. $14.46 is a reasonable price for this book, but I am not sure I would actually use this book enough to justify the expense. I also have concern with the toxicity of some of the materials.

2. Cahootie Animal Planet Endangered Creatures

Cootie catchers are always popular with children. I fondly remember making them and creating different fortunes for the flaps.  Animal Planet has taken advantage of children’s love for cootie catchers to teach about endangered species:

Endangered Creatures Cahootie: You love animals and they love you. Come play Cahootie and learn all about the planet’s endangered creatures while you have a blast with wild, wacky questions and super cool fortunes. As you get to know these awesome animals better, remember our planet’s future is in your hands.

• Encourages creativity and stimulates intellectual skill development – also promotes self-discovery and empowering conversation
• 40 removable and interchangeable stickers with fun fortunes and thought-provoking questions all about your love of animals
• Made of pre-folded, laminated paper with bold, colorful graphics

I find the laminated paper to be difficult to play, and it makes a weird squeaking sound. The images and information on the reusable stickers is great for teaching children, and I am all for teaching kids about endangered species, but I see this as a toss away toy.

This is one of those products that irks me because conservation is vital for species preservation, yet this product is not made from recycled materials and is overpackaged.

Proceeds from its sales goes to Animal Planet’s R.O.A.R. project, which I commend, but I also get suspicious when companies make it seem like they are donating to environmental groups, but it is their own group that receives the proceeds.  R.O.A.R may do great things, but I think a certain amount of transparency is lacking.

Would I buy this product?  No. As I mentioned above, there isn’t much that is eco-friendly about it, but it is a good idea if you want to inspire your child to learn more about endangered species with a cootie catcher.  It would be very easy to make your own cootie catcher, print images of endangered species off the internet, and write interesting facts inside the flaps.  Involving your child in building their very own endangered species cootie catcher would be a great do-it-yourself project, and they would probably learn more.

3. Eat This And Live For Kids by Don Colbert, MD

I used to think it was easy to feed children healthy food by only offering them healthy choices.  I still believe this, but my two children have taught me it is not quite as simple as I thought.  My first child is a great eater. She tries new foods and eats a rainbow of color everyday with ease. My second child is more resistant to trying new foods.  He will often not even taste dinner and chose an apple instead. This is still a healthy choice, but I hate to admit it, sometimes he grabs himself a bowl of cereal after dinner (of course, it is organic and not sugary).

Eat This And Live For Kids is user-friendly with an appealing layout. It is full of information from toxins in food to what to avoid eating when pregnant.

Dr. Don Colbert provides a road map to help parents navigate the often-treacherous territory of feeding their children, from infants to toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary aged children…

Included are picks of the healthiest “kid-friendly” food items in your grocery store and many popular fast food and casual dining restaurants. As a result, this is an extremely practical guidebook that teaches parents how to help their children adopt a dietary lifestyle that will set him or her on lifelong path of well-being.  The goal is not to make eating a chore for your child or more work on the parent’s part, but to enable the exchange of old habits for new ones.

I love that Dr. Colbert says “Water is the single most important nutrient for our bodies.”  In my opinion, learning to be a water drinker starts young. We don’t serve juice or milk in my preschool program for this reason, and parents are encouraged to provide children with reusable water bottles.  Thankfully, Dr. Colbert also exposes bottled water for what it is:  full of toxins, less-regulated than tap, and often just filtered water from sources like the Detroit River (Aquafina).

Would I buy this product? Maybe.  It’s affordable at $7.15, and I really wanted to dislike it.  It’s part of a whole series and marketing for Dr. Colbert’s The Seven Pillars of Health. In fact, it is promoted as a “practical guidebook for parents includes ‘Dr. Colbert Approved’ foods and restaurant menu choices”.  As much as I am annoyed by such name recognition marketing efforts, this book really is filled with great information for those trying to improve their health and leave the Standard American Diet behind.

4. Giraffe Bamboo Zoo and Organic Cotton Snowman Soft Shaker Toy

These toys are so adorable and soft; they make me wish I had a baby!  Made from bamboo and organic cotton, these are great teethers for your little one.  They are filled with a corn fibers, not polyfill that is made from petroleum.  A further bonus is they are machine washable!

• The new 9″ giraffe shaker is tall and slender, and easy to grab
• Rich natural luster and silky soft
• Stuffed with fluffy natural corn fibers
• Machine washable, made from bamboo viscose
• Adorable blue body with sewn eyes and face make it safe for baby

Dandelion Earth-Friendly Goods makes great affordable toys for children. I’ve been pleased with every product we have reviewed by the company.

Smart parents are more concerned than ever about what babies touch and teethe, and the Dandelion brand gives you peace of mind. Dandelion offers a sophisticated look while reflecting a back-to-basics, eco-conscious style.

Would I buy these products? Yes!  I trust Dandelion, and I love their products.  They are organic and/or natural, and they are affordable!

5. Great Expectations: Best Food for Your Baby & Toddler: From First Foods to Meals Your Child Will Love by Jeannette L. Bessinger, CHHC

Before opening this book, I thought why would someone need a book on feeding their baby and toddler. In my experience, it was quite simple. Whole foods mashed or cut to appropriate sizes and breastmilk, nothing could be simpler.  It’s been pointed out to me before, that my simple approach does not work for everyone, and if you don’t have a strong basis or knowledge of healthy eating to begin with, then it’s not so easy.

Great Expectations: Best Food for Your Baby & Toddler: From First Foods to Meals Your Child Will Love is packed full of useful information; my previous assumptions were easily dismissed.  My winging it approach to feeding my infants and toddlers worked, but if you really want to make sure you are meeting the dietary needs of your child, this book gives you all the information you need. From dietary requirements for vitamin A at different ages to quick charts on iron-rich foods, there’s a lot to be learned from this book.

To ensure that baby gets the best, most wholesome, and natural food possible, go homemade! The newest entry in the acclaimed Great Expectationsseries focuses on easy preparation of nutritious baby and toddler meals at home—from the first finger-foods to more than 130 delicious kid-tested recipes that will lay the foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating.

The book teaches parents how to select the right food, set up a pantry (with a guide to key kitchen equipment), establish smart eating routines, and introduce a wide variety of tastes and textures. It also explores today’s most pressing nutrition issues: Should you buy only organic food? Is it healthy to restrict a toddler’s calorie intake? Is a vegetarian diet good for a very young child? Additional resources include information on breastfeeding and food allergies, as well as a comprehensive listing of whole foods companies and products that make healthy eating faster and easier.

Of particular interest to me was the section on soy.  With all of the information on the dangers of soy, I have not cut it completely from my diet, as other sources tout the benefits of soy protein.  Bessinger ultimately recommends:

We recommend avoiding concentrated forms of soy, such as soy protein powders and lots of soy milk. The best choices are small amounts of organic tofu, miso paste, tempeh, and tamari.  Older toddlers can also occasionally snack on the baby form of the fresh beans, edamame.

Bessinger also speaks to the concerns of soy-based formulas, including how they contain ten times the aluminum of milk-based formulas and 100 times the level of breast milk.

Would I buy this book? Yes.   It is certainly worth the $10.17 for all of the important information it contains beyond just feeding babies and toddlers.

Disclosure:  The products described above were sent to us as free samples, unless noted differently in the review.  Prior assurances as to the nature of the reviews, whether positive or negative, were not given.  No financial payments were accepted in exchange for the reviews.  The reviews reflect our honest, authentic opinions.

5 Green Products: Geeky Projects, Endangered Species, Nutrition, Organic Toys is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Related Info

‘High-fructose corn syrup’? Never heard of itMSG Disguised with Misleading Names

Clear Skies, Healthy Forests: Why Language Matters

Defend the Clean Air Act! (it’s 40th birthday was Tuesday!)

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: Misleading Titles is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Photo by laszlo-photo

Monkey mama's milk signals behavior and development

Have you ever wondered what your breast milk provides for your child beyond simple nourishment?  Animal research may expand our knowledge of the power of breast milk.

Studying rhesus macaque monkeys, researchers have found “that a mother’s milk sends a reliable signal to infants about their environment”.

How does one’s environment affect temperament and behavior?  Scientists have long debated environment versus genetics in human development, but rhesus monkeys may give us a new clue at an even deeper connections involving breast mikl.  Physorg explains:

Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of California, Davis are using this natural variation in breast milk quality and quantity to show that a mother’s milk sends a reliable signal to infants about their environment. This signal may program the infant’s behavior and temperament according to expectations of available resources and discourages temperaments that prove risky when food is scarce.

Published in the American Journal of Primatology, researchers analyzed the milk of 59 monkeys. Katie Hinde, the study’s lead author, expounds:

This is the first study for any mammal that presents evidence that natural variation in available milk energy from the mother is associated with later variation in infant behavior and temperament.  Our results suggest that the milk energy available soon after birth may be a nutritional cue that calibrates the infant’s behavior to environmental or maternal conditions.

Does this trait of rhesus breast milk carry over to humans?  Rhesus monkeys are “more distant from humans than chimpanzees or orangutans;” however, they are often used in disease research because of “genetic, physiologic and metabolic similarity to humans”.  It is also interesting to note that humans are the only primate with a “broader geographic distribution“ than the rhesus macaques. I wouldn’t doubt that human babies receive similar signals from their mother’s milk given the similarities.

Breast Milk "Signals" Infant Behavior and Temperament in Rhesus Monkeys is a post from: Eco Child's Play

The FDA is recommending Gardasil for boys, saying in a memo that it seems to be safe and effective in preventing genital warts in young men and boys. And guess what! None of the boys tested got cervical cancer! Kidding.

The vaccine’s maker, Merck, has been pushing for males to be offered the shot too, and gave the FDA evidence that, according to CBS,

Three studies of over 5,000 boys and men, Gardasil was 89% effective in preventing genital warts.

Check out the entire news story:

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On the CBS news segment, Dr. Holly Phillips also seemed pleased with the new Gardasil recommendation, saying that,

The vaccine cuts down on genital warts, and although those may not be life-threatening, they can certainly be embarrassing.

Soo…we should give our boys the Gardasil shot to prevent their pride being wounded by treatable genital warts? Might teaching them to use protection–which we should do in any case for anyone who receives this vaccine–also protect them from embarrassing STDs?

Later in life, there is also a connection with HPV and throat and anal cancer.

That statement interested me. We could reduce the risk of not just one cancer, but three? Turns out, of the 1,479,350 estimated cases of cancer this year, less than 5,300 of them are cases of anal cancer. The rate of throat cancer is higher, but smoking is the big culprit in those 12,610 cases.

Huh. Sounds like boys getting the shot to prevent these two types of cancers is right up there with circumcising a boy for the 2% risk of penile cancer he’ll someday have.

But what about cervical cancer? If both males and females are vaccinated against HPV, won’t it protect most women against cancer? Well, not exactly.

First, the vaccine only protects against two types (of 15) of the cancer-causing strains of HPV.

Second, we don’t know how long Gardasil is actually effective for. If we give 3 shots to middle school kids, will they be protected once they hit their wild college years?

No word yet on how long-term these studies were. Why might that be an issue? Because recently, one of the top researchers of Gardasil, someone who was very involved in promoting the vaccine, spoke out against it.

Dr. Diane Harper said of the vaccine and its safety:

Gardasil has been associated with at least as many serious adverse events as there are deaths from cervical cancer developing each year.

If we vaccinate 11-year-olds and the protection doesn’t last… we’ve put them at harm from side effects, small but real, for no benefit.

This isn’t simply a case of giving boys a vaccine to protect girls against cancer. I believe in the greater good.

But currently, we have no idea if this vaccine protects members of either gender from HPV past 5 years. Is that reason enough to get almost $400 worth of shots into every middle schooler we know?

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Gardasil For Boys: FDA Recommends Controversial Vaccine is a post from: Eco Child's Play