The Universe Has Its Way
Since I’ve last posted, things in my life have changed dramatically. In August, my husband and I welcomed twin daughters into this world. It’s amazing how the Universe has its way of showing you who is really in charge. For those of us who suffer from control issues, having children is a sure way to cure you of that ailment!
Of course, I had this birth thing methodically planned out…the Midwife said my birth plan was one of the most comprehensive she had ever seen and I don’t think she meant it as a compliment. She was telling me that one of her ‘high strung’ patients (hmm…) had a booklet and how it drove all of the medical staff crazy. After that conversation, I whittled my plan down to two pages from ten and I think that was still too long by their standards. I justified two pages by saying because there were two babies, there needed to be additional considerations depending on the various scenarios that could happen.
Needless to say, my birth plan was likely never looked at because the girls were taken via caesarian – no need for a birth plan there at all! That’s not entirely true; I did have a contingency caesarian birth plan that “requested” a regional anesthetic, that my arms not be restrained, no Hepatitis B shots, no eye treatments, as few medical personnel as possible, etc. The medical staff were phenomenal, Craig was on patrol to make sure they were not vaccinated or given ‘unapproved’ treatments and despite coming in at 4 lbs 11 oz and 4 lbs 13 oz respectively, they did surprisingly well and were able to room with us the first night. We felt very blessed.
Pregnancy was not easy for me…I’m not sure if that was because I was carrying twins, because I am an ‘older’ mother or a combination of both…and even though I did not gain a lot of weight, I was not one of those ‘glowing’ pregnant women. The pregnancy took its toll on my health and I’m still trying to address its status and get myself out of the red zone.
Why Do You Care?
I share this story because since their birth, I have been faced with new and interesting choices and decisions for both the girls and myself. I plan on focusing current and future articles on these occurrences in an effort to hopefully generate dialogue around how much control we, as parents, really do have over our family and our own health. Much of the content will focus on the health issues of women…as women, we make roughly 80 percent of health care decisions for our families[1]…to say we are uber multitaskers would be an understatement! And it’s hard work! We care for our pets, our parents, our partners and our children. So much of our time is spent on others; we rarely pay enough attention to our own mind/body/spirit well-being. And doing the right thing is not always the convenient thing. It’s tough to challenge medical ‘authorities’ when they seem to have the answers…how often do you hear a practitioner say they don’t have an answer!?! God help you if you choose not to vaccinate your children! (We’ll spend a lot of time on this one :)
Stay Tuned!
I hope to share my knowledge and resources with you so that you can explore these health considerations within your own family. I don’t claim to have all the answers and there are so many talented people blogging, organizing and challenging conventional medical wisdom; I can’t wait to share them with you. Additionally, there are a growing number of enlightened professionals whose patients are benefitting from integrative approaches such as Homeopathy, Aurveda, Acupuncture, Reiki, and more. We’ll talk about these too!
Let me know what you think!
Happy Spring!
Live well…Shelley
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