During pregnancy you will go through change on all levels of your being

more rapidly than at any other time in your adult life. The only other time

your body and mind changed so swiftly and dramatically is when you were

in your mother’s womb and during the first few years of your infancy and 

toddlerhood.

First pregnancy is a rite of passage, which takes you from the Maiden

phase in your life to that of the Mother. Once this passage has

occurred you will never be the same again, both in body and mind.

For some women the dawning realization as the pregnancy progresses

that they are facing a major milestone in life, closing some doors and

opening others, takes a lot of emotional and mental letting go and

can be accompanied by regret, fear and doubt. These reservations

will, in turn, trigger a lack of ease, leading to a number of classic

pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, discomfort and

even aches and pains.

If this seems to be the case with you, it is highly recommended that

you talk over some of your concerns with a professional practitioner

specializing in a natural birthing approach, such as your yoga

instructor.

Unpacking these concerns often simply involves recognizing that

this is a major transition in your life that needs to be acknowledged.

Many women find it useful to ritualize or mark this process with a

special occasion with a loved person in their life, in recognition of

the significance of this rite of passage. Setting aside a special time

like this to focus on the importance of this transition in your life

can help you to embark on this new phase from a position of

awareness and joyous anticipation rather than feeling unsure

about an uncertain future filled with unknowns, and regret over

leaving a known and comfortable past behind. 

By simply talking over what it means to you to shed the past you

have known and to look into a future that is new and probably

quite scary for you can bring to the surface fears and

apprehensions that might otherwise stay buried, causing

lack of ease. Through this simple process, many women

discover that symptoms they were experiencing either

reduce in severity or simply disappear in the atmosphere

of aware expectancy that can follow such a process.

That is not to say that all symptoms are in the mind! The

body has a momentous job to do in the next short nine

months and will accomplish the task as well as well as

possible given the state of health at the time of conception.

That is why it is far better to plan a pregnancy to follow a

period of consciously nurturing and supporting the body

to a state of optimum good health. The healthier your

body is at the time of conception, the healthier your

pregnancy will be. After all it has a lot of work to do

and many changes to accommodate a new life.

Hormones mediate these changes and on the physical

level they bring about an increase in blood volume by

up to 100% to allow for placental and foetal blood

circulation and an increase in heart rate, liver metabolism,

respiration and digestion and assimilation. All of these

organ systems support maternal functioning but also

provide the flow of the life force, by way of nourishment,

oxygen and detoxification, into the growing baby via

the umbilicus.

Hormones also mediate changes on the mental level for the

new mum literally by actually altering the brain structure

functionally and irreversibly, forever, to prepare her for

motherhood. These changes, initially mediated by the

hormones of pregnancy, are further activated during the

birthing process and then reinforced by the bonding process

and by daily physical closeness between mother and baby in

early infancy and baby years.

In fact, during pregnancy the ‘brain morphing’ process involves

clipping off some of the neural pathways of Maidenhood that

will no longer be utilized. In the weeks just prior to birth,

reshaping the brain to a ‘Mummy brain’ occurs by adding

new neural-chemical pathways, constructing large networks

of maternal circuits in a process known as ‘nesting’.

Researchers tell us that a ‘Mummy brain’ is larger, more

competent and has in-built mechanisms to increase

risk-taking, grant courage and be more ‘on alert’.

In this way, Nature ensures that the new mother will be

not only physically prepared for the task ahead of her,

but also mentally prepped to ensure the best possible

survival chances for the incoming baby.

On the emotional level too big changes are taking place

in the Mummy-to-be, again mediated by the powerful

effects of hormones. Intending mothers often feel a

high degree of apprehension and fear that the baby

may not be healthy or that they may not be able to

manage the birth or motherhood. These fears are

entirely normal and are a part of the preparation

process that Nature has programmed into pregnancy

to ensure that the mother is prepared.

As discussed above, late pregnancy brings much

relief to the fears typical of the early stages, through

brain changes that alter the neuro-chemical pathways

bringing courage and an ‘on-alert’ readiness to face

the unknown with agility and fearlessness. Many

of the distressing emotional states of earlier days

of pregnancy dissolve with this late stage brain

re-structuring.

