Biochemistry Week 4: Our Biochemistry and Cognition

I wanted to add to the discussion of postpartum care that came up in class. I am passionate about postpartum care and feel that all of us as providers should at the very minimum be able to explain the importance of postpartum planning to potential parents and be able to refer families to services if they do not have friends and/or relatives that are able to contribute to ongoing care once a baby joins the family.

As Larry shared from his own experience, there is a lot of emphasis in our society on the pregnancy, labor and delivery, and then, lo and behold, a baby arrives! The typical hospital stay is 1-2 days for a vaginal delivery, and 2-4 for cesarean delivery, then off goes the new family to navigate a thousand questions and a rude awakening when they return home. Many families live in a single family home and far from relatives, leaving one or two parents to recover physically and emotionally from the birth, keep up house (or not), feed themselves properly (or not), stay on top of medical appointments and stay sane amidst sleep deprivation and the anxiety of keeping a tiny human alive.

It is important for us as community members of those we know and love to step up when people become new parents to support and nourish them so that they can focus their energy on nourishing the baby. I have provided some resources below for organizing nutritious meal trains to be delivered to the new family. Helping arrange for folks to help with laundry and chores around the house is also incredibly helpful. Be aware that it is not necessarily helpful to offer to "come over and watch the baby." Sometimes a new parent or parents may want this, but do not assume. Ask first what you can do to take care of the parents and help around the house so that they can rest and perhaps enjoy time bonding with the little one. Also, offer to drop off food or supplies (perhaps nourishing broths or teas because you are a super cool Chinese medicine practitioner) without coming in for a visit (so that you do not need to be hosted).

And for those you know and love or for clients who you know cannot get that village support that all new parents deserve, there are professionals called postpartum doulas. Postpartum doulas support new parents with information, taking care of household tasks, newborn care, emotional support, referrals and supporting postpartum healing. As Linda mentioned, the care that a birthing person receives in the immediate postpartum will affect their health for the rest of their life. This is a precious window to fortify one's constitution and I hope we all honor this in our practices and build up our society by building up our parents and little ones.

Some resources:
Books
The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother by Heng Ou (A very accessible read by all and a good introduction to the principles of postpartum care in the Chinese tradition)
The Postpartum Recovery Program: How to Adapt the Ancient Practice of Zuo Yue Zi to Your Patients by Lia Andrews (A practitioner guide. More advanced - so fun!!)

Tools
https://takethemameal.com/  - coordinate a meal train
https://www.mealtrain.com/ - coordinate a meal train

Services
Jing Mommy postpartum meal delivery - https://www.postpartummeal.com/

Helpful Professionals (people to make friends with and add to your referral network:
Postpartum Doulas  (Services range from 25-45 hourly, depending on time of day/night and scope).
How to find them:

• Search engine.
• There is a facebook group called Bay Area Postpartum Doulas, which is one way to connect clients and doulas
• Also, our classmate Yaminah trained locally as a postpartum doula. 
• I am a birth and postpartum doula, feel free to ask me questions.
• Innate traditions is a great training program, check out their provider network

Lactation Consultants (the choice of provider is usually dictated by insurance coverage - but learn your favorites and which networks they are in)

Psychotherapists 

Trauma informed counsellors

Pelvic Floor Therapists

Support groups!

Biochemistry Week 3: Living Diversity

"Restroom Hand Dryers Are Blowing Bacteria Everywhere"

I really enjoyed Emily's comment in class that we should carry handkerchiefs or use our clothes to dry hands when possible. The introduction to the article didn't surprise me much, and initially I didn't think that circulating what is in the air would be such a bad thing, but that circulation seems to make a big difference when the cultures were taken. With hand dryers in use, there were sometimes as many as ten times the amount of bacteria colonies growing in washrooms. This is something to keep in mind for immunocompromised individuals. Otherwise, it's kind of an icky thought and I think I am done using hand dryers and going back to the pant leg.

"

"More Americans anticipate downsides than upsides from gene editing for babies"

This was a really interesting class discussion. I appreciate that wealth and class divides and well as concerns over lack of rigorous testing came up in the group. The question that comes up for me in discussions of this nature is always, who are we to decide what a "defect" is, or what normal is? Several months ago in a discussion with some fellow doulas, the idea was put forth that there is no such thing as a disabled person; it is our society that is disabled. Our society is unable to include all people and allow everyone to lead a dignified life. The idea of gene editing babies is missing the point and driving us further down a dark and dangerous path. We have already seen what has come of the case for genetic engineering and agriculture. Ultimately those who are proponents of those technologies are missing the point. We must widen our gaze and change land management and agricultural practices, there is so much to improve there to provide better nutrition for our generation and those to come. Similarly, I don't believe gene editing humans will help any more than harm our society. 

Biochemistry Week 2: Cell Biology and Radioactivity

The class discussion that sat heaviest with me was that regarding the disproportionate effect of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown on women and children. It's disturbing how careless corporations and government officials are when it comes to stewarding the health of our ecosystems, our ancestral lands, our homes - all for short-term profit for a select few. How do we let this happen? As Elokin spoke of in class, there are tsunami stones all over Japan, set there as a warning for future generations the highest places that a tsunami will reach. What arrogance to think that walls can keep a tsunami, or any other natural event, from touching human-made structures settlements. What disrespect to our ancestors, and disregard for our communities, to build nuclear power plants in places we know have been washed away before. In this country we talk of building pipelines that will defy nature's movements. This is lunacy. The deep level of denial of our inability to control this world and invent order and rules for nature becomes more evident in the actions of the Japanese government, attempting to force families to return to unsafe areas, as is simply saying that it is safe will make it so. Like saying that a power plant will not meltdown will make it so. Like saying a pipeline won't break will make it so.  I am glad these women are suing the Japanese government in the thousands.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/asia/21stones.html

Shout out to Yaminah for sharing this lovely story on how sunflowers are being used to decontaminate soil in Fukushima!  https://yamssciencesummer.blogspot.com/2018/07/biochemistry-23-july-cell-biology-and.html?showComment=1532900696822#c426118813064458981

I really enjoyed reading the cell structure articles. I learned something new about viruses! My mental image of viruses was more like that of a bacteriophage. Animal viruses are more compact than I thought.
I tried to post the pictures but blogger got mad at me: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/virus.html

Biochemistry: Week 1 Reflections

The placebo effect always makes for an interesting discussion. The definition itself speaks strongly to the paradigm in which it was created, one in which medicine will reduce a person to a chemistry problem, to be solved accordingly:

The placebo effect - when the patient feels better despite taking a medicine with no active 

ingredient.

Patient X has symptoms A, B and C? 

Give pill D! 

(...)

And/or hug. 
And/or a flower essence.

And/or take the time to be present and listen to their story.

And/or let them know that their body/being has an incredible capacity for healing.

And/or pray.

And/or ... (the list can go on indefinitely)

The beauty of the placebo effect is that is demonstrates that healers are not technicians and people are not passive recipients of treatment. Even fake acupuncture has a healing effect. I do not believe that this invalidates a modality of our medicine, but rather highlights how critical intention is to healing. 
We posses an innate power to heal ourselves. When healing occurs, does it matter if it was a pill, a needle or a swim in the sea? Can we really ever know what action or substance has produced a healing effect? I don't think we can know. The more faith we have in ourselves and our patients to heal, the more transformation we will see.

__

The definition of biochemistry that speaks to me is:

Biochemistry is the study of the fundamental mechanisms of life at the molecular level.

I am intrigued by this. I'm looking forward to this class and learning more about what we are able to observe on a molecular level of the mechanisms of life.