I just happened upon this wonderful website by Cynthia Lair and her family: Cookus Interruptus. It's a great cooking website full of wonderful recipes and information about cooking with whole foods, plus there's videos of many of the recipes! If you're unfamiliar with Cynthia Lair, she has a couple of whole foods based cook books, the most well known is Feeding the Whole Family, a wonderful book for anyone who cares about the food they put into their body.Tuesday, January 19, 2010
from my favorites list
I just happened upon this wonderful website by Cynthia Lair and her family: Cookus Interruptus. It's a great cooking website full of wonderful recipes and information about cooking with whole foods, plus there's videos of many of the recipes! If you're unfamiliar with Cynthia Lair, she has a couple of whole foods based cook books, the most well known is Feeding the Whole Family, a wonderful book for anyone who cares about the food they put into their body.Thursday, January 14, 2010
stories of '09
It's 2010 and I'm happy to report the last quarter of 2009 was full of exciting events, and even more should be in store for 2010.
I was privileged to be the acupuncturist to some very special moms in 2009, and though all the moms I work with are amazing women with great birth stories, I just wanted to highlight some of the exceptional one's starting with a mom who had a successful VBAC at Evergreen. Way to go mama!
I also had the opportunity to treat a mom considered by general obstetrics to be of 'advanced maternal age' and not only did she have a successful vaginal birth, but at home in water attended by midwives. Congratulations on your second born, she is beautiful!
Finally, twins!! But, once again, not only twins, but vaginally born, breastfeeding twins!!
Here's the story:
March: Hopefully pregnant.
April: Definitely pregnant.
Later that month: Twins!!
March-December: Lots of acupuncture, yoga & prenatal checkups!
3rd Trimester: Pregnancy going great, bye-bye high risk OB, down to 1 OB!
August-September: Childbirth classes, mom & dad studying hard to prepare for the big day!
December: It's time, the boys are ready. Mom and dad labor hard and strong, both boys born the old fashioned way and big and healthy. Discharged from the hospital 24 hours after birth.
Mom reports the whole L&D floor was a little shocked at the short hospital stay for twins, but staying healthy and being prepared made a great difference for this family!
What does mom have to say about it:
"I think its important for women to know education is the key to having the birth you want and the determination to see it through…I couldn't have made the choices I did without learning my options and knowing that I had choices!!!!
Congratulations new family of four, you are an amazing family!
And congratulations to all who had new additions in 2009, especially these brave, strong moms, I hope you all know your stories will inspire and strengthen other women to achieve the births they hope for!
Be Well!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
take The Birth Survey reminder
Thursday, October 29, 2009
newborns & H1N1

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Close to half of the births in Washington state are paid for by Medicaid. Until recently much of our medicaid dollars have gone toward paying for unnecessary, even potentially harmful cesarean sections. Recently, Washington state has decreased the reimbursement rate for uncomplicated c-sections to equal that of complicated vaginal births, a drop of approximately $2,600/birth. This is (conservatively) predicted to save the state and the federal government $2 million dollars each over the next 2 years, spurred by the economic crisis our state government has seen these past couple of years. The savings may be even greater if the cesarean rate actually begins to drop from close to 30% to the WHO standard of 10-15% (a debatable number itself, but better than 30%+).
Friday, August 7, 2009
world breastfeeding week day 7
world breastfeeding week day 6
PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 2 February 2002, pp. 210-216
Risk Factors for Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection Among Alaska Native Children


"Results. Breastfeeding was associated with a lower risk of RSV hospitalization (odds ratio: 0.34), whereas underlying medical conditions (primarily prematurity) were associated with increased risk (odds ratio: 6.25). Environmental factors associated with a higher risk of hospitalization included household crowding (4 or more children in the household and crowding index greater than/equal to 2). The level of maternal RSV-neutralizing antibody was not associated with the risk of hospitalization.
Conclusions. In this region with extremely high risk of RSV hospitalization, several measures, such as encouraging breastfeeding and reducing household crowding, could reduce the risk of hospitalization attributable to RSV."