And what about baby and emotions? Because Mother

and baby are sharing the same body they are also

encapsulated in the same energy field. Emotions are

shared too – what the mother feels the baby feels

also, not on the conscious level, but as an energy

flow, which directly affects the delicate growing

organs systems of the baby. In fact, the mother’s

emotions become part of the baby’s subconscious

reality, embedded at the cellular level as the baby

lays down her physical structure. In effect, the baby

is like a sponge, soaking up the mother’s emotional

ups and downs as a kind of energetic ancestral map

for the future. It is now recognized that we carry not

only the physical characteristics of our parents, but

also the emotional tendencies, particularly of our

mother. So it is evident that the mother’s demeanor

during pregnancy has a profound influence of

shaping the baby’s personality for life.

Pregnancy can be stressful – any time we are forced

to go through major change registers as stress on the

human BodyMind….and as we have seen pregnancy

involves lightning-speed changes and being catapulted

into a new life style, situation and depth of complexity

with your current intimate relationship. The key to

riding the wave of change with relative ease is to

stay healthy physically, emotionally and mentally.

You can control your physical health through yoga and

other gentle exercise, consciously eating well and

getting plenty of sleep.

As far as your mental and emotional wellbeing is concerned,

this is where women are challenged to let go of control

and go with the flow, trusting that what Nature has

programmed into baby-making processes will ensure

the evolution of the species, not its devolution. Billions

of women ahead of you have taken this journey – and

survived. You need to be aware that encoded deep in

the inner recesses of your being is faultless programming

designed by Nature to ensure the best possible birthing

outcome for you and your baby.

So here are a few tips on how to navigate pregnancy for

the best outcome for you and your baby:

Listen to your intuition – it is your best guidance system

and it is personally tailored to your own needs ad those

of the baby you are making. YOU know best, even

though you may never have done this amazing thing before.

Be selective from whom you take advice. There will be

many offering you advice and in many cases it will be

laced with fear, as women usually like to share their

’horror’ stories. Because fear is so infectious and you

are exceedingly vulnerable when pregnant, make a

decision to listen only to those who affirm your

ability to know what is best for yourself, even your

doctor and midwife.

Inform yourself with positive stories around pregnancy

and birthing and mix with people who have an

optimistic outlook.

Seek help to calm your emotional fears if you feel

they are out of hand – your baby will be calmer and

healthier if you cn mange to treat your emotional ups

and downs with a pinch of salt rather than over-

dramatising them.

And remember, you will get your body back so rather

than bemoaning its expansion, marvel at its flexibility

and adaptability and enjoy the experience…….

How inappropriate is it that Julia Gillard’s latest foreshadowed tax cut targeting disadvantaged teenage parents who refuse to attend school or training and punishing them by taking away their benefit, hit the headlines in the week prior to Mother’s Day?

From my perspective, apart from the fact that this particular social group is often targeted due to an antiquated morality that still punishes young women who fall pregnant out of wedlock (and this is not the issue being discussed here), this proposed budget cut hits even harder at the notion of motherhood itself.

In effect, it virtually penalises a young mum for staying home during the critical infant/toddler years when the quality of the mother-child bond shapes the physical, mental and emotional health of her offspring for the duration of her child’s life. There has been a plethora of research that unequivocally validates that a close and constant interaction between mother and child (not a child-care employee) is enormously beneficial during the critical formative (nurture) years of the in-arms and early toddlerhood phase of a child’s life.

This announcement sends a very clear message to young mums: that it is NOT OK to simply nurture and support your baby during these critically important formative years, but that you need to justify your existence, by undergoing skills training or education from the time the baby is six months old. It also requires that the child attend early learning classes such as childcare or preschool care.

In both cases it promotes separation between mother and child at an age when connection and bonding is forging major positive brain changes and growth in both mother and child that support the evolution of the next generation.

Recent research is informing us that babies lucky enough to have at-home quality mothering for the early formative years, grow into more rounded, balanced adults with less likelihood that they will go off the rails and develop serious social and mental illnesses It also demonstrates that these children have less health problems and become successfully independent from their parents at an earlier age. All-round healthier children grow into functional adults whose drain on the health resources of a country are minimized.

It has also been shown in a variety of research projects that a woman’s mental and emotional health matures dramatically during pregnancy and the early mothering experience, due to the massive brain changes that result from the inflow of hormones, cleverly programmed by nature to ensure that the baby survives.  Furthermore, when a woman’s experience of mothering is happy and she produces a contented, well-developed rounded child, she will actively seek to pursue a better life for herself and her youngster, because it is also programmed into her innate biology to ensure her child is well resourced and supported. This research demonstrates that young mothers with a positive parenting experience under their belt will step into the responsibility of a job much more readily than a similar aged teen from the same disadvantaged background, who has not yet had a baby.  This maturation process is an easily observable phenomenon in new mothers of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds, and is not restricted to disadvantaged teen mothers.

