Editor’s note: Kristen of Cool Mom Picks and Motherhood Uncensored has written for us on many occasions. We are extremely happy she had a home birth, but too bad she had to travel in an ambulance and spend an extra day in the hospital as a result, missing out on all the relaxing benefits of a home birth. You can read her own version of the story on Motherhood Uncensored, which has been made famous by her twitter stream after the birth.
The Stir blogger, Kristen Chase, aka The Sometimes Single Mom, got the home birth she always wanted, only she had no intention of really getting it.
In a series of tweets early Monday morning, she described what went down when her contractions started coming faster than she could make it to the hospital.
So I should know this but um contractions: how close how long before I should get my ass out the door?
Followed about five hours later by:
So, I got the home birth I always wanted.
And:
Headed to hospital in ambulance. Baby arrived on guest bed with EMTs and husband.
Don’t you love that she was tweeting from the ambulance? And with a sense of humor!
Midwife on phone. EMTs kept saying that they didn’t see anything so I just pushed baby out. Do you see it now!?
For the record, my baby was delivered by a fireman named Kelly. My boy had a thick Southern accent but at least he could catch.
Target recently came out with a new commercial that puts down homemade costumes in favor of store-bought ones. This makes sense, since the company sells costumes and we’re in a recession where a $19.99, 100% polyester Iron Man toddler costume may seem like a luxury. The commercial made me think of my own childhood Halloween costumes, which were all hand-made by my mother. Not only were they higher quality than the store-bought kind, they’ve lasted for generations. A Snow White costume she made for me (from real cotton and satin) lasted for more than 20 years and was handed around from family to family. In 1995, she made a matching baby-and-mama set of elephant costumes (see baby below) that still exist. I can only imagine that making a product that lasts for 20-some years, and is reused, may not be better for the environment as a whole, but may be better for landfills. I’m not sure what the carbon or water footprints of a homemade costume is versus the kind you’d buy at the store. I started looking into the carbon emissions for 3 yards of cotton versus 2 yards of polyester, but there are so many variables (shipping, manufacturing, etc) that I don’t think it’s really confirmable which is greener.
3. Inhabitots: Vinyl Flooring & Wallpaper Equal Major Health Threat for Children
The nonprofit Ecology Center tested over 1,000 flooring samples and nearly 2,300 types of wallpaper. The Ecology Center was specifically looking for substances that are knowingly linked to asthma, birth defects, learning disabilities, reproductive problems, liver toxicity and cancer. After comparing chemicals found in PVC vinyl, wood, bamboo, cork, carpet cushion, sheet flooring and ceramic tile flooring, the Ecology Center found the following:
Most vinyl flooring samples tested contain four phthalate plasticizers recently banned in children’s products. National brands, such as Armstrong and Congoleum, along with discount brands were tested and phthalates made equaled up to 8.5% by weight of the flooring materials. Most of the PVC wallpaper sampled also contained banned phthalates plasticizers.
PVC building materials tested were seven times more likely to contain hazardous chemical additives than non-vinyl alternatives.
The vast majority, 96%, of wallpaper samples contained polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coatings.
Two-thirds of all PVC flooring tiles tested contained organotin stabilizers. Some forms of organotins are endocrine disruptors; and other forms can impact the developing brain and are toxic to the immune system.
Over half of the PVC wallpaper samples contained one or more hazardous chemicals of concern, including lead, chromium, tin and antimony. Nearly one in five wallpaper samples contained detectable levels of cadmium.
52 of 1,016 of all flooring samples had detectable levels of lead. Some flooring contained more lead than others though, such as vinyl sheet flooring and vinyl tile flooring.
4. Opposing Views: Should You Share a Bed With Baby?
I’ve watched the pendulum swing back and forth on the wisdom of mom sharing her bed with a baby. The American Pediatric Society has come out against the practice, because of a higher incidence of Sudden Infant Death. But nearly half of all British moms sleep at times with their baby and 1/5 share a bed regularly during the first year.
According to a British study published in Pediatrics, the value of breast-feeding should be considered before advising mothers not to share beds with their infants. The results showed that mothers who shared a bed with their newborns were better educated and of a higher socioeconomic status, and that those whose children routinely slept in their beds during the first 15 months of life reported a significantly greater incidence of breast-feeding.
“Both cross-sectional epidemiological and sleep laboratory studies showed close links between the frequency and duration of breastfeeding and the practice of bed sharing,” writes Peter Blair, PhD, Community-Based Medicine and Social Medicine, University of Bristol, United Kingdom, the author of the study.
This study mentioned that women who bed share with infants were more highly educated and, thus, are more likely to follow other infant safety guidelines. Unsafe infant care practices are sleeping on sofas, bed sharing after use of alcohol or drugs and bed sharing by parents who smoke.
5. Natural News: Researchers suggest Viagra for young boys
New research out of the University of Washington (UW) has some astounding new propositions for the use of Viagra, an erectile dysfunction drug made by Pfizer Inc. According to the report, young boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can benefit from taking the drug because it allegedly treats the heart problems that typically emerge as a result of the disease…
DMD is a severe degenerative disease that eats away at spinal muscles, confining people who have it to wheelchairs by the time they are roughly ten years old. DMD can eventually cause heart failure as well, which is what the study authors claim Viagra will help prevent. But such a proposition is not only irresponsible based on the drug’s many side effects, but insane when considering the repercussions.
Leave a Reply