Products I can't live without

I deleted my last post because it was kind of mean, and I felt guilty thinking mean things about people that are always nice to me (it was about stupid questions people ask during our briefing sessions, in case you are wondering).

So, now I'm going to blog about nice things.

Kayla blogged a few weeks ago about products she can't live without.

Here's my list of "products I can't live without"

1. Burt's Bees lip balm



This stuff is heaven. I used to be a cherry chapstick addict, but this stuff is yummier and more natural. I can handle the slightly higher price tag because it makes my lips feel all tingly and minty.

I was also very happy to find out recently that Burt's Bees baby wash smells absolutely heavenly. I don't want to use Johnson's because of the chemicals, but I was sad because it smells so much like a baby. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Burt's Bees smelled better, without the parabens.

2. Tom's toothpaste



I'm sure most people can't live without their toothpaste, but I'm especially attached to mine. I switched over sometime last year, and will never go back. The spearmint is my favorite. It's delicious and makes my mouth feel super clean.

3. Nalgene



I'm not sure what constitutes a "product" but I sure do love my Nalgene. I drink A LOT of water. It's all I drink in fact, barring the occasional cup of OJ or Simply Limeade. I just really like water. And it's nice to have a nice container for said water, without buying disposable bottles. This is a cool one with a flip-top that I currently own since I left my pink breast cancer awareness one at Meghan McGrath's Chicago birthday party last semester. The only downside to this Nalgene is the flip-top has a tendency to come unflipped in my giant purse-bag. Resulting in a drenched and subsequently broken cellular device in my case.

3. And I'll have to ditto Kayla on the last item, and since we don't have many male readers (to my knowledge), and I've already blogged about episiotomies and leaking breasts so if they keep returning I'm guessing they are OK reading about feminine-y things, I'm perfectly not embarrassed to put in an image and a review even.



Let me tell you about the Diva Cup: it's remarkably clean, comfortable, convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly. Think of all those thousands of pads and tampons you throw out every month. What a waste! We live in such a disposable world, but there are a few things we all can do to make sure we don't end up in Wall-E's world. And cost-effective too if you get over the initial investment: I paid about $25 for mine, but have not bought other such products in almost three years. When my hippie friend Kinley initially told me about it, I thought it was kind of gross and a little awkward. But now I share the knowledge with everyone, because seriously, it's awesome and so not gross. Your vagina will thank you.

Daily Sexism

In our dinner group the other day here at the Barlow Center an educated intern was heard to say, after some disparaging comments from the group (none of them from me, I don't waste my time talking bad about people who've never heard of me) about Bill Clinton, "If I was married to Hillary Clinton, I would turn gay too." An awkward silence ensued and somebody said "That sounds like something Tim would say." I'm not really sure why they thought that, probably because I'm a fan of non sequiturs to make awkward silences, but I try not to malign anyone with them. So, in response, I said, "Actually, I try to stay away from sexism." The guy was a little upset, and said it wasn't sexist, and because I didn't want to cause a scene I ended the conversation there. But I will use our little personal soap box to explain why it was a sexist comment.

What sexism basically comes down to is treating the two sexes differently in ways that have nothing to do with their fundamental differences. Saying that being married to Hillary Clinton would be enough to turn a guy gay is sexist because one'd never say that about a guy. "Barrack Obama is just so intimidating and scary. If I were married to him I would become a lesbian too." Saying that a certain type of woman would turn her husband gay means that only a certain type of women is sexually attractive enough to allow her husband to remain straight. And that's sexism at its core. Thoughts?

Little fetus Theodore

I'm a paranoid pregnant lady. Every little pain or twinge of pressure sends me into a tizzy about pre-term labor. I blame it on my sister's inadequate uterus.

The past week or so I've also been paranoid about lack of fetal movement. He moved so much in the past few months, and then for a few days he was pretty still. It probably was just returning to work and being busy and not paying attention but it freaked me out. After a few cold glasses of ice water I felt some movement, so I'm sure little Theodore is doing just great in there. It also sucks that I don't really have a midwife/doctor who knows me to call when something's weird because we're kind of in limbo due to the whole moving across the country for three months in the middle of pregnancy thing. Which may or may not have been incredibly stupid.

I love being in DC though, and this is the last opportunity we would have to live in the Barlow Center and be Washington Seminar interns sans children. Even though my internship is a tad on the intellectually unstimulating side on a daily basis, I do have the opportunity to meet a lot of powerful, incredible women. Thus far, Melanne Verveer, Swanee Hunt, and Carolina Barco have been the highlights. If you don't know who those women are, they are all three incredibly powerful, intelligent, and doing amazing things in the world. You should learn more.

