I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately.  It’s a great way to learn about subjects that interest you when you can find quality bloggers!

I have my list of favorites, and one I really like is Passionate Homemaking.  I like this girl’s heart and appreciate all the helpful information on her site.  Right now she’s running a giveway (something which I’m finding is quite common on these blogs.)  Check it out, and check out her awesome website too!

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/03/celestial-seasonings-wellness-kit-giveaway.html/comment-page-1#comment-22241

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A couple of other blogs I enjoy are:

http://www.keeperofthehome.org

/

, and

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/

This morning I went to a chiropractor, Dr. Erin Anderson, recommended to me by my midwife.  I was extremely impressed!  She is humble, sweet, gentle, kind, and knowledgeable.  And she has eyes in her fingers!

My midwife recommended I go to a chiropractor because I’m in my last trimester of pregnancy and the baby has been in some strange positions.  I went last week to my regular chiropractor.  During the adjustment I was pleased to see that the baby moved from being sideweays/oblique to being head-down.

Today, one week later, I visited Dr. Erin, who actually specializes in pregnant women.  I’m a lot more comfortable with her since she is female.  I’m also happy to have found a chiropractor who would be willing to attend my home birth.

I’ve seen 4 separate chiropractors while pregnant, but this lady takes the cake.  She knows a pregnant woman’s body and really has a natural gift for what she does.  I was amazed that she knew where all my sore spots were, and why they were sore.  Today she noted that the left side of my uterus was tensed up.  After massaging it for a couple of minutes the baby actually moved further down.  I’m a very happy momma since my lungs have more room to breathe now!

Dr. Erin recently moved her practice from Canada to the Twin Cities.  For all of you pregnant ladies in the Minneapolis area, I highly recommend her.  Her website is www.lifelonghealthchiropractic.com.

This is a good article that I came across about home birth.  The point is, home birth is a safe and excellent option for women who are low-risk and willing to take care of themselves, as well as find a qualified traditional midwife.

Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America

Kenneth C Johnson, senior epidemiologist¹, Betty-Anne Daviss, project manager²

¹ Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, PL 6702A, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A OK9, ² Safe Motherhood/Newborn Initiative, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ottawa, Canada

Correspondence to: K C Johnson ken_lcdc_johnson@phac-aspc.gc.ca

Objective To evaluate the safety of home births in North America involving direct entry midwives, in jurisdictions where the practice is not well integrated into the healthcare system.

Design Prospective cohort study.

Setting All home births involving certified professional midwives across the United States (98% of cohort) and Canada, 2000.

Participants All 5418 women expecting to deliver in 2000 supported by midwives with a common certification and who planned to deliver at home when labour began.

Half of Kids Given Flu Drug Have Side Effects

More than half of children taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu experience side effects such as nausea and nightmares.

Studies of 103 children showed that 51 to 53 percent had one or more side effects from the medication.

The most common side effect was nausea (29 percent), followed by stomach pain or cramps (20 percent) and problems sleeping (12 percent). Almost one in five had a “neuropsychiatric side effect,” such as inability to think clearly, nightmares and “behaving strangely.”

Breastfeeding may protect at-risk women from cancer

Women with a family history of breast cancer may have a new weapon against the disease: breast-feeding. In a new study of more than 60,000 women, nursing a baby for at least three months cut the risk of breast cancer in half for those who had a family history of the disease.

For women with at least one close relative with breast cancer, nursing cut breast cancer risk by 59 percent.

The researchers say that breast-feeding could be the equivalent of taking the drug tamoxifen for five years, which is a well-known way to cut breast cancer risk in women with a family history of the disease.

“For women at high risk right now, the things we have to offer are tamoxifen, prophylactic mastectomy — that’s about it,” says Alison M. Stuebe, M.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who conducted the research while at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This study is really good news for women with a family history of breast cancer who are looking to reduce their risk.” The study was published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine.