Veronika Sophia Robinson

The Last Dance

2008-07-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

The time feels right to bring an end to my blog writing. Thank you for sharing the journey.

If there's anything I can leave you with, it is this: Love your kids loud and strong; love yourself as much, and love their other parent with all your heart.

For, despite commentators such as Rosie Boycott saying that stay at home mums contribute NOTHING to society, the family is the foundation upon which society rests.

Journey well, stay strong.
With love, Veronika

UK breastfeeding law demonstration on YouTube

2008-07-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WSt3Qhde1Yc

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who attended the breastfeeding demonstration on July 18th. Thank you, too, to Will Bix for filming and to Alison Blenkinsop for her song, Protect me.

~ Veronika ~

BBC

2008-07-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

SHAME on the BBC six o’clock news journalist who said the BBC couldn’t show breastfeeding on the six o’clock news… when one of our protestors at yesterday’s rally was sitting down peacefully breastfeeding her baby.

Why couldn’t he show it? Because it is more offensive/violent/indecent than, say, a soldier returning from war with his legs blown off, a plane crash, a baby’s face bitten off by a dog? Because it is less suitable for the cultural mindset than say, seeing Myleene Klass in a skimpy bikini? Because it might permanently scar a five year old who was watching the news? Or was this his personal prejudice surfacing? I’ll bet if it was Myleene sitting there breastfeeding he wouldn’t have had a problem!!!!

Shame on the BBC for not educating its journalists that such attitudes are discriminatory, and only serve to perpetuate the cultural ignorance. That’s the second discriminatory and ignorant comment from a BBC journalist this week in regard to breastfeeding! Is it the Boycotting Breastfeeding Company????

One thing IS certain ~ if educated people are so darn ignorant about the necessity and beauty of breastfeeding, then what hope to do we have to get through to a culture which thinks breastfeeding is Unnatural? AKA, people like Katie Price/Jordan?

Gorgeous families travelled from far and wide to attend yesterday's breastfeeding rally in parliament square ~ amplifying the saying Actions speak louder than words. I was moved to see how many people turned up and were prepared to endure the ‘hell’ that is London.

The official line was that I could not use amplification to talk out as ‘parliament was sitting, and it would disturb them’. What? Above all that bloody traffic? What cobblers! And of course, they don’t WANT to hear what we’ve got to say, do they?

I was touched by the two kindly police officers on duty. We only had permission to gather on the concrete pavement, but they ‘allowed’ us to sit and picnic on the grass ~ clearly we weren’t a violent bunch. It’s a shame some MPs didn’t bother to come out and see that for themselves, or to even learn something from breastfeeding families. And they even allowed us to put up our placards (which you can’t do!!) There are all sorts of rules about what you can and can’t do near parliament…it’s ridiculous, to say the least.

One lady coming for the event was breastfeeding on a train that morning, only to have a woman say ‘aggh, breastfeeding. On a train.’ This is exactly the sort of attitude the government should be working to change. If they want women to feel confident breastfeeding in public, as they claim, then they need to get the messages out to everyone ~ have it right up there with “Coke, the real thing”, or Macdonalds or Weight Watchers adverts. There have to be breastfeeding billboards throughout the country. We need images everywhere so it seeps into the cultural mindset that feeding our babies, at the breast, is natural and normal. We need “Breastfeeding Welcome” signs everywhere we go in public. We need, in short, to start respecting our children’s needs.

Perhaps if the government was transparent about the short and longterm health costs (that is, in MONEY terms) of not breastfeeding, people might start to take notice. Perhaps if people had to cover their own health costs when choosing not to breastfeed, then we might see a seachange. Perhaps, if parents were adequately educated as to the RISKS of not breastfeeding (risks which might take years to surface or be considered noticeable enough to warrant attention), they might make better informed choices or seek out better support than is currently offered in many maternity centres.

I met another woman yesterday who said she was the only woman out of her 19 friends who breastfed. Indeed, when she gave birth all the staff in the maternity ward said ‘we don’t encourage breastfeeding any more’ WHAT? How can this be when a government spokesperson tells me that they’re doing everything they can to support breastfeeding?

If our government really wants to put OUR money to good use, then they should stop faffing with silly little laws which only serve to confuse the masses. Let’s face it, if most breastfeeding woman aren’t aware of their legal rights, then the average Joe Blow on the streets certainly won’t be. What came out of yesterday’s rally most strongly, for me, was the need to educate the MASSES. The government must create wall to wall advertising for television which gets through to even the lowest common denominator mind ~ information which tells every person in this country that breastfeeding is the only milk suitable for optimal infant nutrition, and that woman are free to breastfeed their child, of whatever age, anytime, anywhere.

How ironic to sit in the tube and on the 4.5 hour train ride home late last night (early this morning!) to see people totally absorbed in their newspapers dealing, once again, with knife crime. Why don’t we have articles in newspapers on full-term breastfeeding as a crime preventative? Oh, that’s right, we couldn’t promote breastfeeding positively or we wouldn’t get big bucks in from the fake milk companies.

This government, if it really does believe breast is best, should WALK THE TALK and ban all advertising of fake milk for infants and make it only available by prescription…and not one given by a standard doctor, because, let’s face it, how many of them even know the first thing about breastfeeding? They’re amongst the most likely of health care professionals to advise a woman onto the bottle.

Yesterday our families sang a breastfeeding song which will be available on YouTube shortly (written by Alison Blenkinsop), with a short commentary from me at the beginning. I’ll put a link on my blog as soon as Will, our cameraman, edits a piece down for us.

We presented the petition to Downing Street as well as the open letter to Harriet Harman. But let’s not stop there. Write to her, write to the Health Minister, write to your local MP (that’s what he/she is there for), write to the PM ~ make them earn the money you pay on taxes. Many of us limp from week to week juggling our bills and feeding our kids ~ these people live in very comfortable circumstances because of YOU. Your family contributes to their cushy lifestyle. They work in these jobs to work for YOU.

Ask them to explain the ‘sense’ of the breastfeeding aspect of the Equality Bill?

Ask them, why, if we’re already protected under the Sexual Discrimination Act 1975, they would bring in something else which will confuse people? Ask them questions unique to your situation so they don’t send off some standard reply.

Ask them why, if maternity is nine months, they are using 6 months as their maternity cut off point in the Equality Bill.

Ask them why they don’t actively put money into advertising to the whole country about the necessity of breast milk and breastfeeding?

Ask them if they’re aware that fully breastfed children don’t grow up resorting to knife crime or depression? Ask them if they can find you a single criminal or someone suffering with major mental health diseases who had the benefit of full term breastfeeding.

Ask them why they say ‘breast is best for babies’ but refuse to come out and say ‘breast is best for children’? Why do they continue with the six month line?

Ask them who their lactation experts are in government? Who do they rely on for information?

Ask them why they didn’t speak up immediately a couple of months back when the papers ran articles about women being charged with indecency if they breastfed in public after the child was 6 months old? Ask them why not one single person from government bothered to stand up and publicly declare that this would NEVER happen?

Ask them why a bunch of cross party MPs would bother tabling an Early Day Motion against this 6 month mark in the Equality Bill, if it wasn't something to be concerned about?

And, finally, be sure to ask them why it should fall upon a woman to have to take legal action against someone for discriminating against her breastfeeding in public? As we all know, the law is a very messy arena with holes left, right and centre. The best answer we could get out of the government’s legal team regarding a woman’s protection under the Sexual Discrimination Act 1975 (which apparently provides FULL protection), is that, in such a case the judge *should* rule in her favour. Should? SHOULD????? Seems like building a house on sand, to my mind. Would you go to court on a 'should'?

You families have been incredibly proactive these past few weeks. Let’s not stop raising awareness now ~ keep talking, write letters to newspapers, to MPs, to friends. Don’t let our minority status (that is, being less than 1 in 5 who breastfeed after 6 months) get us pushed under the sand; hidden away in the government’s ‘pain in the arse’ basket. Get yourself, and all breastfed children, put into the ‘URGENT basket’.

The bottom line is, regardless of the lack of support from government, your baby has essential and fundamental human rights which NO ONE can deny. Our government might not deal in absolutes, but the European Court of Human Rights WOULD rule in the favour of a breastfeeding mother and child.

On a very positive note, I was thrilled to meet so many new faces yesterday, and to finally put faces to names. And again, I’m honoured, especially in these uncertain economic times, that so many of you bought expensive train tickets to come to the meeting. Some of you travelled a very long way.

It was lovely to sit and chat with lovely, like-minded families, and how ironic, I felt, that afterwards when some of us gathered by the River Thames, it was in a little park by the government's defence dept. At least they didn't rush out and get all defensive about our singing breastfeeding songs! The way some people have responded to us, you'd think we were a threat to the country. Hmmm, maybe we are? We're a threat to the status quo which thinks it's fine to raise babies on counterfeit milk.

THANK YOU

Confusion over Harman's Equality Bill leads to demonstrations outside Parliament

2008-07-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

A report from Veronika Robinson, Editor of The Mother magazine:

Families throughout the UK will demonstrate in Parliament Square on Friday (July 18th) against the discrimination inherent in Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill, which will only provide public breastfeeding protection for babies aged under six months.

Concern has been raised over the lack of clarity in law and how this will affect those families who choose to follow the World Health Organisation’s guidelines of a minimum of six months exclusive breastfeeding.

Editor of The Mother magazine, Veronika Robinson, says “It was this six month cut off point that started panic amongst breastfeeding mothers who, in accord with WHO and Government Health guidelines, seek to breastfeed well beyond this six month limit. They were concerned that they could now be discriminated against, for feeding a child older than six months when in public.

In a predominantly bottle-feeding culture, like Britain, it is even more important that our government delivers strong, uncompromising and ongoing support for breastfed children of all ages, no matter where they happen to need breastfeeding. It’s vital that the government’s breastfeeding guidelines stand shoulder to shoulder with those of the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.

Women who breastfeed for more than six months feel they will be discriminated against because they’re in a minority. Indeed, more than 4 out of 5 British-born babies don’t even receive the minimum of breastfeeding as set out by the World Health Organisation.”

Mothers are already protected by the Sexual Discrimination Act 1975; this was amended in 2008 and includes a reference to six months. The protection under the SDA75 is on the grounds of gender. This law is little understood.

In response to The Mother magazine, Barbara Follett, deputy minister for Women and Equality, agrees, “The law is not as clear as it should be. People are unaware of their rights and their responsibilities in this area.”

Mrs Robinson says, “The Equality Bill will make people even more confused, and it risks becoming the point of reference in law. Although the government insists the Equality Bill is relating to maternity, it has failed to answer why, if the SDA of 1975 does indeed provide full protection for all breastfeeding children, wherever and whenever they are in public, then why introduce a Bill which will only serve to confuse the general public?"

The petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/breastfedright/, launched by The Mother magazine, was signed by 6000 people in just a matter of a couple of weeks. It will be presented to 10 Downing Street on Friday, along with an open letter to Harriet Harman, endorsed by more than 30 signatories, including Dr Michel Odent, Jean Liedloff and James Prescott.

OPEN LETTER to Harriet Harman on the Equality Bill (breastfeeding)

2008-07-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms Harman

Please make Breastfeeding in Public EQUAL for all breastfed children

The Equality bill to encourage women’s confidence in breastfeeding, by giving them legal protection to nurse in public up until the child is six months of age, while well-intentioned, is short-sighted, and discriminates against breastfed babies and children over the age of six months.

This law will only serve to marginalise women, as well as to perpetuate a common breastfeeding myth: breastfeeding is not important or necessary after the first six months.

The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for a minimum of six months, not a maximum. Both WHO and UNICEF recommend breastfeeding for a minimum of two years. Studies by James Prescott, PhD, show us that cultures which breastfeed for a minimum of two and a half years, as opposed to just two years, ‘are more peaceful, loving and have egalitarian behaviours’. These people have drastically reduced levels of violence, suicide and depression. In a time when we have such grave concerns over the increasing levels of teenage violence, surely the government should be encouraging a ‘preventative’ rather than a ‘band-aid’ approach. We simply can not hope to create a breastfeeding culture if it’s only legally permissible to breastfeed our children some of the time, or in certain places. Breast milk is a living food, not a waste product, and should be given the recognition, respect and status it deserves.

Science and psychology show us that the major neurons in the brain only get one chance in life to be ‘fired up’. Affectionate mother bonding through breastfeeding is nature’s way of ensuring this happens easily and successfully.

The nutrients present in breast milk become more concentrated as a child gets older. This means they don’t need to feed as often as, say a newborn, but get everything they need in smaller amounts. Despite the common belief that babies need to wean at six months because iron in breast milk is inadequate (a myth perpetuated in part by artificial milk companies), science reveals that, in actual fact, exclusive breastfeeding for a minimum of seven months gives a baby iron stores for life.

Not actively supporting breastfeeding babies over six months, serves only one purpose: to pander to people who are completely ignorant of the necessity of breast milk and physical nurturing by the mother. That a culture which portrays the sexuality of breasts on the front of its newspapers and on television, will penalise older babies who rely on breastfeeding for food and emotional nurturing, is completely unacceptable.

Breastfeeding isn’t just about the ingredients and immunities in a mother’s milk. The affectionate, loving bonding which happens in the breastfeeding relationship is unique to this way of feeding, and can not be replicated with a bottle in any way, shape or form. Breastfeeding is a fundamental human right: millions of years of evolution have encoded every baby to expect breastfeeding and unfettered access to his or her mother’s breasts.

Creating a culture of closet breastfeeders, or women who will feel pressured to use artificial milk at six months so they don’t feel stuck at home, will not educate anyone, and most importantly of all, mothers and children will suffer. Why is the British government effectively encouraging the idea that breastfeeding after six months is a cultural embarrassment?

If women believe they can only breastfeed in public up until six months of age, they may choose not to even start breastfeeding. Studies show the direct link between Type 1 diabetes and cow’s milk in infancy. Many other diseases are linked to not being breastfed early in life. Four thousands babies die around the world every day because they aren’t breastfed. We may have the NHS to help the UK’s bottlefed babies when they become ill, but it is still a social and ethical obligation to ensure every mother knows the risks to her children if she chooses not to breastfeed, or if she cuts the relationship short before the child is ready.

On behalf of the more than 6000 signatures on our e-petition to Downing street, and the professionals listed below, I urge you to make breastfeeding in public ~ anytime and anywhere ~ safe, secure and sound for all our children, for however long they need to breastfeed.

Breastfeeding isn’t a lifestyle choice for time-rich mothers, but absolutely essential if humanity is to be emotionally, physically and intellectually functional. Ms Harman, please promise us that all breastfed children will be accorded legal protection in all public spaces.

Veronika Robinson
Author, The Drinks Are On Me
Lactation consultant
Editor, The Mother magazine
Mother of two daughters, breastfed full-term.

James W. Prescott, Ph.D., developmental neuropsychologist and cross-cultural psychologist

Jean Liedloff, Author, The Continuum Concept.

Dr Michel Odent, Author of Birth and Breastfeeding, Primal Health, etc.

Binnie A Dansby, Psychotherapist, Birth consultant

Kitty Hagenbach - Parent/Child Psychotherapist

Patrick M. Houser, Author, Fathers-To-Be Handbook & Co-Founder, Fathers-To-Be

Peter Hall, Practice manager GP surgery

Robert Verkerk BSc MSc DIC PhD, Executive Director of the Alliance for Natural Health & Scientific Advisor to the National Health Federation team on Codex Alimentarius

Dr Sarah J Buckley, GP/ family physician, Author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: The wisdom and science of gentle choices in pregnancy, birth and parenting

Adam Maclean, Director of The Good Birth Company Ltd, Father of 4

Robert Holden Ph.D. - Founder of The Happiness Project

Sylvie Hétu, International Trainer, International Association of Infant Massage

Dr Richard House, Roehampton University

Melissa Corkhill, Editor, The Green Parent

Claire Scott, Director, Close Parent Ltd

B.J Sheppard, retired La Leche League leader

Alison Blenkinsop, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and midwife

Beverly Ashwell, Birth & Postnatal Doula (member of Doula UK and Nurturing Birth)

Emma Lewis, Doula & Lactation Counsellor

Belinda Beetham, Midwife

Tracy Botica, Midwife

Kim Atkinson, Health Visitor

Sue Cardus - La Leche League Leader for 25 years.

Liz Sheppard-Jones, Health Coach UK Ltd

Holly Paige, Researcher/writer on nutrition and human needs

Sarah Boyd, NCT antenatal teacher and birth doula

Paul Robinson, Assistant Editor, The Mother magazine

Gemma Guthrie-James, mother of three breastfed babies!

Dina Almuli Marketing & Events Officer, Real Nappies for LondonWomen's Environmental Network

Sharon Holdstock, Managing Director and full term breastfeeder!

Sandi Sharkey, teacher and mother of three breastfed children

Jenny Moore, Agent Administrator for Taylor and Francis.

Sharon Forbes. Technical operator and transmission controller for various broadcasting houses including QVC

Abigail Myles, Manager

Richard Malter Health Care Practitioner

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/breastfedright/

2008-07-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

The breastfeeding petition has now reached more than 6,000 signatures in just a few short weeks, making it one of the 20 most supported petitions (out of nearly 6,000!!) on the Downing St website.

It also the 4th most supported (out of 800) in the health section.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/breastfedright/
If you've not already signed it, please consider doing so. Although it is open till December, we're presenting the signatures to number 10 Downing Street tomorrow after lunch. Let your voice be heard.

And have a look at this lovely idea for getting the message across that the Equality Bill needs the 'age factor' scrapped!

http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/2008/07/protest-smiles.html

Well done to TM subscriber, Denise, for this. She (with friends) will be holding a breastfeeding rally in Lincoln tomorrow. Congrats too to Nicola in Newcastle for braving the local (ignorant) BBC there ~ the radio host suggested that breastfeeding an older child would lead to pyschological damage. Hmmm, that's NOT what the studies show us. Indeed, if you want to see where the divorce rates are coming from, you don't need to look much further than the people who were bottle-fed or weaned off the breast WAY TOO EARLY.

Hi HO, hi ho, it's off to dowing street we go, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho!!!!

Really looking forward to catching up with friends, old and new.

TWELVE babies die in Glaxo Vaccine Trials....

2008-07-14T04:41:00.000-07:00

At Least 12 Babies Die in Glaxo Vaccine Trials in Argentina

Trading Markets provides news of interest to investors: On July 10, it reported that at least 12 babies, who were test subjects in a clinical trial testing GlaxSmithKline's pneumonia vaccine, in Argentina died. (see below)

According to the Argentine Federation of Health Professionals, or Fesprosa, the pharmaceutical giant uses children from poor families, who are"pressured and forced into signing consent forms. This occurs without anytype of state control" and "does not comply with minimum ethicalrequirements."

Pediatrician Ana Maria Marchese, who works at the children's hospital in the provincial capital where the studies are being conducted, was highly critical: "because they can't experiment in Europe or the UnitedStates, they come to do it in third-world countries."

Indeed, "Colombia and Panama were also chosen by GSK as staging grounds for trials of the vaccine against the pneumococcal bacteria." But one of the lead Glaxo-paid investigators, pediatrician Enrique Smith, is quoted stating: "Only 12 have died throughout the country, which is a very low figure if we compare it with the deaths produced by respiratory illnesses caused by the pneumococcal bacteria."

Since 2007, 15,000 babies have been subjects of the trial, so the death rate in the trial is 1 in 1,250. Question is, would they have died had they received antibiotics and not been in the trial? Fesprosa complained that the parents are pressured, and trial "occurs without any type of control..."If "the trials were authorized when Enrique's brother, Juan Carlos Smith, was provincial health minister" the legitimacy of the trial isquestionable, at best.

The world is bearing witness to the moral dissolution of corporate influenced medicine--a pediatrician is sanguine about the death of 12 babies in a clinical trial, claiming it is "a very low figure..."

This profit-driven culture has derailed medicine from its traditional ethical principles, rapidly converting into a ruthless commercialenterprise.

This medical tragedy is widely disseminated on internet blogs but ignored by the press--Why ????????????????????? Contact: Vera Hassner Sharavveracare@ahrp.org212-595-8974 http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1750553/

Supporting lone parents who choose home education

2008-07-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

Hi veronika, please would you include this link in your blog. There is only a short time left for people to sign it. It's to help lone parents on income support who home educate continue to do so. Once a child is 7 a parent is no longer entitled to income support and is moved onto jobseekers. This means many people won't have the option of home ed anymore.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EOloneparent

Thanks
Dawn x

Activist mothers unite

2008-07-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.uniteforlife.org/

http://www.babywhys.org/

A picture paints a thousand words

2008-07-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Introducing (big drum roll....) Hathor the Cow Goddess

http://www.hathorthecowgoddess.com/

Natural delivery of the placenta ~ a response to channel Five's OUTLAW BIRTHS

2008-07-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

One of my main concerns when watching Outlaw Births the other night, was the portrayal of how high the risks are for a placenta not coming out/or haemorrhage.

I felt so frustrated that something like that could be aired without any ‘traditional’ knowledge being mentioned. Clearly, it’s another example of tv production companies simply not doing their research/wanting to sensationalise the drama! A slow delivery of a placenta does NOT have to be dramatic or life threatening...

Our ancestress didn’t have to whiz off to hospital and be ‘shamed’ by a medical profession as the young American woman in the documentary was. In fact, our tribal sisters rarely had any such complications, primarily because their lifestyles were so very different from ours:

[] they didn’t sit around on their bums all day, they exercised every muscle in their day to day work, including in pregnancy and right up to the very end.

[] their diet was a simple vegetarian one, devoid of fats, meats and dairy

[] they trusted their body to give birth

[] most tribes didn’t socialize birth, that is, they birthed unobserved or were held by a birthing partner from behind ~ by being alone they were able to birth from their mammalian brain rather than trying to do it from their neocortex (the part designed for intellect, not instinct or birthing)

[] by catching the baby themselves, and bringing him/her up over the pubic bone and to the breast, the birthing mother's labia and perineum remained intact.

[] all tribes routinely used ‘heat’ after birth ~ that is, a birth fire, heated sand pit, hot ash in a cloth ~ all sorts of things to bring warmth to the abdomen

[] massage of the abdomen was also routine ~ this always helped with post partum healing

[] *if*, despite all this, a placenta was slow to come down, they tried one of three things:

~ sneezing (black pepper, dust, etc)
~ blowing (as in, blowing into an emptied egg shell
~ gagging (the mum would have an awful concoction of something or other)

These actions get the muscles going and send the placenta on its way…
HOWEVER the most obvious way (and Nature’s way) to get the placenta out is to
put baby straight to the breast because nipple stimulation contracts the uterus.

Despite my apprehension watching the documentary, and wanting to throw things at the tv screen, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my friend Laura Shanley and admired the three women who put themselves ‘out there’ for public consumption ~ no easy thing to do!

Clio’s birth reminded me of Bethany’s. It’s the way birth was designed to be…

Our medical profession has a long way to go…to understanding our mammalian birthing needs. And birthing women, I pray, will wake up from the cultural mass hypnosis that birth is dangerous, deadly and meant to be painful.

VACCINE PETITION ~ Big Brother all the way!

And another petition...this time against the plan to make vax compulsory in the form of, "if you don't vaccinate your child, we won't let him/her in school or give you child health benefits!"

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/forcedvaccines/

Outlaw Births

2008-07-09T02:05:00.000-07:00

The British unassisted childbirth documentary “Outlaw Births” will air in the UK tonight (July 9th) on Channel 5 at 9pm.

There is also this beautiful UC which was posted with an article that appeared in yesterday’s Independent newspaper.
http://tinyurl.com/5bvsmy

http://outlawbirths.com

The term “outlaw” refers to the fact that women who choose this route often feel ostracised by friends, family and society. UC isn’t illegal in the UK.

The synchronicity of this article and documentary coming out this week, has left me smiling. Just yesterday I met with my artist who's doing the illustrations for my new book ~ The Birthkeepers: reclaiming an ancient tradition. It's all about how nature designed women to catch their own babies (there aren't tears if you reach down and bring baby up to your chest ~ assuming no one has had their hands near you or babe)...and about how much we can learn from our ancestress. In fact, anthropology shows us through cross-cultural studies that in ancient times women didn't have all the conditions, ailments and problems of pregnancy, labour, birth and breastfeeding that our so common in our 'civilised' culture.

The dominant birth culture has us believing that birth is dangerous, deadly and painful. Yes, it IS if you go along with their model which is akin to birth rape. Women who choose to birth autonomously have a completely different experience. One thing's for sure, women have been well and truly duped by modern medicine to believe birth is dangerous.

My fingers are crossed that this is a sensitive and educative documentary and not another 'sensationalist' one....

Parliament Square breastfeeding demonstration & presentation of petition/open letter

2008-07-03T03:42:00.001-07:00

If you're planning to come to our family-friendly Breastfeeding Rally in London on Friday, July 18th, please note we are now meeting directly in Parliament Square (NOT Hyde Park) [spread the message to your friends!!!!]...and after presenting the petition, we can gather informally at Victoria Tower Gardens behind parliament to continue eating, drinking and, of course, chatting!

Meeting at parliament squ. will make it accessible for people with the 'littlest' walkers among them. Don't forget to bring food, drinks, hats/shading and whatever else you and your family need to be comfortable while there.

I'd love to hear of the placards you and your family are making, and what messages you're putting on them. My girls (now aged 12 and 10.5) are busy coming up with all sorts of things!
(I might need to do a bit of censoring LOL)

The nearest tubes are Westminster and St James's Park. If you and your family are coming along, please drop me a note in the comments section or by email ~ so I can get a 'rough' idea of numbers in order to co-ordinate my stewards.

Have a fabulous week, Veronika

Since when does artificial milk contain love????????

2008-06-27T23:26:00.001-07:00

http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=311814

A reader kindly posted this link in the comments section.

If you find it as distasteful, unethical and downright wrong as I do, please write to MSN and the milk company! How dare they even suggest there is love in artificial/counterfeit factory produced gunk! AND to have it on a page about optimal nutrition for breastfeeding!

No baby in the world would choose that stuff over their mother's own warm, liquid love.

The world REALLY has gone bonkers!

The Tyra Banks Show ~ full term breastfeeding

2008-06-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

American readers of this blog might like to know I'm appearing on The Tyra Banks Show ~ July 3rd in relation to full-term breastfeeding...which will then syndicated around the world. Hold your breath, she's no Oprah!

Calling All Lactivists

2008-06-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Downing Street Petition:

The breastfeeding petition has now reached over 3,500 signatures in just a week. It is now in the top 10 petitions in their health section (out of over 600) and in the top 50 of ALL petitions (out of over 6,000).

Please keep spreading the word - UK wide breastfeeding 'picnics' are being planned for mid July to help raise the profile of this vital topic.

The Mother magazine invites you and your family to:
The Great British Lactivists’ Rally at Parliament Square

When: Friday, July 18th 2008

Time: 11.45am: gathering/picnic; 12.30pm: rally speeches; 1pm: presentation of letter/petition to Harriet Harman.

Where: Parliament Square

Why: For a peaceful demonstration about the Equality law (which discriminates against babies over the age of six months from breastfeeding in public).

Breastfeeding is necessary for the health and well-being (physically, emotionally and psychologically) of all babies and children, not just those under six months of age. No breastfed child should be ‘hidden away’.

What to bring: BYO blankets, food and drinks, hats ~whatever you and your family need to be comfortable for a couple of hours!

What else?: This event is for all people concerned with the health, well-being and rights of all breastfed babies and children, as well as their parents; anyone concerned with basic human rights! Come and listen to a couple of speeches on breastfeeding, as well as meeting other families passionate about this cause.

Nearest tubes and trains:
Tube: Westminster & St James's Park

Worth knowing: Breastfeeding supporters will be peacefully demonstrating outside the British Embassies in Australia on the same date.

There will be Breastfeeding Gatherings/Picnics nationwide, including Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Please don’t travel to London if you feel it will cause distress or discomfort to you and your family in any way. As much as we really want to highlight the cause, we don’t want to do so if it means babies and children (and parents!) are compromised.

