Another study on Delayed Cord Clamping

Yet another study that proves that delaying the clamping and cutting of a babies umbilical cord has great effect on improving the baby's vital signs and over all health.  This study looks at cord clamping and cutting in preterm infants, but the fact is that the benefits to these fragile infants carries over to full term infants too!!

Dr. Nicholas Fogelson writes about delayed clamping and the shifting of thinking in Obstetrics- one of the slowest medical fields to "change" from ideologies they've carried around for decades.

"..For the majority of my career, I routinely clamped and cut the umbilical cord as soon as it was reasonable. Occasionally a patient would want me to wait to clamp and cut for some arbitrary amount of time, and I would wait, but in my mind this was just humoring the patient and keeping good relations. After all, I had seen all my attendings and upper level residents clamp and cut right away, so it must be the right thing, right?
Later in my career I was exposed to enough other-thinking minds to consider that maybe this practice was not right. And after some research I found that there was some pretty compelling evidence that indeed, early clamping is harmful for the baby. So much evidence in fact, that I am a bit surprised that as a community, OBs in the US have not developed a culture of delayed routine cord clamping for neonatal benefit."

 The latest study on Delayed Cord Clamping, as reported in the BBC news states that preterm babies who's umbilical cords were left intact for a longer amount of time had a positive impact on the health of the infants.

'Delay cord cutting aids babies'

Delaying clamping 'allows babies to adapt to their surroundings'

Waiting up to two minutes to cut the umbilical cord after a premature baby is born could reduce the risk of bleeding on the brain, say researchers. A team from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals reviewed seven studies of 297 babies.
Around half of units in the UK do wait, but others cut the cord as quickly as 10 or 15 seconds after birth.
The review is published by healthcare information group, the Cochrane Collaboration.
The seven studies which were reviewed measured blood pressure, red blood cell counts, blood volume, bleeding within the brain and the need for transfusions.
Between 60 and 80% of preterm infants less than 32 completed weeks' gestation require transfusion.
But premature babies often have trouble breathing, so doctors aim to move them to special care baby units where they are helped to breathe, which requires the umbilical cord to be clamped and cut quickly.
'A healthier start'
Medical staff ordinarily clamp the umbilical cord in two places after the baby is delivered, then cut the cord between the two clamps.
There are no formal guidelines for when the cord should be cut. The latest evidence showed 47% of units performed delayed cord clamping - anything between 30 seconds and two minutes after birth,
The researchers say reducing the chances of bleeding in the newborn's brain also cuts the need for transfusions.
They found the delay also reduces anaemia and increases blood pressure and blood volume, giving premature infants a healthier start in life.
Dr Heike Rabe, the neonatologist who carried out the review told BBC News Online: "A slight delay in cord clamping of preterm infants is good for their subsequent health.
"It is cheap, leading to no extra cost. The optimal timing is not known yet and needs to be assessed by further studies. Funding needs to be available to perform this clinical research."
She added: "If the cord is left unclamped for a short time after the birth, some of the baby's blood from the placenta passes to the baby to help the flow of blood to the baby's lungs," Rabe explains. "Delaying cord clamping for just a very short time helped the babies to adjust to their new surroundings better."

HERE to read the entire article

"Breastfeeding may reduce diabetes risk"

Yet more positive studies showing the positive health benefits of Breastfeeding for mothers too- it's not just about feeding our babies!! The more we learn about the benefits of Breastfeeding the more we realize that nursing our children is a biological imperative for the health of our young AND our mothers.

Breast is NOT best. Breastfeeding is the NORM. And when society realizes this, then society as a whole will benefit.

Breastfeeding May Reduce Diabetes Risk

Lactation History Linked to Less Metabolic Syndrome

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 3, 2009 -- There is more evidence that breastfeeding benefits moms as well as their babies.

Breastfeeding was shown to significantly lower a woman’s risk for developing metabolic syndrome in a study reported today by researchers with Kaiser Permanente.

"...

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors linked to both diabetes and heart disease, including elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, and belly fat.

The new study is one of the most rigorously designed trials ever to explore the impact of breastfeeding on such risk factors.

Researchers examined data on 704 women who were followed for two decades, starting before their first pregnancy.

