Is it possible I've made a connection with the cause of Morning Sickness in Pregnant women?  In researching the needs of Salt (the real kind, unprocessed sea salt, not processed to death table salt) for pregnant women I discovered that pregnant and lactating women need more salt (not a ton, just more) than non pregnant and non nursing women.  www.storknet.com - Nutrients:sodium

Why?  Turns out that Progesterone 'encourages' salt wasting... Symposium on Hormones ...in other words, your body usually recycles salt, but progesterone competes for receptor sites with the hormone that controls the salt recycling, and thus salt is lost through the urine rather than recycled for the body to use again.  When salt levels drop too low, symptoms include nausea, dizziness, fainting, lack of energy... just to name a few.  Basically, the list is nearly a carbon copy of many early 1st trimester pregnancy symptoms. 

This got me thinking last night.  I wonder what the hormone levels for progesterone looks like throughout pregnancy?  In looking it up, I learned that there are TWO forms of progesterone that increase during pregnancy.  As it turns out, one of them rises fairly sharply early on, but then declines right toward the end of the 1st trimester, and the other goes high and stays high. 

I just can't find it within myself to believe it is just coincidence that progesterone induced salt wasting is likely the source of so much of morning sickness.  The rise and fall of the Hcg hormone likely also plays a roll in aldosterone, (the salt regulating hormone).

Think about the foods used to help reduce nausea for a moment: saltine crackers and pretzels, both dry AND salty foods. Other suggestions often found helpful for morning sickness have been listed at popcorn, pickles, salt and vinegar potato chips... all salty foods.

Well, what about women who's nausea and bouts of vomiting start after using prenatal vitamins?  Well, they have to go through the liver to be processed, and the liver is already processing the hormones for pregnancy AND the hormones for keeping salt levels where they should be.  That's why changing vitamins can be helpful, because it relieves a level of stress on the liver in all the hard work it's trying to do.

One other factor that would contribute to lower than needed salt levels is stress.  Stress hormones also compete with the hormone that regulates salt levels and contribute to salt wasting.  People with higher levels of stress may ingest normal amounts of salt in a day, but because it's not recycling, their salt needs would be greater, as would the need for more water, for when salt wasting occurs, dehydration accompanies it. 

A lot of people would probably argue with me in that they are concerned about water retention, but as it turns out, that is more a problem with being DEHYDRATED and increasing estrogen levels, not so much a high salt level problem.

Keep in mind, processed food and processed salt won't likely have the same benefit.  Those things actually act as additional stressors to your body so cutting them out of your diet is more than just a good idea.  But a pinch of salt washed down with 12 oz. of water a couple of times a day just may do wonders for your morning sickness.

For some great information on Salt, visit The Water Cure.

I have been doing a lot of research on what I thought were several different topics until last fall when I realized they are all pieces of the same puzzle.  I was elated.  But this past spring I realized those topics were only the edges of a bigger picture when I started learning about Oxytocin.  (ok-si-toh-suhn)

Then earlier this week I learned more about the role of  Oxytocin in the birth process, beyond that of inducing contractions, initiating lactation, and promoting bonding.

It was of immense interest to learn how Oxytocin levels are suppressed, sometimes severely, in many birth events due to pain medications & various interventions being used.  The greater the intervention, the lower the production & release of Oxytocin. 

This poses quite a problem because Oxytocin in the fetus cues GABA to invert its normal excitory function of neurons, (the opposite of what happens with adults) to induce a sedated effect on the fetus.  It conserves oxygen and reduces metabolic demand.  This acts as a protective mechanism against brain damage in the neo-cortex of the brain of the baby during labor and delivery.

This leads me to believe the fetus would no longer receive full protection, significantly less so depending on various factors, and be at risk of going into distress due to pain management medications, synthetic Oxytocin (pitocin*) to start/augment labor, or C-sections. 

* Pitocin's actions don't reach the brain or act entirely the same way as the Oxytocin our bodies produce.

Because of the limited use and availability of pain medications for labor before the 50's, Oxitocin deprivation during birth should have been very uncommon.  With medication assisted intervention now so prevalent, only about 7% of the babies born in the U.S. would have such a protection, possibly adding another 1% to account for un-medicated home births assuming the statistics are for hospital births only & assuming all home births were un-medicated.

I have a theory that the consequence of the modern labor/birth experience results in somewhat of a diminished set point due to the intense stress/trauma at birth in response to lower levels of Oxytocin during labor. Then add a diminished response of the baby's post delivery Oxytocin release in response to the mother's compromised post-delivery flood of Oxytocin.

Consider this: say a baby born in the 50's grows up with a compromised oxytocin set point due to the events above, and then gives birth with the standard interventions of the 70's.  Seems to be a double whammy because as a baby this mother was deprived of some level of Oxytocin at birth, and now again at labor/delivery.  And now, her baby would not only have a compromised set point but the added complication of a mother with a doubly compromised set point.  Each generation would be impaired to a greater degree bringing us to the present time. 

Anyone who knows me knows how I love analogies, so here's one for you:

If you think of it as getting a smaller gas tank with your new car rather than the size it was designed to have, it's a little easier to imagine.  You could only put so much gas into it which doesn't get you as far.  You can take a gas can with you (natural & drug interventions) but it doesn't fix that your tank is too small, perhaps inconvenient, or maybe so limiting that you can't get anywhere you need to go even with a gas can (or several cans) to make it that far! You could always replace the gas tank with the proper size it was always meant to have, but it comes at a great expense of time, money, education & work.

It's a wonder we are able to function as well as we do when you really start to understand and consider it all.  Oxytocin is the "calmer" for the stress hormone Cortisol.  If you don't have sufficient ability to calm the Cortisol levels, you end up with chronic stress, and on and on from there.  And if my theory is true, it would only account for part (large or small) of oxytocin deficiency in a person. After all, not everyone gets a full tank at the gas station. Our daily interactions with others are essentially the fuel in our tank, so our experiences in life determine how full our tank is or can be filled at any given time.  And concequently, our experiences in life also determine how we perceive our future experiences and interactions with others.  So even though someone is offering fuel for our tank or there is a station to fill up at, we perceive fuel has been siphoned from our already limited supply or in the case of the station, we don't stop for fuel because we don't see it or think of it as something that it's not.

One more thing about it all, I can't exactly say I was surprised by the lower incidence of Postpartum Depression among women who choose home births,  16% compared to 68% of women who birth at a hospital.  Why?   

It's enough to make me wonder what kind of an affect (if any) will come from the 20% increase of home births since 2004...



Here are some of the resources where I gathered information for anyone interested in learning more, most of which offer more resources on their sites:

• oxytocin-neuroprotective-protection
• natural childbirth resources - post birth
• Documentary: The business of being born (not rated)
• Documentary: Pregnant in america (not rated)

I often find myself wishing I could share my gleanings when I research different topics.  It occurs to me that THIS is the perfect place to do that!  I can let you read what I've read, only summarized and edited so I'm not going on and on while you patiently push aside the nagging thoughts of , 'Will she EVER shut up?' from your beautiful mind.  I will attempt to do my part in saving you from those situations in the future.  = ) 

That is all.  Really..  I promise...

I've always loved paintings of the Savior as the Good Shepherd with the flock of sheep, especially if he is holding a lamb.  It was from studying more about parenting and "sparing the rod" spoiling the child, etc. that I have a whole new understanding as to how Jesus Christ really is our perfect example in all things.

For a long time I've struggled with the concept of how his example applies to parenting children because there hasn't been a 'literal' example of being married or raising children 'family' style if you know what I mean.  Then last week as I was looking up some things in the scriptures about 'fathers who spare the rod hateth his son' (the thing that sparked it was the saying of 'spare the rod, spoil the child' after I had heard a councilor say that the rod isn't a beating stick, but the staff of the good shepherd, used to guide the sheep, not punish them...) I finally understand.

I was looking  up passages in the Bible and Book of Mormon using the term 'rod' in them and I thought, the "rod" has been used in the scriptures a lot as "the word of God" or the scriptures, and as I applied that thought, all the passages, save one, fit that perspective BETTER that what I had always thought it was... (basically, a stick.)

For instance, if you don't teach your children the gospel and the scriptures... yes, you 'hate' your child... or spoil them... only not spoil in our modern day meaning, rather spoil as in destroy...  Then I  had the thought to look up the term "rod" in the Merriam Webster dictionary.  One of the definitions is a club, like a shepherds cudgel.

Hmm... I thought, interesting because it's different than a staff... the staff is used to guide the sheep... what is the club used for?  Immediately it was obvious.  It's certainly not for beating the sheep into submission or as punishment.  Shepherds NEVER beat their flocks, the flocks know and trust the shepherd, that is why they follow him while he leads the way... the club is to protect the sheep from the enemy!  It's to keep them safe!  (just like we are sheep, and the rod is the scriptures that keep us safe from our enemy who would destroy us, Satan!) 

Wow, it makes SO MUCH SENSE now.  Basically, our job is to teach our children how to use agency and guide them as they go so they will grow and learn, not demand them to do what we want by verbal or physical force... that is pushing them, not leading.  Shepherds don't push the sheep... they lead the sheep.

When we see our children making wrong decisions that would lead them astray from the flock, we teach them gospel principles, using the scriptures and the words of Christ, and then let them choose.  When we force our will upon them we become as wolves in sheep's clothing, or worse, cause them to leave the flock because they cannot trust the shepherd to lead them which leaves them vulnerable to the ravenous wolves.