If you want to organise a gathering/picnic in your city, town or village, and need some help or advice regarding letting your MP and local media know about it, contact the helpful team at The Art of Change. www.artofchange.co.uk

If your child’s school hasn’t broken up on the 18th, and s/he wishes to attend the picnic, you could consider it ‘real life’ Citizenship Education.

My family and I will be at the London gathering. If you’re planning to come along, please say hello! Afterwards, those who wish to, can gather at Victoria Tower Gardens behind parliament square to continue socialising with new and old friends.

You wonderful people!

2008-06-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

It's been just one week since I set up the e-petition on the Downing Street website regarding the ironically named Equality law. We've already got 2858 signatures in this time. It's the 8th most supported petition on their health section. I'm humbled and deeply moved by how many people are speaking up about this! Well done.

I expect to give details of the Great British Lactivists' Picnic in late August where we'll, er, picnic!! and have a rally, then march to Downing St.

Stay tuned!
Veronika

Breastfeeding Awareness petition to Downing street June 2008

2008-06-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Breastfeeding supporters, speak now about the new Equalities Law. You can petition by clicking on this link. An email will then be sent to your inbox which you will have to 'click'. It is so VERY easy to do. I urge you, if you really care about the rights of babies and children, to take 30 seconds to add your voice.

My breastfeeding years are over. My girls have had EVERYTHING they needed from breastfeeding. I've done this petition for YOUR children and your grandchildren, etc. Take action. Every extra voice truly does make a difference.

With love

~ Veronika

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/breastfedright/

Legislation against love ~ the new INequalities law of breastfeeding in public

2008-06-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve been left gobsmacked by this week’s news that the government is introducing legislation against loving your child: the Equalities Bill will mean that it will be an offence to stop a woman breastfeeding her child in public. Here’s the catch, though. This is ONLY valid until the child is six months of age.

At any time beyond that, a woman breastfeeding in public can be charged with INDECENCY. Yes, you read that right. In a culture of page three girls and pornographic magazines visible in shops where children can see women’s breasts being exploited for sexual gratification and lust, women who meet their child’s biological needs in public will be considered criminals.

The government apparently reckons it wants women to feel confident about breastfeeding. What rubbish! If it wants women to feel confident then the very last thing it should be introducing is a law about when you should cut off your love!

What Starched Fart in parliament came up with this madness? This is a blatant attack on a baby’s rights. This is politically-sanctioned CHILD ABUSE. Mothers, speak up about this! Don’t be bullied into closet breastfeeding and buying into the attitude that breastfeeding is still a cultural embarrassment.

Breastfeeding is what keeps humans sane, not to mention healthy! Humanity needs us to breastfeed or our children will grow up as intellectually and emotionally bankrupt as the idiots who make these laws. Am I angry? Yes, you betcha!

I can tell you right now, if I was still breastfeeding young babies or children, I would defy this law every time I was out in public. Laws are designed to protect people…this law does NOT protect babies or young children and their mothers. It makes them open to prejudice, attack and perpetuates the blind ignorance in our culture...I would fight this law to the highest judges in the land, and then some. Describing a woman as indecent for breastfeeding a baby over 6 months of age in public is undescribably stupid.

This law reveals the depth of our cultural wounding in relation to the feminine, to nurturing and to love and being loved. It also sends out the very wrong message that breastfeeding beyond six months isn’t necessary. So many people in the ‘health care’ professions are under the false illusion that breast milk is deficient in nutrients beyond six months. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We know from studies that exclusive breastfeeding for at least SEVEN months gives babies iron stores for life! And yet, what information do health visitors and the like keep passing out? Wean your baby at SIX months because there’s not enough iron in breast milk. And on it goes.

I was interviewed on BBC radio the other day and the broadcaster kept going on about the Nipple Police. Sorry, but how often do you see a nipple when a woman is breastfeeding? The nipple is the last thing you see!

If people feel offended by women who breastfeed in public, then they should look the other way. It’s not that bloody hard! I do it with things I find offensive….like butcher shops, babies plugged with dummies, babies in prams where they can't see the mother's face, parents verbally or physically abusing their children, mothers who smoke in front of their babies, toddlers in leashes, babies fed counterfeit milk which sets them up for all sorts of illnesses and diseases, and so on. If these things aren’t legislated against, then the love and nurturing of a mother certainly shouldn’t be. How crazy does our culture have to get before we wake up to ourselves?

I suppose women will start carrying birth certificates in case they’re pulled up because their chubby and healthy breastfed baby looks older than six months. Gosh, policemen might have to start carrying baby weigh scales around!

Can anyone else see the insanity of this law? All I hear are people from breastfeeding circles saying ‘it’s a good start’. BULL SHIT! This is NOT in the best interests of mothers or babies…it’s pandering to the ignorant, misinformed, uneducated and those out of touch with instinct. It will become the holy grail for all sorts of discrimination!

A baby’s need for love, comfort, warmth, security, enzyme-rich food and drink on cue from their mother does NOT change at six months.

Babies biologically expect to receive on-cue breastfeeding for at least nine months and, after that, who are we to dictate when and how they feed. It’s cruel, and the real criminal is the politician who thinks this is equality.

I make zero apologies for the depth of feeling I have for all the children who’ll suffer and be compromised by this ‘law’. I, for one, will NOT be shutting up about this.

Bristol Breastfeeding Mums

2008-06-04T00:48:00.001-07:00

If you live in, near or around Bristol and you're a mum who breastfeeds on cue, then you might like to take part in a project which will have a significant impact on those who work in the front line of maternal health care ~ that is, midwives, health visitors, etc., as well as new mums.

I'm involved in a filming project (not for TV broadcast) and will be in the area near the back end of June. If you'd like to know more, please drop me a line. I'd also like to hear from you if you're pregnant and due to give birth this month.

Love, Veronika

Breastfeeding Britain ~ BE THE CHANGE

Orgasmic Birth

2008-05-26T02:15:00.000-07:00

Is it time women in the UK had the option of an ORGASMIC BIRTH?

“ORGASMIC BIRTH”…THE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM

With the alarming rise in Caesareans, as much as 34-50% in some London hospitals, many women will welcome the film 'Orgasmic Birth' as a ray of hope in a culture where medicalised births are becoming the norm.

Orgasmic Birth is a call for a revolution in birthing practices. A mother and child are inextricably connected on the physical and emotional journey they share during the pregnancy and birth. Science has now documented that our children are conscious and aware in the womb and at birth and they experience pain and pleasure as well.

How we birth our children matters. Are we displaying loving care for their sensitive nature and emotional intelligence or has mechanical and chemical intervention become the norm. These issues are at the very core of our culture and are part of the make-up of relationships, families, governments and society.

For a woman to experience an “Orgasmic Birth” is not a coincidence, nor is it about the big “O”. It is the result of the nature of the care she receives, her feeling safe and her being able to trust her body and the process of birth. This can come about through enculturation, education, environment and non-interfering support. Research now tells us what the best environment is for birth that will allow a woman’s body to birth naturally, even pleasurably.
When will we listen?

UK Premiere is on 29 May London followed by screenings across the UK. Currently scheduled in Glasgow, 4 June (in conjunction with the International Congress of Midwives), 12 June Brighton, Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford and more soon to follow. These screenings are charity fundraisers benefiting AIMS, Doula UK, Fathers-To-Be, Fatherhood Institute, MIDIRS and NCT.

Orgasmic Birth’s Director, Debra Pascali-Bonaro is available for interview by phone and appointment.

She will also be in London 28&29 May and is available for TV/Radio appearances.
A preview clip is available on www.orgasmicbirth.com
Please access website to download more press details: www.fatherstobe.org/orgasmic_press.htm

There are some great talking points on this subject with parents, midwives, doulas, doctors, antenatal educators, medical and health experts and sociologists. We have interviewees lined up in many of these areas.
Press contact: Patrick Houser:01892 890 614/07814040838 events@fatherstobe.org

Information below(and attached) for screenings in London, Glasgow and Brighton
Please feel free to forward to friends and colleagues.

YOU ARE INVITED TO
UK Film Screenings of ‘ORGASMIC BIRTH’
A documentary that examines the intimate nature of birth and the powerful role it plays in parent’s lives when they are permitted to experience it.

Powerful, passionate and thought provoking, with commentary by a dozen pre-eminent health professionals and many couples who share their birthing journey, Orgasmic Birth dismantles untruths about labour and birth that women have been told for generations. The women in this film are transfigured and transformed with the power of their own bodies.

UK PREMIERE
Thursday 29 May London

Reception: 18:30 PM Hors d'oeuvres buffet included (cash bar/drinks)
Film: 19:15 PM Panel discussion to follow screening
Venue: Baden-Powell House, 65-67 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London

Debra Pascali-Bonaro, the film's director, will introduce the screening and afterwards
be part of a panel discussion with leading UK birth educators.

Tickets for this unique event are
£15
Available at
www.fatherstobe.org
44(0)1892890614
A preview clip of this amazing film is available at www.orgasmicbirth.com

SPONSORED BY FATHERS-TO-BE
Proceeds to benefit AIMS, Doula UK, MIDIRS, NCT, Fathers-To-Be and Fatherhood Institute

GLASGOW SCREENING
In conjunction with the International Congress of Midwives
Wednesday 4 June
Welcome: 5:45 PM (Cash bar and snacks available)
Film: 6:15 PM
Venue: Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow

Tickets £10
Available at
www.fatherstobe.org
Also at the ICM, Waterbirth International Stand 118
(and at the door)
01892 890614
SPONSORED BY FATHERS-TO-BE
Proceeds to benefit AIMS, Doula UK, MIDIRS, NCT, Fathers-To-Be and Fatherhood Institute

BRIGHTON SCREENING
Thursday 12 June
Welcome: 7:00 PM
Film: 7:30 PM
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Ship St., Brighton
Panel discussion to follow the screening
Tickets £10
Available at
www.fatherstobe.org
01892 890 614
SPONSORED BY FATHERS-TO-BE
Proceeds to benefit AIMS, Doula UK, MIDIRS, NCT, Fathers-To-Be and Fatherhood Institute
Additional screenings are scheduling for
Birmingham TBA; Cambridge TBA plus...

If your organisation would like to host a screening please contact us.
Orgasmic Birth Film Screenings are an excellent opportunity for fundraising.

Research shows: Men who respond to impending fatherhood by reflecting on the way they were parented produce happier children.Fathers Make a World of Difference!Now available, Fathers-To-Be HandbookPlease enjoy www.fatherstobe.org

Breastfeeding Love In Action

2008-05-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/china.breastfeed/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

A story to warm your heart! The breastfeeding heart knows no bounds.

It also reminds me of another story I heard recently about a lady in Africa who breastfeeds 17 orphans a day in an orphanage. It's worth noting that she never had children of her own...kinda makes you question this big western myth of insufficient milk syndrome when a woman who has never had the hormonal responses to activate lactation can breastfeed so many children, so beautifully, day in and day out. It confirms everything I believe about breastfeeding ~ that it comes from the heart and that any woman with intact breasts CAN breastfeed, if she opens her heart.

Breastfeeding: Humanity's code for peace, passion and partnership

2008-05-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

For those mums and dads who'd hoped to come to my Manchester talk (may 22) but couldn't because an evening was difficult with young children, well, due to requests for a daytime slot, we changed it to June 1st ~ a sunday, at 3.30pm - 5.30pm which seems to be much better for most families. Hope to see you there.

It's being held in the city centre and you can book tickets from the Art of Change. www.artofchange.co.uk or phone 01342 823 809

Groups of five or more (or unemployed) £6 each
TM subscribers £7.50
Full price £8.50

Please note this is a 'ticket only' event.

The Continuum concept and fine dining

2008-05-11T09:40:00.001-07:00

Today's cuppa: Fancy joining me for a brew of lemongrass tea?

In my late teens, I worked for a professional babysitting agency in Adelaide, South Australia. My jobs were mostly for new parents who wanted to leave their newborn babe with a complete stranger (me!!) and go out for dinner. As one mum said to me, ‘where’s the romance in dirty nappies?’

When my girls were babies they were constantly with me, ROMANCING in my arms ‘continuum’ style, and sleeping in the family bed. I took my role as a parent very seriously and simply would never have abandoned my girls by leaving them with a babysitter ~ regardless of whether that person was a stranger or my best friend.

I made meals with my girls in the front pack, and they sat in my lap or their dad’s as we ate our meals.

When I became a mum to two children under the age of two, I would pop them in bed beside each other and breastfeed them to sleep. Most nights we’d eat at the table first, but occasionally Paul and I would enjoy fine dining while the girls slept. By fine dining I mean we ordered Indian take-away. We would sit on the end of the family bed and eat our dinner by candle light to the soundtrack of our precious daughters’ breaths. It would never have occurred to me to leave a tiny baby sleeping in a room without an adult there. Parenting IS romantic, if we choose it to be so; if we allow ourselves to truly fall in love with the creations we’ve invited Earthside. It’s a very romantic journey if you don’t take your life partner for granted, and you take each day as a sacred opportunity to give thanks for all that you are and all that you have. If you make magic in your marriage you don’t need to go out to dinner and leave your babies behind. Absenting yourself from your baby won’t fix your marriage if it looks like Swiss cheese.

Our culture sees my attitude to parenting as completely over the top, but I simply followed my heart. I imagined what it would be like for a little baby to wake up and not have a familiar heart beat or face or smell or touch. I imaged how unstable her world would feel and how she’d have to cry or scream to be ‘heard’. So I never left my babies in situations where they would for one minute feel unsafe. Our night-time parenting is every bit as important as our visible daytime parenting.

But in all those years I never felt like I was sacrificing myself or my life. I willingly obeyed my heart’s calling and listened to the inner prompts which encouraged me to nurture, nourish and protect my babies.

Paul and I have never gone out to a restaurant without our daughters. We’ve never felt the need to. Last night, while eating at the world’s finest restaurant, the dining memories of our early parenting years came flooding back in a joyful rush. I remembered, with love, all the bedside dinners and how the gifts we give our children are truly priceless. We may not always see how important our presence is at the time, but if we simply trust in our children and ourselves we’ll never have cause to doubt our parenting.

My Continuum Concept ‘babies’ are big girls now. Bethany is 12 and Eliza is 10.

Last night they took us out to dinner. Where did we go? Nowhere and everywhere! Home and away…

Bethany transformed the dining table with a cloth and brought in flowers from the garden ~ bluebells, daffodils and twigs of eucalyptus. She brought to the table a candelabra with locally-made beeswax candles. With table set, she poured Elderflower Presse into her late Nana’s recycled wine glasses and then seated Paul and I. She serenaded us by playing Moon River on her violin. And Eliza, resident chef, brought in our first course ~ Greek Salad ~ abundant with rocket and other mixed baby green leaves, kalamata olives and cherry tomatoes in flaxseed oil and lemon dressing.

Bethany then played Für Elise on the piano as Eliza served us her vegan Moussaka (recipe in issue 29 of The Mother, July/August 2008). That girl is a genius with food!

I’ve been overwhelmed by gratitude for many, many things in my life lately, and last night was just one more example of the richness I find in my days. I keep asking myself, ‘how did I get so lucky?’

The Continuum Concept years haven’t ended. They’ve evolved. I don’t carry my daughters in my arms any more, and they now have their own beds, but Paul and I still carry them ‘energetically’ in how we live our lives.

Being present for our children ~ REALLY present ~ is one of the greatest gifts they’ll ever receive. Our children are sponges for love and affection. When we enjoy the opportunities which are always available, we find abundance dancing through every cell of our being. It’s an abundance you won’t find in a bank account. It’s a richness of heart.

Have a gorgeous week
~ Veronika ~

Tea Leaves

2008-05-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

A reader of this blog asked me the other day what tea I’m drinking as I’ve not been mentioning it in my entries. Oooops! Sorry. I’m mostly drinking water at the moment with a slice of lemon and a spring of spearmint from the herb garden, but I still love my fennel tea by day and the occasional valerian tea before bed.

I have two baskets with an assortment of teas so I shall remember to scour them for something tasty to share in blogland. For now, though, I'm about to make a juice or two for my dinner..it goes beautifully with this hot weather. Mmm, carrot and celery and later apple with spearmint.

The ideal life

2008-05-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

I was chatting on the phone to a friend down south the other day and asked her what her ideal life looked like. “YOURS!” she said. I laughed out loud. It’s funny how different other people’s lives look and also how sometimes it takes someone else’s view of our life to help us see it in a new light. My friend longed for a cottage in Cumbria.

Most people in our culture wouldn’t aspire to my life as it doesn’t represent the ‘currency’ valued in our society. I don’t have the fancy car, big fat mortgage, sizzling career, bi-lingual nanny and kids in independent school.

What I do have are two healthy and happy girls, a soul mate and best friend, and a work/life balance that few people ever achieve. I am writing these words by birdsong in the delicious heat of this glorious spring (early summer!). My little cottage, and the past nine years of what society would call ‘dead’ money by paying rent, has given me almost a decade of constant holiday in the heart of the countryside.

I am able to grow my own vegetables and herbs. Today as I walked around the garden I marvelled at the blueberry bushes, now in their 3rd year, absolutely heaving with baby berries. Ditto the gooseberries, strawberries, black currants, black berries, cherries, pears. ..and the plums and applies will yield a gorgeous crop too.

Here at the base of the Pennines I enjoy my life’s journey, a mere stepping stone in my soul’s evolution. I’m constantly aware of the blessed life I live and how very different things could have been had I made different choices along the path.

This amazing weather over the past week or so has seen us increase our daily three mile walk to two 3 mile walks a day. Together we marvel at the incredible beauty around us ~ birds, butterflies, bees, trees, baby rabbits, sunshine. This morning we walked through the woods, thick with bluebells, and down to the Eden river. People pay money to holiday in places like this and here it is on my doorstep 24/7.

I encourage my daughters to fully absorb the incredible power and energy in the earth, sky, sun and plant life around us. These days are precious. Eastern mystics tell us that ‘life is an illusion’. I’m loving this illusion and feeding off this Earth’s energy like a ravenous beggar. Daily, I’m nourishing myself with soul-food. And for that I give thanks. If that is what an ideal life looks like, then yes, I've got it!

Two million bananas????

2008-05-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

I had the strangest experience the other day. I popped into a local village shop a few miles away and noticed that in the fruit and veg section, the only bananas on display were green ones. There were a dozen really ripe ones in a box on the floor to be thrown away. I couldn’t believe it!

I put them in my basket and when I went to pay for my goods the assistant said I couldn’t have them because they were rotten. “Er, no they are not. They’re ripe. Beautifully sweet in smoothies” I said. She was adamant that she’d take them away and get me some from the shelf. “Um, NO..they’re green. I don’t want them I want these”. She was beside herself.

A short time after leaving the shop I heard on the radio the ongoing debate about how much stuff Britons throw out each week. Among *our* rubbish were 2 million bananas. My bet is that most of those bananas COULD have been used…in smoothies, icecreams, cakes…all sorts of things!

Apparently we throw out a third of our food each week. Not in this house we don’t! I’m intrigued as to what people throw out and can only assume that it is processed stuff with use-by dates.

As my family’s diet relies on fresh fruit and vegetables there isn’t anything to throw out! We buy our seeds, nuts, etc., in bulk through Suma, the wholefood co-operative. Such things have quite a long shelf life so there’s no problem about getting through them.

I started buying organic food consistently about nine years ago. I do believe that, because organic stuff is more expensive than chemically grown food, I have an attitude of reverence for the meals we eat. I simply wouldn’t pay good money for food and then throw it out. I’m not that insane!

I’ve spent years growing vegetables and because I know how much time they take to grow, and the nurturing required to yield a good crop, again, I simply wouldn’t take any fruit or vegetable for granted.

The disposal mentality of our culture is widespread. We throw out food, nappies, formula milk tins…and the list goes on. We’ve a lot to learn from indigenous cultures about having an eco-consciousness.

Breastfeeding Awareness Week

2008-05-11T09:33:00.002-07:00

Breastfeeding Awareness Week is with us ~ 11th – 17th May 2008

This week I’m speaking in Birmingham at a conference for breastfeeding experts. This year’s theme for the week is ‘every drop counts’.

We need to bear this in mind when people around suggest we wean before our child is ready.

I’d love to hear from you if you’re doing anything to promote breastfeeding awareness.

My freckles have names

2008-05-11T09:33:00.001-07:00

The locals are dropping off like flies as the temperature here in Cumbria warms up to rather delicious standards for my body. I don’t use sun block and don’t use it on my children. Raised in Australia where the mantra is ‘slip, slop, slap’ to get everyone using sunblock, I was the eternal rebel.

For me, holistic sun protection is about recognising how important the sun is to the human body and not to be afraid of it. Sensible sun protection means gradually building up your exposure to the rays. It means using a hat or long sleeves or sitting in the shade.

We’ve been indoctrinated to see sun block as protection from the sun….it’s time we connect the dots and see that those countries which use it the most actually have the highest rates of skin cancer! Time to think again?

If you really want to protect your skin there are two key things you can do

[] avoid wearing sunglasses unless necessary (like driving into the sunset) as the brain receives a message that it is ‘dark’ and won’t send messages to your skin to ‘deal’ with the sun

[] avoid unnatural fats in your diet. Studies show that when we have fried foods this affects our skin’s ability to deal with the sun. stick to fresh raw foods as much as you can and avoid fried foods.

Compulsory vaccination for the UK ~ speak now to protect our children

2008-05-11T09:32:00.001-07:00

Rumour has it that the government want to introduce compulsory vaccination in the UK.

All I can say is “not in my bloody lifetime!”

If you’re concerned by this Big Brother threat then I urge you to scour your back issues of The Mother and send copies of Joanna Karpasea-Jones’ vaccine articles to your local MP and get him off his butt to stop this nonsense!

Call for vaccine opt-out penalty

"Tough sanctions are being proposed for parents who refuse routine vaccinations, such as MMR." …as reported by BBC news yesterday.

Labour MP Mary Creagh said "children should have to prove they are vaccinated before they start school to improve uptake of MMR".Should we trust British politicians with our children's health:- ( I don’t!!!)

British Government's Reckless Disregard for Child Health Safety The Hannah Poling Case
autism and other health problems from vaccines for British childrenSir Sandy's medical contemporaries behind the Wakefield witchhunt Strong Evidence Vaccines Cause Autism - A Population Level Rechallenge in Japan Risk to Children & Government Scaremongering

Fundamental rights

2008-05-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

I heard recently about someone saying that The Mother magazine is too fundamental. Darn right we are! She felt that The Continuum Concept wasn’t really practical for most people.

The in-arms phase

is fundamental

to our lifelong health and wellbeing.

Parents may be too selfish, ignorant or neglectful to parent in a continuum fashion, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t vital for the child. It is absolutely fundamental to them. As for practical, well, personally, I think that is just an excuse. So yes, I agree, The Mother magazine is fundamental. And there’s a reason for that: our children need ‘fundamental’ child rearing.

WAHM ~ what it means to me to be a work-at-home-mother

2008-05-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

I knew that I wanted to be a writer long before I had children. In fact, I was a child myself when I made that decision. I was blessed to have a mother who stayed at home with her children for my entire childhood. It’s a gift which will stay with me for my lifetime. It’s something that I now consider so priceless I’m in awe of the life path she chose.

My mother was (still is!!) amazing. She ‘worked’ from dawn to way beyond dusk each day...not in a paid profession, but as a mother. She spent hours making us a beautiful home and a massive edible garden, growing a huge number of trees so we could be self-sufficient. We had olives, avocados, paypaya,figs, carob trees and all the fruit trees imaginable. My youngest brother’s placenta was buried under the pear tree, and boy, did that tree yield some incredible fruit!

She always learnt new skills and was able to build us amazing structures in the garden from wood; she made us a flying fox, and lovely doll houses, castles and so on. One of the things I most love about my childhood is that my mum actually WANTED to be with us…she played with us. We felt this genuine affection and care. I remember once we were all playing hide and seek in the garden (and the garden was a few acres so the ‘seeking’ bit of the game could take a while) and we just couldn’t find her anywhere! Turned out that she was under the upside down wheelbarrow! I remember at the time thinking my mum was a genius. Move over Einstein.

My mother sewed me gorgeous dresses and dolls. And yet, while blessing our lives with her talents and skills she also fulfilled her own needs by studying various philosophies and esoteric traditions. My mum would rise at about 4am and do yoga on the lawn, then meditate and squeeze fresh orange juice for all of us when we woke up. Our house was always clean and tidy. I don’t think she ever watched a daytime soap. In fact, she never just ‘sat’ in front of tv when it was on...nope, the ironing board was out, or clothes were mended.

My mum managed to do all this and look after a 700 acre property single-handedly. Having land in the Australian bush is no easy job. Bore pumps break down, horses get hurt, droughts cause damage, etc.

She was, in essence, a single mum who raised eight children. My dad worked overseas for months at a time…and was only ever home briefly. To me, she was a superwoman. From my mum I learnt that women can do ANYTHING.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to stay with my children too when I became a mother. In my childhood mind I figured that being a writer would enable me to ‘work’ and still be with my children especially if I ended up becoming a single mum or my husband died. The reality, as I’ve since found out, is that you can’t write when your children are around. Writing involves being able to follow through on a train of thought without being interrupted by “can I have this…can I have that…can we…” Writing, for me, is something to do when the house is clean, the children are asleep and there are NO distractions.

Bethany was six and Eliza was four when I began editing The Mother magazine. I’d written some children’s stories before that time and Cycle to the Moon (at night while they lay sleeping) but I had spent their early years as a stay at home mum ~ and unlike many mothers who claim they had to go back to work because motherhood was boring, I simply never found that. I thoroughly enjoyed their company and the little lasses always kept me on my toes…there was simply no room for boredom. We’ve always spent a lot of time going out for walks, first when we lived in New Zealand and Australia (where the weather is far friendlier!!) and for the past nine years here in the north of England.

I’d been lent a copy of Compleat Mother, a natural birth, pregnancy and breastfeeding magazine published out of Canada, which felt like ‘coming home’. It gave me a real sense of community when I first came to the UK. When the founder, Catherine Young, died of breast cancer, I felt moved to start a magazine to continue the light she’d held for many years. I’m pleased to say Compleat Mother is still going strong to this day.

The Mother magazine is an entity in its own right with a broader base of articles (covering health, education, finance, ecology, global citizenship, etc) but our ethos is similar.

Being a work at home mother is a completely different kettle of fish to being a stay at home mother. I simply couldn’t do what I’m doing now if I had little kids. I WOULDN’T do what I’m doing now if I had a baby or toddler. I feel it would be cruel to the mother-child bond. A blog reader asked me the other day why I never had more children. I get an enormous amount of satisfaction in ‘producing’ a magazine every two months…it’s like a little birth each time and I never fail to be excited when I pick another copy hot off the press. If I was to have another child I would no longer ‘work’ …whether on this magazine or writing books, doing talks, etc., while the child was young. Clearly I wouldn’t sit on the sofa all day (unless I was breastfeeding continuum-raised triplets!) ~ my in-arms baby would learn about my ‘work’ life from being with me in the garden or around the home or village or in town.

But my life as a magazine editor involves putting myself into the ‘artificial’ and unhealthy electromagnetic world of a computer onto a daily and regular basis. Although we don’t have broadband (and are probably the only house in the UK to still have dial up LOL and I certainly would never have wi-fi, the exposure of the computer isn’t something I’d inflict on a baby or child. As anyone who’s read The Drinks Are On Me will know, I’m very concerned about the rise in the number of women who NAK (nurse at keyboard) for this reason.

My girls are of an age where they disappear for hours on end doing their own projects and activities and playing with their friends in the village. It’s in those times that I ‘work’, or, more often than not, I wait until they’re asleep at night (that’s getting trickier now they’re older and protest at their ‘early’ bed time of 9pm ~ “but the sun hasn’t even set!”).

Life’s infinitely easier now that I’m no longer dealing with administration, publishing, mail outs etc…and for that I’m enormously grateful to The Art of Change for being partners in the business.

Working from home means I can spend all day in my PJs if I want (I don’t!). It means I can have a cup of fennel tea or piece of fruit when my body wants it, rather than a boss imposing eating and drinking times on me. It means I can hang the washing out when the sun makes an appearance. Working from home means that I can check emails while Eliza is cooking (she doesn’t like anyone in the kitchen while she’s creating) or Bethany is playing the violin or piano. It means I’m with my growing daughters full-time and we can enjoy long walks along the fields by the fell (hills) or dip into the woodland or picnic at the local stone circle. It means I can create my own working hours.

It also means my children don’t have to miss out on being able to ask me questions when the urge arises, or if they have other needs to be met.

Working from home means that my family and I can find a great work/life balance that works for all of us. My husband now works from home with me which means after all these years I have the space and time to actually write (and not just edit other people’s writing) as the girls have another parent available for when I’m not, and the same goes for when I need to pop away for a lecture/workshop.

I don’t regret the choices I made, and nor does my husband. I don’t pine for a career I could have had if I’d stayed in the media after giving birth. Actually, becoming a mother has completely opened my eyes to what a manipulative and bullying industry it can be.

I love the work I do and being in ‘ethical media’, but the bottom line is that my children come first. They know this. Both girls fully support me in my life’s work and recognise the importance of showing women and men how to empower themselves. Neither of them want me to stop what I am doing. For all the hours I spend on The Mother magazine and related projects, I think of myself first and foremost as a stay at home mother, rather than a working mother.

Every mother is a working mother, whether she chooses a career or not.

Namaste

~ Veronika ~

The Mother magazine

2008-04-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

I’m heading off to Forest Row for a few days but wanted to share my new look website before I hopped on the train

The new design is courtesy of my lovely new web mistress, Karen Arnott. THANK YOU KAREN! It's great to have a feminine feel to it at last after six years.

http://www.themothermagazine.co.uk/

If you need web design, logos, brochures, baby announcement cards, flyers, corporate stationary, wedding stationary…have a look at Karen’s website:
www.arnottdesign.co.uk

Have a great week ~ and keep cuddling the kids! The cuddle you forget, or don't get around to giving today because you're too busy, can't be caught up on tomorrow.

~ Veronika ~

For

2008-04-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

A few of my favourite things…apologies to Julie Andrews!

When women honour the newborn period and fully embrace their Babymoon ~ avoiding copious visitors, trips to supermarkets and sitting on the computer reading blogs and forums. I love it when mothers and fathers simply choose to BE with their baby and savour those rare, precious weeks instead of trying to keep pace with life and everyone else.

I hold holy and sacred those who practise love and respect in the marital relationship ~ where each partner reveres the other, and relates in a functionally-evolved way, rather than ‘reacting’ to things. I love it when I see soul mates that truly ‘get’ what a loving relationship involves.

I have the deepest respect and understanding for people who ‘own’ their anger/jealousy/frustration/discomfort/awkwardness and take responsibility for the feelings that course through their veins ~ rather than forcefully trying to ‘dump’ or ‘project’ their PAIN or GUILT on another person who is merely showing them what exists within them already. NOBODY on this planet has the power to make us feel something. We choose it!

I love it when parents value the uniqueness of childhood and don’t place it on the back burner behind what they perceive to be more important things like a career, public opinion, mortgage, 3 overseas holidays a year, 2 TVs in the house and a new conservatory. I am all FOR honouring that childhood comes first.

I am in awe of women and men who embrace change, no matter how darn scary or challenging, and allow themselves to grow into new, better and happier beings.

I am humbled when people recognise humans are designed to live in a ‘natural’ field, rather than an artificial electromagnetic one ~ and take steps to change their life.

I love people who are actively taking responsibility for their part on the planet ~ not just by doing the rote-induced reduce, re-use, recycle…but going way beyond that by simply saying ‘no’ to consumerism in all its disguises. I love that people are recognising that ‘less is more’ and we simply don’t need all the things our culture insists are vital to modern living.

I am completely FOR the pioneers and bioneers who are putting their heads above the parapet ~ for better or worse ~ and leading humans to a new consciousness. It’s no easy road they travel and only another pioneer could truly recognise the personal and professional sacrifices involved in acting out and speaking out.

I LOVE the people behind the scenes who never receive an MBA or community award ~ yet they’re doing great works for our world. I love the little known charities which bring hope and pleasure to many.

I am in awe of new life and one of my greatest pleasures is growing vegetables and trees from seed.

For every ‘for’, there is an ‘against’. For every ‘against’, there is a ‘for’. It only ever requires that we have the wisdom within to recognise both sides.

That’s duality. That’s life, folks!

Death by chocolate?

2008-04-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh tonight when I heard a news report saying the researchers were seeking 150 women for an experiment: to eat chocolate each day for a year. Yep, I can see women racing up for that one.

The research is to find out if chocolate will reduce heart disease.

Five million adults in the UK suffer from cardiovascular disease. Studies show us that breastfeeding in infancy DRASTICALLY REDUCES the incidence of this in adulthood. As usual though, rather than promote something like that, our culture looks for a band aid.

But back to our ol’ friend chocolate. Many women I know seek comfort in chocolate. They pop the kids to bed at night and then look for their secret (or not so secret) stash and try to find the nurturing and nourishment they so desperately need. It’s symptomatic of the culture we live in ~ there’s no extended family or village to help us in our role of mothering and we’re left, not only holding the baby, supervising the other children and keeping house, but also running errands and meeting everyone else’s needs but our own. By the end of the day, most modern mothers are completely ‘spent’.

Personally, though I love the taste of a ‘good’ chocolate, my body isn’t keen on it. Chocolate keeps me awake all night ~ the caffeine in it affects me as strongly as coffee.

I thought that perhaps by moving to raw chocolate things might be different, but if anything, it was far worse. I had severe heart palpitations. It happened every time I had some. So, despite all the apparent health properties and claims about it being a superfood, chocolate is not a staple in my diet.

If you did hear the report about finding a link between chocolate and heart disease and think you might try eating it each day for a year, remember this ~ commercially produced chocolates contain sugar, fillers and an assortment of non-nutritive ingredients. There are, of course, ‘better’ brands on the market, like Booja Booja or Shazzie’s vegan raw chocolate, but for the most part, chocolate isn’t just chocolate.

In New Zealand there is a restaurant chain called Death by Chocolate. Clearly it’s meant to sound indulgent and fun, but perhaps there’s a certain amount of wisdom in it.

I can’t help but think that chocolate, like coffee, is perhaps meant for ceremonial purposes, or to ward off insects!, rather than to be taken as regularly as oxygen. Because, let's face it, chocolate on its own doesn't taste that fab without additives such as a sweetener, whether that be toxin-inducing white sugar, or virtuous agave syrup.

Our tortured teenagers

2008-04-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

The media this week has been dominated by the desperate situation this country faces with the many teenagers who are dangerous and violent.

For me, the greatest tragedy lies in the fact that the commentators keep shouting out ‘jail, boot camp, the army’ with not one single person addressing the issue of how these teens became this way. The closest they get is saying the parents should be held accountable for their teen and learn to discipline them more!

I believe every human being is born ‘good’. Babies aren’t bad!

Next week I’m speaking in Brighton about Humanity’s evolutionary blueprint: BREASTFEEDING.

As humans, we are born expecting the breast at birth. We are born expecting to see our mother’s face constantly for at least nine months. We are born expecting to hear her heart beat constantly for at least nine months. This doesn’t happen if a babe is bottlefed and kept out of a mother’s constant body contact. When we don’t meet these very basic biological needs, the PAIN is with these kids for life. The symptoms are manifesting on our streets and in an overworked health care system.

In Britain, 200 000 kids are born each year who never even make it to their mother’s breast. They never receive colostrum (the first syrupy liquid from the breast at birth and for the first three or so days). Colostrum contains tryptophan which is vital for developing serotonin. The one thing all criminals, depressives and other perpetrators of violence have in common is a drastically reduced level of serotonin! Breastfeeding not only provides the ingredients our brains need for developing optimally, but it also provides us with mother love in a way that bottle feeding doesn’t. Studies show us over and over again that breastfed babies receive more love, pleasurable touch, eye contact and interaction than their bottlefed peers. No wonder we have mental health problems of epidemic proportions.

If we want a culture where we’re not scared of our kids (and, let’s be honest, teenagers ARE children) then we have to meet their biological expectations ~ quite simply, we have to stop abandoning our babies to bottles, dummies, car seats, cribs, day care centres, and bedrooms separate to their parent’s room. NONE OF THESE THINGS PROVIDE the physiological benefits of affectionate mother bonding.

Sending violent teenagers to bootcamp or the army reeks to me of ambulance at the bottom of the cliff mentality. As Jeannine Parvati Baker used to say: the wound reveals the cure.
What wound do these teens have? Let me tell you, the cure isn’t to be found in more violence and aggression.

life beyond this one

2008-04-25T12:48:00.001-07:00

Another headline this week sits on the fact that food has gone up an average of £15 per week per family of four. These prices are based on staples such as milk (aggh, leave it for the baby calf to drink), thick white bread (aggggh, denatured wheat and chemicals which turn to glue in the digestive tract).

I was in my local town tonight, here in Cumbria, and the petrol forecourts were heaving with panic buyers in preparation for the oil refinery strike in Scotland. Many pumps were empty.

I don’t understand this about humans. We KNOW that our way of life is going to change…we KNOW oil is on the way out...but what are people doing, in their own lives, to prepare for this time of transition?

Ever noticed that the day before a public holiday that people go shopping and buy a month’s worth of food? How can you possibly starve to death in a couple of days? You can’t!

I am staggered that people rely so heavily on things like milk and bread. When the time comes for people to truly be self-sufficient I can’t help but wonder what will happen to us as a species. In our culture, we have no sense of co-operation or partnership ~ on a mass level, that is. Obviously there are many individuals who are preparing for the times to come and who are willing to work with others.

We can’t continue this ‘head in the sand/the oil depletion won’t affect me’ thing for that much longer. When things start hotting up, one thing’s for sure, THIS GOVERNMENT will not be here to help you. The politicians will only look after themselves.

This week I’d like to recommend a book called The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins ~ it’s about going from oil dependency to local resilience. Read it and find out how to make YOUR town a transition town. Don’t leave things till it is too late. Panic and fear won’t serve anyone. Embrace change, take little steps now…and empower yourself and your family into a new, ethical and realistic lifestyle.

Compensation for vaccine related autism...

2008-04-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the UK government might still like to pretend that vaccines are perfectly safe, but...(read this!)

US Court awards compensation for vaccine-related autism

In a secret ruling that has only just come to light, the US Court of Federal Claims has conceded that the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which was in vaccines until 2002, caused autism in the case of one child.

The ruling is one of 4,900 cases currently being considered for compensation payments, and it is feared by health officials that it could open the floodgates for even more claims.

It also appears to support the controversial findings of Dr Andrew Wakefield, who, in 1998, suggested a link between the vaccine and autism. (veronika's note: but he's still being hauled over the coals here in the UK!)

US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler's November ruling, was one of three test cases into the MMR-autism link that was being considered by a three-member panel. In his conclusion, Keisler said that "compensation is appropriate".

The case involved a child who, when she was 18 months old, received nine vaccinations in July 2000, two of which included thimerosal. Within days, the girl, who had previously been healthy, suddenly exhibited no response to verbal direction, loss of language skills, no eye contact, insomnia, incessant screaming, and arching. A diagnosis of autism was confirmed seven months later.

In its defense, the US government said the girl had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was aggravated by the vaccine. The US court concluded that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine can cause autism.

(Source: The Huffington Post, February 25, 2008).

The metaphysical side of miscarriage

2008-04-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

The following questions were asked in relation to comments in my last posting.

Can I ask a very personal question then Veronika? One you do not have to answer. Do you hold that your miscarriages were down to emotional imbalance in yourself? How do you live with that? Excuse my boldness. I speak as one miscarrier to another.

I see the four miscarriages I’ve had over the years as symbolic of where I was at those times in my life. I also see them differently than I did when the first one happened. The short answer to your question is ‘yes’. Today’s blog is the long answer to your question.

At 19, I became pregnant to someone I was in a steady relationship with ~ though it was definitely not planned (consciously). [I don’t believe any pregnancy is unplanned, though they may happen unconsciously].

My boyfriend was in University and the news of my pregnancy was, to him, like a death sentence. He was a ‘good’ Lutheran lad from a well-to-do family and had great plans for his career as a medical laboratory technician. He ‘demanded’ I have an abortion. I told him where to go. I’d been on the pill, but like my mum who’d conceived twice while on the contraceptive pill, it wasn’t fool proof. Thankfully, I also learnt quite early on not to continue putting synthetic chemicals and hormones into my body.

I was absolutely petrified of being a single mum at 19 (and clearly, 21 years later I am so glad I didn’t become a mother then ~ not in terms of age, but in terms of knowledge). I’d been living with my older sister who became a single mum at 24. I’d witnessed her journey and I looked after her child each night so she could go out to work. It was not a path I wanted for my child. Despite the fear, I knew I wouldn’t have killed my child simply because the father was worried about tainting his reputation. In hindsight, I see that I did contribute to the death in some way.

My baby died at about 13 weeks ~ the time people usually wait before telling others as the chances of miscarriage are very high in this first trimester. My baby ‘shrivelled up’ and died…and stayed in my womb. I see this as very symbolic of the child registering the emotions that I was feeling ~ the fear of being a mum and yet not wanting to ‘get rid’ of the baby ~ and also the rejection by the father. So my body ‘held on’ until such time as the surgeons dragged it out of my body. When I came out anaesthetic, I was crying my eyes out in desperation for my baby. The surgeon told me to shut up and said “don’t be stupid, the baby was dead anyway. There have been times in my life, like that moment, where I’ve really despised men for their incredible insensitivity.

The relationship continued for a couple more years by which time alcohol featured in my life a lot more. How’s that for emotional imbalance and dysfunction?!

My next pregnancy, at 21, was a real shock to my system, not to mention another complete surprise. How did that happen again? The months went by and my tummy grew bigger and bigger. Again, my boyfriend wanted nothing to do with ‘a baby’. I ended the relationship and moved interstate back to my home town when I was about six months pregnant. I’d obviously stopped drinking when I knew I was pregnant but by then the damage had been done. When I see pregnancy studies which say it is safe to drink ‘x’ amount a day/week during pregnancy, I cringe. Personally, I wouldn’t touch a drop now.

I hadn’t told my parents I was pregnant and really wasn’t sure how I’d break the news.

At some point though, I figured something wasn’t right. I’d wake in the morning to my tummy pulsating. And then I had blood in my knickers, but it was strange blood ~ unlike when you have your period.

Anyway, it turned out that my baby had died and the pregnancy was what is called a hydatafoid mole…essentially the baby grows into a tumour resembling a bunch of grapes and it just keeps growing. The blood loss I experienced was a ‘grape’ or several grapes breaking.

Again, I see the way the ‘death’ of the baby (miscarriage) happened as being a manifestation of what was happening in my life…the not wanting to ‘let go’ of the baby, but also being very scared of being a mother and telling my family.

I suppose in some ways, at a cellular level, I carried the shame of single motherhood that my mother had worn when she become a mum at 16. She was new to Australia, and could hardly speak English. The man she became pregnant to (the love of her life) abandoned her with the gift of money for an abortion. What is it with men??????

I have absolutely NO issues with single mums (though I believe the ideal for a baby is two loving parents) and yet I’m sure back then I had taken on some of my mum’s stuff. Her first baby was back in 1959…a very different world! Her greatest fear for her daughters was that they’d have babies outside of marriage. When I left home at 16, my mum’s words of advice were: don’t bleach your hair, don’t wear make-up and don’t get pregnant. Darn mum, sorry. I did all three!

My next two miscarriages happened within my marriage and I find it interesting how the ‘body’ of the baby just came away naturally as if having a period. The grief I felt was huge, don’t get me wrong ~ I REALLY ached ~ but the way my body released the baby so easily is very telling of how different I was, as a person, by then ~ and also that I was in the safety of a very loving marriage.

Why did I miscarry then? I don’t know. Although thrilled at the pregnancies, I’m sure the usual fears of ‘how will I cope with another child?’ permeated every cell of my being. It could have been that I was still busy nourishing two other young children and at some level didn’t feel ready to add to the brood.

One thing I feel very strongly about when it comes to miscarriage is that pregnancy is a co-creation ~ and that the soul choosing to incarnate may have gotten everything needed for its journey/evolution by having the opportunity to be in that body/in your body for just a few weeks.

We look at life in quite a strange way…that anything less than three score year and ten is a life cut short. I see pregnancy ~ no matter if for a few days or weeks or full-term ~ as a complete honour. It is a privilege to provide a temporary earthly home for an incarnating soul.

My miscarriages have shown me that the job of a mother, as the host body, is to offer the most optimal environment ~ and that HAS to include being emotionally balanced. The relationship we have with our partner ~ whether he is in our life or not ~ is an important part of that emotional balance. But even if he is clueless to his partner's needs, it doesn't mean a woman can't or shouldn't take 100% responsibility for the important role she is playing.

I still feel someone’s death or a miscarriage deeply, and often painfully ~ I feel that at an emotional level. When a friend phones to tell me she’s miscarried, it hurts deeply. I don't hurt for the baby ~ the soul has made its choice ~ I hurt for my friend and the grief she's going through.

At the spiritual level, I understand that everything is as it should be. That there is no right and wrong.

I also trust that if the ‘conditions’ were right in the womb, there would be no miscarriage. So what makes the right condition in a womb? And why do some babies survive in utero against all odds? I think that’s where the answers have to lie beyond the physical (i.e.) metaphysical. I also know, that if a soul is meant to incarnate on this Earth, nothing will stop it getting here! But let’s make every baby’s journey Earthside the best it can possibly be. We don’t need more Hitlers, Husseins or Mugabes in this world. Have a look at what these men had in common…and you’ll understand my passion for conscious conception, peaceful pregnancy, gentle birth, full-term breastfeeding and conscious parenting.

I’m passionate about encouraging ‘peaceful’ pregnancies. One of the things I’ve found so discouraging in our culture is this push for women to work throughout pregnancy. Culturally, we should be supporting women to use this sacred time as a natural sabbatical ~ to dream, create, sleep, be in nature, meditate, listen to beautiful music. Sadly, the ‘need’ for money or belief we never have enough, pushes women to listen to outside forces rather than their inner wisdom. Entire pregnancies are consumed with women working till the last possible moment because of the fear of not enough money.

So, to the question: how do I live with myself knowing that I ‘created’ my miscarriages? Like everything else in life...you can either spend your days regretting or learn from the experience. My husband and I have chosen not to have more children, but one thing we both know for sure is that if one ‘snuck’ through the net, so to speak, that baby would be welcomed 100% ..there’d be no worrying about how I’d cope or where we’d fit another babe into our life or any other niggly questions. I wouldn’t waste a single second ‘freaking out’ that I was pregnant. We both would be completely accepting and joyous and celebrate every second of the journey together.

I hope that answers your question, Libby.

Breast cancer and the Pink Ribbon distraction

2008-04-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

If you know someone who has or has had breast cancer, what I’m about to say make shock you, or even make your angry ~ I don't give money to breast cancer charities.

It’s not that I don’t care, or that I don’t have compassion. It’s tragic that so many women are succumbing to this dis-ease. Let’s look at this word. DIS EASE.

Why are so many women uneasy with their breasts? Why are they creating dangerous growths in this part of their body? Cancer is a disease of the 'environment'. What environment has been created within a woman's body which allows this cancer to grow?

I don’t give money to research because I believe we already have the answers and if money is to be given, it should be given to the promotion of breastfeeding and self-care.

Breast cancer, whether we like it or not, is a massive wake up call to reclaim breastfeeding and to reinvent our FEMININE role as mothers. How much more obvious does it have to get? Our breasts are screaming out to us. We live in a time where mothering is so far removed from what Nature intended. Something as big and tragic as breast cancer is NEEDED precisely because the 'wound' reveals the cure.

Looking for lumps in our breasts each month is a way of drawing them into your reality. I realise what I’m saying is completely counter to mainstream beliefs. But I do believe that if you look for fish scales on a cat you’ll most surely find them.

Breast cancer is rampant. In fact, in the USA, it’s the major killer of women between the ages of 30 and 50. In the UK, 1000 women a year die from it.

Physically, there are many reasons for this, however, numerous studies have shown that the longer a woman breastfeeds for the less likely she is to develop breast, ovarian or uterine cancer.

With so many women opting to not breastfeed, it's not surprising that breast cancer rates are sky rocketing. Mess with nature's plan and we pay the price.

Any disharmony in the physical body is a symptom of discord on an emotional level. Our body is essentially the last place it manifests. Ironically, we then try and treat the physical body rather than healing the cause. I believe we must address the metaphysical reasons for breast cancer as well as the physical.

Our breasts are symbolic of nurturing.

Metaphysically, which means to look beyond the physical, problems with the left breast have been associated with a refusal to nourish and nurture one's self. These are the people pleasers, always putting everyone else's needs way ahead of their own. Some people do it willingly, others with a more martyred tone, making it quite clear that it's a burden but they have no choice. The irony is that these people, who are willing to do so much for others, tend to feel unloved. You’ll have heard people like this say “I’ve given up everything for so and so…”

At the right breast, problems manifest for those who have trouble giving life. They tend to express it through dictating the relationship, being over-bearing and over-protective. Their path is to learn to trust that relationships can be safe without control, that love is a two way thing ~ given and received.

Breast problems, such as cancer, can be treated chemically or naturally. The true healing though, must always come from the emotional body, otherwise the issues will manifest again, in a louder way, until the message is heard. The Celestial Amplifier will just keep getting louder. When we follow the middle path of balanced expression, we find our attention in the area of the heart, rather than the breasts. This is an integration of mindful awareness. We need to nurture our self as well as others.

Let’s find a wholesome, positive way to give attention to our breasts.

Firstly, let’s encourage a new language where breasts are honoured for being important, beautiful, vital and expressive aspect of our being. Let’s integrate holistic health care which sees massage and exercises, such as yoga or pilates to build up our pectoral muscles. Let’s stop seeing breasts as only being visible if used on pornographic magazines. Let’s remove the cultural embarrassment of breastfeeding.

Being mindful of seeing the heart area positively, will help us find balance and peace in relation to breast health.

It is interesting that pink is used for the ribbons in breast cancer awareness programmes as it is associated with nurturing. Breasts, too, are associated with nurturing. They are symbolic of mothering ~ this of course doesn’t just mean the way we relate to our children, but also to others in our family, community or the world at large. When we have problems with our breasts it is mirroring our insecurities in how we feel we can nurture or protect them. It’s interesting to note that our breasts call out to us when we don’t nurture ourselves adequately either.

Understanding that the breast is about nurturing and nourishment, we should look at issues of 'the mother'.

Metaphysicians have found that there is a direct correlation with the way you were mothered, and issues developed in the breasts.

It’s too easy to become workaholics or whatever in order forget childhood, and it is just as easy to whine about what we went through with our terrible parents, but the lesson for all of us is that we weren’t put on this earth to look out for everyone.

We must practice self care and self love first. If you’ve been on an aeroplane you’ll know that the air hostesses always tell mums that in the event of an emergency, they must put on their own oxygen mask first. It’s a brilliant analogy. I remember the first time I heard it, I thought “are you crazy? Do you REALLY think I’m gonna put a mask on myself first? NO WAY!” But, you know, those air hostesses are right. We have to give ourselves oxygen first…not just on a plane, but in life, as mothers. It doesn’t mean abandoning babe or going off for a girls’ night. It’s in the simple things…drinking when thirsty, going to the loo before your bladder bursts...sitting down for five minutes when you’re exhausted.I don’t think we should hesitate to help others if they ask for it, and we can willingly do so. We must do it with pleasure, joy and love, not resentment or obligation. It’s always ok to say NO. When we say to another, we’re saying YES to our self. It always helps to look at it from this positive angle.

We can always offer maternal love and nurturing to those we love…but that doesn’t mean we need to smother them.

If you wish to avoid breast cancer, do the obvious thing and breastfeed your child until s/he is ready to wean. Avoid processed foods, and eat fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and herbs as close to their natural state as possible. Drink plenty of pure water. Breathe fresh air. Leave a peaceful lifestyle. Meditate. Allow happiness and harmony to be your currency of choice. Find balance in your day to day choices.

Next time you consider donating to breast cancer research, take a moment to consider whether than money might be better spent on prevention through the promotion of breastfeeding.

The Drinks Are On Me ~ UK Tour

2008-04-03T03:03:00.000-07:00

I mentioned previously that I’d be taking The Mother magazine and related projects out into the public more this year…and these past few weeks have been spent busily hatching such ideas.

Confirmed breastfeeding talks include:

Brighton Friends Meeting House
Thursday evening, May 1st 7.15pm. I’ll also be joined by Patrick Houser, author of the Fathers-to-be handbook.
(Book through www.artofchange.co.uk )

I’m speaking at the Natural parenting seminar in Cambridge on May 2nd at 2pm
The topic is: Breastfeeding ~ the heart and soul of parenting.

Birmingham ~ mid may (date to be confirmed) ( www.artofchange.co.uk )

Manchester ~ 22nd May 7pm Friends Meeting House (book through www.artofchange.co.uk)

Check the website for details of other talks around the UK.

I’m sitting on some other exciting TM news which I’ll blog about in the next week or two.

Have a fabulous week!

Children as teachers

2008-03-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

Children as such incredible teachers. When I first heard there was snow forecast for Easter weekend, my heart sank. It’s not that I don’t think it looks pretty or anything ~ it looks stunning when it blankets the fells (hills) and fields around here, it’s just that, I don’t like the cold. I really can’t bear it; my bones ache. Give me mild weather and rain any day….though my preference is 30C and not a cloud in the sky! However, I rose to the challenge and allowed myself to live in the moment and be accepting. On Easter Saturday, I sat in one of my favourite places, Bluebell Bookshop in Penrith, and continued reading a book I’ve had my head in each time I visit there…I looked up from my cosy spot on the sofa and saw the snow falling. Beautiful! I realised that if it was December I’d be so caught up in the romance of it all (cue: Christmas carols, the bookshop café lit up with candles) ~ and again, caught myself, and realised that the labels I’m putting on the weather are what causes the problems. “It’s Easter, it shouldn’t snow. I don’t like cold..bla bla.”

I was warm, and I indulged in the BEST hot chocolate this side of the equator. In silence, I sat reading a fabulous book….there wasn’t anything wrong with my present moment. And that’s all we have, isn’t it? Right now...here now.

Children know this. My girls were up before breakfast on Easter morning ~ sledging and snowing. I was snugged up in bed!

We don’t do Easter in the sense of how the masses *celebrate*...No eggs here! Paul and I always do a little treasure hunt for the girls. Most years I wrap up a collection of dried fruit and nuts and then hide them in the garden at the end of a very long list of clues. This year I asked Paul to make up the clues…a very sneaky way of getting the girls to do mind-expanding maths! The clues involved lots of square roots (ouch!) and having to do them to get to the next location. And all this was done in the dining room because the weather wasn’t conducive. But, rather than have their brain turn to fuzz over maths, they were totally up for the challenge and there was lots of laughing!

It’s far too easy to believe we’re the ones guiding and teaching our children. Day after day revelations come to me ~ and this happens because of observing my children; my blessed teachers.

Beautiful faces, friendly spaces

2008-03-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

Beautiful faces, and friendly spaces

Ok, ok…it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog. It’s not for not wanting to write…it’s more a matter of balance between long walks with the girls, launching my book, travelling to America, getting a magazine to the printer, editing the next magazine, finishing up the last part of my next book…and, of course, stopping to smell the roses!

When I last blogged, I was preparing for the official launch of my book, The Drinks Are On Me ~ everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding. We launched it in Bristol at Seven Generations (eco café and bookstore) to a lovely audience. I met old friends and made new ones! I was rather choked up, to say the least, to see faces that I’ve not seen for a few years ~ beautiful faces which came into my life through The Mother magazine. My family and I had the great pleasure of staying with the gorgeous Alex, Anton, Hugo and Naomi...a wonderful family ~ generous, kind, like-minded, wonderful people. It really made our stay in Bristol a time to remember.

Twelve years
Bethany turned twelve on March 13th ~ my marker of twelve years of full-time stay at home mothering. I could never have predicted the landscape of such a journey. As for Bethany, I’m thoroughly enjoying watching her become more of who she is. It’s a very odd experience watching your child physically develop into a woman, especially while the emotions are waiting to catch up!

Stars and Skyscrapers

I recently went to New York to appear on a chat show ~ discussing full-term breastfeeding and stay at home mothering v. career women (as if you can’t be both???). Due to contractual obligations, darn it, I am not allowed to blog about the experience… they probably knew I'd be less than impressed with their underhand and completely dishonourable tactics!

New York was a shock to my little system. The last time I was there was before I became a mum. I’ve changed so much as a person in that time, and my choice of living away from a town or city is a reflection of such changes. Spending three days in non-stop traffic noise (think constant taxi beeping, fire engine sirens every few minutes, followed by more honking!, etc.) was taxing to my soul. Two weeks after my return and I still feel jaded. I felt such relief and joy when I returned home and heard not a single sound outside at night. I shall never take this peace, or beautiful countryside and starlit skies for granted again. It has certainly had me reflecting on people’s different destinies and lifestyle choices.

Being able to look out of my bedroom window to a starlit sky, not spoilt by light pollution, is something I treasure. When I looked out of my hotel room, I was stunned that the 20 story building opposite me on Seventh avenue (aka Fashion Ave) had lights on in EVERY room, all night long, even though all the staff had gone home. That’s obscene! Don’t the ‘mericans know anything about turning lights out?? In a room where windows didn’t open, and the central heating couldn’t be turned down (I don’t have central heating in my cottage so it nearly killed me), I felt like a trapped lion, pacing back and forward…sleep eluded me. As I looked down the ten stories to the street below, I saw someone sleeping on the concrete. It was all so wrong, wrong, wrong. Here I was, stuck in a room I couldn’t sleep in, while he was on cold concrete. It occurred to me that if I went down and asked him if he wanted a shower and a bed, I’d probably be put in jail! It was, however, one of those moments in life that really brought home to me how one person’s success/tragedy/triumphs/failures are everyone’s… We’re all connected despite the illusion of being separate beings.

Ecologically, flying to New York for a few days is not the way to reduce a girl’s carbon footprint. I’m well aware of that. My intent (and justification), however, was to awaken the masses (an initial audience of 11 million and then syndicated around the world) to full-term breastfeeding ~ one aspect being the horrendous pollution and destruction caused by the artificial milk industry! For example, a dummy (pacifier) takes 450 years to decompose ~ that’s eighteen generations. In one year alone, American women throw out enough artificial milk tins to circle the Earth one and a half times. Breast milk is the ultimate in local food. Breastfeeding shouldn’t be a cultural embarrassment. It is something to celebrate and encourage. In these times of ecological uncertainty, we should be moving heaven and Earth to wake women up to the consequences of not breastfeeding. BOTTLEFEEDING AFFECTS ALL OF US.

American TV

Trapped in a hot hotel room, I resorted to watching American television. OMG!!!! Have you ever watched it? Wall to wall adverts for every legal drug going…Barbie dolls selling drugs which they claim help with ‘my asthma’, ‘my constipation’, ‘my insomnia’. The whole tv industry is subsidised by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s like 24/7 hypnotism. What a cultural nightmare. There’s no sense there of taking responsibility for one’s self ~ adverts also cover plastic surgery, legal firms and so on.

Given that the average American watches 6 hours of television a day (equates to fifteen years in a lifetime), those with investments in the drugs industry are laughing all the way to the bloody bank! I kept shouting at the screen (under the illusion the Yanks might hear me ~ yeah, I know, not likely above the taxi horns!) that you don’t need drugs. Take valerian tea for your insomnia, eat raw fruit and vegetables for your constipation, breastfeed your kids to avoid asthma or practice Butyeko, meditate, love yourself and you won’t need plastic surgery ~ beauty comes from within!!!!!!!

Photographer ~ Birth balance

While in New York I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with a new photographer for The Mother. Judith’s pictures will start gracing our covers from Issue 28. I’m very excited. It was great to meet with a like-minded soul while in the City that never sleeps (never mind the city not sleeping, *I* didn’t sleep! ~ I’m still trying to catch up) See Judith’s great website here. www.birthbalance.com

I had a lovely dinner at Blossom (on 9th Ave) ~ an organic vegan restaurant. What a treat! Such a place is a luxury when you live rurally, as I do. I’d have to travel a few hundred miles from here to find an equivalent place. The company was fab, too. I dined with a lovely woman I met who worked on the tv show. Brooke is very special, and it is warming to know that even within the high-ego industry of television there exist people with 100% integrity.

On the show, I met a LLL leader who was there with her 2 year old. Kim was another wonderful soul ~ something which I really appreciated during my time there.

At about 3.30am, as I lay in bed cursing the noise outside my window, a large explosion occurred. Hmmmm. What’s that, I wondered. Twas pretty loud!! And then, then the traffic stopped.

Turns out someone had thrown an explosive device in Times Square ~ right near to where I was staying. No one was hurt ~ thankfully. But for about five hours there wasn’t a single piece of traffic. No car horns, no sirens. Bliss. Too bad that I was too wired up by then to be able to make the most of the quiet and get some sleep.

Flight to NY ~ the challenge of unattached parents

The flights highlighted how challenging it can be to parent children when we don’t bond at birth. I observed two women who rarely touched their children. Heartbreaking. My return flight (about 7 hours because we were stuck on the runway at JFK for an hour) consisted of a toddler screaming the whole time. Given I’d only had about five hours sleep in five days, my patience levels were zilch. The mum was a doctor and the dad a psychiatrist…you’d think, between them, they might know a little about holding a child and offering comfort? What do they learn in order to get their degrees? Cor blimey! It’s not bloody rocket science. CUDDLE HIM. All the mother did the whole time was say “Adam, shut up. Adam, the man will come and get cross with you if you don’t stop screaming. Adam, sit down. Adam this, Adam that.” I don’t ever want to hear the name Adam again. On the outbound flight, the poor little baby was strapped into a cot for the duration….again, no body contact, no smiles, no nothing. The mum was only interested in watching the inflight movie. Is this how we’re bringing up the next generation? Devoid of human LOVE? Neither mother was prepared to live in the present moment and simply be with her child…she wanted to escape.

Our cultural messages are such that distancing ourselves from children’s needs is considered normal and right. The consequences of not meeting our children’s VERY REAL needs of love, affection, touch and joyous body language ~ as well as validating them for who they are ~ remain with our offspring for life.

I did the long-haul flight from Australia to the UK when our girls were almost three and one. It’s a long way and hugely taxing on the senses. Eliza took her first steps in Dubai airport to the cheering crowd of air hostesses. Not once did my girls cry or cause annoyance to other passengers. Nor did they have the pain of blocked ear drums ~ they were breastfed during take off and landing. I’m not saying I’m a better mother than the two women I observed on the flights. What I am saying though, is that when we’re bonded with our children, then we have an ESP-like quality which means we can meet their needs ahead of time. They don’t need to go into distress mode. When we’re bonded, we instinctively know what our children need, and equally, we know how to meet that need.

Oprah ~ A NEW EARTH

Not all is bad Stateside… there are some people who give me such hope for our collective future. Oprah is one such person.

In case you’ve not heard, the divinely wonderful Oprah Winfrey (the only woman in the world, besides my mum, who I’ve put on a pedestal) is hosting a weekly tele-class with Eckharte Tolle (author of the Power of Now). They’re discussing his book A New Earth ~ awakening to your life’s purpose. Just go to her website and hit the link. You won’t be disappointed. I’m so excited by this outreach across the world. www.oprah.com I suggest that, rather than watching it live, you download the show a day or two after it airs, and then you won't get the adverts!

It is without doubt the highlight of each week for Paul and I to be able to watch this programme.

Talks/mentoring ~ Bringing The Mother magazine alive (to a town near you)

This year is bringing a lot of change into my life ~ personally and professionally. Paul will be home as both a full-time parent and working on developing The Mother with me, and this will allow me to take my work (books and magazine) out more into the world. If you’d like me to talk or give a workshop in your town or city, please contact Barry at the Art of Change. Or you can visit www.artofchange.co.uk and see if I will be speaking near you. First on the list will be Manchester. You can also visit The Mother magazine website to see some of the topics I talk about www.themothermagazine.co.uk

If you’d like mentoring on your continuum/attachment journey, then I invite you to visit my website www.veronikarobinson.com

Vaccination

See this extraordinary story in the respected UK establishment journal - The Spectator.
"The Wakefield Witchhunt" - Melanie Phillips - The Spectator - Friday, 21st March 2008
This is also the first time respected political commentator Melanie Phillips has ventured into this territory for some years. That alone is significant. The fact The Spectator has published on this is all the more significant.And remember also the extraordinary piece in The Spectator last May 16 by former Sunday Times Health Editor Neville Hodgkinson:-

What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 Part 1
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 2
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 3
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 4
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 5
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 6

Easter
I'm dreaming of a white easter.....snow this weekend...just when I was all set to bring life to my garden! Whatever you're doing, have a lovely weekend. Enjoy your family, live in the present moment...and practise gratitude!

With love, veronika

karma

2008-01-22T03:54:00.000-08:00

No, friends, I’ve not forgotten my blog…I’ve been fully stretched and the weeks just all morph into one. All *should* return to normal after the weekend.

What follows is something my mum sent to me about 15 years ago. I came across it yesterday when doing my ghastly taxes ~ you know, that big box with dozens of papers that you've got to compile into order by the end of January. I grew up with a belief in the Law of Karma ~ as you sow, so shall you reap. Every action has a consequence, etc. I believe this is a healthier, more liberating look at our old friend karma. Have a gorgeous week ~ Veronika

Choosing your own lessons

Karma is not a law.

Karma is not given out by Karma Lords. It is not even a law. The truth is…it is one of many forms of decision making. It is one of the many ways you make decisions about what you want to learn. It is a vehicle that you use. It is not a law by which you must abide.

It is about what lessons you want to embrace; to tackle and embrace. Please note the words.

All along you have been choosing them. It is time to choose expansive lessons. It is time to choose what is right and good about you ~ your determination, your inventiveness, creativity, self-reliance, resourcefulness, commitments, courage; your love, passion and compassions that live inside of you.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

Dear reader,

Wishing you a sparkling, bright, brilliant, peaceful, loving, abundant and truly gorgeous New Year! Enjoy every single day, and live it as if it's your last.
~ Blessings, Veronika

I AM THE NEW YEAR
I am unused, unspotted, without blemish,
I stretch before you three hundred
And sixty-five days long.
I will present each day
In its turn, a new leaf
In the book of life
For you to place upon
It your imprint

I AM THE NEW YEAR.

Each hour of every day, I will
Give you sixty minutes that
Have never known the use of man.
White and pure I present them;
It remains for you to fill them
With sixty jeweled seconds of
Love, hope, endeavor, patience
And trust in God.

I AM THE NEW YEAR.
I am coming -- But once past, I can
Never be recalled, Make me your best!

Author Unknown

Life begins at 40!

2007-12-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

Life begins at 40, or so they say.
If it’s true, then I’d say it’s a rather exciting prospect.

Others say that by 40, life’s half over. Not surprisingly I slept till 10am today, not sure which half of the cup I was looking at!

This morning, I awoke with the sober realisation that I’m never going to morph from my Ugly Duckling school-girl image into a babe! It simply ain’t gonna happen. Darn. The wrinkles came a while ago, so there was no rude shock in the mirror.

What I lack in physical beauty, I make up for in other areas of my life where wealth abounds with nothing short of divine beauty. I have a soul mate who daily blesses my life with comfortable, affectionate and deeply loving companionship. He makes our relationship loving, fun, easy and truly beautiful.

Our daughters are happy and healthy. My work brings me great joy, pleasure, satisfaction and contentment. I truly love what I do.

I may have a pathetic looking bank balance, but I’m debt free. It’s so nice to not wear the heaviness of “I owe, I owe” 24/7. There isn’t a price you can put on such freedom.

So is it greedy or selfish to be asking the Universe for a few more things? Such as a bit of extended time in the sun? Nine years of British weather is taking its toll on my heart and soul ~ not to mention my once tanned skin! And how about a home of our own, or at least one that FEELS like ours ~ somewhere big enough that I’m not forever stepping on children’s toes or cat’s paws. A home with a large open plan kitchen ~ the hub of the home filled with friends; somewhere with views as lovely as what we already have; somewhere with spring water, and acreage for being self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Is it really too much to ask? I know it would benefit so many more people than just me and my immediate family. And while you’re there, Universe, please chuck in some great friends local to where we live. It would make all the difference.

I awoke this morning to a ‘living’ card from Paul telling me what our relationship means to him, followed by breakfast in bed ~ a Blueberry smoothie made by Eliza. Bethany lit a thousand and one tea light candles (or so it seemed). She gave me beautiful mango soap and a lemongrass bathbomb! Smells amazing. Quite a while ago, a friend gave the girls some vouchers for a shop called Lush. A week or two back we spent the day in Edinburgh and the girls spent ages in the shop choosing their goodies. Bless them, they gave me their well-thought out pieces.

Not that I needed any more chocolate after this past week, but they made me a beautiful chocolate and ginger cake this morning. Eliza created me a mini-vision board with a hand-drawn picture of my family and us all standing in front of a tropical island. Bring it on!

As I imagine the next forty years, I hope to reach the end with my beloved Paul still by my side and our love even more richer, if that’s possible. Bless him, he’ll be 99 and I’ll be a spring chicken at 80!

I expect my daughters will make me a grandmother. I have absolutely no doubt I’ll be much better equipped for that role, than the one I currently do as a mother. Maybe the girls will have taught me to knit by then.

I’d like to think that in the next decade, I’ll have made sufficient changes in my life so that my mum, as the wise elder she is, can live with us. It would bring such joy to her and my family to not be separated by oceans and countries.

I hope to have The Mother magazine readily accepted into mainstream circles without editorial compromise of any description.

I trust that the time and space to write the rest of my books will manifest easily…and to have a ‘writing’ room from which to do it.

I imagine having the resources to help nurture all my daughters’ talents.

And for me, I’d love to learn the cello! I hold on to the belief that we’re never too old to learn a new skill! The sound of a cello goes right into the depths of my being.

In the end, though, a bit like the old ‘what would you do if you won lotto?’ question, there’s very little I want for myself, but a whole lot I want to give out to the world.

As a child, in High School, there was a plaque on the wall which used to annoy me, because I believed that the soul had many lives and we didn’t come here just once.

However, now that I’m old and wise (LOL) I can see it in the sense of “I” as in Veronika, rather than I as in the soul.

It’s a saying I’ve really grown to love:

I expect to pass through this world but once
Any good therefore that I can do
Or any kindness that I can show for any fellow creature
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

CHEERS!

O Holy Night

2007-12-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas
if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7

Today’s the winter solstice. As I write, I can see thick frost sparkling in the moonlight ~ truly a picture of mid-winter beauty.

I’ve been admiring my garden a lot lately, not because of luscious summer growth, or abundant vegetables, but because of the simplicity it wears at this time of year. Winter kills back everything but the spruce, holly, ivy, and my beloved eucalyptus (which I grew from seed ~ a treasured, fellow native). The stark nakedness reminds me of the purity in simple things. With very little light during the day time, I still find moments to reflect on how, despite the hibernating tendencies I have when it’s so darn cold, stunning life and nature are when we peel back the layers. It’s just so easy to miss this in the busyness of modern life. So easy to forget to breathe in LIFE.

The oak trees, silhouetted against apricot sunset skies, fill my senses to bursting point. It almost makes me weep to see the stunning views where we live. All around me, Mother Nature mentors me through the festive season. She shows me that beauty is felt, as much as seen.

I absolutely love Christmas. I despise the crass commercialism associated with it, and stay well clear of frantic shoppers and adverts! For me, it is a time to be with loved ones ~ celebrating and loving. I only need to hear Perry Como singing carols and I’m completely Christmased up! My inclination to hide away for the winter is symbolic of a deeper inward journey ~ a reclamation of my spiritual life ~ a time to put the rest of the world on hold as I explore my practices, beliefs and rituals, and consider how I can bring them back from the deep unconscious, and gift them out into the wider world.

As a child my mother created magical Christmas times…memories which will stay with me for life. I always strive to bring that magic forth for her granddaughters. It’s a legacy that would be such a beautiful tradition to pass down our family line. I know if I never gave my girls another Christmas present again it wouldn’t detract from the love, joy and passion they have for this season. They’ve felt the true meaning of Christmas and that is what they look forward to. To them, the highlights of Christmas are food and candelight.

I told them recently about a survey asking children what they got as presents last Christmas and how none of them could remember. My girls were able to recall all their gifts from the last few years. I wonder if it is because the items held meaning and also because we don’t do ‘overload’. Present opening isn't an expedition through dozens of gifts.

A few years ago I stopped doing Christmas cards. I’ll be honest ~ it was a really difficult decision. You see, I’m not an eco-scrooge (as one newspaper columnist described people like me), and I’m not trying to ruin Christmas by apparently being anti-social. I came to know so many gorgeous people through The Mother magazine (and our camps), that the list of people I felt genuine affection, love and care for, just grew and grew. For me, the solution was to stop doing cards at all, and to just do presents for those who share Christmas Eve under our roof. I can honestly say I have no regrets!

I truly love how special it feels to receive cards and packages in the post. I’ve learned to trust that it’s ok to receive cards and not ‘have’ to send ones back. I do, however, phone or email as many friends as possible over the festive season.

In childhood, our presents weren’t wrapped. My mum would bring them out after our evening meal and put each child’s presents (there were eight of us) in little piles beneath the Christmas tree. As we all sang our carols, in English and German, our eager little eyes would be surveying the floor wondering which selection of goodies was ours.

I still celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. It feels so magical in the evening by candlelight, and the fire crackling. I do wrap presents, but again, like everything else around Christmas, I keep it simple. Tonight, as I was wrapping, the girls said it reminded them of Little House on the Prairie (there’s a beautiful Shaker-style simplicity to their lives). You see, I use brown wrapping paper and some string (raffia or hemp) to tie it up, and add a holly leaf. It may not be glamorous, but it is genuinely pretty.

Bethany and Eliza have been preparing a Christmas concert for weeks ~ carols on the violin and piano, and I believe a play is in store too. The excitement they feel at their contribution is worth bottling! It could be titled Essence of Ecstasy and would heal depression the world over. Each year since they were toddlers, they've taken part in the local nativity at the chapel. We recently showed my stepdaughter Hannah (who was over from New Zealand for a couple of weeks) videos of the girls growing up as she'd not seen them for nine years. The highlights were watching them at each nativity. Truly brought tears to our eyes ~ and a lot of laughter!

My goal with any presents I give is that at the end of their life cycle they will be fully compostable. Mission accomplished! God love my local bookshop ~ Bluebell! If you’re ever in Penrith, do go there. And ask Derek for his wonderful hot chocolate! If you go in December you might just hear Bethany tinkering out Christmas tunes on the bookshop piano. And Indigo in the arcarde is great for knitting needles made of bamboo or birch. Shhhhh. There are two young ladies who love going to the weekly Knitting Cafe in town.

It helps enormously that the girls have so many genuine passions ~ food preparation, art, music, sewing and knitting, dancing, singing, history, horses, cats etc. Finding gifts they’ll love is such a pleasure.

We haven’t had a Christmas tree for a couple of years now. We used to get various evergreens with roots, and then plant them out in January. This year we’ve pruned the spruce a bit and put some branches into a large vase of water. Our decorations are simple ~ hand made from wood and felt.

The rooms are adorned with fresh holly (and those divine red berries) and ivy.

It doesn’t feel any less like Christmas because we’ve abstained from acres of commercially printed wrapping paper, pine trees or play stations; or stripped supermarkets of food. Our Christmas meal is made from local veg bought at our weekly organic farmers' market, and our wholefood order through Suma. The more I consciously simplify the season, the more beautiful and real it becomes.

I have it on good authority from Santa, that deep in his grotto, the number one present request from kids is play stations/nintendos/mobile phone and loads of 2 and 3 year old girls wanting televisions for their bedrooms. (Weep). What will become of this generation of children raised on electronic media?

Very, very occasionally Santa meets children who would love a book, a baby brother or sister (grin), or who ask for world peace, but on the whole, they mostly want a list ten foot long of electro-gadgets worth the equivalent of our monthly household income….and the parents stand alongside them nodding to santa that it’s ok to get these things. Hate to think what they'll get next year, and the year after!

The Iroquois message is of leaving the world a better place by our actions ~ what does OUR Christmas mean for our family-line seven generations from now?

However you celebrate this season, enjoy. With my warmest, brightest and most sincere blessings for an abundant, joyous and divinely rewarding 2008. Love your family, and love Mother Earth.

Chat soon!! ~ Veronika ~
Winter Solstice, 2007
Chilly Cumbria, UK

Open Eye Campain ~ online petition to Downing Street

2007-12-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

If you're worried about the increasing 'schoolification' of children's lives (especially the under fives), please sign up to this petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpenEYE/

We CAN make the government take notice if we join together.

With gratitude, Veronika

Calling all lactivists!

2007-12-19T02:42:00.000-08:00

Hello from chilly Cumbria ~ where it looks like a divine winter wonderland this morning.

I previously mentioned my book launch would be held in Brighton on February 6th, however, the wonderful Trevor Gunn is talking there that night on comparing natural immunity with vaccination, so we’ve changed the date and location of my event. He's a fabulous speaker, so if you've got any questions on vaccination I thoroughly recommend listening to him.

My book launch will be held at:

Seven Generations shop
Bristol
Sunday, 27th January, 2008 at 3pm

I’ll be talking for about 75 minutes on why breastfeeding is vital for humanity if we wish to continue existing as a species without sinking into complete physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual dysfunction. I will be addressing the impact of not breastfeeding on humanity’s heart chakra; how personal and planetary peace begins at mother’s breast; full-term breastfeeding, and whatever else can be comfortably covered in that time. There’ll also be ample time for your questions.

Along with the fab team from The Art of Change, my family will join me to officially launch my new book on breastfeeding called The Drinks Are On Me (everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding).

Visit www.artofchange.co.uk or www.sevengenerations.co.uk for booking details. Please note there are limited seats for this event, so if you plan to come, don’t leave it till the last minute.

Seven Generations Trust

Seven Generations is a community owned & run social enterprise which seeks sustainable solutions to the problems humanity currently faces. They are a conduit for ‘missing information’ to enable us to make life changing decisions - for ourselves, our children & the generations to come.

They have the best eco-cafe-bookshop, in the heart of the Montpelier, just 10 mins walk from Bristol's city centre.

0845 330 3934
info@sevengenerations.co.uk
www.sevengenerations.co.uk

Dates for your diary: Jean Liedloff's UK tour, launch of The Drinks Are On Me and Parenting Seminar

2007-12-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

Hey girls…some dates for your 2008 diary. What a year it looks set to be with the Jean Liedloff tour in April! I’m soooooooo excited. Her book, The Continuum Concept, played a huge role in our parenting journey, and touched a place deep inside me. I reread it recently and it was as if I only read it yesterday…the words, the intent, all so familiar and deeply ingrained in my being.

Jean Liedloff TOUR

Jean Liedloff’s first visit to the UK in twenty years looks set to be a brilliant tour. She’s passionate, humorous, and a great story teller. This is an event not to be missed. There’ll be plenty of time for questions.

Wed 9/4/08 Chequer Mead, East Grinstead, West Sussex

Fri 11/4/08 St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London

Sun 13/4/08 Sussex University, Brighton (afternoon)

Tue 15/4/08 University of Bristol

Thu 17/4/08 University of Leicester

Sun 20/4/08 University of Salford, Manchester (afternoon)

Call 01342 823809 for more details
All talks in the evening unless stated otherwise

For further info, contact The Art of Change www.artofchange.co.uk

Natural Parenting Seminar
I’ll also be speaking at the Over Conference Centre, Cambridge on May 2nd

There’ll be workshops, yoga classes from Birthlight, practical demos, live music, lunch and refreshments. To book or see the programme, and find out who else is speaking, visit www.inspiralonline.com/events or phone 01799 525 716

I look forward to meeting many of you at various events in 2008. Until then, do keep warm!
~ Veronika

Home Sweet Home-based learning

2007-12-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

If you read The Mother magazine you’ll know that my girls recently returned to home education after eight months in school. The detoxing process has been interesting, and it’s such a joy to watch my girls rediscovering who they are; their passions, and how they use their time.

My initial thought when they said they wanted to be home educated again was ‘no time for me anymore’. Despite my angst at their school days, I made full use of their 5 day a week absence. I grew to love my patch of day ~ the silence; space to think and create. I did not, however, enjoy our day to day life being dominated by an external routine, or having to cram in ‘time’ together between 4 and 8pm. And I certainly did not like much of the stuff which was forced upon them in school.

We’ve all easily settled back into a comfortable rhythm and it is bliss! We feel like a family again.

The girls have found a gentle pattern to their days and are bounding with enthusiasm for plans, plant potions and picnics by the fireside! Our cottage is again filled with the noises of growing girls ~ fingers on the piano warming the room with Christmas carols, decorations being made for the Spruce branches which will serve as our festive tree, lyrics being written, songs sung, essays written about composers and artists, violin lessons, and unending food preparation. I no longer get a moment to myself until they’re asleep at night, but I wouldn’t trade this for school life.

School was a painful and steep learning curve for me. I hate the effect school has had on them, and yet, I’m glad they experienced those months as it truly confirmed everything I feel about how children learn.

Parenting is such an unpredictable journey. We simply don’t know where the path will lead and what choices will be necessary on the way. As with everything in life, the balance of our days must rest on trust.

www.savechildhood.org

2007-12-07T05:47:00.000-08:00

Further to my last blog about Saving Childhood, and the government's plan to destroy childhood with the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage, please join our campaign at www.savechildhood.org (if the petition isn't on it yet, it will be shortly, but do visit it to get more info about how you can help).

PLEASE...our kids need us to act!

OPEN EYE CAMPAIGN

2007-12-01T03:37:00.000-08:00

SAVE CHILDHOOD

Please save our toddlers ~ they need YOU.

For six years The Mother magazine has been campaigning for a return to Slow Childhood. What do I mean by that? Slow Childhood is where children are respected and allowed to meet their developmental milestones according to Nature’s Timetable, rather than some human-devised concept.

Yesterday I was one of signatories to the Open Eye campaign, officially launched in The Times. Spearheaded by no less than The Mother columnist Dr Richard House, it aims to cause a (to quote the good Doctor) “legitimation crisis around this legislation of such magnitude that the government will find it impossible to implement it.”

That’s my boy! Go get ‘em, Richard.

The government MUST be tackled on this piece of legislation as the consequences, once implemented, are absolutely dire to the well-being of our children.

My editorial in issue 26 of The Magazine urges concerned parents and professionals to join our campaign and stop the government’s proposed Early Years Foundation Stage (for 3 and 4 year olds) being implemented in September 2008.

It is, in actual fact, a curriculum for ALL children

from birth to five years of age.

It’s Big Brother gone Psycho.

These compulsory measures which include chubby-handed 3 and 4 year olds barely out of nappies being required to read and write sentences (even if they don’t understand them!) will lead to a whole host of behavioural and educational problems. The anxiety induced in these little children will crush any enthusiasm for learning, if not for life itself.

Our campaign letter states that “An overly formal, academic and/or cognitively based ‘curriculum’, however carefully camouflaged, distorts this learning experience.”

The legislation will cover all children, whether in state, private or voluntary sectors ~ it will include Steiner schools and registered childminders! It will put many experts in child development in the position of having to contradict their own understanding of child development.

Dr Richard House reckons there is a strong case for mounting a legal challenge under the human rights legislation. All I can say is watch the government come undone over this one!

The whole document is authoritarian and prescriptive with 72 early learning goals…ironically, some of them include things that many adults haven’t even achieved! (and are unlikely to achieve.) It's enough to make a girl go grey overnight.

Anyone who knows the first thing about holistic child development will see that the shabbily camouflaged curriculum is seriously flawed, though it would be more accurate to call it legally-enforced child abuse. It completely IGNORES a child’s neurological and psychological needs, treating them as nothing more than information gadgets, mini-computers, sponges to the governments' every diktat.

It’s a bureaucratic controlling

of toddlers’ lives

which is completely counter

to more than twenty solid years of research

into how children learn ~

and what most people instinctively know.

The government’s plan is to insert a POLITICAL KNIFE into the very heart of family life and destroy the close, loving family bonds which all young children need in order to grow, thrive and learn. It makes the assumption that all children are the same. As any parent knows, no two children are the same, not even within the same family.

If the government looked at other countries as an example of what works for children, they would never have come up with such an insane programme. Whatever it is they hope to achieve with our toddlers simply can not happen in the controlled environments they wish to create. They want all children from birth to five years of age to have the SAME day to day experiences. I also suspect it is being driven by a desire to get mothers out of the home and into paid employment. After all, what could a mother possibly teach her toddler?

Beverley Hughes, The Children’s Minister, claims that this plan was widely consulted on (it WASN’T ~ it was a controlled consultation) and that it has the backing of the vast majority of early years specialists. However, she has shown no evidence for this statement. I’d like to see it.

She claims it is a play-based approach to learning and children will be observed to make sure they’re developing ‘normally’, but who decides what is normal? Her claims that early years education has a positive impact on learning is a misrepresentation of information.

Her use of the term play-based is incorrect as the documentation clearly states (repeatedly) that it is of ‘structured’ or ‘adult directed play’. This sort of ‘play’ (for lack of a better word), is a way for adults to control and create the outcomes they perceive the children should be reaching for. This is counter to how children learn and is in complete ignorance of free play.

The Government’s outline is very clear in its goal to ensure that all childhood experiences are the same. Only a parent will fully understand a child’s emotional and developmental needs. This shouldn’t be judged by a ‘national performance target’.

Ed Balls, The Children’s Secretary, needs to be given a copy of the EYFS document so he can see just how hot the water is for the government.

We MUST let the children play. This is absolutely VITAL for their well-being and enjoyment of life. I can promise you, if we don’t, it won’t just be teenage ‘hoodies’ that adults are scared of.

You can download the British Government’s EYFS documentation in full at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs/site/resource/pdfs.htm

‘EYE’ standing for ‘Early Years Education’ - which, we maintain, needs to be kept open and free from overweening, infantilising government intrusion, however consciously well-intentioned it might be.

I hope to post a website for the campaign on this blog in a few days time..
In the meantime, if you want to find out more,

You can contact OPEN-EYE with your experience and views at: r.house@roehampton.ac.uk or
richardahouse@hotmail.com

BUY NOTHING DAY

2007-11-24T02:11:00.000-08:00

During the week, I dropped my step-daughter off at the Metro Centre in Newcastle, on her way back to New Zealand. It’s a massive shopping centre with ten thousands car parks. I’d never been there before and I can swear I’ll never go there again. I felt physically ill by the shop-a-holic fever which swept through the place. I know Christmas is coming up, but there was something else in the air...almost a fear that the world would end, and if only, IF ONLY, they could buy just one more thing, it might save them.

I pointed out to my daughters that almost all the things for sale would end up in a landfill and not readily decompose ~ except things from the bookshop.

Our culture raises babies on fast food (formula) and weans them onto more consumerism. Every baby I saw in that shopping centre was stuck in a pram, and had a dummy in its mouth ~ a bit of plastic which will sit in landfills for up to 450 years. What sort of children are we raising?

Today’s a celebration for those who’d like to show a little more respect for the planet ~ it’s called BUY NOTHING DAY. Just 20% of the world’s population consume 80% of our natural resources. Where's the fairness in that?

Everything we purchase should have us questioning whether we really need it, who has produced (that is, was it made ethically, through child labour, virgin forest destruction etc), how will it impact on the environment?, etc.

Like many people, I can get quite frustrated with the cost of ‘living’ and, indeed, living in a consumerist culture. I was sharing with another mother the other day that the best things in life are free. I wouldn’t swap the love in my family for any amount of money. There are some days when I swear I could just reach my hand out and 'touch' love in the air. My daughters know we are rich beyond measure.

Buy Nothing Day is about developing a CONSUMER CONSCIENCE. Being eco-minded isn’t just about recycling. In fact, recycling is pretty much a last ditch effort. Our focus should be on ‘do I really need this?’, and if I do, then can it be reused.

I recently *needed* some more bookshelves and for years I've made do with a hard dining chair for my computer area. Within days of being on freecycle, I received a very comfortable computer chair and three next-to-new bookshelves, as well as a piano stool which I’d been seeking out for quite a while!

We need to move away from our culture’s obsession with everything we own being brand spanking new, in the latest colours, or twinned with what some celebrity owns. We need, in short, to stop being so shallow.

Of course, you COULD buy my new book (not today though, get it on Monday!!), or get your library to stock it so loads of mums and midwives, and with luck, health visitors, can read it! Let's get babes back on the breast and away from all that crap in a can. Let's save this planet from the formula milk industry and all the pollution it causes.

The Drinks Are On Me (everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding) as recommended by The Independent on November 13th...now available from www.artofchange.co.uk Enjoy!

GUNPOINT MEDICINE

2007-11-24T02:07:00.000-08:00

Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse
for forced vaccinations as armed police and attack dogs stand guard

Today’s blog is a piece from NewsTarget by Mike Adams. I'm too speechless to comment.

(NewsTarget) Following the State of Maryland's threats against parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, children were herded into a Price George County courthouse being guarded by armed personnel with attack dogs. Inside, the children were forcibly vaccinated, many against their will, under orders from the State Attorney General, various State Judges and the local School Board Director, all of whom illegally conspired to threaten parents with imprisonment if they did not submit their children to vaccinations.The State of Maryland has now turned to Gestapo tactics to force its medical will upon the People, stripping parents of any right to decide how they wish to protect their own children from infectious disease.

Health authorities there have already announced their intent to essentially kidnap parents and throw them in jail, removing them from their children for up to thirty days if they continue to refuse to have their children vaccinated. This will all be conducted at gunpoint, with armed personnel and attack dogs at the ready, making sure nobody steps out of line, and suppressing any attempt at public dissent against the Orwellian vaccination policies.The entire campaign against these parents is blatantly illegal. There is no law in Maryland requiring the vaccination of children, thus parents who refuse to do so may not be legally charged with violating any law. Instead, Maryland health and school authorities are using Gestapo-like tactics, threatening to charge the parents with child truancy violations, criminalizing them for daring to protect their children from the dangerous chemicals found in vaccines (including thimerosal, a chemical additive containing a neurotoxic form of mercury).

The desperation of organized medicine is becoming increasingly apparent
As more and more parents are becoming informed about the dangers of vaccinations and their link to autism, state health authorities are increasingly turning to "Gunpoint Medicine" to force the People to submit to the poisons of conventional medicine. Parents who attempt to save their children from deadly chemotherapy chemicals are being arrested and having their children kidnapped by Child Protective Services (see http://www.newstarget.com/Abraham_Cherrix.html ), and oncologists who used to be armed only with radiation machines and chemotherapy injectors and now arming themselves with U.S. Marshals and other local law enforcement authorities who are using loaded firearms to enforce "the will of the State" against parents who resist.

Even the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) announced its strong opposition to the Maryland "Gunpoint Medicine" vaccination campaign. In a press release published Nov. 16, the AAPS states:The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons today condemned the “vaccine roundup” executed in Prince George’s county Maryland this week, and promised to do everything it can to support parents who refuse to immunize their children. “This power play obliterates informed consent and parental rights,” said Kathryn Serkes, director of policy for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), one of the few national physician groups that refuse corporate funding from pharmaceutical companies. In a scenario reminiscent of cattle round-ups, the state’s attorney has issued summons to more than 1600 parents of children who have not provided certificates of immunization for their children. But instead of toting a cattle prod, this state’s attorney chooses to wield a syringe to keep the “herd” in line.

Gunpoint Medicine: Why drug pushers must now rely on Gestapo tactics

Conventional (pharmaceutical) medicine is the only system of medicine in the world that is so unpopular with informed consumers that it must be administered at the barrel of a gun. There is no other system of medicine anywhere in the world that resorts to such tactics to recruit patients.At the Nov. 17th event in Maryland, activists Jim Moody and Kelly Ann Davis from SafeMinds (www.SafeMinds.org) were able to get in front of TV news cameras and voice their opposition to the coerced vaccination policy. Yet, amazingly, most parents just lined up like cattle ready to be branded, not bothering to question the sanity or legality of the very system in which they were now agreeing to participate.

A health freedom blog called Center for the Common Interest (www.CommonInterest.info) also covered the event, and it reports that a local activist named Donovan Hubbard videotaped the event and plans to make the video available online. (NewsTarget would like to contact Donovan and / or publicize his video. If you know of a way we can contact him, please call us at (520) 232-9300 to let us know...)

What's next for Gunpoint Medicine?
As the truth continues to emerge about the extreme dangers of vaccinations and pharmaceuticals, Big Pharma is becoming increasingly desperate to coerce the public into relying on its products. It is now working closely with state authorities (including Governors of several states) to mandate the use of vaccinations on young children. This results in the criminalization of parents who refuse to subject their children to these dangerous chemicals.In effect, Big Pharma is hoping to turn natural health followers into criminals.The FDA has already criminalized nutritional supplement companies who dare to tell the truth about the health benefits of their supplements. (Read the true history of armed FDA raids on vitamin companies here: http://www.newstarget.com/021791.html )

Next, parents who refuse to subject their children to the chemical pharmaceuticals proposed by Big Pharma will be criminalized, rounded up and incarcerated for "refusing to comply with public health policy."

This is all being done by the State in the name of "protecting the children" from their own natural health parents. (Insane, isn't it, to think that protecting your child from toxic chemicals is now a criminal act in the United States?)The end game of all this is to apply Gunpoint Medicine tactics to everyone: Adults and senior citizens included. Anyone suffering from high cholesterol, for example, who does not submit to Big Pharma's statin drugs could be arrested, strapped to a table and medicated against their will. People with cancer could be arrested for choosing to treat that cancer with safe and effective botanical medicines instead of patented, high-profit Big Pharma drugs.

If you think the prisons are full enough right now from all the arrests for marijuana possession and other victimless crimes, just wait until the State starts arresting all the natural health moms and dads across the country who refuse to participate in the utterly insane and extremely harmful system of medicine that now dominates U.S. health care today.

The State is very clear about medicine: If you want to remain a free citizen, you must submit to the synthetic drugs made by the very same corporations that now control government health regulators. Any person who resists such "treatments" will be branded a threat to public health -- a designation just beneath "terrorist" in the eyes of many government bureaucrats. As such, they believe there is no limit to the level of force they may use to coerce such people into submitting to Big Pharma's chemicals. Today, it's armed guards with attack dogs. Tomorrow, it might be water boarding or other torture methods. Think that's impossible? Think again: Just five years ago, nobody in their right mind would have thought that parents who did not want to get their children vaccinated would end up in prison, their children kidnapped by state authorities and forced to subject themselves to dangerous chemical injections at gunpoint. Yet that is precisely what is happening right now in the state of Maryland. It happened on Saturday, in fact.

Where is the outrage?
What's most interesting about this issue of using the threat of imprisonment to force vaccinations upon children is not necessarily who is speaking out against it, but who has chosen to remain silent.The American Medical Association, for example, has said nothing in opposition to the policy. Neither has the Food and Drug Administration. Where is the outrage from the Maryland Hospital Association? None of these organizations seem to have a problem with Gunpoint Medicine. The idea of rounding up parents and coercing their children into receiving injections of toxic chemicals does not seem to bother these organizations. And why should it? All of these organizations are closely tied to Big Pharma. They're all in favor of vaccinations for all, it seems, and I have no doubt that some individuals in these organizations (especially the AMA) are strongly in favor of the Gunpoint Medicine coerced vaccination policy being played out in Maryland right now.Organized medicine believes the People are too stupid to be allowed to make their own health decisions. Bureaucrats and physicians should be the ones making these decisions, we're told, and any person who disagrees with such decisions should be labeled a criminal, arrested and prosecuted. This is no exaggeration. It is, in fact, a shockingly accurate description of Maryland's current vaccination policy.It wasn't too long ago that Americans would have stood up and rallied against this kind of medical tyranny.

The major news networks would have denounced Maryland's vaccination policy with strong language and harsh accusations. People would have been marching in the streets, demanding their health freedom. But today, it's a different America.

The People are drugged up on pharmaceuticals and dosed on fluoride. They're too intoxicated to think straight, and they're frightened into submission by a fear-based government that invokes domestic tyranny at every opportunity to control and manipulate the People into doing whatever it wants.

The "free" America we all once knew is long gone, and it has been replaced with The United States of Corporate America, where police tactics are now used to enforce hazardous public health policies, and the people who run the State no longer think there's anything wrong with rounding up the population at gunpoint and performing large-scale medical experiments on their children. That's what modern vaccines are, after all: A grand medical experiment whose effects will only become known after a generation of mass poisoning has come and gone.

About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org

Would you drink a vaccine? WHY NOT?

2007-11-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

October 1, 2007

Ojai, CA -- On January 29, 2001, Jock Doubleday offered $20,000 to the first U.S.-licensed medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO to publicly drink a mixture of standard vaccine additive ingredients: http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/10/vaccine_offer.htm The offer had no takers.

On August 1, 2006, Doubleday increased the $20,000 offer to$75,000: http://www.vaclib.org/links/jockslinks.htm#press The new $75,000 offer had no takers. THEREFORE . . . On June 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $80,000. On July 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $85,000.On August 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $90,000.On September 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $95,000.

On October 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $100,000.

The offer will increase $5,000 per month, in perpetuity, until an M.D. or pharmaceutical company CEO, or any of the 14 relevant members of the ACIP (see below), agree to drink a body-weight calibrated dose of the poisonous vaccine additives that M.D.sroutinely inject into children in the name of health.As of November 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $105,000.As of December 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $110,000.As of January 1, 2008, the offer will increase to $115,000. . . . etc.

This offer has no expiration date unless superseded by a similar offer of higher remuneration. In health, Jock DoubledayDirectorNatural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation

http://gentlebirth.org/nwnm.org/nwnm_org.html

Optical Illusion

2007-11-18T02:24:00.000-08:00

In March this year, my daughter Bethany was squinting a lot. Was it a ‘habit’ that developed from an unmet need and a way of getting some extra parental attention? Was she reading too much? Paul suggested we take her to an optometrist. Against my better judgement I went. I avoid the medical profession, and opticians come under the same category. I was horrified when he said she needed glasses for all ‘close work’, like reading, sewing, knitting, drawing, etc.

He said to come back in six months. This man, with the social skills of a dead ant, was very dismissive of any holistic approach, including pin hole glasses. I bit my tongue.

For the duration of the six months I felt uneasy. When her check-up was due, I chose another optometrist. There was panic and they said her eyes had deteriorated rapidly in six months and prescribed her ‘new glasses’… Here’s an irony, they wouldn’t even use her old frames without charging me £20 for the recycling pleasure. I didn’t find this woman’s social skills to be much better than the last optometrist's.

They said Bethany needed to see a specialist. Thank Goddess for that!

When we travelled over to Hexham hospital to meet him, I was immediately struck by how pleasant he was, his FANTASTIC eye contact, and his honesty. He was stunned that she’d been prescribed glasses in the first place. Her vision is normal. Apparently, according to him, many children are being prescribed glasses in the UK ~ no coincidence that the optometrist gets £20 from the government each time a child gets new glasses.

Until we saw him, I’d been planning to get hold of a holistic eyesight book from Findhorn Press. I’d read excerpts online about the metaphysical reasons for various eye disorders and felt this to be the path we would have pursued in remedying the situation.

If your child has been prescribed glasses, listen to your heart and consider getting an opinion from a specialist who has no ulterior motive.

Environmental implications of not breastfeeding affects EVERY plant and animal on this planet.

2007-11-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yau-Y7tWaPo

hello everyone...today's blog is an invitation to visit the Youtube snippets of my book The Drinks Are On Me. The wonderful Barry Durdant-Hollamby (aka Art of Change man) has created three mini films (and his home educated daughter Sophie is singing to it). This one covers the environmental costs of not breastfeeding. You can link to the other two films while you're there...And watch for more to come.

Have a fab week
Veronika

GOT MILK, WILL SHARE

2007-11-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

Apologies to those people who check in to my blog each week. I’ve not really fallen off the edge of the Earth, despite those rumours! It’s been a hectic month or so, for various reasons, and will become apparent in my blogs over the next few weeks.

(Wet Nursing is the nursing of another woman’s baby for money. Cross Nursing involves the one-off or occasional breastfeeding of someone else’s baby while you continue to nurse her own child.)

When I was pregnant with my daughters, I had a pact with my lactating friends that if I couldn’t breastfeed for any reason, they’d breastfeed my babies. We were Milk Systers, and our vow was solid. Obviously I would do the same for their babies. I am one of *those* women who’d happily share my breast milk with another woman’s baby ~ friend or stranger. Like any aspect of breastfeeding, whether it’s breastfeeding itself, full-term breastfeeding, tandem nursing, breastfeeding in public ~ how you feel about it will depend on your frame of reference.

I have shared milk with other women’s children (with their permission) and although it is initially strange having a child who’s not your own, in your arms and connected so intimately, once the old oxytocin (love hormone) kicks in, you simply know that you could breastfeed the World’s Children. Yes, love is that big. Breast milk is liquid love and true love knows no bounds.

Some people are absolutely horrified at the thought of feeding someone else’s child, yet have no qualms about their baby sucking from a cow’s udder ~ even if the experienced is camouflaged and one step removed by being mixed with other ingredients, freeze dried and then re-hydrated into a bottle.

There’s no question that the breastfeeding relationship between a mother and her child is sacred, even holy, ground. And as an advocate of breastfeeding at the breast, rather than a mother’s own expressed milk in a bottle, it might seem odd that I’d be in support of wet nursing or shared feeding (known as cross nursing [horrible expression]). Here are my reasons:

I’m not in support of expressed milk as life-style choice because breast milk is designed to be consumed as it is made. It is age and (developmental) stage specific to the mother’s child and was never meant to see the light of day.

Breastfeeding is a complete package that involves so many aspects of the child’s being ~ physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. My preference would be for a child to be nursed at another woman’s breast (as a temporary measure, or permanently if her own mother is dead or extremely ill) than to consume ‘old’ (even hours old) milk from a bottle.

Breast milk is a *living* food and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

My main thoughts about wet-nursing/cross nursing are:

1.) It should be a gift of love, and not something measured by money, unless the lactating woman is doing it long-term as a career.

2.) I believe mothers should support each other when new babies come along, and be willing to share their milk so that asking the baby to drink from a bottle (expressed milk or formula) is not necessary. (Please note that a mother’s expressed milk is always the first choice of supplement, but where possible offer it off a finger, pipette or spoon, rather than a bottle. Allowing the baby to nurse from another mum enables the sucking reflex to develop)

A child will not breastfeed if it doesn’t want to! You can’t force a baby to breastfeed, so the concerns from some quarters of LLL that it might cause psychological harm, I believe, are unfounded.

If you want to look further into cross nursing, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers takes a more liberal view than LLL.

I have heard someone in LLL say that if a mother cross nurses another child, it may reduce her own milk supply. This flies in the face of what I learnt during my breastfeeding counsellor training (ironically with LLL) AND from my own experience and that of other mothers world-wide. Milk is made on demand. If you’ve got two (or more) children feeding at the breast, then your body will make more milk to suit the need, not less! A woman can easily provide breast milk for about five children at any one time if she wanted to.

To be clear, though, once a baby gets to a certain age, say 4 – 6 months, it may not want to breastfeed from another woman, either because her voice is different, or her let-down is unlike what she’s been used to. As with any aspect of breastfeeding, let your baby be the guide.

The ideal person to breastfeed your child in a cross nursing situation, is a mother with a baby the same, or very similar age, who is healthy, drug free, and in a good mental and emotional state. She should not consume caffeine, alcohol, smoke, or have large amounts of sweetener. Ironically, some milk banks allow lactating mothers to have up to 7 cups of coffee a day. Seven cups? I’d have a heart attack if I had seven cups of coffee in one day. Just one cup of coffee (or a mouthful of chocolate), and I can’t sleep for about 30 hours! I do not understand this about milk banks. Why would it be acceptable for babies to have breast milk loaded with caffeine? It’s insane.

My experience of women who cross nurse is that they are more than happy with having had their baby fed by another woman, and themselves having breastfed another child. Clearly this cuts against our cultural bias of it being an ‘adulterous relationship’.

Babies must receive breast milk. When our culture finally wakes up enough to realise the significance of this, personally and collectively, then all squeamishness about wet nursing/cross nursing/full term breastfeeding etc., will fly out the window. And not before time!

Cross nursing can be used in emergencies, or to help stimulate a mother’s milk supply if her baby hasn’t been latched-on enough (eg. baby has Down’s Syndrome or is premature). Women who choose to breastfeed an adopted baby, can stimulate their milk supply by nursing an experienced breastfeeding baby.

It’s nothing short of child abuse, in my opinion, to give newborn babies anything less than breast milk, and ideally from the breast. But hey, it’ll take a while before our society wakes up to this. If ever in doubt about what a baby needs to drink, remember, HUMAN MILK FOR HUMAN BABIES.

One of the reasons people are so uncomfortable with the idea of wet nursing, is because of the use of intimate body parts (not so intimate when splashed on the covers of lad magz) and exchanging of body fluids. Funny, though, how one night stands don’t come into the same category.

I believe another difficulty we may have with cross nursing in Western culture, stems from the idea of ownership. We simply don’t know how to share. We’ve been raised to believe in my, my, my or mine, mine, mine. It’s a strong, bold and beautiful woman who transcends this patriarchal line and offers her breast up to another child, and indeed, trusts another woman to nurture her child.

Milk Banks

Milk banks have their place, but I’d rather see women sharing their milk directly from the breast to child. The process involved in making donated breast milk available to babies in NICU or elsewhere, defeats the purpose of providing the benefits of breast milk (to my mind). However, I’d certainly recommend donated milk from this source over formula. Beware though of a particular company marketing donated breast milk for babies in NICU at extortionate prices.

Each country with milk banks, have their own guidelines for donor mums. In some countries, if you’ve had a blood transfusion, are vegetarian/vegan, drink herb teas, etc., you are unlikely to be allowed to donate. Some countries have a blood transfusion deadline of about 20 years ago, some countries one year ago. There’s certainly no universal consensus on this.

Many women happily consume raspberry leaf tea or fennel tea while they’re lactating. Excluding these women from milk donation is ludicrous, and a joke given it’s ok to have seven cups of coffee a day! Excluding women like me, who abstain from flesh, is ludicrous. Our children have thrived on our fennel-laced breast milk.

My main reservation with milk banking is that the milk is pasteurised and pooled (with other mother’s milks). Any *living* food is rendered inadequate by heat treatment. Some places, like Norway, are experimenting with offering ‘raw’ breast milk for babies in need. This is a much more enlightened approach.

For many centuries in Britain, it was common for wet nurses to feed babies. Sadly the reasons used including protecting a mother’s figure (!!) or allowing wealthier women to be emotionally removed from their children. Wet nursing went out of fashion when doctors believed some infections might have been transmitted through breast milk…and lo and behold, crap in a can was invented for women who *didn’t want* to breastfeed.
I believe it is highly unlikely that a woman who is passionate about breast milk, would knowingly breastfeed another woman’s child if she had a transmittable/infectious disease.

The media has recently latched-on (no pun intended!) the idea of wet-nursing, no doubt to ignite people’s interest in something unusual, however recorded history shows wet nursing occurring as far back as 2000 BC in the Code of Hammurabi. A wet nurse was hired for Moses and written about in 1250BC (Old Testament’s Book of Exodus). Turned out that the wet nurse was actually his mother, but the employer didn’t know that!

In 600 AD, The Koran suggested wet nursing.

It’s always been controversial, and like many things, comes in and out of fashion. It was in the middle of the 19th Century that physicians sought out a substitute for breast milk. And the rest is history. Separating babies from their food source has been our undoing. Women were fooled into believing that artificial feeding was to be respected.

Ideally, a child will receive breast milk from her mother’s breast. But we don’t live in an ideal world and so we must be open to wet nursing and cross nursing.

One of my favourite cross nursing stories (although very sad) involved the mother of a three month old baby who was injured in a car crash.

The mother was unconscious, and clearly unable to breastfeed. Fortunately, the ‘aware’ father, although he was also injured, knew that the mother would not want the child to have formula, so he asked for donations of breast milk. When one of the women turned up at the hospital to express her milk, she thought it seemed a bit ridiculous to express it into a bottle, and so, with the father’s permission, breastfed the baby. For the duration that the mother was unable to breastfeed, five women took turns breastfeeding the baby. To me this is a beautiful story of sisterhood. The tragedy is that this understanding, this support and love, is so rare in our society.

Another story which warms my heart is of Judith Waterford ~ a wet nurse. On her 81st birthday (back in the 1800s) she was still producing milk for babies. During the prime of her wet nursing years, she managed to produce four pints a day.

If you have a personal experience of wet nursing/cross nursing, either breastfeeding someone else’s child, or your child having been breastfed by another mum, and might be open to taking part in a SENSITIVE documentary on the subject, please get in touch with me. If you get in touch, there is no commitment to be involved. (UK women only, please).

Petition to the government/Bringing up baby and other abusive-based parenting shows

2007-09-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

This is a petition to Downing Street asking them to prevent tv production companies/broadcasters from allowing child abuse on their programmes.

If you were disturbed at the promotion of baby torture on Channel Four's Bringing up baby, please consider adding your name to this petition. Please click the link, it's VERY easy to fill out.

All babies deserve our love, care, respect and committment to their well-being. Please help put an end to the insanity of denying a baby it's BASIC BIOLOGICAL NEEDS. Thanks, Veronika

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/parentingshows/

Vaccination Awareness

2007-09-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Today’s blog is written by a guest blogger, Joanna Karpasea-Jones.
She is a neuro-psychological immunologist and the author of Breast Milk ~ a natural immunization.

This is specifically for those readers who don’t read her columns in The Mother magazine and want answers to an earlier blog of mine on vaccination.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a lot of people lived in poverty without proper food, housing or sanitation. This meant that larger numbers of people died at those times from infectious diseases. The same is true in war times.

We no longer die in such great numbers because of the marvellous invention of the indoor flushing toilet, adequate food for everyone (for the first time in history), heating, decent housing and contraception. Contraception has ensured that most women only have 2 or 3 children, as opposed to 15 or 20, and so she is more able to bear a healthy child if she can take care of herself and her child, and not subject herself to numerous pregnancies. Alcohol abuse is also a causative factor in diphtheria, as is underlying disease.

It stated in ‘Medical World’, 1931, p.627, that ‘"…shows an interesting and conclusive fashion the definitive effect of school buildings, their construction and sanitation, on the spread of diphtheria. The highest incidence was observed in those schools where sanitation is most deficient and ventilation and lighting the least satisfactory. The brightest and airiest school showed the lowest incidence, and the incidence throughout all the schools placed them in exact order of sanitary virtue. Moreover, the incidence indicated the schools where malnutrition in the children is most conspicuous."