Because the women were enrolled in a larger heart disease risk study, the researchers had information on wide range of health and lifestyle factors. None of the women had metabolic syndrome at enrollment, but 120 developed the condition during the 20 years of follow-up.

In the population as a whole, breastfeeding for longer than nine months was associated with a 56% reduction in risk for developing metabolic syndrome during the follow-up period.

In women who developed gestational diabetes during one or more pregnancies, the risk reduction was 86%..."

HERE to read the whole article

"Why babies should never sleep alone:.."

Why babies should never sleep alone: A review
of the co-sleeping controversy in relation to SIDS,
bedsharing and breast feeding

James J. McKenna* and Thomas McDade
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, IN 46556, USA
PAEDIATRIC RESPIRATORY REVIEWS (2005)

"Summary
There has been much controversy over whether infants should co-sleep or
bedshare with an adult caregiver and over whether such practises increase the risk of
SIDS or fatal accident. However, despite opposition from medical authorities or the
police, many western parents are increasingly adopting night-time infant caregiving
patterns that include some co-sleeping, especially by those mothers who choose to
breast feed. This review will show that the relationships between infant sleep patterns,
infant sleeping arrangements and development both in the short and long term, whether
having positive or negative outcomes, is anything but simple and the traditional habit of
labelling one sleeping arrangement as being superior to another without an awareness of
family, social and ethnic context is not only wrong but possibly harmful. We will show that
there are many good reasons to insist that the definitions of different types of co-sleeping
and bedsharing be recognised and distinguished. We will examine the conceptual issues
related to the biological functions of mother–infant co-sleeping, bedsharing and what
relationship each has to SIDS. At very least, we hope that the studies and data described
in this paper, which show that co-sleeping at least in the form of roomsharing especially
with an actively breast feeding mother saves lives, is a powerful reason why the simplistic,
scientifically inaccurate and misleading statement ‘never sleep with your baby’ needs to
be rescinded, wherever and whenever it is published."

HERE to read the entire PDF article

New Research on Vitamin D, Cancer and boosting your health

In the past year there have been several major new studies that are showing that one way to drastically reduce your risk of cancer and countless other chronic diseases is to optimize your levels of vitamin D.

Considering the statistics that 75% to 95% of North Americans are considered to be Vitamin D deficient, it is no wonder that we are suffering from cancers and heart disease and stricken with cold and flu viruses. But don't expect Big Pharma to advertise the fact that Vitamin D is so vitally necessary to boost our health and immune system: There is no money to be made through the sale of vitamin D: it is one of the most inexpensive supplements on the market, and Sunshine is FREE!!!

More than 200 epidemiological studies and 2,500 laboratory studies, have linked Vitamin D to Cancer according to epidemiologist Dr. Cedric Garland, PH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

In these studies they have discovered that optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent at least 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers and cut your risk over all of cancer by as much as 60%.

Low levels of vitamin D in your blood have long been correlated with higher risk of heart disease and heart attacks, and further, low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes.

The best way to optimize your vitamin D is through safe sun exposure. It is possible to generate about 20,000 units of vitamin D by exposing your skin to the sun. However, if you do not have access to regular sun exposure on a large portion of your bare skin, a vitamin D3 supplement may be necessary.

Based on the most recent research, the current recommendation for dosage is 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight. So for a child weighing 40 pounds, the recommended average dose would be 1,400 IU’s daily, and for a 170-pound adult, the dose would be nearly 6,000 IU’s. However, it’s important to realize that vitamin D requirements are highly individual, and can vary greatly according to numerous factors, such as the color of your skin, your location, and how much sunshine you’re exposed to on a regular basis.

For the most up to date information about Vitamin D and its effects on our health, I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Mercola's Web site, and this article in particular:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/01/Important-New-Vitamin-D-Research-Papers.aspx

Here are some very informative studies about Vitamin D from Dr. Mercola's web site:

Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective, by Cedric F. Garland, Edward D. Gorham, Sharif B. Mohr and Frank C. Garland

Ecological Studies Of Ultraviolet B, Vitamin D And Cancer Since 2000, by William B. Grant and Sharif B. Mohr

Vitamin D and Breast Cancer, by Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson