Report Says 1 in 8 Babies Born Premature

Newsmax ^ | July 13, 2006 | Associated Press

[Jenny Hatch]

WASHINGTON -- More than half a million babies are born prematurely each year, and specialists are urging that doctors take new steps to battle one cause: infertility treatments that spur twins, triplets, and other multiple births.

But despite a booming business, infertility treatment explains only a fraction of the nation's huge and growing problem of prematurity. One in eight babies now is born at least three weeks early, many even earlier, a rate that has increased more than 30 percent in two decades.

Trying to help these fragile infants survive and thrive costs the nation at least $26 billion a year, and there's little likelihood of improvement soon, says a sobering report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine.

[Jenny Hatch]

"what the F***...we docs don't tell our women about diets? "

I didn't say that mothers were not educated in some things. But Tom Brewer has been screaming about PROPER prenatal nutrition for fifty years, all of his research fully documented and backed up by volumns of research.

As a doctor, have you ever heard of the Brewer Diet?

Have you ever heard about the connection between low protein and toxemia?

Have you ever read his books?

http://www.pregnancybooksonline.com/mtlp/


Until the medical profession educates itself on these principles, actively teaches them to everyone, and moves away from crisis care to proactive wellness I will continue to regard them with sarcasm and disbelief.



I appreciate all of the issues you raised, but nutrition is the answer.


Jenny

[Jenny Hatch]

"On one of these Health shows last week they profiled a woman who had the largest baby born on record...almost 15 pounds and it was three weeks early!!! She was a normal size, as was her husband. She said the only thing she did that could explain it was drink 2 glasses of milk EVERY NIGHT."

That's amazing!

You don't have to eat animal foods to eat the Brewer Diet. I ate a completely Vegan Diet for my fourth pregnancy, getting all of my protein from soy, and gave birth to my largest child after a 45 week gestation. He weighed 11 pounds 12 ounces!!!

For those who are lactose intolerant soy foods work well. I also ate 80% raw that pregnancy and just lived on whole grains, fresh fruits, veges, and every day juiced up a quart of fresh vegatable juices that contained whole bunches of fresh greeds, kale, parsley, beet greens, etc.. It was an energetic pregnancy, as I chased my three older kids around and I was active and going to my prenatal aerobics class right up until the week he was born.

Here is a picture of me holding Andrew three weeks after he was born.

And here he is at two days old. He was my only child born with a double chin!

And here is a picture of me pregnant with him, about 42 weeks. I did not think to take pregnancy pictures with him, so this is one of the only ones I have. People just assumed I was having twins when they saw me because I was so huge.

It was during this pregnancy that I gained a true testimony of the power of the Brewer diet. I had been tandem nursing my toddlers when we conceived, and continued to nurse my two year old son through the pregnancy. I was convinced that if I just ate enough calories and protein my gestating baby would be just fine and my nursing toddler would not deprive him of any nutrients. When he weighed in at 11 pounds, I just marveled at the power of nutrition!

I tandem nursed those two hungry boys for seven months on demand, and while that was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, I was able to grow our baby without any formula supplementation, and he tripled his birth weight by a year old. Our pediatrician has confirmed that he is going to be a very tall man because of his bone structure, and he has passed up his older brother and sister in size and weight, even though he is nine years old.

I'm sharing this story because I believe we Americans are being sold a chemical mess of pottage in exchange for our birthright of empowered natural living, and our little children are being damaged and deprived of their genetic heritage in the crosshairs. Jenny

[Hildy]

WOW! MAZEL TOV to you, my friend. And yes, nutrition is everything....in every area of health.

[Jenny Hatch]

"I was a young mother, and if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely pay a lot more attention to what I was eating... "


It strikes me as just a tad crazy that we spend so much time in high school "health" classes talking about everything that is related to NOT being a parent, and when the time comes for momma to grow her babies, all of the resources are spent on "scare" prenatal care, fearbased, cover your butt medical care. It is absolutely nuts.


Want to cut health care costs? Require that anyone who gets one dime of government money for pregnancy care take a Bradley Childbirth class.

One of the most surprising things I learned doing my own prenatal care, and I have heard this from other moms, is that when you cut ties with the professionals, the level of proactive effort goes up markedly. It was almost like because I didn't have anyone but myself to pass the buck too, I knew I had to take personal responsibility to a higher level than I did with the three babies where I used allopathic prenatal care.

It was a very interesting and unexpected side effect of taking charge of my own health care.


Thanks for sharing,


Jenny