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"Find your passion, whatever it may be, and you will find great things happen for you, to you, & because of you." T.Alan Armstrong

Green Birth

We all know what “being green” is. But have you thought about it in regards to birth? Chances are most haven’t. But we should.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’m starting to regard myself more and more as “green” although I don’t care for the term. I prefer saying I’m being responsible with my environment, my home, and our bodies. I’m starting to be more conscience about not only what we eat, but about what goes on our bodies too.

Now, what does this have to do with birth? I’ll get to it.

When we’re pregnant (when I say “we” I mean as a society), we do all kinds of things to give our babies the best start we can. For instance, we may cut caffeine out of our diets, we eat more fruits and veggies, we don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol and refrain from taking most medications. Why? We don’t want to harm our babies, or hinder their growth or cause birth defects. And many studies have shown links between those substances, or foods that either help or hurt the baby.

I’ve heard many women say they are very careful about what medications they give their children, even what vaccines they do or don’t give them.

How many women go into a hospital to give birth and get pitocin and pain medications? Now how many women know the risks/benefits of these drugs? How many have thought twice about the fact that these things are drugs? How many assume that since Dr’s endorse them they are ok or that since “every body” uses them during labor/delivery that they are perfectly safe? I think many women blindly assume that since they are commonly used (to the degree many Dr’s/nurses don’t know what an unmedicated birth looks like) that there are no risks at all. I could go into a lot more detail but we’ll save that for another post.

So why do we just sign up for these drugs without a second thought about the effect they have on our babies. If we don’t even take an Advil while we’re prego then why would we give our baby a narcotic while it’s trying to be born? It’s not healthy for the baby. Why do we work so hard to have only good things go into our bodies while prego, but throw that out the window when in labor? I’ve heard of women asking their Dr’s/nurses the risks of pitocin and pain meds while in labor only to hear that there are none. This is a lie. If it’s not good for me to take an over the counter drug like Advil while prego, then why would it be ok to take a narcotic that is only administered by needle in the hospital, while prego? (By the way, I’m referring to non-emergency situations).

Being green is about taking responsibility with your actions, and I’m big on that. We need to be more responsible with regard to our births, realizing that some things do carry risks. We need to be educated, so we know what we are agreeing to when giving birth. Don’t ever let someone make decisions for you regarding your birth.

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“Be not a slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.”


~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pregnant in America

I met with my VBAC support group last night and we watched Pregnant in America. This was the 2nd time I’ve seen this movie but I’d forgotten how good it was. It’s the journey of a couple expecting their first child. They travel around the country and world researching birth and interviewing childbirth experts. It covers a wide range of topics including: home birth, hospital birth, doctors, midwives, doulas, pitocin, epidural, cytotec and natural birth. It’s a very well put together movie with very important information. Anyone expecting a baby should watch this movie and watch it with their partner. You can pick it up at the library or Amazon. Here’s the link to their website.


The movie is pro home birth (which I like) and does have a lot of info regarding it. I am very pleased with this fact because I am a home birth fan. I believe for me and that in most cases home birth is the safest option for birthing. I believe very much that women’s bodies know how to give birth even if our brains don’t. I believe that a laboring woman shouldn’t have to fight with her care givers during labor to get what she wants or doesn’t want (& that seems to be the case in hospitals). I believe that a laboring woman should be left alone unless there are medical reasons to interfere. We need to be supported in birth not rescued from birth. I know that not all women can or should home birth, but this group of women is the minority not the majority. The medical community sees birth as a medical event, where women need to be “saved” from birth. I don’t see it that way. I see the moment of my child’s birth as a wonderful, beautiful event and I don’t need to be saved, I need support and then to be left alone to let my body do what it needs to bring my child into this world.

Jamie's birth video

I wanted to share a wonderful birth video.

My friend Jamie had her 2nd baby at home in her tub with the same great midwives that I used, Margarett and Anne from Heaven Sent Birth. She had an amazing natural, peaceful birth in the comfort of her home. Yes obviously it was painful for her but you wouldn't know it by talking to her. She loved giving birth to her babies and loved that it was natural.
You can watch it here.

Thanks Jamie for sharing!

Homemade Laundry Soap UPDATE

About 2 weeks ago I posted that I had made a batch of homemade laundry soap. At the time I hadn't tried it out yet. But I've used it the last 2weeks and it works very well! With the recipe I have there is not a fragrance to it so the clothes only come out smelling like fabric softner (store bought) or with our cloth diapers (can't use fabric softner) they just smell nice and clean. On my batch of soap it didn't have the consistancy that the recipe said but it seems to still be working just fine. So far I'm really loving that I made our own laundry soap and that it works! So I would reccommend that you try it.

Now, I'm off to try my hand at some homemade household cleaners as well!

Pitocin NOT Approved by the FDA for Elective (non medical) Induction

This is a must read for anyone considering being induced. Unfortunately we trust our care givers completely and think that they would never do anything that would harm us, when this isn't always the case. Please read about the dangers of elective pitocin use.

New ACOG Less Restrictive Guidlines on VBAC

This is great news for the birthing community! The ACOG has finally recognized that women need more options and that VBACing can be a safe option for most women. Hopefully we'll start seeing this support in our hospitals and care providers. And I pray we start seeing a significant decrease in c-sections.
Here's the ACOG release.

Birth posts

I'm going to start posting a lot of links, articles, and blogs on birth and all it's related info. This is a passion of mine and since this is my blog I want to have a place to keep it all together for my future reference as well as to share with others. I hope that you read this info and think about it and use it to make purposeful decisions.

HBAC blog

I absolutely love this article/blog about HBAC (home birth after cesarean)! She give great stats about the risks of home vs. hospital and VBAC vs. repeat c-section. And I love the picture of the apple, it completely describes a c-section. Check it out here.

What Triggers Spontaneous Labor

This is a great article I found on a blog I love to follow. It goes to show you that the baby knows when it's ready to be born. We shouldn't be trying to force labor to start before the baby is ready. Check out the article here.

Green Christianity

I’ve been really interested lately in being more responsible in my environment. I’ve been reading many blogs and Facebook pages about ways others are being responsible.


I’m a Christian and like so many others we have a knee jerk reaction (unfortunatly) to what “environmentalist” and “tree huggers” have to say. But a couple of years ago I heard a pastor talk about Christians needing to be more responsible with the world God gave us. Well that touched a nerve in me; I was doing a little bit but I wasn’t doing enough. I was looking at the people, saying to recycle and such, like they were crazies. I was discrediting them because I didn’t like their politics/ethics/religion without ever listening to their message. I’ve since changed the way I look at this.

Now I recycle what I can, have a small garden with plans to expand, I use cloth diapers and even made my own laundry soap. But when I tell others what I do (Christians) I get excuses why they can’t do the same, looks that say “I’m crazy” or people saying I’m turning into a liberal tree hugger. I just laughed it off at first but then I started thinking that I was just being responsible with what God gave me. If God created this world and all that’s in it then I as his child should be taking good care of it. I should take more time and effort to recycle, not waste food and water and not use so many poisons (cleaners, pesticides, etc). I should honor what He’s given me and my family. It disappoints me that so many Christians (not all) turn away from doing these things because people we don’t agree with on other issues endorse it. We should be more concerned with being good stewards with our environment, just like He called us to be with our money and children. As Christians we should be the ones leading the masses to take better care of our environment and all that it entails.

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The path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ok, so I just finished making my first batch of homemade laundry soap. I'd heard about it first on 19 Kids and Counting, and thought it was a cool idea. Then a friend on Facebook posted that his wife made her own laundry soap and they were kind enough to post their recipe and instructions. So, I thought why not give it a try? Since we do cloth diapers, we obviously do a bit more laundry than other 3people families and from the cost savings I heard about I knew I had to try it. So this morning I did it and I have to say it wasn't very hard. It took maybe about 30min to make. So, now I have to wait 24hours to set up then I can use it. When I do, I'll be sure to post how I liked it and such.
I don't remember exactly how much everything cost to get but here's a general breakdown:
I usually buy All laundry soap and my last bottle was 115.5fl oz at around $9 @ Target
I picked up the Borax @ Target for I think $3
I picked up the Washing Soda @ Homeland for around $2
I already had a bar of Ivory soap, but if I had to buy it I think I could have bought a 6pk for around $2
Already the price is cheaper, plus the batch I made should last around 6mo (not sure yet but we'll see), and I still have plenty of ingredients to make several more batches. So I'll be saving a ton!

Here's the recipe:
Liquid Laundry Soap:

1 Bar Fels-Naptha soap or Ivory (Homeland on the laundry soap aisle - by the Spray N Wash)
1 ½ cups borax (Target or Homeland)
1 ½ cups washing soda (Homeland on the laundry soap aisle)
5 gallon bucket
Water
Large pot

Grate or cut Soap into small pieces, add to large pot, add 12 cups of water, boil until dissolved.
Add Borax & washing soda, stir until dissolved
Add 8 cups of hot water into 5 gallon bucket
Add soap mixture Stir
Add 2 gallons and 12 cups water to mixture
Let sit 24 hours, stir well and divide into containers.

Note: The consistency will be like jelly or pudding when it sets up.
Note 2: I use the same amount per load as store bought detergent."

2nd Birthday

Today is my son's 2nd birthday and like most parents on their child's birthday I'm remembering his birth. Unfortunately in my case I can only remember my labor and then about an hour after he was born. I had to have an emergency c-section and had to be knocked out during my surgery/his birth. (I'll go into more detail some other time) This makes me very sad that I wasn't "there" when he came into the world but he thankfully turned out healthy and perfect. Even though his birth was a rough start for all of us, I was so content when I finally was holding him and nursing him. I was finally who I was meant to be, a mother. Trey has brought so much joy, healing and fun into our lives, more than we ever would have expected! He is a bright, happy, loving child and so I say happy birthday to him and happy becoming parents day to David and I.

First Post

I'm slow to jump on the social networking bandwagon, but my husband David is all over it! He finally talked me into a FB account about a year ago and I've slowly gotten into it. Over the year I've been able to start following some groups/organizations or just other women who think like I do. I've been able to learn a lot from them and it encourages me to do my own research in those areas. This blog is like the next step for me as a place I can start collecting some valuable information for me and others who are interested, as well as a place I can share who I am. I want LIFE ON PURPOSE to be a place that I can encourage others to think about the decisions they've made or rather not made. Unfortunately in our culture we are big on doing what everyone else does because we don't want to stick out or have people make fun of us, and I get that. But a lot of times we just go along with the crowd on what they do and then when things go wrong we wonder what happened. I want to encourage you to think and to chose. I also just want to share fun stuff as well.