Pajamas Media Link (I feel honored to share PJ’s Media post space with Jeff at Protein Wisdom)


UPDATE:
Friday Morning 11:00 AM.
I shot this little video clip last night as the snow started to accumulate on my upstairs deck. I was not able to post it though because the power was out from 8PM to midnight.

4PM Thursday afternoon
And this morning Paul and the Boys shoveled our walks and cleaned off the car to make one last trip to the grocery store before the second snow starts to fly about noon today. The weather people on the news have said that this second wave of snow could keep coming until sunday morning. So we are going to hole up here in our house at least until then. We have cancelled New Years Eve Plans, and wonder if we will make it to church on sunday morning. Paul was supposed to start work bright and early on tuesday morning. But the children were not due back at school until January 8th.

11AM friday morning.
Here are a couple more links from previous blog entries on preparedness: (Although the time for preparing has dwindled down to just about nothing for us here in Colorado.)
Natural Flu Remedies
72 Hour Kits
Original Post:

Jenny Hatch
I plan to have running commentary on this current storm for the next few days. If I stop posting it will be because the power is out.
Here is a roundup of my previous Provident Living Blog Entries
A few to focus on:
72 Hour Kits
Emergency Birth during Hurricane
And a column I wrote for my web site back in 2004 on Emergency Childbirth:
Emergency Childbirth
April 25, 2004
By, Jenny Marie Hatch
It has been exactly eighteen months today since the birth of my fifth baby. He was born at home quietly into the hands of his father after a 6 hr labor. He weighed nine and a half pounds at birth, and had a 15 in head. He was born without drugs, knives, surgery, or any significant medical prenatal care. I went to my doctor for a consultation once when I was seven months pregnant.
In the past 18 months he has never been seriously ill, has never taken an antibiotic, or had a vaccination. I took him to see our doctor twice just to have him on record as being born, and other than a few colds and one nasty case of flu, he has been healthy, happy, and a wonderful addition to our family.
Why share this story of medical self-sufficiency?
TERROR?
In the past month I have seen President Bush, a few FBI agents, and various pundits on the news claiming that we in America are at risk of terror.
From Newsmax Monday April 19, 2004:
“Today on “Fox News Live,” former FBI Special Agent Harold Copus said that the summer of 2004 will be remembered as the “Summer of Terror.”
Anchor Gregg Jarrett told agent Copus that Tom Ridge said special attention will be focused on stopping terror attacks on rail, air, hazmat shipment, chemical facilities and the electrical grid. He asked if all of those were vulnerable. Copas said, “They certainly are.”
I perceive a little bit of disconnect on the part of many in the media, our society, politicians, and my own community as these threats are discussed. Few are calling for any sort of real civil defense preparations. Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal is an exception. She has written lately of the need for Civil Defense.
In a recent Column she challenged politicians with these words:
“As government officials last week rehearsed their testimony the enemy was planning new horrors for Americans to endure. Right now we should be preparing–taking protective action in our ports and around our nuclear facilities, at our borders, etc. American officials should not be busy testifying; they should be busy making sure every citizen has a CBN suit, a regulation gas mask and data on how to recognize and respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear incident.
The most pressing thing at the moment is making America safer. Instead, our officials are otherwise engaged. As they were before 9/11.”
I believe it is futile to wait for the government to provide us the skills and tools to survive terror. Could they really do it anyway, with every family in different locations and in need of a variety of resources given the various scenarios of attack and disruptions?
If each individual in America would take a realistic look at their own lives and make some prudent preparations to be able to live for a period of weeks in their own home cut off from water, electricity, communications, commerce, and not able to travel anywhere to purchase anything, our country would be in a far better defensive posture for the War on Terror. I challenge those who are reading this column to begin family civil defense preparations now.
SOME PERSONAL HISTORY
Shortly after I gave birth to my first baby in 1988, I was reading the Bible. My baby was about two months old and I was nursing her as I studied my Sunday school lesson. We were reading the New Testament and I came to the 24th chapter of Matthew. As I read these words in verse 19 “and woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” my heart skipped a beat. Jesus had just been describing to his disciples the signs of the times before his second coming to the world.
As I read those words, I just knew that Jesus Christ was talking about my generation of birthing and breastfeeding women. I also knew deep in my heart that I had to learn everything I could about natural mothering and be prepared that should we have some societal disruptions in America, that I would be prepared to birth, feed, and take care of my babies without the help of any professionals.
My oldest daughter is now almost sixteen. Since that fateful moment in my life, I have run down a path that to many people seemed irresponsible and somewhat suspect as I gradually weaned from the medical profession in regards to my mothering. We have had four additional children since that cold morning in February of 1989 when the words in the Bible leaped off the page and landed straight into my heart.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
To aid me in my journey to mothering self-sufficiency I became A Certified Bradley Childbirth Teacher and for eight years studied about and taught natural childbirth in every spare moment. As a teacher, I was able to observe the impact my teaching had on the birth outcomes of the couples that took my class, and I was able to practice these principles in a hands on way during my four additional births. In 1996 I decided to stop teaching my childbirth class and became an active participant in the unassisted childbirth movement on the Internet.
I organized the 2nd International Husband/Wife homebirth conference in 2001 and have written three books sharing my experiences and the birth stories of the many couples that have adopted this lifestyle.
One of the most interesting facts as I would chat with my friends on the internet about birth, was how many of these couples had come to home birth because of end times preparations. Either the wife or the husband or both had felt guided by personal conviction that the time was soon coming when it would be prudent to know how to birth a child alone without a midwife or a doctor present.
Many of these couples shared with me that they had experienced vivid dreams regarding societal chaos and instability. They knew that they had to prepare in every facet of life to be self-sufficient, especially in regards to Childbirth and Breastfeeding.
I studied many survival books and was dismayed that few had any real information on how to birth a child in a raw survival situation. Most of these books had been written by men who knew absolutely nothing about birthing and breastfeeding, and so I decided to write my book, Elijah Birth in order to help educate the parents who desire to give birth at home alone. Here is the link to Elijah Birth, How to turn the hearts of the Fathers.
Few Obstetricians are acquainted with the principles of natural childbirth, and fewer still have seen a spontaneous, un-drugged birth and are so dependent on their medications, machinery, and tools, that the thought of a mother intentionally giving birth alone, without any assistance makes it difficult for them to write knowledgeably about childbirth removed from the hospital environment. An exception to this is Gregory White MD who wrote Emergency Childbirth, and his manual is an excellent resource. Click here for the Amazon link.
When life is cut down to the bare minimums for survival – food, water, shelter…. only a couple of life skills are truly needed to keep the family going through a survival time. NATURAL CHILDBIRTH IS ONE OF THEM!
If for some reason our fragile society was to experience a major disruption because of terror, mastering the skills of natural mothering will go a long way in helping to ensure the survival of our people.
We all have heard the stories of mothers who give birth in the car or at home in an unplanned emergency childbirth. So we know it is possible. Motivated by the scripture I read in Matthew 24:19, and the many preparedness dreams, promptings, and my own gut feelings about the true state of the world, I have been on a quest for fifteen years to learn how to do my own prenatal care, give birth without any professional help and then nourish my baby with no formula supplementation. Largely living as if the Medical and Midwifery Professions and Formula Manufacturers did not exist.
We are living this lifestyle right now today, as are many hundreds of couples that have embraced Primal Mothering all over the world.
I would like to share a few helpful tips that if utilized during birth will help the mother and baby get off to a better start. I don’t have any medical credentials nor do I take responsibility for any outcome that you may have during the birth should you decide to provide fully for the health of your family. This information is shared out of deep concern that couples in their childbearing years need to be educated on natural mothering in case of a terrorist attack.
My prayer is that should your family decide to practice giving birth alone before any sort of chaos, that you and each of you will be protected from prosecution for medical negligence by those professionals in our world who get a little antsy when they hear of babies being born without medical assistance.
Let me begin by saying, that for many couples, just hearing that other couples have given birth at home intentionally with positive outcomes is enough to begin the education process and bring comfort to their hearts. Knowing that the vast majority of babes born at home will have no problem whatsoever is encouraging to those making these preparations.
TERROR REALITIES
Imagine you are at home with a pregnant wife, and the electricity goes off. You hear on the radio the city closest to you has been attacked by a nuclear terrorist. You understand that it is crucial to stay in a shelter for the first two weeks after a bomb blast to protect yourself from blast fallout, radiation, and debris. But after two days your wife tells you she is in labor, and it is time to go to the hospital.
What to do?
