Have you received your December ICEA Journal yet? I received my copy
today.
If you go to page 31 of the Journal, there is an ad for NEW PARENT Magazine
and TRANSITIONS TO PARENTHOOD.
The article that I wrote for Journal is on page 30, opposite the ads.
I have been writing for ICEA Journal for the last 2 years and have never
had a word cut from my articles. The editors called me if there was a
mistake or grammar needed to be corrected. (The president and president-
elect also review every article.)
This would have been my last column, (not because of the WHO violations),
but it was a decision I made last spring due to other committments.) I am
not a dilettante about my work, but this column was submitted 6 months ago
and I could have been notified if there were going to be major changes at
any time.
Even with all the commotion (WHO violations), I did check with Journal
editor to see if my article would be eliminated. She assured me, nothing
to do with Journal would be affected by the controversy.
I would say that the president and president-elect have sent me a strong
message by not only cutting my column in half, but by rearranging it and
placing it on the same page with the ads for the magazines and videos.
However, now it's time to set ICEA stuff aside and start wrapping Christmas
presents. Barbara, Kathy, and I have done as much as we can. We will be
happy to answer any messages we get, and plan on following through with the
legal side of things with the Minn. Atty General. ICEA members and sister
organizations are going to have to also let ICEA how strongly they feel
about this issue.
But if you will indulge me for one more thing. I've added my last ICEA
Journal column to the end of this email. It is UNCUT and is is does not
violate the WHO Code.
I want to extend a happy and peaceful and healthy holiday to your families
from mine.
Debbie Madonna, ICEA Secretary
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
ICEA Journal ~~ December 1999
THE FUTURE OF BABIES AND MOTHERS
by Debra Madonna
6 BILLION PEOPLE
The world's population has reached 6 billion people,
[http://www.unfoundation.org]. If we have any hope to "talk" to all these
people, we will have to find new ways to "travel" around the world. We need
to think of ways to remove the walls of our classroom; computers increase
the opportunity to reach more people. We can even teach the world's
largest childbirth education class from a computer terminal in the comfort
of our home ... to people in Paris, Brazil, to Pakistan.
"Habitat for Humanity International brings families and communities
together with volunteers and resources to build decent, affordable
housing." Habitat uses tools and manpower to creating homes for families;
we can use computers for `Education for Humanity', building an safe
environment for healthy mothers, healthy babies, and healthy families ...
[Habitat for Humanity ... http://www.habitat.org/default.html]
MILLENIUM BABY
We will not be the first generation to eradicate all birth defects and
infant mortality. However, we are one of the first generations to be able
to share our knowledge with the world by displaying all we know on a
computer screen.
Expectant parents want a healthy baby. That fact doesn't seem to change.
What is different is what advice each person decides to follow. We have
more than enough scientific information on smoking, alcohol, and drugs to
prevent hundreds of thousands of birth defects and illnesses.
We are still horrified by what happened to babies when their mothers took a
medication for morning sickness, Thalidomide, while pregnant; but alcohol
and tobacco affect many more women and babies than thalidomide ever did.
The effects of thalidomide on babies were visible to the naked eye, but so
are some of the effects of alcohol. The return of Thalidomide has
terrified many people; and while it is disastrous for the unborn baby, it
may have medical benefits in treating cancer and blindness. Tobacco has no
medical benefits. ["Antiangiogenesis" ...
http://www.entremed.com/prodtech/aa.html]
In the case of tobacco, EVERY piece of research states emphatically that
smoking, second-hand and third-hand smoke, affects every cell and gene of
the smoker and unborn baby. You would think it would be enough that babies
who are around smokers, not only lose that sweet baby smell, they STINK;
their clothes STINK; and their blankies SMELL like an ashtray.
Every childbirth educator, doula, and lactation consultant will have to
continue to come up with creative ways to teach people what we know:
tobacco is bad for mother and baby; early prenatal care is good; alcohol is
harmful to the unborn baby; breastfeeding is good for babies; cocaine is
bad for mother and baby; eating nutritious food is good.
The challenge is not what we will teach, but how we can teach so people
will hear. There are those people who have revolutionized the way people
think about babies and childbirth because they have the wonderful ability
to tell and show the amazing story of how the body works, develops, and
changes in a very unique way: Lennart Nilsson, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton,
Elisabeth Bing, Penelope Leach, Sheila Kitzinger, Marshall and Phyllis
Klaus, and Mrs. Morgan, (my anatomy and physiology teacher).
"I can hardly imagine living without hope. As for the future of the world,
there is colorful spectrum of possibilities, from the worst to the best.
What will happen, I do not know. Hope forces me to believe that those
better alternatives will prevail, and above all it forces me to do
something to make them happen." [Vaclav Havel, Earth Odyssey, p.289 by Mark
Hertsgaard, Broadway Books, New York]
FDA Food Pyramid ... http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.gif
Folic Acid Campaign, March of Dimes ...
http://www.modimes.org/Programs2/FolicAcid/Default.htm
"Tobacco and Birth Defects" ...
http://www.kickbutt.org/learn/pregnancy.html
"Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure. Which is worse?" ...
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/nicotine/slotkin.htm
"Tobacco and Children", Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine ...
http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-
pubs/journals/archive/ajdc/vol_151/no_7/oa6346.htm
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse: "Statement on Fetal Alcohol
Effects." ... http://www.ccsa.ca/fas-3.htm
"FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), a problem close to home" ...
http://www.shadeslanding.com/clean-water/news.html
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Community Resource Center ...
http://www.azstarnet.com/~tjk/fashome.htm
The National Organization of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome ...
http://www.nofas.org/stats.htm
Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada ...
http://www.thalidomide.ca/index.html
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Educators need to learn as much about different nationalities, ethnic
groups, and religions, as they do about medications and childbirth.
But we also need to be careful that we remember that for many people in the
world "freedom of choice" may be a luxury, as elusive as a balanced diet
and clean water.
"Pregnancy and childbirth are special events in women's lives, and, indeed,
in the lives of their families. This can be a time of great hope and joyful
anticipation. It can also be a time of fear, suffering and even death.
Although pregnancy is not a disease but a normal physiological process, it
is associated with certain risks to health and survival both for the woman
and for the infant she bears. These risks are present in every society and
in every setting. In developed countries they have been largely overcome
because every pregnant woman has access to special care during pregnancy
and childbirth. Such is not the case in many developing countries where
each pregnancy represents a journey into the unknown from which all too
many women never return." ["Safe Motherhood 1998", World Health
Organization ... http://www.who.int/whday/en/pages1998/whd98_dg.html]
"One of the most distressing things seen in hospital practice is that
children who are admitted for simple malnutrition, or some other slight
ailment, not infrequently develop some serious form of acute disease while
in the hospital; not only the ordinary contagious diseases may be so
contracted but other acute forms, such as pneumonia and the acute
intestinal diseases. These come sometimes in spite of all precautions."
["Dr. L. Emmett Holt, writing about his work in Babies' Hospital, New York
City, 1898." Source: Child Health in America, p.13, U.S. Dept. of Health,
Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Rockville, Md., 1976]
FUTURE CLASSES
The first baby born in the year 2000 will be celebrated and receive many
gifts. But she/he will need the same thing as the last baby born in 1999:
a healthy and loving mother and father, food, warmth, clothing, and
shelter... and a celebration.
On January 12, 2000, I will be teaching my first class of the new year, a
prenatal exercise class. My job in 2000 will be the same as it is in 1999:
to provide information to families ... so they can get those babies born
and keep them healthy and safe ... so that those babies can grow up and
have healthy children of their own some day.
My classes are filled with scientific-based research, but the message I
hope people learn from my classes is: get good prenatal care, eat well,
take prenatal vitamins, get plenty of rest, be nice to each other, help
each other, love your baby.
My children's elementary school principal, Dr. Jim Burt, always gives the
same speech to graduating 5th graders. He gives children and parents one
last homework assignment. He tells the children to thank their parents and
tell them they love them. And he tells parents to tell their children they
love them ... everyday. That was a great speech when I first heard it in
1994 and it will be a great speech when I hear it for the last time on June
15, 2000.
OTHER RESOURCES
National Maternal and Infant Health Survey Public-Use Data File ...
http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/products/catalogs/subject/mihs/mihs.htm
The Human Genome Project ... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genemap99
"Telehealth and Telemedicine will henceforth be part of the strategy for
health for all" (WHO) ... http://www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1997/en/pr97-
98.html
KEY WORDS: Folic Acid, Tobacco, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Thalidomide, Birth
Defects.
~~~~~~~~~~ END ~~~~~~~~~~
© copyright 1999, D. Madonna [7/17/99]
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