As we can see from the above, over-crowding and malnutrition played a key role.
By the time vaccinations were introduced, most of these killer infectious diseases had become more benign.

The vaccine is also known not to be effective in many cases, and may actually cause the spread of the disease.

According to Minutes of the 15th Session (November 20-21, 1975) of the Panel of Review of Bacterial Vaccines and Toxoids with Standards and Potency (data presented by the US Bureau of Biologics, and the FDA):‘For several reasons, diphtheria toxoid, fluid or absorbed, is not as effective an immunizing agent as might be anticipated. Clinical (symptomatic) diphtheria may occur . . . in immunized individuals--even those whose immunization is reported as complete by recommended regimes . . . the permanence of immunity induced by the toxoid . . . is open to question.’Medics have always known this vaccine doesn’t work and have been writing about it since it was invented. For instance, in the ‘Practitioner’, April 1896, it was written ‘that the serum did not, to any appreciable degree, prevent the extension of the disease to the larynx; all the severe cases died, and the good result in the lighter ones was attributable to the mild type of the epidemic." The doctor also states that, at the Hospital of Bligdam, Copenhagen, "the mortality from diphtheria remains the same after, as it was before.’Dr. Joseph Winters published a book, ‘Clinical Observations upon the Use of Anti-Toxin in Diphtheria’, in which he stated: ‘percentage of mortality is not only misleading, but is absolutely worthless unless accompanied by the actual number of cases reported and the actual number of deaths." He also declares that "the serum has an injurious effect, and will certainly be abandoned."Also, the famous Dr. Hadwen wrote in his booklet, ‘The Anti-Toxin Treatment of Diphtheria: In Theory and Practice’, that in 1895 in Berlin the mortality rate from diphtheria was 15.7% (before any vaccination). By 1900 (after vaccination) this figure had risen to 17.2%. According to Metropolitan Asylums Board Annual Reports, 1895-1910, the death rate from Diphtheria in 1910 was 9.80% in those who had received anti-toxin and only 2.99% in those who had not received it. In more recent years there have also been numerous studies of ‘failure’ of DPT vaccine to ‘immunize’ against the diseases it was designed to prevent. As an example, here are some studies:Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 179, April 1999; 915-923. "Temporal trends in the population structure of bordetella pertussis during 1949-1996 in a highly vaccinated population "Despite the introduction of large-scale pertussis vaccination in 1953 and high vaccination coverage, pertussis is still an endemic disease in The Netherlands, with epidemic outbreaks occurring every 3-5 years." One factor that might contribute to this is the ability of pertussis strains to adapt to vaccine-induced immunity, causing new strains of pertussis to re-emerge in this well-vaccinated population.Vaccination against whooping-cough. Efficacy versus risks (The Lancet, vol. 1, January 29, 1977, pp. 234-7): Calculations based on the mortality of whooping-cough before 1957 predict accurately the subsequent decline and the present low mortality… Incidence [is] unaffected either by small-scale vaccination beginning about 1948 or by nationwide vaccination beginning in 1957… No protection is demonstrable in infants."

The Lancet Volume 353, Number 9150 30 January 1999 Risk of diphtheria among schoolchildren in the Russian Federation in relation to time since last vaccination Quote:In 1993, the Russian Federation reported 15229 cases of diphtheria, a 25-fold increase over the 603 cases reported in 1989.1 The incidence rate among children 7-10 years of age (15·7 per 100000) was twice that of adults aged 18 years or over (7·9 per 100000).

81% of the affected children aged 7-10 years had been vaccinated with at least a primary series of diphtheria toxoid, and most had received the first booster recommended to be given 12 months after completion of the primary series.

Shimoni, Zvi; Dobrousin, Anatoly; Cohen, Jonathan; et al. "Tetanus in an Immunised Patient" British Medical Journal Online (10/16/99) Vol. 319, No. 7216, P. 1049;Israeli researchers present the case of a 34-year-old construction worker who was hospitalized after having a reported epileptic fit and experiencing flu-like symptoms. The patient had a low-grade fever, but was alert and coherent. Any attempts to speak or get up on the second day resulted in attacks of risus sardonicus, opisthotonus, and trismus. The patient was diagnosed with tetanus and given 2000 U of human tetanus immunoglobulin. Further treatment was provided, and after 15 days, the patient had stopped taking diazepam and ventilatory support was withdrawn. The man had been fully immunized against tetanus, and had received booster shots five and two years before being hospitalized.

Another reason for the fall in infectious disease rates is that diseases are classified according to vaccine status. For instance, tonsillitis and mild Diphtheria have identical symptoms: severe sore throat, swollen glands in the neck, bright red tonsils and a green/yellowish or grey discharge at the back of the throat.

With severe Diphtheria, this discoloured film is impossible to remove and it may block off the airway and cause respiratory problems. Essentially, in milder cases there is no difference between tonsillitis and Diphtheria and vaccinated patients would simply be recorded as tonsillitis. Also, doctors do not test for Diphtheria anymore so they wouldn’t know whether it was present or not, and most doctors do not know what symptoms to look for to diagnose it, so all of this would skew statistics.

TUBERCULOSIS

This is also a sanitation disease and can be caused by vaccination polluting the internal system.The vaccine doesn’t work and never has and the world’s only ever double-blind controlled trial on vaccination (BCG) in the early 1970s which proved it didn’t work. However, it took almost 30 years of administering useless vaccine to people before they stopped its use.The study stated: ‘The efficacy of the TB vaccine is 0%’ (Bulletin of the WHO, Tuberculosis Prevention Trial, 57 (5); 819-827, 1979).

Here are some other studies showing that TB vaccine causes the disease:Foster DR. Miliary tuberculosis following intravesical BCG treatment. Br J Radiol. 1997 Apr;70(832):429. No abstract available. PMID: 9166085 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Foster DR. Miliary tuberculosis: a complication of intravesical BCG treatment. Australas Radiol. 1998 May;42(2):167-8. No abstract available. PMID: 9599839 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Marrak H, et al.[A case of tuberculous lupus complicating BCG vaccination]. Tunis Med. 1991 Nov;69(11):651-4. French. No abstract available.PMID: 1808776; UI: 92230052.Magnon R, et al. [See Related Articles] Disseminated cutaneous granulomas from BCG therapy. Arch Dermatol. 1980 Mar;116(3):355. No abstract available.PMID: 7369757; UI: 80174030.Vittori F, et al. [Tuberculosis lupus after BCG vaccination. A rare complication of the vaccination].
Arch Pediatr. 1996 May;3(5):457-9. French. PMID: 8763716; UI: 96297887.According to Dr. Surinder Bakhshi, Consultant in Communicable Diseases:‘BCG, the most used vaccine in the world since it was introduced more than 50 years ago, has made no difference to TB in countries which rely solely on it to halt its spread. It has never been claimed to prevent TB, but even the evidence of its protectiveness is patchy and historical. And there have been no studies of its effectiveness in the past three decades.It may leave an ugly scar and, indeed, do more harm than good. Further, as TB, with rare exceptions, is largely a disease of the elderly in the Western world, vaccinating children doesn’t make sense.
TB in Britain is a legacy of its empire. As long as people from third world countries come and settle here, there cannot be a let-up in its spread.People who come from high prevalence countries will continue to harbour TB germs in their bodies until they die.
The World Health Organisation has set its face against vaccination and routine screening. It advocates effective disease management — early diagnosis and supervised treatment — to contain it and avoid its spread to the host community. Vaccination wastes resources, gives false hope and distracts attention from what needs to be done.’(Letter, the Sunday Times, 15 April 2001).

Isolation worked in the old days and its still one of the most effective means of preventing disease.

Other diseases like Scarlet Fever and Typhus disappeared to virtually zero without vaccination.

Measles is a disease which is mild in most cases. The figures the DOH use are from the third world, not of Western children. They also include children who have pre-existing conditions, those who are malnourished and those whose measles was treated with anti-pyretics (which is known to cause measles side-effects.

In 1967, Christine Miller from the National Institute for Medical Research, London, published a paper on measles, stating: ‘Measles is now the commonest infectious disease of childhood in the UK. It occurs in epidemics in which the total number of cases usually exceeds half a million...there is no doubt that most cases in England today are mild, only last for a short period, are not followed by complications and are rarely fatal.’

Also in the Practitioner, November 1967: ‘some physicians consider that measles is so mild a complaint that a major effort at prevention is not justified.’

After the measles vaccine was introduced in 1968, followed by the MMR in 1988, the disease suddenly became more serious. According to the BMA Complete Family Medical Encyclopaedia, 1995: ‘measles is a potentially dangerous viral illness...prevention of measles is important because it can have rare but serious complications...it is sometimes fatal in children with impaired immunity.’

Clearly, you can see vaccine marketing techniques at play here.

According to the DOH, in their book ‘Immunisation Against Infectious Diseases’,‘Before 1988 (when the MMR was introduced) more than half the acute measles deaths occurred in previously healthy children who had not been immunised.’ They quote the study C L MILLER. Deaths from measles in England and Wales, 1970-83. British Medical Journal, Vol 290, 9 February 1985, but if you actually read this study (which they are relying on parents not doing), you will find it actually says:
‘No attempt was made to establish further clinical details, vaccination history, or social class.’ - i.e. they didn’t know the vaccine status of the individuals. And: ‘90% of deaths in those previously normal occurred in those over the age of 15 months, when the vaccines are usually given’. These children were probably vaccinated prior to dying of measles as they were of vaccination age.

Nearly half the children who died were ‘grossly physically or mentally abnormal or both. The pre-existing conditions in the 126 previously abnormal individuals included cerebral palsy (24), mental retardation (20), Down's syndrome (19) and various congenital abnormalities (22). There were nine children with immune deficiency or immunosuppression, and 19 aged 2-8 with lymphatic leukaemia, a number of them in remission.’

In normal healthy children whose measles has not been treated with anti-pyretics, and whom are well nourished, I would say measles is a good thing.

Diseases of childhood are there for a reason. They release toxins from the body, they mature the child’s developing immune system, which is why they occur in childhood.
According to Jayne Donegan, a medical GP, “our immune system had matured and developed purely because of catching the diseases we are trying to eradicate.

In my opinion, normal childhood diseases are basically good for us. They teach our immune system what is "us" and what is foreign.

All our childhood diseases were killers when they first came along. They wiped out thousands because we had no natural immunity against them. Diseases infect us and, in turn, strengthen our immune system.

I vaccinated both my children with the MMR jab, but this was before I started my research into the problems associated with it.”

Often, when a child has had a childhood disease such as Chickenpox or Measles, they will pass more developmental milestones such as suddenly beginning to read, or learning new words, and any existing problems seem to reverse after a bout of measles (for instance, asthmatics suddenly recover).

My own daughter had measles as a toddler and was not ill again for more than a year afterwards, not even with a cold. I believe this was because measles was a strengthening milestone for her.

In the case of tetanus, unlike other childhood diseases, it isn’t possible to gain natural immunity to tetanus. If you’ve had it once, you can have it again. The body does not produce antibodies to Clostridium Tetani. Vaccination is the act of injecting a viral or bacterial substance into the body to make it produce antibodies to that disease. However, since no natural antibodies can be made, then there is no possible way that artificial antibodies could be made either. If the disease cannot give you protection, then how can a vaccine? It is likely that any raised antibody level seen after vaccination is the result of adjuvants (toxic heavy metals which are added to increase the body’s antibody response). In the case of tetanus vaccine, this substance is aluminium.

Antibodies themselves are not an indication of immunity – this is just one function, which is vastly different from whole body immunity.

According to Vieira et al: ‘This minimal protective antibody level is an arbitrary one and is not a guarantee of security for the individual patient.’ (Vieira, B.l.; Dunne, J.W.; Summers, Q.; Cephalic tetanus in an immunized patient. Med J Austr. 1986; 145: 156-7).

Herd Immunity Theory
The herd immunity theory was originally coined in 1933 by a researcher called Hedrich. He had been studying measles patterns in the US between 1900-1931 (years before any vaccine was ever invented for measles) and he observed that epidemics of the illness only occurred when less than 68% of children had developed a natural immunity to it. This was based upon the principle that children build their own immunity after suffering with or being exposed to the disease. So the herd immunity theory was, in fact, about natural disease processes and nothing to do with vaccination. If 68% of the population were allowed to build their own natural defences, there would be no raging epidemic.

Later on, vaccinologists adopted the phrase and increased the figure from 68% to 95% with no scientific justification as to why, and then stated that there had to be 95% vaccine coverage to achieve immunity. Essentially, they took Hedrich’s study and manipulated it to promote their vaccination programmes.

If vaccination really immunises, then your vaccinated child will be immunised and therefore protected against any disease an unvaccinated child gets. If he isn’t, his shots didn’t work.
It is widely known that even those antibodies caused by tetanus vaccine adjuvants will wane or disappear completely within 5 to 10 years. That is why children have a pre-school ‘booster’ at 4 years old, despite being vaccinated 3 or more times as a baby, and why it is repeated again at 15, and in some countries, at 12. It is estimated that over 50% of the adult population is not up to date on their tetanus vaccination and therefore, unvaccinated. If it was truly vaccination that was keeping tetanus rates low, then why are there not dozens more cases of tetanus with all these adults running around? It certainly isn’t in line with their herd immunity theory, where they assert 95% of people have to be ‘immunised’ or it won’t work.

Here are a number of studies of disease occurring in the vaccinated:
Bentsi-Enchill AD, et al. Estimates of the effectiveness of a whole-cell pertussis vaccine from an outbreak in an immunized population. Vaccine. 1997 Feb;15(3):301-6. PMID: 9139490; UI: 97227584.
D. C. Christie, et al., "The 1993 Epidemic of Pertussis in Cincinnati: Resurgence of Disease in a Highly Immunized Population of Children," New England Journal of Medicine (July 7, 1994), pp. 16-20.MMWR November 05, 1993 / 42(43);840-841,847 Diphtheria Outbreak -- Russian Federation, 1990-1993 Despite high levels of vaccination coverage against diphtheria, an ongoing outbreak of diphtheria has affected parts of the Russian Federation since 1990 (1); as of August 31, 1993, 12,865 cases had been reported. This report summarizes epidemiologic information about this outbreak for January 1990- August 1993, and is based on reports from public health officials in the Russian Federation.

Shimoni, Zvi; Dobrousin, Anatoly; Cohen, Jonathan; et al. "Tetanus in an Immunised Patient" British Medical Journal Online (10/16/99) Vol. 319, No. 7216, P. 1049;
Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop., vol. 28, no. 4, Oct-Dec 1995, pp. 339-43 "Clinical and epidemiological findings during a measles outbreak occurring in a population with a high vaccination coverage" : "The history of previous vaccination [in very early childhood] did not diminish the number of complications of the cases studied. The results of this work show changes in age distribution of measles leading to sizeable outbreaks among teenagers and young adults."Clin. Invest. Med., vol. 11, no. 4, August 1988, pp. 304-9: "Measles serodiagnosis during an outbreak in a vaccinated community" ( from a group of 30 measles-sufferers displaying IgM antibodies during the acute phase of illness, 17 had been vaccinated for measles. All 17 experienced measles again, showing IgM antibodies indicating acute infection. "A history of prior vaccination is not always associated with immunity nor with the presence of specific antibodies."Aaby P, et al. (1990) Measles incidence, vaccine efficacy, and mortality in two urban African areas with high vaccination coverage. J Infect Dis. 1990 Nov;162(5):1043-8. PMID: 2230232; UI: 91037153.

Boulianne N, et al.(1991) [Major measles epidemic in the region of Quebec despite a 99% vaccine coverage]. Can J Public Health. 1991 May-Jun;82(3):189-90. French. PMID: 1884314; UI: 91356447.

All vaccination does is alter the expression of diseases and weaken our immune systems because we don’t have as much opportunity to experience the wild disease. Whilst we have less infectious (self-limiting) illness, we have more chronic (long-term) illness.

1 in 3 people now have cancer. This figure is INSANE. Back in the 18th century, cancer was virtually unheard of. Meningitis was extremely rare, now many more children get it. So many people are puffing on ventolin inhalers, with allergies to nuts and strawberries and everything else. Many people have weird skin conditions, and there are dozens more auto-immune diseases than there were before vaccination, like HIV, Lupus, MS.

According to Oxford University, 1 in 58 children is autistic and there are more with ADHD. These are poisoning and brain damage conditions. This amounts to 2% of the population that are now brain damaged by this!

Vaccination has turned us into a nation of weaklings that cannot cope with anything. That is why scientists are trying to invent a ‘dirt’ vaccine to strengthen children’s immune systems.
With regard to the tribes people dying of diseases, they were white man diseases and we went in, invaded their home and their way of life (that they had been living for hundreds of years quite happily) and exposed them to our diseases, which obviously they had not encountered before.

With continued exposure, the disease would become less severe and the tribes people would not die in great numbers, as is the course of all disease if we are allowed to develop natural immunity. Personally I also feel that we in western society had no right to interfere in the way of life of the tribes people and we ought to be ashamed of this aspect of our history.
My website is www.novelbookshop.com and I am in the process of making a new website for Vaccination Awareness Network UK. I can take requests for subjects that people wish me to write about on my site as it has a selection of free to view vaccination articles.

Bringing up baby

2007-09-26T02:14:00.000-07:00

Last night I forced myself to watch a new series on Channel Four called Bringing up baby. I say ‘forced’, because I knew there’d be much of it that would be emotionally harrowing and I’d rather spend my time engaged in something more productive. However, I chose to watch it because one of the people on there is someone I know and wanted to support her bravery of going into the mainstream with a concept that is so at odds with our parenting culture.

Bringing up baby is an experiment in child rearing based on three very different ways of parenting. Six families are mentored by three ‘experienced’ women who scrutinise their first three months of parenting. Each family has agreed to follow one particular method.

Method one: mentored by a woman the voice-over described as the Cruella De Ville of the parenting styles. Personally, I’d have thought that was too mild a description. Her routine, military-based approach, was popularised the 1950s, though devised in 1913 by Frederick Truby King. This style is especially suited for people who, actually, don’t really want to be parents. They want a career, wild parties and not to have a moment of their life impacted by a little creature, even if it was conceived by them.

The mentor, Claire Verity, (now there’s an irony, Claire means Light, and Verity means truth) charges families £1000 a DAY for her ‘specialist’ advice, which goes like this:

NO EYE CONTACT WITH BABY

Why? Because babies, according to her, are manipulative creatures. They’re either attention seeking or tired. She says to ignore both reasons! She’s not a mother herself and is so detached from emotion that I can’t believe people actually find comfort in her presence or treat her ideas as gospel.

She advocates four hourly feeds. I can assure you this woman doesn’t eat or drink at four hourly intervals, yet she expects a newborn baby, with the stomach the size of a raspberry, (read: empty in 20 minutes) to go for such a huge stretch of time.

This experiment by the producers of the programme, sadly, isn’t an experiment, so much as a public viewing of TORTURE. I can only hope there’ll be a massive outcry and complaints to the official broadcasting standards authority. If it was a documentary ‘exposing’ such a practice, that would be different. This is the deliberate setting up and staging of child abuse.
The babies from two families were swaddled from head to toe, a lump of rubber (a dummy) gagging them from expression, and then left ALONE for four hours outside in the cold (in a pram). This would be considered torture, bodily and psychological harm, if inflicted on an adult. HOW IS IT ALLOWED TO A NEWBORN BABY? Where are its human rights?

This practice is a pernicious influence, like a cancer, spreading mutated cells into the world of baby/child development.

The show is following these families for 3 months to see how it goes. Where will the producers be in 3 years, 30 years, when these poor babies are in care because they weren’t loved, weren’t cuddled, weren’t given eye contact…but WERE ABANDONED??? We’ll all be paying the cost for this torture and cruelty. These babies will almost certainly be dysfunctional as adults, and not capable of healthy intimate relationships.

If a dog or a cat had been similarly treated, the whole country would be up in arms. BAN THEM FROM KEEPING AN ANIMAL FOR LIFE…but no, on this show, it’s celebrated. Yahoo, the parents can sit and have a glass of wine on baby’s first night at home!

The older sibling of one of the ‘tortured’ babies said, “I want to cuddle the baby. Why can’t I cuddle the baby?” Dad replies that they’re not allowed to. There was a moment of irony when the mother of said baby started crying as she heard it SCREAMING in desperation for her over the monitor, and Claire Verity touched her arm and offered ‘comfort’. Made me want to vomit! Why was her trauma acknowledged, and not the baby’s?

This parenting ‘style’ (torture) is a second cousin to the treatment of babies in eastern European orphanages. Studies have shown that babies who are never held actually DIE from lack of touch. It’s an essential human NEED.

Any prospective parent who feels ‘inclined’ towards this way of parenting ~ do the world a favour, don’t have children! DON’T HAVE CHILDREN. Leave the creating and raising of the next generation to those people who really want and love them, and are prepared to honour their most basic needs, which include affectional bonding, love, touch, and EYE CONTACT.

A fabulous career, double ‘must have’ income, brilliant parties, should never be more important than raising a child according to its biological needs.

There’s no place for selfishness in parenting, only surrender. Let’s be clear on something though, surrender isn’t about ‘giving in’ or giving up. In this case it is about melting into parenting. It’s about recognising that mother and child are one. Surrender does not mean sacrifice. A BONDED mother would never leave her baby in a cot, give it a bottle of formula, or leave it untouched anymore than she would dictate its feeds.

A baby isn’t something to put on your cv…it is a human being with exquisitely sensitive feelings.

One of the baby’s births was shown on the programme ~ a typical western birth where babe is handled like a lump of meat i.e., roughly, with no respect for its incredible sensitivity and the shock adjustment it has to make to the world of light, gravity and unmuffled sound. The poor little soul hit a world of violence from the word go.

My husband and I sat in stunned silence, tears rolling down my cheeks. The few words that were mentioned can’t be repeated here because of the laws of libel.

Hats off to Claire Scott, the Continuum Concept mentor. Her intelligence, passion, compassion and empathy were obvious. I admired her help in getting breastfeeding established and for saying what I’m always yelling from the rooftops: BREASTFEEDING DOESN’T HURT IF IT IS DONE PROPERLY!!
I’m so grateful that wasn’t edited out in post-production!

The Continuum Concept is at the heart of The Mother magazine’s ethos. The book’s author, Jean Leidloff, lived with the Stone Age tribe, the Yequanna, in South America. Here she saw first hand how different these children were to those in the west. They rarely cried, were actively part of (and welcomed into!!) their parent’s and community’s lives. Their bodies were relaxed and the children were happy. Just before I met my husband, I’d heard about this book through a Wellness course I was doing. I’d been trying to track it down. When I met my husband, and we were moving in together, he handed me a book and said, “You might like this.” Our parenting style was sealed before we even met. We both knew that a baby’s biological needs had to be met no matter what time in history we were living in, or what the culture presented as the norm. I’m so thankful for the book, and even more thankful for having made babies with a man who ‘understood’ and has never stood in the way with ego-based jealousy. Which brings me back to Claire Verity. How is it that a woman can be so far removed from a biological instinct? I know several men who are more suited to mothering.

I can’t recommend highly enough an article we have in our current issue of The Mother magazine, by Joseph Chilton Pearce called Birth and bonding. The information on the heart’s electromagnetic field is vital information. The Truby King method is the antithesis. Joseph’s book, Magical Child, will open your eyes to how important it is that the baby is held, has eye contact and constant exposure to her mother’s face. A Truby King raised baby has none of that.

I’m delighted to announce that the magazine’s publisher, The Art of Change, will be hosting a Jean Leidloff tour to the UK in April 2008. Contact artofchange@msn.com for more information.

It’s probably no surprise the Bringing Up Baby series is sponsored by a disposable nappy company. Treat your babies like crap, and then have their crap be responsible for dioxins in a landfill for 500 years or more.

Measles and MMR jabs

2007-08-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

The government has enlisted the media for their annual scaremongering campaign to get ill-informed parents to vaccinate. The reports are always so biased and ONE SIDED.

I'm ever so grateful that I can't be scared, bullied or intimidated into assaulting my girls' immune systems. There is no amount of money on this planet that would ever have me putting such poison into my children's bodies.

My decision to not vaccinate has always been intuitive. Yet the research I've done in the years since has left me gobsmacked by the complete veil draped across the eyes of unsuspecting parents. I'm left stunned by the inability of doctors to think for themselves. My sister sold childhood vaccines to doctors. I witnessed, first hand, an awful lot of bribery and corruption, otherwise known as 'gift incentives'. The more vaccines a doctor gives, the more s/he earns. In Australia, they even go as far as PAYING parents to vaccinate their children! Criminal, at best.

I was unvaccinated as a child. Apparently, according to the BBC news tonight, all people aged 40 and over have had measles in childhood. Er, wrong. I only had mumps. A few years back I had chickenpox.

The sheeple (people who act like sheep and don't think for themselves) will continue to vaccinate their children in the mistaken belief that the concoction of chemicals and poisons will 'immunise' them against killer diseases.

Let's clarify a few things.

Measles is not a killer disease. Children who die from measles are those who are medically 'mismanaged' during the natural course of the disease. That is, they've had their fever suppressed. Next time you hear a doctor ranting on about "I've seen a child die from measles!!" ask him to produce their immunisation record and give details on how the child was treated. That is where the answer will lie, NOT whether or not they'd been vaccinated.

You wouldn't drink a vaccine, so why on earth inject it? The first line of defence against infectious diseases is a layer of bacteria on our skin and mucus membranes. The second line is the skin and the mucus membranes themselves. Any disease that gets past these defences is branded by Immunoglobulin A. This then sets up a chain which allows Immunoglobulin G to come along and get rid of the disease. If you are healthy, NOTHING can penetrate your body. It is WRONG to bypass the skin barrier by injection.

If you do get an infection, you'll get a fever. The medical profession have ingrained parents to be scared of fevers. This is unfortunate because fevers fight the infection. A healthy body will not create a fever high enough to cause brain damage. Vomiting is a natural response to eliminating toxins.

I grew up in Australia, where sugar cane is grown. Before the canes are harvested, the fields are burnt. This is specifically to get rid of all the 'vermin' ~ snakes, toads, etc., before harvesting. A fever is the body's way of burning off the vermin!

If your child can't protect herself from infectious diseases under normal circumstances, then she is at great risk from vaccination. Vaccination doesn't give life long immunity, catching the childhood disease NATURALLY does.

Vaccination causes the body to draw calcium from itself to attach to the invading chemicals so it can neutralise the vaccine. We absolutely NEED calcium for our nervous system and muscle function. You aren't in your child's body so you have no way of knowing, or experiencing, the impact of the vaccine. Severe calcium deficiency may not be visible to you, as a parent, for many years by which time it will be far too late to rectify.

Parents are encouraged to be reassured by the government that studies prove vaccines to be safe. If this was so, then why don't they tell parents that these studies are funded by vaccine manufacturers!!?

Vaccination is a multi-billion pound industry. Of course they want us to vaccinate! And the only way they can do it is by instilling fear. Why don't they parade the thousands upon thousands of vaccine damaged (and dead) children alongside their campaigns? Surely that would be more honest?

A parent is the only barrier between a vaccine manufacturer murdering or physically damaging their child. A parent is responsible for their child's health, NOT the government. Do you really think your child will grow and up thank you for poisoning them?

Media energy around vaccination is a major act of bullying. It's not acceptable in the playground, so why do we allow it in the area of children's health?

We're told that vaccination programmes eliminate diseases. There is NO proof of this in any country of the world. All childhood diseases are cyclical and this has nothing whatsoever to do with vaccines or their efficacy.

Many of the adverse reactions to disease fall outside the Government's allotted time frame and they refuse to record them, thereby giving inaccurate outcomes. The vast majority of vaccine-damaged children don't get reported by the doctors.

In the USA thousands and thousands of parents are sueing for vaccine damage to their children, yet vaccinations continue. Are humans stupid, or what?

It's only when you decide to explore and research vaccinations (and please don't call them immunisations, because they don't immunise) that you see how skewed the studies are; how the biggest outbreaks occur in the most heavily vaccinated areas!

If you are one of those people who believe in the theory of herd immunity, I can't recommend highly enough the article we had recently in The Mother. Common sense would tell you that if a vaccine protects from disease, then an unvaccinated child is INCAPABLE of spreading disease.

Vaccinations are a frightening area to dip your toes into for the sole reason that the sheeple have been led to believe vaccinations are sacred and life saving. When you see the truth for yourself, read the research, see the facts, all you can do is hang your head in shock, shame and anger at the deliberate misinformation. The vaccines are far more dangerous than any childhood illness.

I, for one, am happy that my children will act as 'guinea pigs' showing what excellent health really looks like.

We build up our children's immune systems primarily by raising them in a space of love. If they feel good about themselves, rather than belittled, shamed or constantly threatened, they grow like weeds ~ strong, healthy, unstoppable.

Sustained breastfeeding is a lifelong investment, one that is sadly not recognised or endorsed in western countries. It's the only TRUE immuniser. Formula is dead, static and synthetic. It does not, and can not, build your child's immune system. It can not track the environment for pathogens to protect the child like a mother's body does. Her body is constantly scanning the environment in order to provide 'immunisation' in her milk.

Children need to eat fresh, raw fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts on a daily basis. The government's 'five a day' is only half of what the body should have. I shake my head in disgust when I see adverts for things like baked beans or fruit cordial saying, 'counts towards your five a day'. IT DOESN'T!!! Your body needs fresh, that is, uncooked, unfrozen, untinned!!!, fruit and vegetables.

Children must have plenty of rest and sleep. Our 24/7 entertainment society has insidiously crept into children's lives too, with the vast majority of western kids glued to televisual stimulus of some sort. Electromagnetic radiation from mobiles, computers, tvs, wifi…all add to the soup of ill-health. Think twice before you buy into the idea that your children need all these things to be part of society.

All humans need clean, pure, living water. Is your child drinking 6 - 8 glasses of water a day and eating plenty of water-rich food?

If you're concerned about your child getting measles, make them a fresh carrot juice every day (not shop bought juice as it is pasteurised, thereby killing the enzymes) to boost their vitamin a levels. Children who get measles have been found to have low levels of vitamin a.

If your child gets measles, don't panic if there is a fever. The body knows what it is doing. Each degree rise in temperature DOUBLES the rate and production of leucocytes. Nature knows what she is doing. Avoid antibiotics as they stop the immune system functioning optimally and strip the gut of vitamin k. Convulsions are not due to high temperature but from the rapid rise in temperature.

According to the World Health Organisation vaccinated people are FOURTEEN times more likely to contract measles that those who haven't been vaccinated.

Vaccinations are social violence against our children.

Vaccine ingredients ~ would you drink this?

Formaldehyde, mercury or #6 pheno-oxyethanol
Aluminium
Paint thinner
Coolant
Anti-freeze
Dye
Detergent
Phenols
Solvent
Borax
Disinfectant
MSG
Glycerol
Sulfite and phosphate compounds
Polysorbate 80/20
Sorbitol
Polyribosylribitol
Betapropiolactone
Amphotericin b and other chemicals
Hydrolozed gelatine
Casein
Dead animal tissue and blood (eg cow, chick, human embryo (from aborted babies), monkey, sheep, pig, dog, etc)
Mutated human viruses
Contaminant animal viruses
(eg SV40 which causes cancer in humans)
Bacteria and bacterial endotoxins
Antibiotics
Yeast and animal bacterial and viral DNA (which can be incorporated into the recipient's DNA)

For the side effects of formaldehyde and mercury, contact the poisons centre for a complete list.

No self respecting vegan or vegetarian would choose vaccination.

I know many parents feel the decision whether to vaccinate or not is a tough decision. I don’t see why that would be so. You either believe a poison is going to make you strong and healthy, or you don't. Trust your gut, not the government. The answers are within you. Don't be drawn into system out of fear.

If you're new to the idea that you actually have a choice regarding the vaccination of your children, and would like more information please contact the Vaccination Awareness Network. (contact details are on The Mother magazine website www.themothermagazine.co.uk It's run by one of The Mother magazine's columnists ~ Joanna Karpasea Jones. She writes a regular column for us on vaccination awareness. In issue 24 (posted out to subscribers next week) she shares how vaccination programmes are being used universally to 'control' population growth. It's quite something, isn't it, to think our daughters may be DELIBERATELY rendered infertile through 'every day' vaccinations!?

In issue 25, due out early November, Joanna has a column questioning MMR.

I don't know of any other natural parenting magazines that are 100% opposed to vaccinations. All the ones I come across, sit on the fence for fear of offending someone (that old chestnut!). These are our children we're talking about! There's no time or reason to be offended. The truth must come out. Parents must be fully informed.

VIOLENT TEENAGERS

2007-08-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Peace Tea (ingredients: love, kindness and awareness)

Another boy has been shot by a teenager… it's becoming a regular news item here in the UK.

People (especially our ever-so-wise politicians) talk about tougher gun laws, stronger education, getting male role models for fatherless boys…but this is all so much ambulance at the bottom of the cliff talk.

Why is it so impossible for people to CONNECT THE DOTS? Really, it does my head in that there is such complete ignorance, at the highest levels of psychology, neuro-biology and medicine, in relation to violence and teenagers (and adults).

We're all born with biological needs which must be met if we're to develop optimally. Many of these needs are immediately met through breastfeeding, as the rich biochemical nutrients are vital for developing the neuro-transmitters which develop our capacity towards peace or violence. FORMULA DOESN'T CONTAIN THIS.

The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the further we seem to move away from our biological needs. There is always a price for doing so. And boy are we seeing the price for the child neglect and abuse which is happening DAILY on a massive scale.

We are inflicting violence on our children from the earliest age ~ even in-utero, with invasive tests and scans (which essentially microwave the baby's cells!!).

Many babies today are born by very violent means: suction, forceps or scalpel. Many c-sections babies even get cut. Modern babies are handled roughly, like lumps of meat, rather than souls who've just arrived Earthside in exquisitely-sensitive bodies.

Further violence, and it IS A VIOLATION to this sacred babe ~ and the mother, occurs when the baby is removed from the mother for routine and other testing. And more violence occurs when the baby isn't immediately put to the breast.

Violence continues throughout childhood in various forms ~ stuck in a prison called a 'cradle'; left to stare at a ceiling, rather than held by mother; left to cry; dummy as a replacement for non-nutritive sucking at the breast; left with strangers in day care; sent to nursery at three (at 3 for goodness' sake!); given dead, lifeless, processed food and drink (especially formula); compulsory, enforced learning before the first milk teeth have fallen out…and so it goes on and on. Of course, very few people would even consider any of these to be violence because we've become so indoctrinated with this as being 'normal'.

Eventually all this violence has to find an outlet. The baby grows into the toddler into the child into the teenager… Some of these children deal with their hurts in other ways ~ various dysfunctions, such as depression, eating disorders, a tendency towards suicide; addiction to televisual technology and consumerism. Some of our violently abused children will direct this hurt at themselves, and some will turn. They'll turn with a gun, a knife or other tool. But turn, they will. At no other time in our history have adults been scared of teenagers on the streets.

We need everyone to start connecting the dots……………………….

Find me one abusive, dangerous, tormented soul who had a gentle birth and was fully breastfed by an affectionate, loving mother, who carried and slept with her baby, and I'll shut my mouth forever ~ honest ~ not one more blog, not one more magazine.

I can guarantee that all the people who are committing violence against others, and themselves, had a violent birth, little or no breastfeeding (or weaned by mother before 2.5 years), and were deprived of an active in-arms experience with their mother.

So let's stop all this bullshit about tighter gun laws...we wouldn't even desire guns or to inflict violence if we weren't shot in the heart when we left our mother's womb!

Girl Gangs

2007-08-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Elderberry Tea

There was talk in the media this week of a rise in girl gangs. I thought I'd share about the Girl Gang in our village.

It consists of my two daughters and a friend who lives a few houses away. They chant 'girl pack club' and make notices for the bus shelter saying "dog walkers available ~ dogs must be little and not aggressive! £1.50 per dog."

They hatch plans to do all sorts of things, but mostly they get out their rollerblades (found in the animal rescue shop for £2 a pair!), play in their club house (a space under the pine trees, covered with some corrugated iron, making it suitable even in a wet British summer!). The girls in the gang have a busy life foraging for fruit, having a sleep over, playing dolls, making decorative mud pies, riding bikes.

One of the main things I've noticed with this gang is that they laugh and laugh and laugh! Music to this mother's ears…

Captured Sunlight

2007-08-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Rosehip and apple tea
A 'toast' to my boyfriend...who's 59 today! (25th August) I love you, Paul ~ you've made my life. The Universe couldn't have conjured me up a better husband! And happy birthday to my lovely friend, Amy, in Panama City...breastfeeding her beautiful new (VBAC) daughter, Isabella.

Only a week until the little ladies are back at school. If I could sum up this summer in two words, apart from 'crap weather', it would be 'captured sunlight'.

There can't have been more than a day or two that's passed without the girls foraging. They've eaten their way through strawberries, gooseberries, apples, raspberries, black currants, blackberries, wild cherries ~ not to mention stripping my pea plants bare. It's all I can do to keep them off my ripening blueberry bushes!

They've always been little fruit bats, but it still gives me such a kick to see them devour man's natural foods. Both of them will literally stand at a bush of fruit for hours, nibbling away. They have no need to coat these fruits in sugar, bake them in a pie, turn them into cordial or boil into jam… My girls eat fruit raw, ripe and fresh, just as nature intended.

I've seen many mothers who have a fear of their children eating 'real fruit'. "Oh, no, she'll get a sore tummy. All that fruit's not good for you."

"WHAAAAAT??"

It's not surprising that people get sore tummies, but let's be clear here ~ it's not the fault of the fruit!

Fruit likes to be eaten on its own. Look at the average western diet and see how fruit is consumed. Many people consider it a dessert and usually eat it after a heavy carb-based meal. Fruit, on any empty tummy, takes 20 minutes to digest, like breast milk. If you eat it with steak or bread, it is going to ferment in the tummy! It's no wonder the body reacts! Give a body fresh, raw, ripe fruit on an empty tummy and it will literally dance with joy. "WOW…at last, enzymes! Unprocessed vitamins and minerals!" Can't you just hear your cells dancing?

The beauty of freshly ripened fruit is that it is, literally, captured sunlight. And it is this sunlight, these stored electrons, which gives us a zest for life.

Saturn in the 5th house ~ learning life's lessons in the house of children.

2007-08-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Lime and elderflower tea

I'm researching for a book I wish to write about the impact of having the planet Saturn in the 5th house.

In astrology, the 12 houses are considered to be mansions of the soul. The planet which is transiting through it at the time of your birth, brings energy or lessons with it.

Saturn is considered to be Father Time, or some say, the Lord of Karma. However you choose to look at it, this planet certainly brings *interesting* learning opportunities. The fifth house represents children, creativity and love affairs.

My focus, for the book, is specifically on children.

Having Saturn in this house can manifest in many ways. Ancient astrologers used to say that if a woman had Saturn in this house, it meant she couldn't have children. Later on they said that if she did have children, she'd be a bad mother (ouch!!). I know in my life it manifests by finding it REALLY hard to sit down and 'play dolls'!! (LOL)

I have Saturn in my 5th house ~ and am interested in how it plays out in other women's lives. My grandmother's saturn in the 5th manifested with three children dying in infancy (during the war years).

Clearly my life's work is around children, and it plays out not only in the passion I have for my own children being raised optimally, but also through creating The Mother magazine.

Saturn in the 5th house can manifest in so many ways, such as infertility (usually it has psychological, rather than physical, reasons), repeated miscarriages, stillbirth, death of a child/children in infancy....generally, 'difficulties' around children. I want to show that it isn't always like this, and can manifest in other ways too.

Lest it sound all doom and gloom, it needn't be....and that is the point I wish to make in my book... how we can take these lessons and *prune* our essential self to blossom fully, rather than be crushed and heartbroken.

I believe Saturn is our life coach....he's here to test our spiritual muscles, so to speak. Many people who dabble in astrology fear Saturn. It's a shame, and I certainly believe that the more you fear something, the more painful a hold it has on you. My goal in writing this book is to show how we can genuinely befriend Saturn and use this natal placement to our advantage and JOY.

If you have Saturn in the 5th and would be happy to contribute your experiences, please do contact me via The Mother website. If you suspect you might have it there, but are not sure, you can google Astrodienst and get a free chart done. You'll need an accurate time of birth.
Or I can look into it for you.

Please be assured all correspondence is strictly confidential, and if you do decide to be a 'case study' in the book, names will be changed to protect privacy.

Best wishes, Veronika

Inducing guilt in bottle feeding mothers

2007-08-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Echinacea tea (and a few cinnamon cookies I made yesterday!)

I was watching William, our chubby short-haired Persian, sitting outside in the rain this morning being attacked by swallows. They flew down, one at a time, right down to his ear height. William thought it was a wonderful game; tail wagging, paw up. He had no idea that he was an enemy in their environment.

I mused that his circumstance wasn't much different to mine. When you go into someone else's space, you risk everything and are open to criticism. I enter that space every time I write a blog or put out an issue of The Mother magazine.

This past week, or so, has opened up the breastfeeding debate once again ~ thankfully. Unfortunately, with it comes a load of incorrect information, even, and especially, from the very organisations we rely on to educate!

The chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, Belinda Phipps, wrote to The Times stating that they support a woman's 'choice' whether to breastfeed or bottle feed. You simply can not promote natural childbirth without educating about the importance of breastfeeding. As soon as we take a stance like that of the NCT, we're effectively saying 'there's no difference between breast milk and formula.' We're not talking about choosing between coke and pepsi, for goodness sake! Though coke and freshly squeezed orange juice might be a better analogy ~ one being dead, artificial and a path to death, the other being fresh, life-giving and packed with enzymes.

Nobody EVER talks about the baby's rights, you know, that little dependent creature who's forced to drink that toxic concoction of 'formula'. Every baby born on this planet has encoded into every cell of their being, the BIOLOGICAL EXPECTATION to breastfeed for anything up to about the time the milk teeth fall out. EVERY BABY!

Isn't it child abuse on the grandest scale to deny them this

because a mother can't be 'bothered'?

Imagine 50 billion dominoes all lined up, ready to be knocked over in order. Our neurons are like this… we wait for the right developmental need to be met, and bang, another 'domino' goes over ~ a 'connection' is made in the neural pathways. When we 'CHOOSE' a counterfeit milk, the dominoes don't get knocked over. When we choose to forgo the bonding which is specific to feeding at the breast, we are denying our child more than just their birth right. We're compromising their life-long physical health, emotional well-being, neuro-psychological function and healthy sexuality. When the cued dominoes don't fall over during the baby/child's expected developmental stage, they don't EVER get the chance for that to happen again. They may spend their adult life looking for quick fixes to sort out an aching emptiness which pervades their being.

Every hour of every day is important in the great biological plan of the human body.

In a few short generations we've deviated from our biological expectations. In a few short generations, cultures which rely on formula have become very ill and very dysfunctional. But it's a *choice*, though. It's become the norm for most people to survive, rather than thrive. When just about everybody is tootling along in first gear, rather than fifth, the culture thinks this is 'natural'.

Let's follow this through, though, because at the end of the day someone has to PAY for these choices. Not only will the person raised on formula have to pay with poorer vision, intelligence, hearing, well-being (the list is endless!), but society pays, and the Earth most certainly pays. Will breastfeeding mothers be able to CHOOSE not to contribute taxes to the National Health Service on the grounds that they took full responsibility for their child's health? That would bring 'choice' full circle. It might sound selfish, indeed, even a radical thought, but at the rate we're going, it might become an option. It would truly be a user pays service.

Our culture supports abortion ~ leaving it up to the woman whether she takes the child's life or not. Although socially accepted, does it make it any less of a child killing? Rather than support women in these circumstances, or ideally, show them how not to create unwanted pregnancies, we give them the 'choice'.

Breastfeeding is viewed in the same way. People are scared to speak up. If women want to choose bottle feeding over breastfeeding, I believe they should sign a disclaimer acknowledging the harm they're putting their baby in…and promising to take full responsibility for the outcome, even if it manifests decades later in depression, adrenal issues, heart problems, suicide, violence, etc., or reproductive organ cancers in the mother.

Another letter to The Times claimed that, as she was an adoptive mother, she had no choice but to bottle feed. This is simply another myth. A woman choosing to adopt a baby can induce lactation. This sort of information should be given out by adoption agencies.

The best letter by far was from Alison Blenkinsop who wrote that formula isn't second best, expressed milk from the mother is, and third best is donated breast milk. I'm so glad The Times published that!

Ours is a culture that really doesn't want women like me to speak up and dispel myths. The myths keep everyone inertia ~ and stop them from taking action and responsibility, not only for their own health, but for the baby's health, and the effect on society and the environment.

So, I feel a bit like William with the swallows some times. Little arrows fly at me telling me to 'shut up, get out of our space'. Frankly, though, it's not enough for me to write or publish articles just in The Mother magazine. For the most part, it's preaching to the converted. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as we might just reach 100th monkey syndrome and create a breastfeeding revolution.

One of the most common things which come out of any breastfeeding conversation is that we mustn't make bottle feeding mothers feel guilty.

Firstly, NO-ONE but no-one can *make* you feel anything. The choice is always with you as to how you perceive or respond to an issue.

Secondly, guilt is not a feeling, it's a thought. We may feel sick in the stomach, chew our nails, eat a donut to get rid of emotional discomfort, but they are secondary responses. Guilt comes from 'knowing' we're compromising the optimum. It's a biological response to show us we're 'off the path'. Guilt is a fabulous thing when we listen to it, rather than suppress it.

Is it so awful (honestly??) for us to remind women that they've put their child in danger? Not to mention the woman's own health and increased risk from breast, ovarian and cervical cancers?

If you saw a child walking across the motorway about to be knocked over would you just stand there and do nothing? Bottlefeeding is no different! Death may not be so immediate, but the consequences can be just as devastating.

Is it so bad to remind women that true mothering means meeting every one of your baby's biological needs? How on Earth do we create change if we don't speak up?

People assume that the breastfeeding brigade is a bunch of sanctimonious trouble makers. I would say that they are women who are speaking from a place of love. It is love that brings us to action, that causes us to speak out. It's love for the woman and baby. It's love for all of humanity. One bottle fed baby affects everyone.

Personally, guilt would overcome me if I kept my mouth shut every time I heard a breastfeeding myth. Guilt would tell me that I'm not living my truth, walking my talk, or being authentic if I just smiled and said, 'there, there, never mind, it's a CHOICE'.

It's easy to target someone like Jordan for blatantly promoting bottle feeding. The truly sad part is that she doesn't feel she's severely compromising her children. It appears she gives no thought to the impact her disposable bottles have on the environment. Yes, as someone commented on last week's blog, she IS a victim too. It breaks my heart that she hasn't bonded with her baby or the planet. What hope is there for her children when they become parents?

I don’t feel, however, that I do anything to promote breast feeding by ignoring a situation like this. Sometimes we need examples to show how far off the mothering continuum some people go. She's very deliberately chosen to be in the public eye ~ and particularly, in this case, to promote her infant formula views. So, in some ways, she too is like William the cat!! (Fancy Jordan and I having something in common!!) Little arrows are coming to her from all directions. Sadly, though, like William, she probably thinks it's a game too.

There'll be women reading this who believe, hand on heart, that they really couldn't breastfeed. I have the utmost empathy for you. Any woman who still has intact breasts CAN breastfeed. One of the biggest myths in western culture is that of insufficient milk syndrome. The proportion of women who claim to not have enough milk rises in response to the availability of infant formula in their culture. End of story.

There will be other women who'll say they had to stop because they had sore nipples, mastitis [put in just about any reason here, apart from extreme illness or death]… It's very unfortunate that any of these things afflict breastfeeding women, but it is even more unfortunate that these challenges become reasons to stop. This issue is never about the 'problem', but about the incorrect support or information.

Even a high circulation 'natural parenting' magazine in the UK is continuing to print inappropriate breastfeeding advice. It's a vicious circle and I'm not surprised that women give up so easily.

Does that mean I should shut up and say "it's a woman's choice to bottle feed?"

Not on their little baby's life!

THE GREAT MOTHERING DISCONNECT ~ a sign of our dysfunctional culture

2007-08-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: Lemon grass and ginger ~ especially for my gorgeous friend Ruth in Cornwall. Happy birthday syster (for August 8th)

OK! magazine and SMA, makers of counterfeit milk, should be utterly ashamed of themselves for such unethical profiteering by using Jordan to promote the use of their fake milk.

I've not seen the photo spread but have had enough emails from concerned mothers to know it features her new baby with a diamond encrusted dummy and very obvious images of SMA products in the pictures. Had Jordan asked her baby what she'd prefer, there's no question the little girl would indicate 'breast'. But the wee little lass never got the chance. You see, Jordan doesn't believe in breastfeeding. She's made it quite clear in the past that breasts are purely for a man's pleasure and not for something as primal as, OMG, breast feeding!

Clearly Jordan has no idea of how SEVERELY compromised babies are when raised on fake milk ( physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually), and is in no position to even begin to talk about infant nutrition, but, as usual, she's given ample media space to spout her uninformed views, thereby influencing countless others who take her word as gospel. If she thinks there's no difference between breast milk and the lifeless and deadly crap which comes in a can, then how many ignorant families will follow this belief? Sadly, far too many.

The tragedy is she wears the undeserved title of celebrity and is seen as a role model by million of girls. But what's there to celebrate? She's completely disconnected from the act and art of mothering. Is this what we want a generation of teenage girls to learn? SERIOUSLY?

First she plans to have her baby cut out of her...you know, it's that old thing of keeping the *honeymoon vagina*, and then she shoves plastic into the baby's mouth…no, not mum's plastic boobs, but a plastic bottle and dummy. Diamond encrusted or otherwise, it takes 450 years for a dummy to decompose. Do you know how many dummies are required for the millions and millions and millions of babies who aren't comforted at mother's breast? The average bottle fed baby has about six bottles, not to mention all the accessories which go with it… In the UK alone, 200 000 babies are born each year who never even taste breast milk. Out of the 400 000 babies breastfed, only half of those will remain on the breast past two weeks of age. That's an awful lot of pollution and waste ending up in landfills. How many more bottle fed babies is Jordan helping to create with her SMA (well paid) campaign?

The infant formula industry is responsible for a lot of the dioxins and toxins in our soil, air and water…the very things now being found in breast milk! And they tell breast feeding women to switch to formula because of toxins in breast milk!!!!??? The mind boggles. Yep, let's get the whole darn world on to formula...that'll fix everything. NOT!

The waste produced, and then dumped, as a result of millions upon millions of babies being fed fake milk is destroying our planet. It's one of the biggest environmental crimes going ~ yet ignored by media and government.

I make no apologies for my rant. The whole thing with Jordan being used to promote infant formula in OK! seems to me to be utterly unethical. She's promoting a way of life that has implications beyond anything she is capable of comprehending. She already has a sick child, so I'm stunned that she isn't doing everything possible to raise this one in an optimal way.

One and a half million babies a year die from fake milk and thousands upon thousands are made ill. Why would anyone with more than two brain cells, or a beating heart, even think of promoting such a deadly substance? Oh, I forgot! Silly me…she was paid for it.

Her littlest one is five weeks old and already Jordan is back out nightclubbing. This is a classic sign that she hasn't bonded with her child ~ clearly seen from choosing to have her baby delivered (like a pizza) rather than born, and choosing to not breastfeed (thereby keeping her heart chakra well and truly closed!). An infant is intensely needy for her mother's arms. All babies are for at least nine months of age.

Studies show that babies who don't breastfeed are more likely to be abandoned by their mother. Jordan abandons her baby by the act of giving her a dummy and going off dancing. But it's ok, isn't it? It's NORMAL in our culture to do this. That's what mums do. It's actively encouraged to be 'free' from your baby and live a 'normal life'.

But I ask, based on all the studies and research into infant care, why hasn't she been charged with child neglect? Sadly, we live in a culture where that's reserved for women who birth unassisted or breastfeed their babies beyond 12 months of age.

Whatever happened to real mothers? They're few and far between.

I'm glad ever so glad Jordan wasn't my mother.

HOT MILK ~ the Australian breastfeeding conference which forgot its purpose...

2007-08-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: something strong!

The Australian Breastfeeding Association just hosted a national conference. Looking at the literature, it looked like an event no lactivist would want to miss…EXCEPT, I think they forgot the purpose of their goal ~ to promote breastfeeding.

Here's why. In their conference bag was an advert (there was also a trade stand) for a baby timing device. This bleeps you when baby needs to sleep or feed (the feed was indicated by a bottle symbol!??) The ad was repeated in the conference programme. Mothers don't need timing devices! If you are with your baby all the time (which you should be) you'll 'feel' when she's hungry or sleepy. If you are with your baby, as nature designed it to be, you'll be in her electro-magnetic field and aware of everything she's experiencing. This is the 'true' meaning of bonding.

There were ads for Nutricia Caricare Gold (which has been banned in NZ due to safety concerns) with the heading FEED THEIR IMMUNE SYSTEM FROM THE INSIDE OUT

and

WHY BELLAMY'S ORGANIC TODDLER MILK DRINK IS YOUR BEST CHOICE.

And for dessert they served ice cream by the baby murderers, known to most as Nestle!

Forgive me, but I just don't GET IT! This was meant to be a breastfeeding conference.

Cholesterol drug for men over 50

2007-08-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

Today's Cuppa: Olive leaf tea

I couldn't believe it when I heard a news report the other week saying the government want all men over fifty to have a drug to reduce cholesterol. One more way of controlling the masses? You'd better believe it! Can we honestly trust any drug or vaccine? Call me a sceptic, but where there is money to be made… And let's face it, the cholesterol drug is the highest earning drug of all time, so why wouldn't our mates at Downing Street want to make it mandatory?

As someone married to a man over 50, there's no way I'd *LET* him buy into this rubbish! Doctors usually recommend drugs to balance cholesterol. BUT WHY? Nature adequately provides stanols in foods like olive oil, tomatoes, apples and almonds. Tragically, many, many thousands of men will heed this government suggestion/fear-based warning and take the drug. It strikes me as unethical, if not financially greedy, to offer this solution to the masses, rather than educating them about better health.

Cholesterol is a lifestyle dis-ease. Change the lifestyle, don't cover it up with a band-aid like a drug. What's the point? The stresses will only find another route through which to get your attention.

There are three key factors with cholesterol ~ diet, exercise and stress levels. In order to lower cholesterol it's important not to have a lot of animal fat (including butter, cheese and eggs). It's usually found that vegetarians and vegans have lower cholesterol levels ~ providing they're not living of Macdonald's cheese burgers!! If you're serious about reducing cholesterol, cut out all animal products.

Cholesterol is produced mostly by the liver. You can cleanse the liver by drinking nettle and dandelion tea alternatively. A herb tincture of Milk Thistle and/or artichoke is particularly helpful. Use olive oil instead of butter.

Omega 3 oil has been shown to increase HDL cholesterol and protect the heart against heart disease. This is best consumed from algae oil or flaxseed oil ~ studies from King's College, London, show that it is more easily absorbed than fish oil (more ethical too).
*Hemp oil is brilliant. Include it 'raw' in your salad dressings, or have it in a smoothie. Try and include it in your diet at least three times a week. It's simple to use…a few tablespoons mixed with a large spoon of apple cyder vinegar, a spoon of agave syrup or honey, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a crushed garlic clove, and a sprinkling of fresh herbs and you've a great salad dressing!

*Also add high fibre foods such as beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables as they soak up the cholesterol. These should be part of a healthy lifestyle anyway!
*You can also include psyllium hulls, apple fibre and oat bran. If everyone ate a couple of apples a day their whole digestive system would benefit enormously. They act like a vacuum cleaner along the intestinal tract.
* Olive leaf tea is very effective.
* Numerous studies worldwide show that raw garlic is brilliant in lowering cholesterol.
* Red yeast rice has been found to lower cholesterol.

Exercise is vital ~ 45 minutes - 60 minutes daily. This can be brisk walking, rebounding, swimming…anything that gets the heart working.
It's important to find an exercise you love so that you stick with it. I'm always astonished by the number of people who say their lifestyle is too busy to include exercise. We're a long time dead ~ make time to move! If you've got time to watch Big Brother, you've got time to exercise.

Personally, I find my daily 3 mile walk as beneficial to my mind as to my physical health. It's my time out away from everything.

Stress management

There are various ways to balance/reduce stress. Exercise is a great start. Meditation; finding ways to have 'alone' time where nothing matters; going to bed early, a long bath WITHOUT kids alongside!

Sometimes, especially as busy parents, we have to get creative in how we find time and space for ourselves.

The Drinks Are On Me ~ everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding

2007-08-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

Today's cuppa: It's got to be fennel tea ~ that wonderfully aromatic aniseed flavoured brew to help increase breast milk. I still drink it even though I'm not lactating. My husband has even started drinking fennel tea despite having an aversion to herbal teas!

It's world Breastfeeding Awareness Week. There's so much to be said about breastfeeding that what else could I do but write a book! So, here's a shameless plug. It's being published in just a few short weeks.

The Drinks Are On Me
Everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding

by Veronika Sophia Robinson

The Drinks Are On Me reclaims and celebrates the ancient art of breastfeeding ~ a natural way of feeding our babies which has allowed humanity to exist for half a million years. The book argues that the increase in physical, emotional and psycho-sexual dysfunction seen throughout western society is in direct proportion to our rapidly decreasing breastfeeding rates. Our healthy existence as a species is dependent on full-term breastfeeding becoming the norm again.

I draw on my rich experiences as a breastfeeding mother ~ a ten year journey which included five years of tandem nursing ~ and explain why breastfeeding is vital for the healthy continuation of the species. Embracing a holistic view, I show how to overcome common, and not so common, breastfeeding challenges, whether they be physical, emotional or cultural.

This book is equally suitable for new and experienced mothers. It’s essential reading for all professionals (doctors, midwives, dentists and health visitors) who influence a mother’s choice to breastfeed or not (and thoroughly referenced lest there be any doubt to the claims made!).

I deliberately take a step outside the usual breastfeeding knowledge to present a new framework in which to view how we nourish and nurture our children.

Publishing September 1st 2007

Art of Change

ISBN 978-0-9530063-4-2

204pp

£11.99pb

Contents include:

How to breastfeed
Colostrum
Premature babies in NICU & SCBU
Vitamin K and vitamin D
Engorgement, plugged milk ducts & mastitis
Breastfeeding and AIDS
Caesareans and breastfeeding
Jaundice
Tongue Tie ~ short frenulum
Cleft lip/palate
Nursing multiples
Down’s Syndrome
Teething and colic
Men and breastfeeding
Breastfeeding in pregnancy
Breastfeeding a toddler
Breastfeeding in public
A holistic approach to sexuality
Toxins and breast milk
Breastfeeding and the environment/the impact formula feeding has on the air, water and soil
A natural approach to weaning
Nutrients and the human brain
Full-term breastfeeding
Non-nutritive sucking
Women who can’t breastfeed
Sustained breastfeeding for a peaceful society
Adoption and breastfeeding
Reclaiming the sacred feminine

Thoroughly referenced, this book presents uncommon breastfeeding information and debunks many myths in order to help mothers make a truly informed decision about breastfeeding.

Breast milk is our greatest natural food resource and as locally produced as food gets!

PUBLISHER: The Art of Change
For further information, please contact Barry Durdant-Hollamby: themother@artofchange.co.uk OR artofchange@msn.com or phone +44 (0) 1342 823 809 www.artofchange.co.uk
PO Box 441, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH18 5DH England

The Love Vessel

2007-07-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

Today's Cuppa: calming chamomile

I was out amongst The Muggles today…and found myself desperately holding back tears as I witnessed a vicious attack. Unfortunately, it was one of those attacks where cultural taboos prevented me from stepping in, something I now regret.

Standing in the queue of Penrith Post Office, I watched a man go ballistic at his son when he discovered he hadn't brought money to pay for a parcel they were sending. It turned out the father didn't have any cash on him either. He *could* have apologised to the teller and said, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, can you hold this parcel till we go and get my wallet?" Instead, he emotionally (and mentally and spiritually) pummelled his teenage son to the ground. That *we* can do this to those we love the most is mind-numbing. A bonded parent would have found other (harmless) ways to express frustration. To have inflicted such psychic violence and torture on this boy in public, leaves me questioning how he behaves when he's not on best behaviour in front of twenty plus witnesses. I have had similar feelings watching twenty stone men raising their body against tiny toddlers in supermarkets saying "You just wait till we get home!"

I was energetically shattered by witnessing this attack, in much the same way as when I've seen CCTV footage of brutal physical beatings on tv.

A short time later I was in another building when a man in his fifties started his tirade. When his wife asked if he'd finished the shopping, he loudly and rudely said "If you stopped minding everyone else's business and got your fat arse over here, we'd have had the shopping done."

Mantra-like, I chimed in the four walls of my mental prison ~ "It's none of your business, Veronika! It's none of your business, Veronika! It's none of your business, Veronika! It's none of your business, Veronika!"

Holes formed in my tongue as I forced myself away from them. I'd have liked to ask the man, gently of course, if he had any idea of how nasty and vulgar his tone was to her ~ the love of his life. Was it necessary to speak to her like that? And to ask her, "WHY do you allow him to speak to you like that?"

Where is the love? Where is the LOVE??????? Don't you know, can't you FEEL, that violence only breeds more violence?

Look into each other's eyes. You're not enemies. You're connected by Divine Thread. To hurt each other, is to hurt your self. Why would you inflict such pain on yourself?

This hostility is so alien to me that when I witness such scenes I beg the gods to transport me back to my own planet. "Please, have mercy!"

I'm no saint by any means, and live an imperfect life, but the widespread dysfunction which exists in our society is truly frightening. All the ideas I want to instil into the mass consciousness about love, bonding and optimal parenting, are simply foreign tongue to the masses.

I would never stay in a relationship in which I was treated with anything less than respect and love.

Back home now, in my humble Love Shack, I can breathe again. Drawbridge hoisted up firmly, I reflect on a species so far out of touch with the good and brilliant within them. What a waste.

Creating a space of love must start with our self. When we're able to love and respect every aspect of our being it becomes impossible for another to enter that space in an attitude of anything less than reverence, love, gratitude, humour (not sarcasm) and harmony.

Really simple science = we're mostly made of water, a vibrational, magnetic substance. Fill your inner vessel with peace and purity and you simply must attract the same back into your life.

Empowered Mothering

2007-07-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

Today's Cuppa: Pure, living water (aka breast milk direct from source)

We are at our most empowered, as mothers, when we do not rely on modern technology to fulfil our role. This has been brought home to me many times this week when observing and listening to the many people caught up in the flooding of central and southern England. There are countless babies at the mercy of other people who are bringing in clean water so parents can make up counterfeit milk.

My heart absolutely goes out to everyone devastated by these floods…as much as to the 200 people who died in floods in China this week, and the 500 who've died in the Hungarian heat wave.

It does remind me, though, just how far removed we are from our natural mothering instincts that young babies aren't even drinking from their mother ~ someone who could offer them 'living water' on tap regardless of external influences.

We think we can replace breast milk with something as inadequate as a static 'formula'. We even have the cheek to call it 'milk', as if we were offering our babies the elixir of life! Collectively, we have allowed our culture to hypnotise us into thinking breastfeeding is an embarrassment, something reserved for primitives.

Hygeia Halfmoon, author of Primal mothering in a modern world, recalls being evacuated in Hawaii after a natural disaster ( I can't recall if it was an earthquake or erupting volcano) and sitting in a large centre with all the evacuees. All the babies were screaming from hunger as there was no access to formula or fresh water. She was the only one breastfeeding. Can you imagine how heartbreaking it would be to know you could feed a number of other children from your breasts, had they not lost their sucking reflex by being introduced to bottle-feeding?

Empowered mothering doesn't rely on man-made products, be they drink, food, sleeping prisons, monitors, bottles and so on. Your body, mind and heart contain everything needed to parent beautifully and with integrity for the reciprocal bonding of mother and child.

Unassisted birth observational documentary for Granada TV

2007-07-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

To follow is an invite from Granada TV.

Here in the UK there is a growing interest in Freebirthing and I am presently working on an observational documentary for Granada TV on the growing movement in the UK and how women are increasingly choosing to have a more natural birth for their child.

I would love to speak with women who are planning an unassisted birth for their baby and who are passionate about their reasons and their right to choose. If this is you I would really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about your experience and future plans.

To reassure you it will be a positive and informative documentary that hopefully will answer questions about this type of childbirth. We are interested to know if you had a bad experience in hospital that has lead you to this decision?

Your identity would be protected if this is something you would require and I would like to reassure any expectant mothers that we will not intrude on your labour with a film crew - there are ways we can capture the birth without the need for other people.

I can be contacted by email on Helen.Crocombe@itv.com or telephone 0207 261 3806 so please do get in touch as your involvement is important to us.

Breastfeeding myths

2007-07-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

Bethany in Forest Row last weekend.

Today's Cuppa: Ginger and orange tea

I mentioned in my last blog entry the constant tug of war within me ~ isolating myself from society, or being very much part of it and educating others.

One topic which certainly has the old tug of war rope chaffing my stretch-marked belly is that of breastfeeding. I've endured a lot of flak in the past year and a half over appearing in the Extraordinary Breastfeeding documentary. Unfortunately, the programme did very little to educate the ignorant masses who still see feeding our infants and children as something optional or even unnecessary, if not downright disgusting ~ something akin to urinating in public. The mind boggles. Clearly some people really can't tell the difference between a living food and a bodily waste product.

Those people aside, one of my biggest frustrations is related to people who work in the parenting field who perpetuate myths.

The biggest ones are:

1.) It's normal for breastfeeding to hurt ~ expect sore nipples

Nipple pain is either caused by an infection (such as thrush or herpes) or, most commonly, by incorrect latch-on. It's important for all mothers to know that nipple pain is completely avoidable, and not a 'normal' part of breastfeeding, and that the first sign of discomfort for any mother is a warning bell that her baby isn't latched-on properly.

Nipple pain is never a matter of bad luck,
but to do with breastfeeding mismanagement.

In order to increase breastfeeding rates, we have to ensure women are given correct information so they can avoid discomfort, and enjoy breastfeeding for the pleasurable experience it was designed to be.

We would see a tripling of breastfeeding rates (according to the British Medical Journal) if women gathered in breastfeeding groups to learn about breastfeeding. A sad consequence of our nuclear family society is that most women don't get to witness breastfeeding until they have their own baby. How tragic, given it is something so fundamental to the survival of the human species. Breastfeeding has become a dying art. Without breastfeeding, humanity as a species will deteriorate, and then die out.

2.) Bottlefeeding allows dad to bond with baby ~ so get expressing.

Breast milk was never meant to see the light of day, and we do the baby, mother and the father a disservice to suggest bottle-feeding as a way of bonding. Our aim as parents should be to raise our children optimally, not to compromise them in any way. Bottle-feeding is a massive compromise and should be reserved for emergencies, not used as a lifestyle choice.

When a father feels 'left out' by the breastfeeding experience, this is to do with subconscious memories of his own feeding experience in infancy.
Had his needs been fully met in infancy and childhood, there'd be no reason for him to feel left out as a parent.

3.) Babies need iron by six months of age

I've just read a 'natural' parenting magazine which allowed the iron myth to be published…again undermining successful, exclusive breastfeeding beyond the six month age.

There are so many studies which prove that a breastfed baby has plenty of access to adequate iron in breast milk (regardless of the mother's iron status!). The confusion and misinformation regarding infants and iron has been taken from formula fed babies' tendency towards anaemia, and reliance on synthetic iron. The vitamin c in breast milk allows the iron in it to be utilised by the baby.

If you are seriously concerned about your baby's iron levels, then keep up with exclusive breastfeeding! As soon as you introduce solids you are reducing the body's ability to absorb iron. Sadly, the most common foods introduced to babies (rice, cereals, etc ~ in the belief they'll supply iron) are the worst things that should be introduced in the first or second year of life. If you must introduce solids, stick to RIPE, raw fruit and NEVER introduce any food before six months of age. Anything else is a massive insult on a premature digestive system.

My own daughters weren't introduced to solids until the end of their first year of life. They've never had commercial baby food. Their 'weaning' foods were organic bananas, avocados, strawberries, pears, apple, etc.

Later in their second year they had some lightly steamed sweet potato, pumpkin and broccoli. It wasn't until their third year they were introduced to the meals Paul and I were having. They've always been good eaters and not fussy about fruit and vegetables as commonly reported amongst children. Sure, they have their likes and dislikes, but for the most part they eat a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, seeds, whole grains and nuts.

4.) She's ready for solids

There's so much pressure to introduce solids to babies. I believe it is all part of the cultural bulldozer which seeks to separate mother and child. It's all heavily camouflaged behind the idea that when a baby is putting things in her mouth, or having a growth spurt, that she's ready for food. Breast milk IS FOOD!

TV presenter Lorraine Kelly labours under the misguided belief that babies should be fully weaned as soon as their first teeth appear. How much would she eat if her mouth contained just two, tiny pearly whites?

Why does common sense go out the window in so many aspects of child rearing?

5.) Formula milk is as good as breast milk

Formula is a static product. It shouldn't even have the world milk tacked onto the end of it. No matter how many artificial and synthetic vitamins and minerals the companies add to it, it is impossible to come remotely close to what nature intended our children to feed on for their first few years of life.

Recently I was sent a press release by a group of breastfeeding mothers in London showing some statistics regarding their ideas on breastfeeding; dismal to say the least. One of the quotes in the release went something like this: "Anyone would think formula was poison and that I was murdering my baby by giving him formula instead of breast milk."

Well, the more you educate yourself about breast milk, it's pretty hard to conclude anything else. Personally, I would put it in the category of poison.

I would move the earth (and moon) to give my children breast milk. Formula wouldn't even be a last resort!

There are so many reasons why I get frustrated by the constant pushing of infant formula. It isn't just about its complete inadequacy in providing optimum nutrition, but also because it simply can not provide for our long term emotional and mental needs. There are biochemical nutrients in breast milk with are absolutely CRUCIAL to our long term emotional health. Formula can never provide for this.

Work done by the marvellous James Prescott PhD shows that by breastfeeding for 2.5 years or longer, an absence of suicides and depression was found in most cultures. Breastfeeding bonding (affectional bonding) is imperative in a culture which seeks to live peacefully.

Some of the leading health problems in the world related to sexual, social, mental or emotional dysfunction (such as rape, suicide, depression and homicide) are found in cultures with next to non-existent breastfeeding in infancy and childhood.

Breastfeeding statistics are appalling. As a culture we have NO excuse for this!! We consider ourselves in first world countries to be rich ~ nothing could be further from the truth.

In the US, for example,

6.8% breastfed at 12 months
2.7% breastfed for 24 months or more
1% was breastfed for 30 months or more

How is it that 97% of children are not even meeting the minimum age set for breastfeeding by the hugely conservative World Health Organisation? Have we simply made it too easy for women to choose fake milk? Tribal cultures wouldn't even be able to comprehend such statistics. They don't have incidences of women 'choosing' not to breastfeed or believing that they can't breastfeed. They just do it!

If we didn't have formula milk companies we wouldn't have stats like those above. We'd have a 99% breastfeeding-from-mother rate, and in cases where a mother was unable to breastfeed due to illness (or death) a wet nurse would be available for the child. In my book, The Drinks Are On Me, I take a look at the spiritual and emotional reasons behind a woman's belief that she 'didn't have any/enough breast milk'.

Every time I see a breastfeeding myth perpetuated, I see breastfeeding slip further away from humanity's grasp. We simply won't survive many more generations without this optimal source of nutrition and bonding. A destructive culture has no choice but to destroy itself. Violence is like a cancer.

How will we ever explain to future generations that we had the evidence for full-term sustained breastfeeding, but as a culture we chose to ignore it?

To meet a kindred spirit

2007-07-12T02:47:00.000-07:00

Today's Cuppa: Calming Chamomile

I'm still recovering from what has been, and still is, a busy week! Bethany's having her secondary school induction week at the moment, which she loves, and just had her violin exam too. Bethany couldn't get into the two nearest secondary schools (thank goodness!) as they were full, so she's going to a very small one in Alston, an isolated community at the top of the Pennines in the UK's highest market town. She has 17 in her class which is very unusual for a mainstream secondary school. The school she would have been expected to go to has about 1800 pupils. The one she's at has 200. There is a very strong sense of community and friendship there and from everything I've seen and heard, the staff seek to make the environment as warm and nurturing as possible. Today she's spending the day with her fellow classmates and teachers swimming at a leisure centre so they can all get to know each other better. She's already had offers from new friends to come and visit their house.

We went to Forest Row, East Sussex last weekend to witness the wedding of Richard House, a columnist for The Mother magazine, to Silvie Hetu, an infant massage instructor.

The ceremony was held in the beautiful gardens of Emerson College, an Anthroposophical teacher training college. Although Richard and I had never met in the flesh before, we've always shared a deep passion for the optimal well-being of children, particularly through allowing them to 'wake-up' to this world gently, and in their own time.

Weddings are always a good reminder of all we hold dear in our own marriage. It's particularly moving when the words of a ceremony honour the idea that when we are one with our self, we are then able to fully love and marry another.

At the wedding, and later that night at a party on a biodynamic farm, I met women who read The Mother. It's always humbling to have a personal experience of our readers and to hear their mothering or grandmothering story.

An absolute bonus, and no doubt a divinely inspired orchestration, of Richard's wedding being in Forest Row (even though he lives in Norfolk) was that we got to spend time with the Durdant-Hollamby family [publishers of The Mother magazine] who live there. If ever there was a family to model your own on, this family's the one!

They truly 'walk the talk' and their goal to be the happiest family in the world is contagious and deeply inspiring. I've been telling my friends ever since, that "everyone needs a family like the D-Hs in their life!"

As a family we got to witness the unusually strong 'alternative' community that exists in Forest Row, no doubt initially instigated by the Steiner school and college there. Many families home educate their children.

As I type, the view out my window is one that has nurtured my soul for eight and half years ~ the unspoilt countryside, the hills, the trees. I used to take the silence and fresh air here for granted! Having done the tortuous route of the M6 (stuck on it for 11.5 hours!) and M25 I will never forget how blessed I am to live in this sanctuary of outstanding natural beauty.

I find myself wanting to hang on to this rural and peaceful lifestyle forever and being torn with finding a place which offers kindred spirits and a sense of community like Forest Row does. My children are emerging into the world and have such different needs to me. I'd happily camp at the top of a mountain, hermit-like, for half a century, but I feel it would be wrong to deny my children the experience of duality. I experienced many aspects of life before having children and don’t feel the need to partake of most of it anymore, yet I'm aware that every experience we have in life is valid.

I expect to be a full-time mother for another seven or so years until my little birdies fly the nest, and then my deep desire to live in a log cabin in the wilderness can manifest. Until that time, I welcome with open arms the kindred spirits who also walk this world and seek like-minded soul-mates.

Attachment Parents ~ BEWARE of Aware Parenting

2007-06-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Today's Cuppa: Echinacea Tea

I love editing The Mother magazine. Daily I hear from women (and men) who are actively listening to their inner voice and following their intuition despite living in a culture which values possessions and money as priorities over the love, parental companionship, care and well-being of our children.

The downside of working in the parenting field is reading the utter rubbish that gets perpetuated in mainstream literature. So often a woman's instincts are dismissed by so- called experts. At one level we have the childless Supernanny telling parents how to raise their unruly children. At another, we have midwives or doctors who write books, such as Baby Sense by Megan Faure and Ann Richardson, which talk of feeding a baby rice or maize at three months of age (??!!) or not breastfeeding more than every two hours. And don’t even start me on The Good Sleep Guide by Angela Henderson. OMG! Utterly hideous and downright cruel to babies. In my opinion both of these books should be burnt. They are extremely dangerous in the messages they give to parents and are deeply insulting and ignorant of basic human neuro-biology. I read the other day that Gina Ford believes she takes a 'holistic approach to parenting'. Whatever next? Clearly the word holistic is used to cover all manner of sins these days.
I hear stories of doctors who suggest a baby be fed rusks at two weeks of age and Health Visitors (Public Enemy No. 1) who push mothers to get babies onto formula at seven weeks of age or earlier. These things frustrate me enormously and make me sick to the stomach. And yet in many ways they're to be expected in our culture. The Mother magazine feels like a lone voice in the vast wilderness of parenting.

My job in creating The Mother is centred around one purpose: to be an advocate for the babies and children. As a result the content may seem radical, cutting edge and for some people, just a tad too challenging, as it means they might have to compromise aspects of their lifestyle. It's far easier, or so they think, to just do 'what everyone else does'. Life's much easier if you don't rock the boat, isn't it?

In the past couple of years, there has been a rather insidious element creeping into natural parenting circles, so much so that I'm unaware of any other natural parenting magazine besides The Mother magazine which doesn't now promote Aware Parenting ~ a clever, yet misleading, term coined by Aletha Solter. I say insidious because this 'style' of parenting cushions itself within the admirable principles of attachment parenting and subverts them by acting, cult-like, in drawing in otherwise intelligent, nurturing, yet susceptible parents who might be exhausted or, more accurately, unsupported in their natural parenting choices.

Today's blog is to publicly state that in no way do I, personally or professionally, endorse the practice known as Aware Parenting ~ in particular the aspect of allowing the baby to 'cry it out'.

Proponents of this method argue that babies have unresolved tensions and need to cry them out in order to heal. They suggest that holding the baby while she cries will allow the baby to relieve herself of stress. What they don't seem to acknowledge is that crying is virtually unheard of in indigenous cultures where babies' needs are instantly met, if not anticipated first. Even if advocates of Aware Parenting don't wish to admit it, they are in effect encouraging 'controlled crying'. They do not encourage comforting of the baby through nursing, jiggling or rocking the baby ~ all actions which come instinctively to a NURTURING mother.

In my late teens, I worked for a professional babysitting agency. It's no exaggeration to say that the children of psychologists were, without fail, always difficult to sit for. Even back then I couldn't help but wonder if those famiies were parenting by rote from some textbook, rather than from their heart.

One advocate of Aware Parenting, a psychologist, suggests that if you don't let your baby cry in this way he might end up with a long list of psychological disorders. She suggests that social disorders such as addictions will happen. Now, imagine a new parent reading this sort of information. Well, no caring parent would want their child to grow up with this in front of them. Yet the exact opposite is true. Children deprived of non-nutritive suckling suffer all sorts of consequences, long and short term. I could present a thesis on it!

Aware Parenting gurus promise that if you follow their path it will provide you with a child who is 'calm and co-operative'. Whatever happened to accepting our children for who they are? Or taking responsibility for our failures rather than trying to 'fix' the child. Actually, my take is that these 'calm and cooperative' children will feel they weren't listened to; that their cries didn't get their needs met; that they were abandoned by the very person in this whole world who should have helped them. They've learnt not to 'rock the boat' or ask for anything any more because 'no-one will listen'. It is complete rubbish that all babies need to cry or that they need to cry for emotional release. Babies cry when their needs aren't met. If a baby is feeling agitated or taking on the stress from those around them, this can be relieved by carrying them against your body and breastfeeding on cue ~ which a mother would be doing anyway if she was parenting naturally. Our babies are more than capable of dealing with the ups and downs of day to day life if they're getting their needs met and handled with love and care. Babies don't cry for the fun of it! It causes great distress and discomfort. It's their last ditch attempt to get attention. It is NOT manipulation ~ which, by the way, is an adult trait, not a baby's one.

As a parent, if you choose to use controlled crying, then it is important that you acknowledge that you're not meeting your child's needs optimally. Own it. Whatever your reasons are for choosing to do this, DON'T BLAME THE CHILD. Many people who choose attachment parenting are doing so in social isolation; it is so at odds with our culture. Because of this, it is easy for them to feel overwhelmed at times and then to wonder if they're parenting 'wrongly'.

Aware Parenting is a clever marketing ploy in a sense, designed specifically to draw in vulnerable parents. There's a lot of money to be had in providing 'counselling' to parents who are struggling. To raise our children optimally we must not engage in emotionally crippling and numbing practises such as Aware Parenting promote through their controlled crying -which does two things ~ shows the baby it is not 'good enough' and severs the unique bond between mother and child by encouraging her to disengage from the one thing nature gave her to tell her the baby is 'in danger' ~ the CRY!

As Jean Liedloff wrote in The Contimnuum Concept "a baby's cry is precisely as serious as it sounds." Jean lived with the Yequanna tribe for some time and is far more qualified than most to speak about how babies are when raised in accord with their biological needs.

One of my major concerns with Aware Parenting is that a baby with very real problems will not be having its REAL needs met. Even in gentle births babies can be subluxated and need chiropractic or cranial support. Assuming that the baby has a 'need' to cry through emotional issues, is very misleading. This is an adult need.

So, what happens why a baby cries? There is a dramatic fluctuation in blood flow during extended crying which decreases cerebral oxygenation and causes an increase in cerebral blood volume. This increases intracranial pressure and puts the baby at risk for an intracranial haemorrhage. At the same time, the blood, by now oxygen-depleted, flows into the systemic circulation, rather than into the lungs (see Anderson, GC)

The Aware Parenting approach dismisses comfort nursing (otherwise known as non-nutritive sucking). As I've written in my soon to be published book, 'The Drinks are on me' (available from: www.artofchange.co.uk) non-nutritive sucking is every bit as important as breastfeeding for thirst or hunger. It is rarely talked about in lactation circles. Even amongst attachment parents, many mums remove the child from the breast when his/her tummy is full. In indigenous cultures the mother allows the child to suck from the breast which has already had milk withdrawn, for as long as is needed.

As mothers, if we respond immediately and comfort our crying baby, they learn to trust us and in turn become more responsive.

If you're new to mothering and are unsure of how to read your baby's pre-cry cues for hunger, look for the following signs:

making sucking sounds or little sucking motions
sucking on her hands
snuggling or rooting at the breast
increased alertness or activity
making rooting motions
clenching his fists by her face
brushing a hand across her face
putting her fist in his mouth

We are biologically programmed to give a nurturing response to our baby's cries. It is not natural to refrain or to ignore them. Our body responds immediately to our baby's cry. Blood flows to our breasts and we have the urge to pick the baby up and breastfeed. The hormone oxytocin gives us the feeling which helps us to 'love our baby'. So, if this is what our body instructs us to do without any direction from the logical left side of the brain, and then some well-meaning but misguided expert like Marion Badenoch Rose, Aletha Solter, Gina Ford or Angela Henderson tell us to ignore it, you've got to ask yourself why. Investing in their misguided belief systems is a huge loss for your child and for you. Your child is the loser while these gurus get richer.

If you want a happy, contented and balanced baby/child, then get in touch with your mothering instincts ~ and listen to them.

Unassisted Childbirth documentary

2007-06-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Any mums planning a UC Birth?

A few weeks back, Reuters news service interviewed me for a piece on Unassisted Births.

There's now worldwide media interest in the topic. If you live in Britain and are planning an unassisted birth and would be interested in talking to a production team about a documentary… see below.

"We’d explore their reasons, their motivation and follow them through the journey, including the birth. It’s a subject that is really worthy of exploration, particularly given the increasing amount of medical intervention in hospital births, and a woman’s right to choose. We would love to speak with anyone who is considering this option – you don’t have to take part it would just be good to hear from you!!" Please contact emma on emma.barron@vgoodfilms.com or 0207 272 4000