However, with timely support and intervention, particularly throughout the pregnancy, during infancy and early toddlerhood, younger mums from disadvantaged backgrounds given every assistance to bond deeply with their babies and to share their experience with other young mums will blossom and mature naturally. Forcing separation between a mother and her child at too early an age will prevent this natural process from flowing smoothly and easily.

I am not suggesting that these young women do not need help, but it seems to me, that a far better way of helping them would be to instigate a plan that supports the youngsters in their parenting from within the home environment, so that the parenting experience is successful, both for them and their offspring.  They will then be better able to pass the normal milestones of parenting and be ready, in concert with the child’s readiness to reach out to the world beyond the mum, to move into training and education in preparation for entering the workforce.

When women artificially control their hormones and their fertility they are affecting more than just bodily processes. For example, taking the contraceptive pill can result in physical side-effects such as weight gain, as well as personality changes including depression. When a woman is on the pill it is so much more difficult for her to stay in touch with the truth of her own inner being.

The healthier and more attuned to her feminine core, the more readily a woman will naturally conceive a healthy child. Being in touch with her body also assists her to practice safe and natural contraception so that she consciously makes a choice about when to start a family.

The need for Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) is an indication of a compromised reproductive system. Babies conceived in this way are being cheated of the right to be born fully healthy and functioning optimally, because by forcing reproduction when the body is not ready, we create babies that are less healthy than they can be if conceived naturally. Women in touch with their feminine intelligence can actively promote reproductive health and happy, healthy off-spring through maintaining a healthy body and mind.

When a woman is true to her essential being and embraces her natural femininity she steps into her power and to that of the ancient female lineage that is as deep as time itself. From this position she effectively shapes the world around her, and that of the generations to come. 

if you would like to understand how to embrace your natural femininity, you may be interested in attending some of our Spirit of Woman workshops. Here you will learn how flower essences made from the purity of nature can help you step into your power as a woman. To view our 2011 workshop schedule, click here.

We hear so much about the incoming Divine Feminine energies but what does this mean for contemporary women from all walks of life, and in the various stages of womanhood?

The “Divine Feminine”, “Return of the Feminine”, the Sacred Feminine ” are all metaphors for the return to higher consciousness. We seek balance between the male and female aspects of the Self and when we find that balance we come into our power. The return of the feminine, is not about women ruling society; that would create imbalance. It is about the return to nature, to masculine/feminine aspects in harmony, yin and yang re-united so both hemispheres of the brain are working in balance leading to higher levels of consciousness.

When we take an overview of the changes taking place on a cultural level right across the globe we can begin to see that there is a subtle energy shift, in wake of the GFC, that calls for a slow-down of the galloping pace of life and a move towards co-operative rather than competitive relationships at home, in the business world and in the community.

This is an expression of the Divine Feminine whose values include co-operation, net-working, process-orientated, conservation, and support. The values we have been operating under are competitive, hierarchical, linear, expansion, and dog-eat-dog. The incoming Divine Feminine is ushering in a change in the way that society functions as well as a shift in the way that women perceive themselves and men relate to them.

Women are being called on to acknowledge these powerful energies within themselves and align with the vital primary forces of life that drive both their physical functioning and their psychology.

When a woman is empowered through this alignment she becomes exactly what nature intended her to be: sexy, articulate, intuitive, playful, feeling and healing. As the bearer of children, she carries the baton of life force energy through to the next generation. And because she is compelled to seek compassionate quality connection with those in her intimate circle, she is the connector, creating and re-creating the web of life that sustains us all. Her primary drive is to conserve, nurture maintain and support. With the planet teetering at the brink of exhaustion, it is the feminine principle that is now needed to redress the imbalance and heal.

When, as a woman, you tune into your female biological underpinning, you will learn how to listen to the whisperings of your own truth. You will then be open to the immense source of power that comes from acknowledging and living in alignment with your feminine core.

When, as a man, you understand the essential nature of the woman in your life, you will more easily dovetail into the soft undulations of the feminine psyche whilst retaining, upholding and engaging your own potent masculine spirit.