Do you risk the exposure to hazardous fallout in order to get your wife where it is supposedly safe? Or do you trust nature and proceed at home? Assuming you could physically get to your local hospital, it could be filled to the brim with fallout burn victims or if the blast was accompanied by a chemical or biological attack, the hospital would be the last place on earth you would want your healthy wife and newborn baby to be during and after childbirth.
So you decide to stay home. WHAT DO YOU DO?
HEAVENLY HELP
I would first challenge you to get on your knees and ask God for specific guidance to know what your wife and child will need during this specific birthing experience. You will be guided to know what to do at any given moment and this will help insure the safe passage of your child from inside the womb to outside safely separated from your wife.
STAGES OF LABOR
Labor is composed of three parts. First stage labor is simply about getting the cervix (the bottom opening of the womb) open to allow the baby to move from the uterus to the birth canal. As the cervix widens, a bloody, mucous discharge is often released as it slowly stretches open. This stage of labor can be aided by back massage, and hot compresses to the back. If the mother has painful back labor, the child will possibly be in a posterior position (when the baby comes out it has its face away from the mother’s bottom) and the mother could be aided by counter pressure on the lower back while the baby moves into position to be born.
My favorite book that details all of the stages of labor and gives helpful suggestions for what to do for any given labor situation is Natural Childbirth, the Bradley Way. Here is the link from Amazon.
The final part of first stage, called transition, is typically the most difficult for the mother. It is generally an intense time of contractions one on top of the other that mark the full expansion of the cervix at the baby prepares to be born. During this time it is helpful for the mother to vocalize in a loud AHHHH to help move the energy from the womb up out of her body. I have found vocalization to be the absolute most profound pain relief during my natural births.
SELF-DOUBT SIGNPOST
One of the common emotional signposts of transition is the mother turning to whomever is with her and saying, “I can’t do this anymore”. This “self-doubt” signpost is evidence that first stage labor is almost over and the second stage of pushing is just around the corner. Gentle encouragement is all that is needed to let her know she is doing great and the baby will be born soon.
SECOND STAGE – PUSHING
The second stage of labor generally begins soon after transition and is marked by contractions that come slower and tend to be accompanied with an intense desire to push. Some women don’t feel this desire to push however. Encouraging the mother to be in a standing or upright position will let gravity aid the mother in safely delivering her child.
If it is evident that the baby is coming out feet or bottom first (breech), it is especially important for the mother to be in an upright or standing position during the delivery. But she will know which position is best to deliver her child and should be encouraged to assume whichever position feels right to her.
I only mention the upright information because a few mothers, influenced by the media and current medical dogma will believe and assume that it is best to give birth laying flat on her back, with legs up in the air. This is the absolute worst position for a mother to give birth.
Most women will assume an upright or hands and knees position in which to give birth if left alone. Some will feel more comfortable giving birth in a side lying position. Again, whichever position she feels is most comfortable to her will be the best position to be in. Warm compresses placed on the perineum will aid in a comfortable passage of the baby. I kept a stack of thick cloth diapers by my side during my last birth and my husband’s main task during the labor was to get them wet with warm water and olive oil, which I placed on my bottom during the birth.
It is also important for the mother to keep her bladder empty with frequent urination during labor. Encourage her to use the toilet every hour of labor, and especially during pushing, a full bladder can impede the baby being born. Some mothers experience labor diarrhea while giving birth and this again is nature’s way of opening up the body for the safe passage of the baby. If the rectum and bladder are full it is just that much more space that is taken up which could be utilized by the baby as it is born. Encourage the mother to use the toilet.
BABY RESUSCITATION
As the baby starts to crown, whomever is with the mother can prepare her a hot drink, and get out the bulb syringe, (this tool is the little blue suction device they use in the hospital to suck out the babies nose and throat as it is being born to help them breathe) Bulbs syringes are available at most drug stores. The only “tool” we purchased for our home birth was a new baby syringe to help suction our baby’s mouth and nose. I gave birth in a standing position and my husband stood behind me and suctioned our son’s nose after his head was born. He also checked to see if the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. It was not, but I have read about couples that had the cord wrapped several times around the neck, and as the baby was born, they quickly un-looped it from the neck.
During my fourth birth, which took place at home, we were not able to resuscitate our son, and so we called 911 for help. The Fireman who showed up first to help, gently suctioned my baby out with his own mouth. He placed his mouth over the nose and mouth of my son, and sucked out the mucous, then spit it out and gave our baby three puffs of air, and Andy opened his eyes. I call this technique “Shawn’s suck and spit baby survival system”.
A few days after the birth, I talked to a high-risk pediatrician and told her about the fireman’s effective suck and spit technique and she told me that this suctioning is a perfect tool to resuscitate a baby as it creates a vacuum effect that is a superior way to clear the airway of a newborn. If a birth took place in a raw situation where no supplies were available, the mother or the father of the baby could suction out the baby if it was slow to breathe with their own mouths. The bigger the baby, the longer they tend to take to breath and pink up.
Some babies get a little stuck as the shoulders are being born, but a lack of drugs in the mother, and an upright position will help to turn the child to get the shoulders out. Sometimes it helps to hook a finger under the child’s armpit and guide them out if they seem stuck. One friend had to do this with both shoulders as his wife gave birth to his 10-pound son. First getting out one shoulder and then the other.
If the baby is breech, and the head gets stuck, again the use of gravity, and a gentle guiding of the head as it is born will help to safely birth the baby. When cold air hits the baby’s body in a breech birth, they tend to want to take in a breath of air, and if this happens, the mother or father should use a finger in the baby’s mouth to create an air passage, so the baby does not breath in any fluid or blood as it is being born. Squatting during pushing opens up the vaginal outlet an additional 10%, which can make a crucial difference is the ease of passage as the baby is born.
WATER BAG
If the water has not broken during labor, the baby can be born in the amniotic sac. My fourth baby was born in his sac, and it helped the birth to be pain-free, however, he was born with a flood of water upon his arrival and this created a very slippery situation. Having lots of clean towels, receiving blankets, and cloth diapers on hand will help to dry the baby, and make it easier to hold. The mother also tends to bleed as the child emerges from her body, this is normal and is not cause for panic.
However, if the mother seems to be hemorrhaging or bleeding more than she should (no more than two cups of blood), immediate breastfeeding is the absolute best cure for a post partum bleed. I read that Japanese Midwives stand ready with a basin to catch the blood and if the mother has hemorrhaged, they will quickly use a bulb syringe to suck up the blood from the basin and reintroduce it into the mother’s body through the rectum. The rectum is the quickest way to reabsorb the blood back into the mother’s bloodstream. Wheat grass juice orally and rectally is also a powerful aid to heal a post partum hemorrhage.
It is normal for the mother to bleed for up to six weeks after the birth. If the blood comes on heavier and is bright red in the weeks after the birth, this is evidence the mother is doing too much and needs to slow down her activity.
Mothers should also be supported in staying in bed for three days after the birth while the uterus contracts down to its normal size. Breastfeeding on demand, again, facilitates this happening.
BONDING, BREASTFEEDING, AND RELEASING THE PLACENTA
The next hour after the child is born is one of the most important in terms of making sure the mother and child get off to the best start physically, emotionally, and as a breastfeeding partnership. Breastfeeding during survival times will be very important as most families cannot afford to have more than a month or two supply of infant formula stored. Getting educated about exclusive breastfeeding before a terror attack will be very important.
Practicing nursing 100% with no supplementation will give that mother even more confidence that she will be able to provide for her child during a long-term disruption in basic services like communications, electricity, and water, not to mention goods and services. Mastering this art of breastfeeding has been one of the most difficult tasks I have ever taken on. But it can be done and all mothers should be encouraged at the very least, to have a copy of the book, The Womanly art of Breastfeeding on hand to help teach her how to nurse if we have an attack. Here is a link to Emergency Breastfeeding information:
After the child is born, immediate breastfeeding is important for a variety of reasons. First, in the un-drugged child, it is what they instinctively want to do. Second, immediate nursing has powerful implications for the mother. The sucking action of nursing releases hormones that help the uterus to contract in order to aid in the safe detaching of the placenta. I nursed my son immediately after he was born, and fifteen minutes later I felt my placenta plopping down ready to be pushed out, completely intact and with a minimum amount of blood loss.
Immediate nursing also aids in bonding the mother to the child, and powerful hormones are released in both the mother and child, which create a beautiful and long lasting attachment.
As the mother feeds her child in that important first hour, her uterus will immediately start to contract in powerful sensations that will help in preventing hemorrhage. This is the absolute most important reason why the mother should never be separated from her baby in the first minutes after birth.
The mother also has Colostrum in her breasts, which is the perfect first food for the newborn. It contains important anti-bodies and has a laxative effect on the baby. The babies first stool (poop), called meconium is a tar like substance that needs to be passed out of the baby, the colostrums helps this to happen.
As the hormones start to rage through the mother, she may feel shaky and cold. Since these are typical shock symptoms it is easy to get frightened if this happens. A warm drink and wrapping the mother up with blankets and a hot water bottle will help with these normal post birth symptoms. Dehydration and the mother getting too cold can keep the placenta from detaching, and so helping the mother to warm up with a warm drink will help with both issues as she drinks and warms her body up.
During the first twenty-four hours it is normal for the baby to expel lots of mucous from its lungs and nasal cavity. In the un-drugged baby, normal sneezing, coughing, and even vomiting can be anticipated as the baby clears the amniotic fluid from its body. I kept clean cloth diapers by my side to help wipe away the mucous that came out of the baby that first night. A bulb syringe or nasal aspirator can also be kept handy to help the baby expel the mucous out of the lungs.
A common cause of post birth complications in the baby is if the meconium that is the baby’s first bowel movement is aspirated into the lungs. In the hospital this complication is treated in a variety of ways, but at home, close monitoring of the baby for signs of breathing difficulty and infection will help to know if this has occurred. If it does, antibiotic type herbs like Goldenseal and Usnea can be given to the mother to be passed into the baby through the breastmilk. Essential oil of Oregano can also be applied to the baby’s feet and held over the child’s mouth and nose to be breathed in to help with infection.
CORD CARE
In the hospital the cord is generally cut immediately. Over the years I learned about a simpler and more holistic form of childbirth called Lotus Birth. We had a lotus birth with our last baby. It was a peaceful and gentle way to welcome our son into our home. We simply did not cut the cord. We wrapped the placenta up in a cloth diaper and kept it with our son in a receiving blanket. Every time I changed the baby’s diaper, I changed the diaper on the placenta as it dried up and drained fluids. I aided this drying process by putting salt and essential oil of Lavender on the placenta, and after six days the cord detached on it’s own.
This type of birth ensures that all of the cord blood gets back into the baby. Babies born lotus style are very content and peaceful. If one gave birth in a survival situation, and no scissors were available to cut the cord with, a lotus birth would make it irrelevant. Immediate cord clamping and cutting has been proven to cause anemia in some children, as up to 1/3 of the baby’s blood volume can be in the cord and placenta at the time of birth. Early cord cutting has also been implicated in the difficult detaching of the placenta in several studies that I have read on the internet.
Should you decide to cut the cord, sterilize the scissors in boiling water, clamp the cord on the mother and the baby’s side with shoelaces, dental floss, or purchase some cord clamps from a midwife supply store, and then cut the cord in between the clamped portions of the cord.
I would encourage you to wait until the cord has stopped pulsating or even better, wait until the placenta has fully detached and been passed.
Get the baby to breast as soon as it is born. When the placenta detaches, and in some cases that can take several hours, wrap it up with the baby and keep the baby close to the mother. Feeding the baby on demand will help the mother to produce an abundant milk supply.
Emergency childbirth knowledge and exclusive breastfeeding will go a long way in helping Young Americans to overcome the Woe predicted by Jesus as the winding up scenes of the end times of our world take place. I challenge all who are reading this article to get educated, put in a few simple supplies like some good books on natural childbirth and breastfeeding, cloth diapers, cloth menstrual pads, a two week supply of water (14 gallons per person), some food, and a few natural remedies for infection.
I can’t express in words the comfort that has come into my heart knowing that should we have terror when I am expecting a baby, we will be able to make it to the other side of a natural childbirth experience with me and the baby just fine. I have absolute faith and confidence that if I can do it, so could any couple who decided to get prepared and go for it. Please, take the time to read, study, and ponder these things. Then take some more time and put in the few supplies needed.
Even if you don’t anticipate ever needing to give birth alone, prepare now for that contingency should circumstances require it. I don’t know that the things I have shared in this article cover all of the issues that may present in your situation, but trust that you will be guided to know what to do for your family when the time comes. I have read hundreds of home birth stories, and so many of these families have claimed divine guidance and help as the baby was being born.
I know this Heavenly Help ultimately is where safety lies. It is my fervent testimony that as each day goes by and the world continues to be in commotion, we can and will be able to survive whatever happens if we muster our faith and grasp the reality that like our ancestors hundreds of generations back, we can give birth safely alone at home.
Jenny Hatch