If not for the mutant bacteria, do it for the dolphins

Read a great reason to drop the triclosans here.

Two things about the article make it less impressive than we would like: (1) To hurt the dolphins, you have to be on the coast (2) No one is sure if Triclosan actually harms dolphins and doesn't just keep their insides bacteria free (come to think of it, that would probably harm them quite a bit, if their stomachs are anything like humans'). But, come on, they're dolphins! Do you really want to kill the dolphins just to save some time washing your hands? We don't.

Another one of my fears realized

I have a few irrational fears. Grates for example. Stepping on cracks. Another: elevators. Nearly every time I step onto an elevator my palms get a little sweaty, and if it's a long elevator ride, my heart starts to thump. I don't know what it is about elevators, but something about being suspended by a cable utterly freaks me out.

So, tonight, my fear became a reality for me. I was riding the elevator up to the 4th floor where I live. Jolly old good time, I was exhausted, I'd been working all day, and it was close to 9 pm. All of a sudden, it lurches to a stop shy of the floor I'm going to. Cue panic. I start hyperventilating, just waiting to crash to my doom. I get my wits about me and sound the alarm and call the people. The stupid intercom wasn't working properly so I couldn't really hear the nice elevator lady's instructions. I start crying and hyperventilating a little more, then I start shedding my clothes because I realize I'm having a panic attack and being hot and in constricting clothes makes it worse. I call Tim, and a crowd gathers outside. I can hear voices calling to me and yell back that I'm fine, no worries, just a little stuck. I talk to the nice lady some more and follow her instructions. Miraculously, what feels like an eternity later, the elevator begins to move again and takes me down to the floor I started on. When I tell her it's moving again and the door is opening, she tells me to get out, quick! Since some of my clothes and my bags and other random assortments of things I was carrying are on the floor now, I scramble to pick them all up and practically fall out of the elevator. I'm sure I was quite the sight, being all hysterical and disheveled.

From now on, I'm taking the stairs. I hope stairs don't = pre-term labor.

Some life stories

I went to the National Gallery of Art. I went by myself because Cait was at work, and, after her cold, she is still not up for activities. It wasn't really a family activity so I wont go on too much about it, but it was pretty cool. They have a lot more impressive art than I thought they would, and I missed some of the most impressive exhibits apparently.

I liked this sequence of paintings showing the stages of life by Thomas Cole:







Here's proof I was there:


Here's the best sculpture from the sculpture garden outside:

The house is actually indented away from the viewer, not poking out like it would seem from perception. It makes mine brain hurt.

Books I've read:

I can see why it's a classic and it was easy to read, but looking back on it now, I didn't like it much. The basic moral of the story is: everybody is a jerk, except for kids and exiles from society. The only adult that seems like a good guy ends up having a weird hair petting fetish. It's well written, but not uplifting at all. I know it's trite, but I want to be inspired, not depressed.

Good because he understands our main problem: Americans are technology hungry and depend and expect way too much from our health care system. We need a fundamental change in the way we think, but barring that, the government should do what it can to bring down costs. His idea for a national board for healthcare, based on the Federal Reserve is a good idea, but lacks teeth.

This book is best for being a collection of cool research studies. There are some cool experiments talked about in the book. Some of his ideas are good and common sense. I especially like how he talked about how some people playing certain roles within a society are necessary for pandemics to start. But he seems to be obsessed with context. The nature of nothing matters, only the context in which it is found. Unfortunately this argument breaks down, because a lot of the research done to prove that context is important is done in a laboratory, where the context is all wrong. On an even bigger level, he fails to explain how context comes to be. There are obviously some things in this world powerful enough to set the context, but he does not explain what those items are. Still, it was entertaining and easy to read.

My next post will be about security systems salesmen, so prepare your opinions.

Continue rant

Shay made a point in my comments about maternal mortality decreasing by leaps and bounds in the past 100 years. This is very true, as the number has decreased from 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1915 to about 7.7 per 100,000 today. Some of that has come from medical interventions being able to save mothers who are high-risk, however, the majority of deaths that are averted today are from basic knowledge of germs. A good portion of women dying 100 years ago were dying from puerpural fever, often in hospitals, from doctors not washing their hands between patients, or when going from patient to cadaver to patient (or as the CDC notes below, from unnecessary intervention).