One of the workshops that Spirit of Woman conducts is called the Energy of Parenting, which covers the absolute power of positive parenting on the health and well-being of offspring. I was delighted to hear on the Health Report this week (15th March, 2010) a discussion on the power of positive parenting, including positive fathering on, not just adequate mental functioning, but high performance mental functioning.

Based on a study conducted by Felicia Huppert and others, Director of the Wellbeing Institute and Professor of Psychology, and published as 'Parental practices predict psychological well-being in mid-life:…' the discussion centred around how to attain 'positive mental health' or what can be called 'flourishing in life', rather than just 'existing with the absence of a disorder', which is the focus of most studies previously conducted.

What sets this study aside as distinct from others is not only the emphasis on optimum mental functioning, but also the fact that it is a long-term study that follows children through to late adulthood. Commenced in 1946 in England the study followed women since their birth in that year and recorded information, including memories of how their parents behaved towards them up to the age of 16.

Based on an accepted measure of the way that offspring perceive their parents, rather than any objective measure of the parents themselves, the study identified three dimensions of parenting. One dimension is warmth and care, another one is the extent to which the parent is engaged in what the child is doing, or kind of just laissez faire and doesn't seem to care very much, and the third dimension is control. So it looks at the extent to which a parent is very controlling, or over-protective, or intrusive and explores the extent of engagement, such as when they take a real interest in what their child is doing and provide guidance, but not in an authoritarian or controlling way.

The study sought six main areas in which to question the way that psychological wellbeing comes about: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others and self acceptance.

The study found, i n the main, that the more warm and caring a parent is the better the child on all dimensions. However one unusual finding was to do with autonomy, in that when a mother was very warm and caring a daughter was less autonomous. Or putting it another way – a daughter was very autonomous, assertive and defiant if her mother was less caring in the sense of how warmly she responded to her child, when she had difficulties.

Overall, the study clearly showed that warm and caring parents need to be positive and give appropriate praise, engaged and interested in what the child is doing and to be 'authoritative' rather than authoritarian. That is, rather than being over-controlling and over-protective, they need to give the child a sense of trust, some respect and freedom while at the same time being quite clear about boundaries, about what the behaviours were acceptable and what were not.

Another unexpected finding was one that validates a notion that I have written about in my book "The Essence of Woman". It concerns the importance of positive fathering to his daughter's ability to develop confidence and autonomy as an adult. All previous literature focusses on the mother's behaviour in terms of a daughter's mental health. But this study showed beyond a doubt that the father's behaviour is actually more important than the mother's across all dimensions. So while it was important that the mother was warm and caring, and that affected many dimensions, the father, if he was warm and caring brought benefits across all dimensions. The particular difference was in terms of engagement and control – in other words confidence and autonomy. So the father who was trusting, respectful, appreciative and showed good guidance rounded off his daughter's development by giving her the set of skills necessary to navigate 'the world'. She can engage with people while at the same time maintain her own sense of  self with confidence. The Spirit of Woman blend, Daddy's Girl was designed with the importance of  the father-daughter relationship in mind. If you would like to read the full transcript on the Health Report click here.

Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear what you think.

According to two recent Radio National Health Reports (2^nd November and 9^th November) about one third of all babies being born in Australia are being delivered by Caesarean section, that is a surgical cut through the mother’s abdomen.

There are two main groups of women having caesareans: those who choose it and those who consent to it on medical advice either before or during labour.   Of those, an estimated 18% request it for no medical reason- a recent phenomenon that has increased dramatically over the last decade.    It’s not really well understood why women choose caesarean section without a medical reason. However, a study by the Cochrane Collaboration found that women’s birth choices were heavily influenced by three things:

• previous birth experience,
• their need for choice and control and
• especially their fear of a vaginal birth.

Fear of vaginal birth is very real, especially when women are at the mercy of a medical system using terminology and strategies that induce fear and lack of confidence in their bodies. And a system that promotes women to hand over the responsibility of their contraception, fertility and birthing to doctors, who in many cases are male. Because the mainstream medical system is based in the masculine principles of problem solving, and its main treatment strategies are surgery and pharmaceutical intervention, it ignores the emotional side of medical conditions.

Woman are not counseled when they express their fear of the pain of childbirth, but rather told that the solution is to remove the baby surgically – there is no ‘how come you’re feeling like that, let’s talk about it, let’s see what kinds of things can we work through to help you feel empowered and, how can we help you make an informed decision’.

Caesarean is NOT a safer option!

The truth is that caesareans involve major surgery and according to experts who have had long-term experience with the aftermath of caesareans, they are definitely not a safer option. Apart from the implications of cutting open the uterus and thereby weakening it for subsequent pregnancies, there is the problem of adhesions, which can have life-threatening effects, in the event of  second and subsequent pregnancies.

According to obstetrician David Ellwood, the gravest outcome, Caesarean Scar Pregnancy, can be life-threatening and, with the increase in CS, is on the rise. This is where the embryo actually implants in the caesarean scar and starts to develop within the scar. According to Ellwood, “the gestation sac then starts to disrupt the scar and if it develops for too long the wall of the uterus will actually rupture and the scar will break open, there will be a major haemorrhage”.

Furthermore the pregnancy cannot progress. Again says David Ellwood, the pregnancy “can progress for quite a few weeks, in fact the most dangerous types of caesarean scar pregnancies are those that have been undetected and have progressed to quite an advanced gestation.” Because the baby “couldn’t survive to full term” late-term abortion is then required which involves either an infusion of the cancer drug methotraxate that kills placental tissues, so it stops the placenta from growing and developing, or, by surgically cutting the baby out of the uterus. In the former procedure, the lethal drug has to also circulate through the mother’s system.

Another complication that arises with pregnancies following a caesarean birth can result in the placenta penetrating into the uterine wall and even through into the bladder, because it cannot attach to the scar tissue in the uterus. The inevitable outcome for this condition is that baby must be born by Caesarean Section and the uterus removed at the time of surgery, because there is no way to stop bleeding without taking out the uterus altogether.

Side Effects on Baby of Caesarean Birth

If these are the consequences of surgical birth for the mother, what is the impact on the baby? According to the report, research demonstrates that surgically delivered babies show a dramatic increase in:

• Type 1 diabetes
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Breathing problems

The report goes on to say that in many cases, intervention is often unnecessary and that the markers for foetal distress that determine a doctor recommending a caesarean during labour are often commonly over-exaggerated, causing excess caution in a process that is natural. Doctor’s fear of litigation has been cited for this extreme over-caution.

In my book, The Essence of Woman, I describe how Nature has designed stress into the birth process, balanced by the return of the vaginally-born baby to the heart-field of the mother, as she cuddles her newborn. A close, tight birth canal ensures that every inch of the baby’s skin is stimulated, cleverly planned into the birthing process to trigger the initiation of the baby’s functional systems. These are the systems that will enable baby to exist independently of the ‘mother-ship’ and include the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous and elimination systems.

In a caesarean birth, these systems are not stimulated, resulting in an inefficient ‘start-up’ of the baby’s independent systems. This means that there will be functional deficiencies involving the skin, lungs, stomach, liver, bowel, heart and brain of the newborn.  The health outcomes include allergies, digestive disharmonies such as childhood and infancy diabetes (alarmingly on the rise) and colic, asthma, psychological and emotional problems such as ADD, ADHD, autism, developmental retardation and behavioural difficulties, including autism.

To understand how these health problems arise when a child is unnaturally born, read my book, The Essence of Woman, where the underlying MindBody connections are fully explained in easy readable language.

As women, we need to seriously consider how far away from our natural feminine intelligence we have strayed, when we willingly agree to have our natural processes managed for us by pharmaceutical companies that drive our mainstream medical systems for profit. In most case, this means white-washing the public into believing in the medicalisation of women’s natural reproductive processes, as with the recommended use of HRT for menopause.

Women Have Lost Confidence in Their Bodies

Many women have lost confidence in their bodies. This happens when we collaborate in the management of our reproductive processes with a medical system using toxic pharmaceutical agents that injure the body and downgrade our natural processes.

Use of the contraceptive pill has become commonplace now, and yet it has serious repercussions for the health of women. The dramatic rise in IVF (one in six couples in Australia are affected by infertility, and one in twenty babies – about 10,000 – are currently born using assisted reproductive technology) is a testimony to the fact that women’s fertility is being negatively impacted.

What’s more, the pill has been shown to reduce libido and to contribute significantly to depression.

But it doesn’t stop there. The cascade affect goes on: the more the IVF cycles, the less likely a woman is to conceive. In other words, IVF further degrades fertility and contributes to multiple births, where neither the mother nor the babies receive the optimum nutrition or energy to deliver optimum health for the newborn at birth.

Moreover, research has demonstrated that the natural gender balance is being gradually eroded with 58% of babies being born male via IVF, compared to 51% born male by natural conception.

A study, by the Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society at the University of Melbourne, found:

• IVF mothers more likely than non-IVF mothers to have a caesarean birth
• Three times more likely to seek help from an early parenting centre and
• Babies more likely to be bottle-fed by three months of age

The conclusion of the study was stated thus: “We think that experiencing infertility and the added stress of using Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) has a cumulative effect, eroding women’s confidence in themselves and in their bodies.”

IVF has a touted success rate of 15%. It is a billion dollar industry that is increasing its profits by the day. Currently, there are no quality control standards in place, nor is there any come-back for couples who pay out tens of thousands of dollars with nothing to show at the bitter end, but heartache and a stressed relationship.

Truly, it is a modern day tragedy that seems to have no end in sight.

Continuing down this path can only result in the dramatic devolution of the human race, in terms of both physical and psychological health and wellbeing of the children being born, in this denatured way.   That is unless, as women we stand up and say no, stop and enough!!

It is within our power to find other, more appropriate ways to manage our fertility that does not involve chemical castration, the expunction of natural coital conception and the slicing open of our abdomens to cut our babies from our bodies.

On Friday 21st August on Tony Eastley’s AM morning program on ABC Radio National there was a discussion on the alarming increase in juvenile diabetes in Australia. More Australian children are being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes than ever before. A new report reveals that were 900 new cases notified in 2007.

That represents a 30% increase in the number of new cases since 2000.

This means that Australia has the highest rate of Type 1 diabetes in the world – around 1000 children being diagnosed each year.

The report also looked at the increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and that more Australians are developing the disease at a younger age.

Factors considered to contribute to the increase fell into three categories:

1/ A childhood virus that is part of a range of 17 viruses called enteroviruses – no concrete proof of this as a cause but considered by scientists to be a high likelihood (30% – >50%)

2/ Lack of Vitamin D – this consideration is based on studies, which correlate rates of diabetes in countries with low exposure to sunlight such as Finland and Scandinavia versus countries with high sunlight exposure. Again this is just considered to be a hypothesis – and a simplistic one at that.

3/ Bottle Feeding – early introduction of cow’s milk to the gut might inflame the gut or intestine of the baby and cause a development of an autoimmune response where the immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

Personally I was alarmed and but not shocked at the statistics.

In my clinical practice, the underlying cause of so many diseases that people present with stem from a digestive weakness.

And, as we can see from the above discussion, many Australians are suffering from an inherently weak digestive system. This means that no matter how high the quality of foods that we put into our bodies, the digestive system just cannot efficiently transform the incoming food into available energy.

Diabetes is the most serious disease outcome of this weakness, along a spectrum of other disorders that effectively sabotage the joy and energy available to us in our daily lives. This gives rise to a vast range of unpleasant symptoms such as sinusitis, chronic lethargy and tiredness, menstrual difficulties, anxiety and stress symptoms, allergies, acne and so on, to mention just a few!

I believe that the scientific approach outlined above leaves out one critical factor that underpins each of the three hypotheses described. That is the crucial mother-child bond that nature built into the birthing and early infancy process, but which is being negatively impacted by unnatural birthing methods, early weaning and premature separation of mother and child through early child-care practices.

The mother-child bond is critical to the baby’s health and relies on primary contact in early infancy and toddlerhood with the mother or primary care-giver. This does not include a mother substitute who divides her time between many children under supervision.

A healthy mother-child bond assures not only the emotional and mental wellbeing of the child but also has a powerfully positive effect on triggering the integrity of the physical digestive system.

A good healthy digestive system needs a natural birth to initiate healthy functioning, and close mother-baby contact through breast-feeding to ensure that the intake of food is associated with pleasure and contentedness.

An anxious baby whose emotional and close-proximity needs are not being met becomes anxious and fearful, setting off an inflammatory process throughout the body that centres in the digestive system. This also weakens the immune system, leaving the baby open to virus proliferation in the gut, as described above.

I wonder whether the fact that Finland and Scandinavia have a more enlightened approach to early mothering, exemplified by their much more time-generous allowance for parenting leave, is not a more realistic reason why there is a lower incidence of diabetes in the young in these countries.

