Part 1: Healthy Conception, Pregnancy and the First Six Months of Babyhood

A few weeks ago, I was invited by Kolisko Waldorf School to a talk on How to Keep Healthy at Conception, Pregnancy & The First Six Months of Babyhood. I am using this portal to share my notes, some research and thoughts taken from this interesting topic conducted by Jake Tan, a pioneer in Anthroposophic Medicine in the Philippines.

Sign up sheet. What a lovely welcome with the handmade Waldorf doll :)

I resonate with these as I am genuinely a Virgo; deeply concerned about health and wellness. My journey into the green lifestyle jumpstarted when I become a mom to my first bon, Santi. When you are responsible for the whole being of another, you are suddenly more critical of what goes onto their skin and into their bellies. (And that's just the physical layer, there's the emotional and pychological aspect, too!)

Jake Tan waiting for guests to settle before speaking. This is the Kindergarten classroom.

After the very beautiful introduction by Tita Juna, one of the Kindergarten teachers at Kolisko, Jake started talking about "Environmental Medicine & Environmental Toxins" and how it affects babies in utero. He asked us to simply research on these topics in Google. He mentioned a startling fact, 'We have about 80,000 (man-made!) chemicals released in the environment after World War II". Yoiks!

"Today’s children face hazards that were neither known nor imagined a few decades ago. Children are at risk of exposure to thousands of new synthetic chemicals. Since World War II, more than 80,000 new chemicals have been invented. Many of these chemicals have been dispersed widely into the environment. Some will persist in the environment for decades and even centuries. Most of these chemicals did not previously exist in nature. Nearly 3,000 chemicals are high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals. They are produced each year in quantities of greater than one million pounds. HPV chemicals are used extensively in our homes, schools, and communities. They are widely dispersed in air, water, soil, and waste sites. Over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released by industry into the nation's environment each year, including 72 million pounds of recognized carcinogens.Of the top 20 chemicals discharged to the environment, nearly 75% are known or suspected to be toxic to the developing human brain." -Children & Environmental Toxins, Mount Sinai

Environmetal Toxins and Pollutants come in all forms, says Tan. Parents and those wanting to conceive should be cautious of radiation, pesticides, antibiotics & growth hormones in food, paints, resin, foams, etc.

Let me elaborate on each a little further with some research notes I made.

Hazards of Radiation
Ugh, it's everywhere these days! Wireless technology, X-rays, ultrasounds, microwaves, nuclear plants are some of the man-made sources of radiation.

"When radiation collides with molecules in living cells it can damage them. If the DNA in the nucleus of a cell is damaged, the cell may become cancerous. The cell then goes out of control, divides rapidly and causes serious health problems." - BBC

Got insomnia? Read up on the dangers of Wifi here. It might be linked to your mobile phone-internet connectivity at home.

Pesticides: Glyphosate in our food, soil and water - and why it matters.

Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most heavily used herbicide on GMO crops. In 2007, the last year for which we have reliable statistics, U.S. farmers used 88,000 tons of glyphosate. Allowing for no increases, that amounts to 580,000 tons of glyphosate dumped onto our food and into our soil and water in the past six years alone....And that’s just in the U.S. - Organic Consumers Org

This article writes about the increase on agricultural pesticides in the past 50 years and increased incidences of neurobiological disorders (ADHD) in children in the past 40 years. Coincidence? Obviously not! We are what we eat, and if we eat junk...what do you think we become?

More Chemicals, Hormones & Antibiotics in the food we eat!
If you are still unaware of how the food industry works, I highly recommend you read these books that will enlighten you and most likely change the way you eat.

Children, pregnant women and developing embryos are the most affected by the chemicals, hormones and antibiotics in the food we ingest. (chemical-laden fruits and vegetables and all meat and dairy products)

Paints, Formaldehydes, Resin & Foams in our Homes
Be wary of furnitures and home items that emit indoor pollutants. It only occurred to me a few months ago that even our mattresses that we sleep on can be a major factor on your general well-being; baby mattresses info right here!)

"The Green Guide recommends not purchasing mattresses treated with the fire-retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers -- which accumulate in the human body, and can potentially harm fetuses and infants in particular. It suggests buying beds with hardwood foundations, not plywood or particleboard, and an untreated, organic cotton or wool mattress with a natural latex core." -Creating a Toxin-Free Home

An  EPA study proves that indoor air contains up to 100 times more contaminants than the outdoor. Read Mercola's article on why we should never take clean air for granted here.

Ok, NOW WHAT? 
Is the paranoia kicking in? Knowing all these alarming facts, what can we do about it? Below is my personal suggestions of what we can do as parents to protect our families (and increase our health & immune system)

Jake Tan passed this info sheet around

1. Minimize exposure to environmental toxins. Read up on how to create a toxic-free home. 
2. Eat organic, local and in season. There is wisdom in following the cycles of nature. Note the word 'nature' which means to eat foods in their natural state for best absorption of mutrients and minerals. Jake Tan recommends a total organic food diet with less animal flesh, more fruits and vegetables to his patients that have difficulty conceiving. If you must eat meat, support local organic or pasture farms that do not inject growth hormones or feed antibiotics to their animals. Backyard Farms carry pasture-raised, hormone-free antibiotic-free chickens. Honestly, it is the only chicken I feed my family :)
3. Log out, unplug electronic devices and sleep early! We need sleep and rest because this is the only time our body can detoxify. Why rob ourselves from this natural healing state? I overheard this from a cousin, "Once you get a job requiring a graveyard shift (in call centers), you land one foot into the grave".

"Many health hazards have come into light for those working overnight. Scientists feel that working the graveyard shift interrupts our body’s circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is almost like a biological clock on a 24 hour cycle that deals with our physiological processes. This also includes telling our body when its time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake. Having a balance to this is very important because when we are not following that schedule, we become very weak from lack of sleep and becoming weak makes us more vulnerable to diseases." - Sleeping Habits

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, they follow an organ clock noting when your organs detoxify. If you want your liver to do its duty of cleaning out your blood, you MUST be in deep sleep by 1:00am, meaning you are in bed by 10pm. Which reminds me, it's time for me to rest so my organs can do its work!

Image from globerove.com

 Continuation to Part 2 (The Birthing Process and Vaccinations)