Make it safer for Mum and Baby
It does not hurt to make sure there is enough micro and macro nutrients in mum’s body – before she conceives and during pregnancy. Often the need for these is increased – especially for breast feeding. . Especially as so many women are so iodine, zinc, selenium and magnesium deficient – and all of these create health issues – for mum and the baby.
The eBook Eating in Pregnancy covers not just what goes in, but what happens when you do eat – and how this impacts on all of your pregnancy.
The usual ‘pregnancy’ vitamins may not be the optimal ones – and I strongly suggest you look sternly at your diet. Magnesium deficiency is not where you want to continue as without a great store of it, all manner of pregnancy ‘high risk’ problems emerge – and often when taking calcium as told to on all maternity literature, you are actually feeding the woes . . . pre eclampsia, heightened blood pressure, insomnia, gestational diabetes, threatening to miscarry/preterm birth, spasms and aches and pains, migraines and headaches, digestive disorders, constipation, clotting troubles, mood swings, irritability of muscles, all pain in back and pelvic girdle, and self, and all lactation problems – mastitis and lessened supply – and post natal depression. For baby – not thriving and possible cerebral palsy. And this is just not enough magnesium – it can get so much worse.
Magnesium is easily restored by rubbing the gel or oil in your skin many times daily, and by having Epsom salts foot baths. . . a very easy way to a better birth.
One woman who consulted with me had been only drinking black fizzy drinks . . the diet version – so that in her mind made it OK. First baby died after the emergency C section as she was almost eclamptic. Now pregnant with second – and all the major body pains happening again at 23 weeks. . .. Did no one notice she never drank water? Only the black liquid poison for babies? Who seems to be monitoring what is going inside the pregnant mum? What does it matter? Lots.
Perhaps look to what you could do to help yourself – as the pregnancy can run so much smoother if you have some idea of what happens in a well body – from the acupuncture energy model. The set of self help books here are to guide you through to perfection – without needing outside help.
Written by a natural healing expert on why things go wrong – and what you can do to rescue yourself – easily at home. Usually a simple, natural solution
Look not to the medical helpers as they are not prone to seeing the connection health – food – as veterinarians do.
Places to get someone else’s ideas . . esp her list of what else to read
You will not find (well I haven’t to date) a source that tells you to limit the calcium – you need the magnesium to use it .. . all dairy farmers know this. All women I have supplemented with magnesium are easy birthers, sleeping well, have heaps of milk, and no gestational diabetes in sight – where do you get magnesium from ? Dark green leafy veggies – and ab[voiding all white sugars/flours and chemicals – and being a wholefood eater.
Pregnant Women at Increasing Risk of Strokes
Women rarely have strokes during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth, but researchers have seen a big jump in such events over the past 12 years, according to a U.S. study published the 27th of July.
Of course medical officials and doctors have not the slightest idea of what might be the most basic cause of this alarming rise. They speculate that more women are overweight when they become pregnant, which can add to the likelihood of complications from diabetes and high blood pressure.A total of 4,085 pregnancy-related stroke hospitalizations were documented in the United States in 1994-95, and that number rose 54 percent to 6,293 in 2006-07, said the study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Now, more and more women entering pregnancy already have some type of risk factor for stroke, such as obesity, chronic hypertension, diabetes or congenital heart disease,” reported Dr. Elena Kuklina, the study’s author.
The question remains, what is the underlying condition or conditions that lead to chronic hypertension, diabetes or congenital heart disease? Magnesium deficiency I would say is at least a strong contributor.
What good is the medical press when they publish an article like this without going further to address the underlying causes of these strokes pregnant woman are suffering from?
This recently published information about strokes fails to mention, for example, the detriment of drinking diet soda and the increased risk of stroke that comes from drinking products from Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and many other companies.
Researchers found that people who said they drank diet soda every day had a 48 percent higher risk of stroke or heart attack than people who drank no soda of any kind. The phosphoric acid is a killer – literally if you are a baby and that is all mum is drinking – see my case above . ..
The beverage findings should be “a wakeup call to pay attention to diet sodas,” said Dr. Steven Greenberg. He is a Harvard Medical School neurologist and vice chairman of the International Stroke Conference in California, where the research was presented on Wednesday.
A simple solution, health experts say, is to drink water instead.
Aspartame, a toxic chemical, is found in over 6,000 diet products and is being consumed by an estimated two-thirds of the population.
The National Institute of Health tells us that magnesium deficiency can cause metabolic changes that may contribute to heart attacks and strokes.
Dr. Tavia Mathers and Dr. Renea Beckstrand from Brigham Young University published in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2009 that magnesium has been heralded as an ingredient to watch in 2010 and noted that magnesium is helpful for reduction of the risk of stroke.[1]
Dr. Saver and colleagues[2] investigated the neuroprotective effect of early magnesium infusion in ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the field; three quarters of the infarct cohort were treated with magnesium within two hours of onset, and nearly one-third within one hour of onset.
Dramatic early and good results were reported in the early (42% of <2-hour infarct patients) and 90-day global functional outcomes (69% of all patients and 75% of <2-hour infarct patients), respectively. According to the current European treatment guidelines, no neuroprotective treatment is recommended for stroke patients.[3]
Dr. Jerry Nadler says, “Higher dietary intake of magnesium was among the factors associated with a reduced risk of stroke in men with hypertension. In a survey of almost 45,000 men ages 40 to 75, the overall risk of stroke was significantly lower for men in the highest quintile of intake of potassium, magnesium, and cereal fiber, but not of calcium, compared with men in the lowest quintile of intake.
A similar relationship was reported this year by Meyer and colleagues, who observed that a diet rich in magnesium, grains, fruits, and vegetables reduced the likelihood of developing type-2 diabetes in a group of almost 36,000 women.
While no consistent effect of magnesium on blood pressure has been noted among persons with diabetes, a significant blood pressure reduction was noted in diabetic patients with hypertension after dietary sodium was replaced with potassium and magnesium.” [4]
The results of a 10-year study published in the August 28, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that magnesium administered to women delivering before 32 weeks of gestation reduced the risk of cerebral palsy by 50 percent.
The Beneficial Effects of Antenatal Magnesium (BEAM) trial was conducted in 18 centers in the U.S., including Northwestern Memorial, and is the first prenatal intervention ever found to reduce the instance of cerebral palsy related to premature birth. Magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride are used in obstetrics to stop premature labor and prevent seizures in women with hypertension.
Pregnancy cannot be normal unless magnesium levels are adequate. The concentration of magnesium in the placental and fetal tissues increases during pregnancy. The requirements for this element in a pregnant woman’s organism generally exceed its supply; hence, pregnancy should be considered a condition of “physiological hypomagnesemia.”[5]
Magnesium is Always Good for Mother and Fetus
Magnesium is used intravenously to prevent hypertensive crises or seizures associated with toxemia of pregnancy.[6] Magnesium is needed for reproductive fertility[7],[8] and the use of pharmaceutical contraceptives is known to diminish magnesium stores in our body.[9]
The rate of premature births has increased more than 30 percent since 1981,[10] but a central obvious cause is ignored by doctors. Magnesium plays a crucial role in fertility, pregnancy,[11],[12],[13] and in early newborn life[14] and many of the problems associated with pregnancy and birth can be resolved by magnesium supplementation.
In 1991 Dr. Jean Durlach said, “Primary magnesium deficiency may occur in fertile women. Gestational magnesium deficiency is able to induce maternal, fetal, and pediatric consequences that might last throughout life.
Experimental studies of gestational Mg deficiency show that Mg deficiency during pregnancy may have marked effects on the processes of parturition and of postuterine involution. It may interfere with fetal growth and development from teratogenic effects to morbidity: i.e. hematological effects and disturbances in temperature regulation.
Clinical studies on the consequences of maternal primary Mg deficiency in women have been insufficiently investigated.”
Magnesium is frequently used as the treatment for stopping premature labor and the seizures of eclampsia at the point it starts, but might be more helpful in preventing these if supplemented throughout the course of pregnancy.
Dr. Durlach has also shown the increased safety of using magnesium chloride over magnesium sulfate.[15]
There is also evidence that magnesium deficiency/depletion is involved in the etiology of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).[16],[17],[18],[19]
“The evidence is clear that inadequate magnesium intake is common during pregnancy and that the plasma levels of magnesium tend to fall, especially during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.”
Dr. Mildred S. Seelig
What to do to Help Yourself?
Don’t assume that modern medicine has the answers – as it is crisis driven, and does not work preventatively.
Nutritional medicine is vastly needed in all paths to and around pregnancy.
Especially post natally
Come and see Heather about all your nutritional needs – well before you become pregnant, ideally, but at any time – to maximise the likelihood of easy babies.
When it comes to helping pregnant mothers weather the stress of pregnancy, and navigating around the potential risks of strokes, seizures and many other complications associated with pregnancy and birth, there is nothing like magnesium.
Doctors who practice pharmaceutical-driven medicine are like builders who forget to build the foundation. They prescribe medicines that further strip the body’s cells of their magnesium stores without paying any attention to the deficiencies that are there. That’s medical negligence and malpractice all rolled into one.
If you feel that the gut is unable to absorb the Magnesium – there is another way to use it in your skin. Transdermally . .. (besides the Epsom salts baths I keep suggesting).