From a Mind-Body perspective, emotional and mental factors cannot be separated from the physical – together they interact to produce either health or disease – and even more critically in the infant, when critical body systems are being kick-started. In fact, the patterns of health or disease set during these early days, are the ones that will persist throughout a lifetime.

Let’s go deeper than the surface when looking for the patterns of a disease that is undermining the health and wellbeing of our people. Birthing practices, breast-feeding and supporting mums to stay at home with their babies for as long as possible, seem to me to be the best ways that we can prevent the rise of this life-debilitating disease that produces its insidious effect in so many areas of our daily life.

My range of flower essences has a blend which might be useful to strengthen the bond, even years later.

In the Courier Mail on the 14th July 2009 there was an article titled “Epidural Epidemic– No labour pain, no bond gain”.

It reported the comments of Dr Walsh, an associate professor in midwifery at Nottingham University in Britain who stated that more women should be prepared to endure the pain of labour because anaesthetic drugs used to diminish the pain and increase the comfort of women undermine the bonding process built into a natural birth.

He described labour as a ‘rite of passage’ and a ‘purposeful and useful thing’ for women, effectively preparing them for the demands of motherhood.

What a refreshing approach -  I have expressed exactly those sentiments in my book The Essence of Woman.

My focus however, was not so much on the notion that women should endure the pain so that ‘the benefits….prepar(e) a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby’, as expressed by Dr Walsh, but rather that nature has inbuilt into the birthing process certain triggers that initiate a crucial series of actions that support best mothering ability and best baby survival capacity. In other words, birthing sets in place biological responses to ensure that mothering and early infant survival rates are optimized.

In fact, nature has cleverly designed the birthing process so that in a natural birth, biological responses chemically, hormonally and psychologically drive the mother to strive for better opportunities in life than she herself had. This is called good ‘old-fashioned’ evolution – and it is nature’s way of ensuring that each generation experiences life in a more optimum way than the generation that went before.

The means by which nature sets the evolutionary drive in place is largely through the quality of mothering. The primary strategy is known as the ‘bonding process’ a which occurs largely at birth due to a cascade of hormones that inflow into the mother’s bloodstream in response to the passage of the baby through the birth canal. The main chemicals involved are the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, which promote bonding and the desire to breast feed, and the neuro-chemical endorphin, which triggers a pleasure/bliss response.

The hormones, at their highest during labour, effectively reduce pain by increasing the mother’s responsiveness and acceptance of her baby – oxytocin not only leads to stronger contractions and therefore a lower risk of internal bleeding, but it also stimulates waves of bliss generating what can only be described as the beginnings of a passionate love affair with her baby.

Endorphins are calming and pain-relieving hormones that people produce in response to stress and pain. The level of this natural morphine-like substance may rise toward the end of pregnancy, and then rises steadily and steeply during unmedicated labors. (Most studies have found a sharp drop in endorphin levels with use of epidural or opioid pain medication.) High endorphin levels during labor and birth can produce an altered state of consciousness that helps women flow with the process, even when it is long and arduous. Despite the hard work of labor and birth, a woman with high endorphin levels can feel alert, attentive, and even euphoric as she begins to get to know and care for her baby after birth. Endorphins may play a role in strengthening the mother-infant relationship at this time. A drop in endorphin levels in the days after birth may contribute to the "blues" that many women experience at this time.

On the other hand adrenaline can also affect a birth. Adrenaline is the "fight or flight" hormone that humans produce to help ensure survival. Women who feel threatened during labor (for example by fear or severe pain) may produce high levels of adrenaline. Adrenaline can slow labor or stop it altogether. Earlier in human evolution, this disruption helped birthing women move to a place of greater safety.

Too much adrenaline can cause problems in labor and birth by:
• causing distress to the unborn baby
• causing contractions to stop, slow, or have an erratic pattern, and lengthening labor
• creating a sense of panic and increasing pain in the mother leading providers to respond to this problem with caesareans and other interventions.
A calm and trusting approach to the impending birth, feeling supported by loved ones and a strong sense of confidence that the labour will be OK, avoiding disturbances, such as unwelcome people or noise and uncomfortable procedures and stimulation of erogenous zones prior to labour ensure that sufficient oxytocin will overcome the excess production of adrenaline.

Under the influence of this hormonal cascade, Mum feels euphoric, touching and gazing at the baby in a bubble of ecstasy and love. The baby responds to the touch by relaxing and regaining a sense of deep safety following the gruelling and painful journey down the birth canal. The more the baby relaxes the more blood circulates freely to the various parts of the body, initiating and triggering the life support systems that are crucial to her post-natal existence.

As Dr Walsh so rightly states, “Emerging evidence shows that normal labour and birth prime the bonding areas of the mother’s brain more that caesarean or pain-free birth”. Furthermore, there is new hard evidence that supports his statement that natural birth prepares a woman for motherhood.

As discussed in my book The Essence of Woman, a woman’s brain is dramatically changed during the labouring process. Research demonstrates that due to the inflow of high levels of hormones, including adrenaline, a woman lays down extra neuronal circuitry that wasn’t there before the birth. These extra brain circuits equip the mother with the capacity for coping with the new demands that having an infant, solely reliant upon her, brings.

His final call was to recommend the National Health Service in Britain to abandon pain relief strategies and instead to encourage women to use natural pain relief methods such as yoga,, hypnosis, massage support from their partners, hydrotherapy and birthing pools.

In the birthing chapter in The Essence of Woman you will read a number of other ways that you can maximize the birthing experience so that it supports evolution rather than devolution.

Needless to say Australian birthing experts labeled Dr Walsh’s comments as dangerous. There is an entrenched view in Australian medical circles that needs swift revision. Currently statistics indicate that 30% of births are caesarean.

That means that there are many children out there who are being deprived of their natural birth-right to optimum health and well-being, designed by nature to ensure not only the survival of the human race but its ongoing evolutionary ‘thrival’.

If you would like to obtain a copy of my book The Essence of Woman go to essenceofwoman.com/
 

I read an article in the Weekend Australian Magazine dated May 16th – 17th 2009, which has profound ramifications for those women (and their partners) struggling with their fertility.

A recent University of Queensland study showed that children born to older fathers have, on average, lower scores of tests of intelligence than those born to younger dads.

Data analysed from more than 33,000 American children showed that the older the man when the child is conceived, the lower a child’s score is likely to be on tests of concentration, memory, reasoning, and reading skills.

A Swedish study reveals further, that the risk of schizophrenia begins to rise for those babies whose fathers were older than 29 and is higher if they are older than 55. The same age factor applies with the risk of bipolar.

Perhaps not surprising if we consider that ageing affects every cell in the body and has no gender bias. Somehow the perceptions around fertility as solely a female issue need rethinking. Men are part of the equation, and not just the pleasure part!

Sperm are not ageless, nor are they bullet-proof. Production of healthy sperm is dependant on the well-being of the man – a poor diet, stress and a toxic overload in the body, due to excess alcohol and smoking, dramatically affects the quality of a man’s sperm. So too, it is now confirmed, does ageing. If the little blighters have no tails, poor motility, are immature or are low in number, a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant are dramatically reduced. Similarly, if she falls pregnant the baby she bears will be less than optimally healthy, regardless of how ‘in the pink’ she is .

Due to the cringe factor, many women take sole responsibility for fertility. Furthermore, it is women who ‘hold the time lines and calendars in our heads, who have to surrender space in our bodies and clear time in our lives’. Women are the ones who have to juggle their careers, or settle for a partner who may be less than ideal because their biological clock is ticking over. Mainstream medicine has long discouraged ‘older’ females from having babies. In this sense and more, women have been long held responsible for the ultimate health of their child.

Tables may turn when women are armed with this information about sperm ageing. No longer does the image of the older man with a younger woman on his arm seem so attractive, if older men are liable to be seen as past their fertility ‘use-by date’ by women.

The stereotype has always been that while older women just get old, men become more ‘distinguished’ with age. Women might find that, when they tune into their feminine intelligence, biologically inscripted to select the genetically best father for their offspring, they might now take age into account as well. Men may be forced to stick with women of their own age, because the biological drive of younger females to conceive under optimum conditions, puts them out into the grazing paddock.

We are in this together, males and females. Let’s stack the deck so that when all the cards are on the table, both genders are realistically appraised, without a bias that puts one on top of the pile, in favour of the other. Goodness knows, in the interests of evolution of the race, each succeeding generation must improve on the one before it.

For that to happen both men and women need to evaluate their health and well-being and make choices that ensure optimum chance for survival and thrival of their offspring, prior to conception.