Motherguilt

My sister and I had a wonderful visit today when she came over with her two children. The combined menagerie, which included several neighbour children, had a blast outside in the heat under the sprinkler while we hid from the heat indoors with her four month old.

Our conversation turned to the huge guilt mother's face with every decision made... birth options, vaccination, breastfeeding, home vs work, daycare vs dayhome, school vs home school... the list is endless. The reason we discussed this was because of her daughter's language testing today which showed her to be mildly delayed in hard sounds and my sister was given several pages of information on how to support her with these sounds. From my experience of having a son with severe receptive and expressive language delays and the incessent testing the so-called experts continue to want him to do, I encouraged her to realize that her daughter's delay in this area was only a very small part of who she was and not to be discouraged by this so that she continues to seek other's opinions about her daughter. She knew what her daughter needed best!

You see, I learned the hard way that my instincts and knowledge about my son were completely accurate... his delays in one area of his life as well as his gifts and talents in other areas. When I sought outside support to supplement my skills in parenting my son, I had no idea the pain it would cause as expert after expert, in their own way, made me doubt my parenting skills by insisting that a structured school environment was what he neede most. Their whole focus was to integrate him into a classroom situation yet their recommendations strangely pointed in the opposite direction... individualized support, calm and structured enviroment, etc. It was in realizing that school was their only paradigm and they could not see outside of that box that I realized the truth, I was doing what was best with my own parenting skills and our decision to homeschool him along with his older brothers who have always been homeschooled. So while we can indeed access outside support, we also have to realize where that expert is coming from and base the accuracy of thier input on that... and to know that we are our children's parents and it is our right to make the best choices for them, despite outside opinions.

A funny thing happened...

on the way to the awards gala on Thursday. My daughter ate my makeup. Well not quite literally, but she did break it all over my bed and carpet in my room. What a sight that was to find as I went to get ready! She sure looked well made up :-) Ah well, I still had samples from my two minute Mary Kay career last fall so I broke into those. Minus mascara, I was ready to go in no time.

The YWCA Women of Distiontion Awards Gala was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My friends Claudia Villeneuve, Chapter Leader of ICAN of Edmonton/Edmonton VBAC Support Assn., Anita Ferrie, a co-nominee in the Advocacy category, and I had a blast. The food was excellent, the people were wonderful and the music was perfect. Neither Anita or I won, we lost to a wonderful woman we met that night, Diane Bergeron.

"Dedicated to her community, Diane Bergeron is a leader and a passionate advocate for people with disabilities. As the co-ordinator for the Premier's Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, and founder of the Edmonton Guide Dog Users Group, she is looked upon as one of the city's experts on disability challenges. Working alongside the Executive Director for the CNIB, Diane recently helped draft an updated version of the Blind Persons Rights Act. Despite her being totally blind, Diane's vision has no boundaries."

Congratulations to Diane and all of the award winners and nominees. I was honoured to have been nominated with such an amazing calibre of women. Thank you Claudia for nominating me and all the hard work you did to submit my nomination. You are awesome!

Breastfeeding Length in Canada

The Globe and Mail's talented reporter Andre Pickard wrote the excellent article Most Mother's Quite Breastfeeding Far Too Soon.

The single most effective way of giving a baby a healthy start in life is breastfeeding.

As a public-health measure, breastfeeding is unparalleled. It is cheap, easy to understand, has no negative side effects and the method is tried and true -- as old as motherhood itself.

Yet, Canada fails abysmally when it comes to providing babies with mother's milk.

Things look good at first: Eighty-five per cent of Canadian women breastfeed their newborn babies, according to Statistics Canada. However, in the weeks after birth, that rate falls off precipitously.

Every major health group, including the World Health Organization, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Public Health Agency of Canada, recommends that babies be fed breast milk exclusively for the first six months of life, and that breastfeeding should continue as long as possible after the introduction of solid foods. The reasons for this are clear: Breast milk provides all the nutrients, growth factors and immunological factors a baby needs for optimal growth and development (physical and neurological).

more>>

Cesareans in the News

New Jersey hospital Kimball honored for low rate of C-section births today:

LAKEWOOD — Sumayyah Simone stood in the back of the room, away from the podium, the speakers and the spotlight.

But Simone and pregnant women like her were the reason everyone gathered.

Simone, due to give birth to her second child next month, was the impetus last week for a group of doctors, nurses and midwives to pack themselves into a hallway in Kimball Medical Center's maternity ward and accept an award for good maternity practices.

All because women like Simone want a natural birth.

"There's a trust relationship which I think is really important with a caretaker," said Simone, a 37-year-old Plainfield woman who has a Lakewood doctor monitoring her pregnancy. "When you're in a hospital, you need to trust your doctor."

And when a natural birth is needed or wanted, Kimball Medical Center is among the hospitals of choice.

According to a review of recent state health statistics, the rate of Caesarean-section births at Kimball is the lowest in New Jersey.

more>>

And in South Carolina:

Multiple reasons account for rise in C-sections
By Mike Foley

Back in 1979, when Dr. Kenneth Trofatter began delivering babies in Greenville, the number of women having Caesarean births was about 16 percent.

Last year at Greenville Memorial Hospital, where Trofatter is now the director of maternal-fetal medicine for the University Medical Group, the hospital had 34.6 percent of its births via C-section, a surgical birth method where the baby is removed through an incision in the uterus. Across the country, the Caesarean rate rose to 29.1 percent in 2004 according to the World Health Organization, the latest year for which figures are available.

The end result is higher medical costs, for both private insurers and Medicare, and no end to the debate about the rising numbers of surgeries that some say aren’t always medically necessary. Among his colleagues, Trofatter said, there are two distinct feelings on the issue.

read more>>

Today's higher Caesarean rate raises concerns
Expectant moms must weigh risks, benefits for themselves and baby
By Mike Foley

Among his colleagues in obstetrics, Dr. R.E. Lattimore is an anomaly.

“I probably have one of the lower C-section rates in town,” Lattimore said. “It’s probably 14-16 percent over the long haul.”

The long haul in this case is Lattimore’s career as an ob-gyn in Greenville, now in its 21st year. During those two-plus decades, he’s remained conservative in his approach about unnecessary surgeries, including elective Caesareans.

“I’d prefer not to be on the wrong end of a lawsuit because a woman had an elective C-section and something went wrong,” he said.

While Lattimore said he sees lots of reasons for the ever-increasing number of C-sections, he believes that “everyone would like to see lower C-section rates.” But that’s not happening locally, in South Carolina, in the United States, or around the world.

more>>

Preterm Cesareans Double Uterine Rupture Risk

Interesting news in OB/GYN News today...

MIAMI BEACH — Women with a history of preterm cesarean delivery are twice as likely to experience uterine rupture during a subsequent vaginal delivery, compared with women who have a history of operative delivery at term, according to a large study.

However, the absolute increased risk of 1% may be acceptable to some women who are considering a trial of labor after a previous cesarean section, Dr. Anthony Sciscione said at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

"The 1% may be too high for some women but acceptable to others." Dr. Sciscione, chief of obstetrics at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa., and his associates compared 5,839 women with a history of preterm cesarean delivery to 35,528 with a history of term cesarean delivery.

They found the preterm group twice as likely to experience uterine rupture on a subsequent vaginal delivery, compared with the term group (odds ratio 2.05).

The risk was still increased when the researchers controlled for emergency cesarean deliveries (OR 1.73).

"Rate of uterine rupture was highest among those who had a previous preterm delivery and subsequent full-term delivery," said Dr. Sciscione, who presented the findings on behalf of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Md.

A delivery between 20 weeks of gestation and 36 weeks, 6 days was considered preterm. The two groups were similar, but the prior preterm delivery group was younger (mean 28.6 years versus 29.2 years) and less likely to have private insurance.

Women with a previous preterm cesarean delivery were also more likely to experience earlier uterine rupture (mean 37.2 weeks) than were women with a previous term cesarean (mean 39.1 weeks).

A meeting attendee asked if the women who had uterine rupture earlier were also in labor earlier.

"That is a good question," Dr. Sciscione said. "We looked at that, but the data are not ready yet.

"Further study is needed to define those clinical characteristics which may accompany preterm cesarean delivery that may modify the risk for subsequent uterine rupture," Dr. Sciscione said.

Careforce Lifekeys

A friend of mine from Australia attends an excitingly dynamic church pastored by Dr. Allan Meyer and Helen Meyer, the founders of Careforce Lifekeys. She recently attended their 2006 Conference and came home supercharged. Her excitement has not only piqued my interest, I will be bringing their programs to our church counsel and the as-of-yet hired Pastoral Assistant who will be overseeing the Healthy Family Ministry program I created and currently coordinate.

Careforce Lifekeys is ground breaking. "Many of God's people struggle with issues that church life needs to effectively address. Lifekeys programs have a vital role to play in brining pastoral care and discipleship to God's people." Instead of avoiding or covering up problems, they instead tackle the very issues ordinary people struggle with every day and the root sources of marriage dysfunction, separation, divource, family breakdown, the destructive forces of shame and guilt, addictive cycles, co-dependence, insecurity, self rejection, grief, depression, chemical dependency, sexual abuse, sexual addiction, easting disorders and more. I am super excited about this and truly cannot wait to learn more about Lifekeys' programs.

VBAC vs ERCS Study

Kathleen Doheny from HealthDay News reported last week on the Annals of Family Medicine study (full text pdf), Vaginal Birth After Cesarean in California: Before and After a Change in Guidelines. "The number of women who gave birth vaginally after a cesarean delivery has dropped in recent years, but without the expected reduction in infant and maternal death rates, a new study has found." Well, that is indeed a no-brainer for those of us who have a clue about VBAC and Caesarean risks and benefits.

As all good reporters do, she found someone to refute the evidence... there is always someone who has an expert "opinion." Dr. Richard Frieder, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and a clinical instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the new study has a major flaw. "It doesn't address maternal or fetal complications," he said. He is correct in this regard and goes on to add, "The main complication of VBACs is not death but morbidity, such as blood transfusions, hysterectomy, infection, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, the baby having low Apgar scores or brain hemorrhage. All they are talking about is how many people lived or died. But they didn't measure complications. If they had looked at complication rates, there would have been a huge difference favoring c-section." Sure there are risks to vaginal birth, but saying that there is a "huge difference"... yeah right, and pigs fly. Please show me the evidence Dr. Frieder.

I have done a lot of research into this very concern and the evidence is clear. Don’t miss Childbirth Connection’s (formerly Maternity Center Association) What Every Pregnant Woman Needs To Know About Cesarean Section booklet for solid, evidence-based facts on cesarean risks.

The study concludes with, "Neonatal and maternal mortality rates did not improve despite increasing rates of repeat cesarean delivery during the years after the ACOG 1999 VBAC guideline revision. Women with infants weighing ≥1,500 g encountered similar neonatal and maternal mortality rates with VBAC or repeat cesarean delivery." Well done doctors, now could we please lean on the idiots at ACOG to reverse their inane butt-protecting VBAC guidelines that have essentially eliminated vaginal birth as an option for most post-caesarean women in the US?

Hospital Birth = Death

How ironic that after posting this earlier this week, a young mother has died from a magnesium sulfate overdose in Florida. Her son survived and is in another hospital's NICU. How devastating for her family, my prayer are with them.

Announcing...

I am very proud to announce the opening of my newest endeavour, a new and innovative institution providing comprehensive certification for birth professionals in Canada. Developed from the training workshops provided through Mother Care, Rosenthal Perinatal College was formed out of a need for respected, thorough, and comprehensive certifications for birth and postpartum professionals within Canada, based on Canadian families’ specific needs unique to our country.

Founded on the principles of integrity and strong morals, Rosenthal provides comprehensive, evidence-based certification and continuing education for those seeking careers in the perinatal field. A premier training and certification college, Rosenthal equips students with the knowledge and confidence to support and educate families during the perinatal year. Rosenthal takes pride in their professional standards; their certification requirements are the highest of any certifying organization.

Alberta-based Rosenthal College, with the approval of Alberta Advanced Education’s Private Institutions Branch and in accordance with their regulations, provides quality certification and continuing education. For more information, go to our new website at www.rosenthalcollege.ca.

Hospital Birth = Risk

Sunday, NBC reported on A routine epidural turns deadly which asks, "did a hospital infection turn the happiest day of their lives into a nightmare?" A mother, amidst the bare minimum of care during her hospital stay, contracted meningitis and died within hours of birthing her son.

What bothers me most is the lack of adequate care this family received, from obstetrical decisions to staff follow through, though this is not unusual. The lack of evidence based or even adequate care is almost universal across North America to families who subject themselves to a hospital birth experience. In their defense though, most don't know what the alternatives (like traditional midwifery care) are, the excellent care and proven safety of those alternatives.

Seriously though, has "modern" (allopathic) medicine not set themselves up to "have the answers" so to speak and then be completely and utterly unable to provide them? Physicians are so confident that they can "deal with the side effects" of so many obstetrical interventions, such as inductions and epidurals, that they have not only become commonplace, many women are not even told of their risks even when being subjected to them.

We as a society have been blinded by the rhetoric and sales pitch so completely that we actually allow modern medicine to provide inadequate and often dangerous care and accept it as normal. No wonder malpractice insurance rates are through the roof. Just to compare the care the above mother received to midwifery support is laughable. Would a midwife "subject" her clients to the same care and even hope to be in business? No she would be in jail.

But obstetrics is only part of this big mess. May 29th, Businessweek article Medical Guesswork revealed, "from heart surgery to prostate care, the health industry knows little about which common treatments really work." Anne, a good friend of mine blogged about this here. I grow more leery every day when I see physicians trained to treat symptoms and be completely oblivious to the causes. I mean seriously, how else could anyone justify surgery as a solution for asthma? Evidence-based practice is a vital and very worthy goal, it's frustrating to see modern medicine miss this by such an incredibly wide margin.

VBAC in the journals: the good, the bad and the ugly

Over the past couple of days, some interesting press has me thinking. For instance, the lastest Annals of Family Medicine includes a study showing Reducing post-cesarean vaginal births has no effect on mortality:

Although attempted VBAC deliveries fell significantly after the guideline revision, from 24.0 percent beforehand to just 13.5 percent afterwards, neonatal mortality rates per 1000 live births were no different for attempted VBAC deliveries from those for repeat cesarean among neonates weighing at least 1500 g during either of the two study periods.

Neonatal mortality rates for attempted VBAC among neonates weighing less than 1500 g were higher than those for repeat cesarean deliveries. Their conclusion, "We recommend that a balanced presentation of risks and the encouraging outcomes found in this analysis be included in discussions with pregnant patients who have had a previous cesarean section." Excellent advice. Too bad fear of malpractice in the face of ACOG's VBAC guidelines will skew any "discussion" physicians have with expectant mothers so badly that the truth will rarely be seen.

Meanwhile, over at Obstetrics & Gynecology, their latest journal includes Dr. James Scott editorial, Cesarean Delivery on Request: Where Do We Go From Here? in which he concludes with the advice, "Go slow on this for now, be cautious, don’t get caught up in the rhetoric, and individualize until better evidence is available and the ultimate consequences are well known. To do otherwise just might come back to haunt us." (Obstet Gynecol 2006;107:1222-3) To be honest, ACOG has made a lot of decisions that should be haunting them based solely on bettering their members malpractice insurance rates and wallets with complete disregard for maternal-child health or evidence-based practice. But I digress...

O&G also has a brand new study, Maternal Morbidity Associated With Multiple Repeat Cesarean Deliveries which is something anyone knows who works at all with caesarean/vbac mothers, I mean it's simple common sense. Their conclusion, "Because serious maternal morbidity increases progressively with increasing number of cesarean deliveries, the number of intended pregnancies should be considered during counseling regarding elective repeat cesarean operation versus a trial of labor and when debating the merits of elective primary cesarean delivery." (Obstet Gynecol 2006;107:1226–32)

Last but not least, they have the National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science Conference Statement: Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request from March 27–29, 2006 outcomes. Their conclusion, "The magnitude of cesarean delivery on maternal request is difficult to quantify. There is insufficient evidence to evaluate fully the benefits and risks of cesarean delivery on maternal request compared with planned vaginal delivery. Any decision to perform a cesarean delivery on maternal request should be carefully individualized and consistent with ethical principles." (Obstet Gynecol 2006;107:1386–97)

Hmm. So ACOG's "decision" to essentially eliminate VBAC Trial of Labour as a viable choice for women in the US is coming back to haunt them. Despite the carefully worded conclusions above, it is becoming more and more obvious to even the ones who have turned a blind eye to the risks of major abdominal surgery for deliveries. The well-touted risk VBAC has of uterine rupture is pailing strongly in the blinding glare of surgical risks with many of them long-term risks in future pregnancies.

Mother's Day Delight

I know it's been a week, but I had an absolutely superb Mother's Day and have basked in the joy of it since then. Allan was not working (incredibly so, he seems to get all of the holiday shifts it seems) so we planned a day with our families, lunch with my parents and dinner with Allan's parents. However they took a great turn as lunch turned out to be with my Mom's entire family (her mother, her only sister and dh, along with nearly all of my cousins and their families) and dinner turned out to be with all of Allan's family (his siblings and their families). To top it off, it was my Mom's birthday so celebrations abound!

Because of the great turn out, we had lunch at a large restaurant which happened to be having a buffet for Mother's Day. I sat next to my dear Grandmother (furthest right), the matriarch of our family, and across from my favourite cousin-in-law. Originally from Portugal and having grown up in Australia, she is an incredibly fun and optimistic Mom of two sweet and very busy boys. We live in different cities and lean on our husbands to move closer to each other when we are together.

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive someone came up to me said, "Remember me?" It was one of the boys I used to care for in my dayhome which I had when I first started as a doula. He was one of the sweetest boys I ever cared for and though his Mom was concerned about his being "hyperactive" (because of comments from others), we both agreed he was truly just a very busy boy. He is a young man now, all of 12 years old. Sadly his Mom wasn't there, but his Dad and little brother were there... well not so little, he just turned nine himself. His little brother's birth was my first certifying birth! We had an awesome chat and he talked to my boys for a long time too.

No sooner had I finished lunch and was holding one of my cousin's boys when a beautiful young woman came up to me and asked if I knew who she was. Drawing a blank, she introduce herself and I instantly realized that she was one of my teen clients. Behind her were her parents whom I recognized immediately and her two daughters where there also. She had gone on to finish her education degree and is now married. I learned through our discussion that she teaches full time and lives not far from me. I chatted with her and her parents (who are the most wonderful couple), remembering her birth as her mother and I supported her. Talk about icing on the Mother's Day cake to see two of my "doula babies".

We had a BBQ at my in-laws that evening, a wonderful conclusion to the day. They haven't had a BBQ in years because my father-in-law doesn't BBQ, but they purchased one especially for the day so that we could all enjoy the day at their house rather than go to a crowded restaurant where the kids would be bored and the din would make conversation difficult (been there done that last year). One brother-in-law cooked all the hamburgers (including some great buffalo burgers), smokies and more while we all stood or sat around and visited and ate. Summer BBQ's are the best! Next up: Father's Day at another brother-in-law's beautiful place near Drayton Valley. I can't wait...

Can You Say Duh?

So this mama is concerned about noise pollution...

I am wondering if she has stopped to consider the much larger threat to her unborn of smoking? One of those things that makes you go, duh!

Family Ministry

I have been reviewing resources for our Family Ministry. Where once I was grappling with writing a whole ministry program while pulling ideas and information from other resources, I am now relaxing and enjoying the search for great ministry programs already in place. Two such programs are Heritage Builder's Family Ministry in Focus and Christianity Today's Children's Ministry both of which have amazing resources and ideas for slightly differing aspects of a family ministry. I want to do so much and am so excited about the possibilities in our church, yet patience is a virtue as we continue to seek a pastoral assistant who will be overseeing our family ministry programs.

Cesarean Art

Haunting, bold and riveting. Here are two images, with my thoughts below. Don't stop here though, go to Cesarean Art and see through one mother's eyes the effects of surgical delivery.

my first shower
Immediately postpartum, nurses push mothers newly out of surgery to "resume life."
never letting me go
The depression that haunted my every waking moment, every dream, was relentless.

Cesarean Artis the epitomy of how many, if not most, of women who have experienced a caesarean surgery for the birth of their precious children feel. Don't believe me? Ask one of your many friends who have experienced a cesarean.

Total Luxury Spa Package

For my birthday (which isn't for another two months) my sisters and my mother took me to the Marvel College Edmonton Campus for a Total Luxury Spa Package last week. It was amazing. Starting at 9 am with a spa manicure and pedicure, touted as "a facial for your hands and feet." In addition to treatment of callus and dry heels, nail shaping, cuticle treatment, a relaxing foot and leg massage, finished with your choice of OPI polish, you are treated to exfoliation of the feet and a moisturizing mask followed by a paraffin treatment. Next came a full facial with skin analysis, facial cleansing, deep exfoliation, relaxing face, neck and shoulder massage, facial mask, toner and moisturizer.

A break for a light lunch (included in the package) of our choice of sandwhich, salad and drink was followed by a one hour relaxation massage. Then I enjoyed a detoxifying and purifying body wrap to detoxify the skin, deep cleanse the pores and smooth roughness. Showered off in a wonderful, hot Swiss shower and dove right into a Vichy shower (picture below) touted to "stimulate the internal body systems, circulation, metabolism and enhances lymphatic drainage as well as promote a tremendous sense of relaxation." Wrapping up the afternoon was a detoxifying massage focusing on lymphatic drainage. I cannot tell you how luxurious that whole day was, I was being pampered for seven hours with my sister and mother beside me enjoying similar treatments!

My sisters have long wanted this to be an annual event, I am so ready to join them and tell all of my friends that they need to pamper themselves like this. This should be written into that motherhood contract we fall into when the pregnancy test turns pink!

YWCA Women of Distinction Nomination

I mentioned briefly here that I was nominated by a great friend for the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the field of Health, Social Sciences & Social Services. It is moving from the surreal to reality as a wonderful woman from the YWCA of Edmonton called today to book my photo shoot with complimentary hair and makeup for the Edmonton Sun and the YWCA Gala Presentation promotional literature. I am taken aback as the Avonlea Photography Studio is among the most prominent photography studios in Edmonton and Elysium Hair Body Spirit is one of 20 salons in Canada that have become a Schwarzkopf Essential Look concept salon. Look at me, a homeschool mom!

The Awards Gala will be on June 15 at the Northlands Agricom... what on earth am I going to wear for the pictures and the big event?! I have to go call my sister.

Still Swimming

It has been a while since I blogged, a very long while for me! I have just been very busy with life and working to reduce my being overwhelmed. It's tough trying to save the world (or at least my corner of the world) with only 24 hours in a day! Let me catch you up on life.

I won't deny it, Brendan's assessment sent me reeling. I know I have a lot on my plate, I won't deny it for a minute, but being busy and focused is how I work. Anything less and I am walking around aimlessly trying to find things to do. But it was his assessment that has me re-evaluating me, who I am, how I parent, my other commitments which keep me sane outside of parenting... and then something changed.

Brendan's DS (developmental specialist) whom he works with on a half time basis in our home suddenly was called home (in BC) on a family emergency. We had a week of no support and this week we had a new DS come in to substitute. I cannot tell you how much Brendan's attitude (his behaviours) have improved in the last two weeks! Here we had her coming in to help with his language skills only to have him slide badly behaviourally, and I was blaming myself. Now we never see a temper tantrum (which happened several times a day only two weeks ago) as they declined dramatically in his DS's absence. I won't fault his DS entirely, it is all about personalities and he being a strong choleric was quite simply too much for his DS to handle effectively. She would be wonderful with say a sanguine or phlegmatic child, but not so much with my little livewire. We don't know when she will return and neither does she. His new DS doesn't let him call the shots and it makes all the difference... and I told her supervisor as much. I know we won't be able to keep our new DS (as she is a sub only) but it sure would be nice. Time will tell how this works out.

On the dh's career front, we are not moving and neither are we going into the construction field for the time being. Allan is settling into his new store and working out some major issues he was handed to test him... and he is doing superbly. We now have carpet in our basement (and my office) which I love! Trim and painting the trim... oh and finishing the basement bath and we are done this house, yay! Allan is getting itchy though, he is thinking we need to build again. It hasn't even been two years since this house was built! But he has a point, our house has appreciated almost 100,000 since we purchased it and that is a huge chunk of change we could put on another house :-)

On my career front, I taught two workshops since I last weighed in, the most rewarding job in the world for me! I have also been working hard as president of both the CDA and ICAN/AIIC Canada. Two amazing organizations that are growing so fast in this great country I live in. I know I am going to have to weigh my priorities carefully in working with both organizations, as I can only give so much of my time and energy to volunteer work. But it's so much fun and I love doing it... so I tend to spend more time doing this than I should .

Oh, and one last thing. I haven't mentioned this before, but I love RPG's (role playing games). I have finished Myst, several Tomb Raiders and lots of older ones (I have been a computer geek since I first laid my hands on a computer in high school when the computers were sooooo simpl!). Well my sons... and my husband... and myself, we are all having a blast with the online game Runescape. Be careful, it is highly addictive! If you do or plan to check it out, I am Norse Queen... hailing from my scandinavian roots. See you there when I am between parenting and working and volunteering.

Behavioural Assessments

In case you have not read my blog for a long time, my third son has language delays which we have addressed with additional support through a program called GRIT (Getting Ready for Inclusion Today) which provides him with a half time DS (developmental specialist) who works with him one on one and who is supported by a team of professionals (speech therapist, occupational therapist, etc.).

One of the concerns of the team leader was our son's behaviour when working with his DS in the beginning, which they have long since dealt with and they are working together well now. In addressing this concern, we were asked if we wanted a behavioural specialist come in and assess their working together. I didn't see a problem with this, our DS was fine with it and our son was used to these type of assessments by now so it wasn't an issue for him. I am always open to ideas too, anything to benefit my children IMO.

Anyway, this very personal and highly recommended assessor came and spent an afternoon unobstrusively watching them, ironically on a day when our son was not very cooperative. His DS and I saw it as an opportunity however to address some of his weaknesses...

Well his return with "answers" was interesting indeed. He basically said that our son had issues that we could not address at home (he knew we planned on homeschooling) and that it would be in his best interest to put him into school and that we should start looking for an appropriate institution soon, given that many open houses would be happening in the near future. At first I was feeling rather gloomy about this, then I realized something... he was hired by GRIT which in essence readies preschoolers with disabilities for school. I had been lead to believe that this assessor worked in the psychology field and in fact he told me he had obtained his masters degree a few year prior. Stupid me, I failed to ask in what field! He handed me his card and guess what? His masters is in education. No wonder he is wanting him to be "corrected" by an institution, he can't see outside of that box. Oh well, lesson learned, for us at least. Don't bother utilizing the professionals unless they are working towards the same goal as you and able to see your vision with an open mind. Otherwise you are wasting their time and yours.

Pre-eclampsia and Calcium link

How exciting that AJOG has published an article linking nutrition with pre-eclampsia. Of course the study was done in Switzerland (where they obviously see a bigger link between nutrition and the increasingly common problems such as pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and so on) as North American physicians have essentially no training and precious little knowledge about the impact of nutrition on expectant mothers.

Calcium supplements reduce pregnancy complications
Source: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2006; Not yet available online

Investigating the effect of calcium supplements on pre-eclampisa, its complications, and death linked to the condition.

Calcium supplements could help prevent the serious complications of pre-eclampsia and, in young women, preterm delivery, research suggests.

Although a treatment to prevent pre-eclampsia remains elusive, a link to calcium deficiency has been suggested.

To explore this possibility further, José Villar (World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland) and co-workers recruited 8300 women who consumed less than half of the amount of calcium recommended during pregnancy. Half of the women were given a 1.5 g calcium supplement each day, while half received placebo.

The incidence of pre-eclampsia was comparable between the two groups, but rates of eclampsia, other severe complications of pre-eclampsia, and severe gestational hypertension were significantly lower in the supplemented women. The "severe maternal morbidity and mortality index" was also significantly reduced with calcium supplementation, as was neonatal mortality.

In women less than 20 years of age - those at highest risk for low calcium and pre-eclampsia complications - calcium supplements tended to protect against preterm and very preterm delivery.

"This large randomized trial in populations with low calcium intake demonstrates that while supplementation with 1.5 g calcium/day did not result in a statistically significant decrease in the overall incidence of pre-eclampsia, calcium significantly increased the risk of its more serious complications," the team concludes.

I hope that this study and others will not only continue to confirm the unflagging lifelong work that the late obstetrician Dr. Brewer has done on the link between nutrition (especially protein, calcium) and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), pre-eclampsia, eclampsia/toxemia and HELLP.