The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
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I just had my mind expanded this morning by Laureen Hudson's hour long online session on how to use the internet to get a message out. Laureen's session “Creating an Online Presence," gave me a wealth of information in a short time and impressed me with how many people are out there who completely rely on the internet for their information. I needed that, and maybe you do, too. - Ina May Gaskin I just hung up the phone from doing the hour long session with
Laureen Hudson on “Creating an Online Presence”. Laureen’s know-how
and expertise were enough to wake up even the birth oldtimers like me and
Ina May to the many unused opportunities of the internet. Laureen’s
engaging and easygoing teaching style made even those scary (to me) terms
like “hypertext, streaming, wordpress, technorati, feedreader and trackback”
start to make sense. Her passion is to reach the generation of young
women who have not yet given birth BEFORE they fall into the black hole
of aggressive obstetrics. I came away from the class today with lots
of ways to improve my website and make it more modern, usable and interesting
for readers. This class will run again this coming Friday (August
22) and I heartily recommend it.
Cost: $35 per session Each session will be 60 minutes in length Creating An Online Presence
Search!
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From: C-reuters@clari.net (Reuters) Subject: More signs that fetus ``decides'' birth date Organization: Copyright 1996 by Reuters Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 14:20:13 PSTWASHINGTON (Reuter) - Scientists said Thursday they had added to the evidence that a fetus decides when it is ready to be born.
The latest research, on rhesus monkeys, suggests that the fetus monitors its own developing systems and sends out a signal that sets off labor in the mother.
Scientists are looking into this mechanism to help understand premature labor, which can lead to the death or disability of the baby, and also to develop better care for women who go past their expected due date.
``The possibility that, in normal human pregnancy, it is the fetal brain that controls the duration of pregnancy is an exciting one,'' said Dr. Peter Nathanielsz of Cornell.
The research was done at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and Mt. Sinai Medical School and will be published in the April edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
Earlier studies of sheep had identified mechanisms in the fetuses' brains similar to those now seen in the monkeys.
A group of brain cells that controls the fetal lamb's adrenal gland, setting of a chain reaction of hormones that eventually stimulates the mother's cervix to dilate and the uterus to contract -- labor.
Monkeys have slightly different hormonal circuits than the sheep, but the scientists successfully induced early delivery of baby monkeys 80 percent of the way through the pregnancy by delivering the corresponding infusion of hormones.
Live monkeys were delivered seven days later. In the control group that received a placebo the mothers did not deliver for 20 more days.
More work must be done to learn how the human system works, but Nathanielsz said the studies were exciting.
``It would be of great survival value if the fetal brain can act as a 'computer' taking messages from several vital developing systems, such as lungs, kidneys and other parts of the brain, to compute the level of maturation and act accordingly.''
``It is absolutely essential that we learn how these natural systems
work and how to help when they don't.''
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