According to the CDC: "Inappropriate and excessive surgical and obstetric interventions (e.g., induction of labor, use of forceps, episiotomy, and cesarean deliveries) were common and increased during the 1920s. Deliveries, including some surgical interventions, were performed without following the principles of asepsis. As a result, 40% of maternal deaths were caused by sepsis (half following delivery and half associated with illegally induced abortion) with the remaining deaths primarily attributed to hemorrhage and toxemia." And there was also a decrease in the mid-century due to the legalization of abortion (CDC: "The legalization of induced abortion beginning in the 1960s contributed to an 89% decline in deaths from septic illegal abortions during 1950-1973")

Furthermore, even with the drastic increase in c-sections, inductions, and epidurals, our maternal mortality rates have not decreased since 1982. And based on some research I've read, maternal mortality is underreported because there is not a consistent criteria across states that defines when pregnancy/childbirth should be listed as the cause of death.

Yes, we've come a long way in preventing maternal deaths. Managing pre-eclampsia, detecting fetal abnormalities, inducing labor or performing relatively safer cesareans when absolutely necessary... but we still have women needlessly dying or suffering complications from interventions.

Childbirth rant

The other day, one of the other interns asked me if I was planning on being induced. Like it was a conscious decision I will make early in pregnancy. Last year in my family ward, I was sitting in Relief Society when several pregnant women and a few with new babies were talking induction as well-- the new moms were raving about their inductions and asking the pregnant women if they planned on it. I know most of my friends didn't choose their induction dates (I imagine most of these women were birthing at Utah Valley), but it's actually becoming the norm. That is very scary to me. For multiple reason... one, being that induction isn't without risks and isn't something that should be done just for the sake of it. Pitocin is a serious drug; it makes your contractions harder and longer with very little space between them. Because there are no breaks like in normal labor, the baby does not have time to recover in between, leading to a drop in heart rate and fetal distress. Not to mention, the pain of induced contractions is way more intense, and dedicated women that are trying for a medication-free delivery often can't handle the more intense pain.

I know there are cases when inductions are necessary: when you are two weeks or more past your due date for example or there are complications like pre-eclampsia or gestational diabetes. But inductions for the sake of inductions... and the increasingly common use of pitocin... that is scary stuff.

And while we're on a childbirth rant: epidurals. The more I've been reading about them, the more I don't want one! I think it's weird how people are telling me how brave I am to do it natural, how they could never do it, and so on, but I think you are brave for letting a needle/catheter get that close to your spinal cord without freaking out! A spinal cord is a delicate thing. I like my body functioning just the way it is functioning. Epidurals are not without risks either, but I think they have become so commonplace nowadays that women don't realize the risks. Not only do they have medical risks, they also interfere with your body's normal birthing hormones. The pain of childbirth works with your brain to release a series of hormones that facilitate labor and delivery of a baby. When it's functioning properly, the pain send messages to the brain to release endorphins, a natural pain-killer. Epidurals inhibit the release of these endorphins, yummy feel-good pain-killing hormones, as well as oxytocin, the uterus contractor and love hormone. Epidurals administered early in labor will slow it down or stall it completely because it messes with oxytocin, in which case, then a woman will be given artificial oxytocin (pitocin) to speed it back up. Vicious cycle. Unmedicated birthing women also get a surge of hormones right at the actual moment of birth of their baby, which results in an ecstatic moment that is unmatched by any other moment in the woman's life. Her hormones are higher at that moment and the hour after birth than at any other time in her life. I want that delicious, ecstatic experience! But so many women don't know these things, or don't want to feel the pain, or just listen to their doctors recommendations and aren't empowered to give birth the way Heavenly Father designed our bodies to do it!

For example, my sister just said she figured of course she would get one with her first baby. Her labor was short, her baby was tiny, I have complete faith that she could have prepped herself a little and done it natural, but it was never even a question in her mind that she would have an epidural because everyone was having them. As a result, she couldn't push effectively and had an episiotomy for a 4 lb some oz baby. Oh goodness. Let's not get started on episiotomies (for those who don't know--that's basically when the caregiver cuts from the vagina to the rectum to increase the amount of room for the baby to get out). If for some reason I end up in a hospital during my birth (oh, we think we're doing it at home now, another blogpost for another time), if any doctor gets anywhere close to my vagina with scissors, my husband has been given strict instructions to push him/her away. The WHO has come out with evidence that episiotomies are far more hurtful than they are helpful, and most OB/GYNs will not even routinely cut them anymore due to current recommendations. However, there are some practioners that have 90%-100% episiotomy rates still! How a person can ignore the evidence so blatantly I will not understand.

Which now brings me to VBACs: a few decades ago, VBACs were the norm. Then, in 1995 I believe, the ACOG came out with a statement recommending repeat cesareans and also requiring readied surgical teams in every hospital that allows VBACz. This means that any woman who wants one in a smaller, community hospital will not be able to get one because rarely do these hospitals have the capabilities to have a surgical team ready at all times. This subject can kind of be a touchy one as well: there are risks associated with VBAC and they sound really gruesome. Again with the evidence, but it shows that the risks associated with repeat cesareans are higher than those associated with VBACs because the risk of uterine rupture is incredibly tiny, and the risk that the uterine rupture will harm your baby is even smaller. If the woman has a double-stitched, low-transverse uterine incision for her cesarean, the risk of rupture is even smaller. Some doctors are doing single-stitching now though because it takes less time and uses less material-- if you're having a c-section because of a complication, make sure you demand double-stitching! The risk of uterine rupture also SIGNIFICANTLY increases when the woman is administered pitocin or other labor-stimulating drugs. Since pitocin makes contractions stronger, it puts more pressure on the uterine scar. Oh, and a note about the 1995 decision reversal on VBAC by the ACOG: there were a series of uterine ruptures in like Massachusetts and litigation and ruined doctors... but then they realized that almost every single one had been administered Cytotec, which has been proven to result in rupture. Even with this knowledge, the ACOG stuck with their decision.

End rant. And just a disclaimer before the attacks begin... I recognize that childbirth can be just as health-hazardous as ecstatic and beautiful. There is a lot that can go wrong in pregnancy and childbirth. There is low fluid or fetal growth restriction or huge babies or labor that lasts for days and doesn't progress. I'm not saying that modern medicine is not wonderful in preventing maternal mortality. OB/GYNs are awesome. But they are surgeons. They are trained to find complications and treat them. And 90% of pregnancies and births are uncomplicated. Yet these women are still being treated by the surgeons trained to find something wrong so they can fix it. I would love to see more support for midwives and more faith in their care in our country. Because in addition to the toll our system is taking on women's bodies as well as women's experiences with how they feel about their bodies, it's also taking a huge toll on our healthcare system. I believe that birth is the highest grossing medical procedure in our system... it makes the most money for hospitals. There are SO many vested interests at play here, be it the for-profit businesses of doctors and hospitals or the insurance companies. If more midwives were attending normal, healthy pregnancies and births and less unnecessary interventions were being used, millions if not billions of dollars would be saved by individuals as well as by the government from programs like Medicaid. And I'm not saying we should skimp to save money on such an important thing as maternal health. What I am saying, is we could saving money and improving outcomes. The WHO recommends an optimal c-section rate of 10-15%. Ours is upwards of 30%. It's ironic that a majority of c-sections are "emergencies" but take place right before dinnertime. But doctors are people too... and the idea of 15-minute surgery and being home for dinner with your family (as well as the decreased chance of being sued for malpractice) is appealing I'm sure. We put so much faith and trust in doctors that we rarely question them. Heck, I let a stupid resident in the ER give me a completely unnecessary x-ray a few weeks ago because I was too stupid to actually speak up because I just wanted them to fix me. I think it's time though, that women reclaim birth from doctors. We need to trust our bodies! Do a little research, read a few books, look at the evidence and research especially. You'd be really surprised at what you find.

And if you support the idea that women should be able to choose where they birth (be it hospital or birthing center or home) and their caregiver, join the campaign! This is specifically for government-funded programs, allowing women on Medicaid to be able to choose out-of-hospital births. With the healthcare reform on the horizon (God help us), we want Medicaid to provide reimbursement for CPMs as well as CNMs and MDs. Right now, Medicaid will not pay for most birth centers or home births... but if they did, and women chose them, it would save lots and lots of money as I mentioned earlier.

28 weeks

...and counting

Iran's Elections

I wont bore anyone with my opinions or a long explanation of why this matters, but I'll just say that usually I'm interested in the Middle East for the sake of learning about the Middle East. However, this time I'm interested for the sake of America. Whatever your political opinions, what's going on in Iran is HUGE DEAL. Do our country a favor and be informed. This is the most important thing that has happened this year, at least on a foreign policy front.





PS I'm following the going ons here because he's on top of things, but I give no gaurentee of lack of bias. Drudge is also a fine place to look.