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ADHD, God’s recipe for beating it!

ADHD, Bible, Science, Medication,, frustration.

What is ADHD?

ADHD stands for Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active.[1]

ADHD, Bible, Science, Nutrition, Exercise, Education,

The above poster reports 2011-2012 data, but the incidence of ADHD is increasing.  According to the  most recent analysis, fully 20% of high school boys and 52% of all foster children in the United States today, have been diagnosed with ADHD, and the majority of those currently diagnosed have been treated with powerful prescription stimulants [3][4]

What are the symptoms of ADHD?

“It is normal for children to have trouble focusing and behaving at one time or another. However, children with ADHD do not just grow out of these behaviors. The symptoms continue and can cause difficulty at school, at home, in the community or with friends”.

A child with ADHD might:

  • daydream a lot
  • forget or lose things a lot
  • squirm or fidget
  • talk too much
  • make careless mistakes or take unnecessary risks
  • find it hard to resisting temptation
  • have trouble taking turns
  • find it difficulty getting along with others”[2]

 

ADHD affects the ability to learn.

I had ADHD until I was in my twenties; my older brothers did not. They got straight A’s in school, they were scholar athletes. Mike was valedictorian of his high school when he graduated, Tim was a mathematical genius. Tim and a coworker at Boeing developed a computer program you might recognize, it is now called Excel.

My brothers were great students, I on the other hand struggled to get B’s and C’s in school. School was torture for me, I felt like a pacing, caged animal most of the time. I remember one day looking out the school windows and watching a maintenance man mow the lawn, I would have done anything to trade places with him, forever.

ADHD, Bible, Science, Medication,, frustration.

Often my parents or teachers would say that I just wasn’t trying hard enough. I don’t blame them, the reason they say this is because that is what it looked like from their perspective. Most people do not know how much it hurts an ADHD child to hear this. We are constantly asking ourselves why is life so easy for all the other kids. We try with all our might to concentrate and stay focused in class, but just can’t do it. Other kids seem to whiz through their school-work with ease, while over and over again, we stay in from recess to get our work done. This is a terrible disease and any loving parent should do whatever it takes to help their child overcome it, and overcome it you can.

No matter how hard I tried!

I dropped out of college my sophomore year because I had some classes I just could not pass. No matter how hard I tried I kept having to drop classes because I was going to fail. I had one teacher beg me to continue, she said I was her best student, I told her that I had taken the class before and got stuck at the same place.  My wife Shary, would simply drink a lot of coffee so she could stay awake all night and cram for finals. Like most ADHD students I would drink coffee and fall asleep.

People with ADHD react to stimulants differently!

People with ADHD react to stimulants  in the opposite way that normal people do. Ritalin is a stimulant for most people.    I do credit ADHD for keeping me away from more addictive drugs. One time I spent a lot of money on some cocaine. I was told it would keep me awake and focused for a long time. The last thing I remember was snorting it, then I fell asleep immediately. I never took cocaine again, it just seemed like a very expense way to ruin an evening.

Ritalin or similar drugs are being prescribed for children with ADHD. They get some immediate relief, which makes the parents and teachers believe that this is the answer. The kids calm down from their normal hyperactive hyper-vigilant state and are able to focus. But this drug, like all drugs has some very nasty side effects.

Side effects!

One side effect for Ritalin is what we call shiners. Most kids who take Ritalin look like someone has been punching them in the face. Their eyes are all puffy underneath and they look like they haven’t slept in weeks. This drug is also highly addictive, in order to get the same results they need to keep upping the doses. Eventually, the child is taking the maximum dose and is just as hyper as he or she was in the beginning. If you then try to take them off drug, they will experience terrible withdrawal symptoms, including ADHD that is worse than when they started.

Other side effects are stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, vision problems, dizziness, mild headache, sweating, mild skin rash, numbness, tingling, or a cold feeling in your hands or feet; nervous feeling, sleep problems (insomnia); or. weight loss. [2] Sign me up, right? Most kids hate taking it.

ADHD, Bible, Science, Medication,, frustration.
Mommy, I don’t feel good when I take those!

Most of the kids that come to our school taking Ritalin, hate it. They will try to trick their parents into thinking they took it when they haven’t. We have even had kids run away from home in order to avoid having to take Ritalin. It is horrible to put a kid through this. I thank God this was not the way people dealt with ADHD when I was in school. I am glad I got the discipline that I received, rather than be forced to become addicted to drugs as a child like these kids.

ADHD effects almost every part of life.

One of my older brothers was a natural piano player, so my parents signed me up for piano lessons, thinking I would also be a child prodigy. I have to give my parents a P for persistence, they took me to four different piano teachers over a period of four years. I guess they thought the teachers were at fault because they failed to bring out my expected musical genius. It was torture for me, I practiced piano each morning before school and was failing miserably, I often walked to school crying. When I say fail, I mean that after four years of lessons, all I could play was chopsticks and I couldn’t do that very well.

 

ADHD children tend to get into trouble a lot.

I got more spankings in school and out, than all my three brothers combined. During an unusually bad string of problems at school, my dad announced to me and the rest of the family that if I got in trouble at school again he would give me a doozy of a spanking. The next day my brother Mike tells dad that I got in trouble again at lunch time and that the principal made me stand out in the middle of the gym. I told dad that it wasn’t me, really, it was a kid with a coat just like mine. And besides, Mike couldn’t have positively identified me, I kept my back to him the whole time.

ADHD, Bible, Science, Medication,, frustration.

During those years I also had my run-ins with the law, I even went to jail a couple of times on alcohol and drug charges. Before I found Jesus, I always looked forward to being drunk or stoned, simply because it was the only time I really had peace.

Jesus made a difference!

After I rededicated my life to Jesus and changed my lifestyle, I went back to college. This time I got all A’s and one B. I was given an award for being the top student in my major. I went on to manage a manufacturing plant for 15 years and started a K-12 school  and ran it for 25 years while pastoring a church. Oh, by the way, I haven’t been in trouble with the law all these years either. There is hope for people with the disease of ADHD.

I must give Jesus credit for my recovery form ADHD. He became a huge part of my life and it was because of him that I found the answer to ADHD. He also gave me the power to do something about it. There are people who know what to do but cannot do it, simply because they do not have God’s supernatural help like I did.

 

What do most modern doctors and physiologists believe is the cause for ADHD?

Scientist are blaming ADHD on poor genetics, but I and thousands of other people have beat ADHD without changing our genes. [1] You or your child can beat it too. Dr Joel Wallach says that children can turn this disease around in a week without drugs.  He and other doctors are having 100% success in reversing the negative effects of ADHD, without the use of dangerous medications.

 

What does God Say About ADHD and all Diseases?

Deuteronomy 7:11-15a

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. 12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.15 The Lord will keep you free from every disease”

 

 If ADHD is a disease, then God promises to set you free from it.

 Deuteronomy 30:8-9a

8 You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands”

Most ADHD sufferers, would not consider themselves prosperous. Everything in my life was a disaster; I only began to prosper after finding Jesus and beginning to obey his instructions.

 

So what Biblical instructions can keep people from having ADHD?

Daniel 1:15

And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer, and they were fatter in flesh, than all the youths that did eat of the king’s dainties.

Daniel and his friends refused to eat the king’s dainties. These foods contained things that God’s word says not to eat. In just ten days these Hebrew children were healthier than the kids who ate the king’s food. The story goes on to say that they were smarter too.

Proverbs 23:1-3

 1When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: 2And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. 

In those days, Kings were the only people who could afford to eat refined foods. Most of the kings in the Bible lived very short lives. God says you might as well put a knife to your throat if you eat refined foods.

 

Sugar is the most dangerous of all refined foods. (Kings dainties)

When I was going to school and taking piano lessons, I was also eating cold cereal for breakfast every morning. To make matters worse, I put so much sugar in my already sugar loaded cereal, that when the cereal was gone, the bowl was still ¼ full of sugar. This was my favorite part, I scooped up the straight sugar and headed in to the living room to desecrate the art of music. According to Dr. Joel Wallach, sugar is the #1 reason for ADHD.

 

Could I be missing some essential nutrient in my diet?

Another doctor on the east coast who has 100% success with ADHD, gives all his patients Chromium and Vanadium and forbids them to have any form of sugar. Today sugar is in nearly all processed food.  READ YOUR LABELS.  It comes under a wide variety of names, (sugar, brown sugar, corn-syrup, high fructose corn syrup, malted corn, maltose, sucrose, dextrose, fructose, lactose, dried molasses etc…)

At the turn of the century the average American consumed one to five pounds of sugar each year.  Today the average American consumes approximately 135 pounds each year. That’s almost 100 times more sugar than a century ago. It is no small wonder why our ADHD rate is so high.

The book, “Rare Earths: Forbidden Cures”, by Dr. Ma Lan and Dr. Joel D. Wallach, documents the undeniable correlation between sugar and dangerous criminals. Jack the Ripper, Kip Kinkel, the Columbine shooters and the Sandy Hook shooter were all heavy sugar eaters. And all of them except Jack were also on Ritalin.

 

Are there other practical things ADHD children and adults can do?

The answer is a resounding yes! A number of recent studies have proven that exercise helps people with ADHD to be calmer and able to focus longer. One study improved a  4 year old child’s attention span from 3 seconds to 60 seconds. What did they do? They regularly let the little boy exercise and burn off some of his pent up energy. Can you imagine trying to learn, when you can’t focus on one thing for more than 3 seconds. [2] When I started playing organized sports my grades improved. I felt better and school was easier, not great, but better.

 

Dr. Joel Wallach’s recipe for 100 % reversal of ADHD symptoms.

  • Remove all sugar products from you or your child’s diet.
  • Take Chromium and Vanadium or take Youngevity’s 90 essential vitamin and mineral supplement each day. (Youngevity’s 90, contains Chromium and Vanadium)
  • Eat at least two eggs per day. (Eggs are brain food)
  • Take two fish oil tablets each day.
  • Get some kind of vigorous exercise at least three times a week. (soccer, swimming, basketball, track, hiking)

If your family has never tried something like this you will need divine help. Changing our diet is one of the hardest things we can do. But, oh, the benefits of lining up with God’s word. Even though it will be hard, God will help if you ask him. I would suggest a lot of prayer each day. Jesus said…

Luke 11:9-13

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 I would specifically ask your heavenly father to give you his Holy Spirit. All through the bible the Holy Spirit gave people the power to overcome obstacles. You can do anything with God’s help. Your kids are worth the effort.  God bless you as you obey him. Somebody is going to beat ADHD might as well be you!

 

Truly, the only way to exceptional emotional and physical health and wellness, is to spend time each day with the Great Physician, Jesus Christ!

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other Wellness Gospel article, please feel free to send an email to chrisschauermann@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Do you believe God knows what is best for us, then join us and the Wellness Gospel team and spread the word, share this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health and enjoy this kind of biblical, scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                             http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  2. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                               http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r
  3. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                            http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL next to each book title.

 

References

  1. ADHD CDC            Http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/facts/.html
  2. Ritalin side effects https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=active&q=ritalin+side+effects
  3. % on Psych drugs https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2014/are-children-overmedicated.shtml
  4. High school boys    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sax-sex/201304/why-not-just-put-all-the-kids-medication
  5. ADHD and exercise http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0145445504267952

 

 

 

 

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Arthritis, God’s recipe for avoiding it!

Arthritis,Bible, Science

Arthritis!

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), Mar 6, 2017 – “In the United States, 23% of all adults—over 54 million people—have arthritis. Arthritis is a leading cause of disability. The annual direct medical costs are at least 81 billion.”  If you live a typical American lifestyle with a typical American diet, you will eventually contract some form of arthritis before you die.

Symptoms of arthritis are pain, weakness, aching, stiffness, and swelling, in or around the joints.

Arthritis,Bible, Science

About 50% of US adults with heart disease or diabetes and 33% of people who are obese also have arthritis. Having arthritis and other chronic conditions can reduce the quality of life and make disease management harder.

The centers for disease control teaches people to cope with the disease and reduce it’s effects. They do not believe you can beat the disease.   The CDC says, “people with arthritis can work and do other daily activities, have less pain, manage their own care, and delay disability.” Did you get that “Delay disability!” Like being disabled with arthritis is inevitable. [1][2]

 

What does God Say About Arthritis?

Deuteronomy 7:11-15 “Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today…     The Lord will keep you free from every disease”

If you are suffering from Arthritis, I have some great news for you! It is not inevitable, you can overcome arthritis. According to God’s word, we are not going to simply live longer lives if we listen to God’s instructions, we are going to live better lives, way better.

My experience with arthritis!

A few years ago, I ran a 200-mile relay race called Ragnar. It was an awesome experience. We ran south from Canada, along the Washington coast, the scenery was breathtaking. However, when it was over I felt pretty bad. My joints hurt and it took me a while to recover. When the next year came I decided that by training early on I would be better prepared. Instead I never fully recovering from the second race, and as a result I could not run without pain. My next plan was to  stretching more, but that didn’t help either.  I did all the things I had done in the past to relieve joint pain and nothing worked. 

Another thing that I noticed was that I seemed to have lost a lot of strength. I still felt great otherwise, I jog/walked about 3 miles a week and did 120 push-ups a day, but I couldn’t run like before. My office is on the second floor of our church, I used to run up the stairs each day. After the second Ragnar Relay, I just didn’t have the strength to do it anymore.

Your just getting old, get over it!

Now someone might say, “you are in your mid-sixties, what do you expect?” I was starting to believe them, but I wasn’t ready to completely give up. I decided to call my daughter Leah since she has a master’s degree in health and nutrition. When I told her what was going on she suggested I take glucosamine. I said that I was under the impression that glucosamine was in Knox Gelatin. Although she agreed, she suggested that I might not be getting enough in the gelatin. So I started taking glucosimine and felt a lot better, but not 100%. So, fast forward a couple of years later. I start training for a seniors track and field competition held each year in Oregon. The more I trained the more I began to have the same old issues. It became unworkable on our anniversary this year.

An anniversary spoiled by arthritis!

Shary and I try to do something special for our anniversary each year. Our something special, usually includes sunshine, since we live in the darkest place on earth. My rain gauge recorded 181 inches last year. That is about 34 inches a month. It is so dark here that occasionally the street lights come on in the middle of the day. Well this year, February 14th  2017, we headed to Phoenix, Arizona to play in the sun.

Due to my recent inflammation I was miserable , I could barely walk and couldn’t drive a car.  While in Phoenix, I went to two chiropractors, because the sciatica nerve in the back of my right leg was killing me. Both doctors told me the same thing; there is nothing out of alignment, it is probably some swelling in your knee that is pinching the nerve. The second doctor wouldn’t even take my money, he said he couldn’t help me, I begged him to try anyway, but he made me leave his office.  I was starting to walk like an old man, you know, shuffling a little and looking like my feet and knees hurt.

Arthritis, Bible, joints, science

Again, people may say that this is a part of getting older. I am not sure how that works since one of my knees hurts a lot more than the other, and I am pretty sure both my knees are the same age. My answer to people who say age is the problem, and your answer should be; “there are people in their nineties who are still running marathons”.  Age doesn’t make arthritis inevitable. Somebody is going to be arthritis free, might as well be us.

Could arthritis be the result of a spiritual problem?

Psalm 31:9-10

9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.

 

Psalm 38:3, 6, 8

3My body is unhealthy due to your anger, and my bones have no rest due to my sin.
6 I am bent over and walk about greatly bowed down; all day long I go around mourning.
8 I am weak and utterly crushed;  I cry out in distress because of my heart’s anguish.

In both of these passages, weakness and bone pain are linked to sin. Weakness and bone pain are symptoms of arthritis and are also linked to grieving. We know that if we draw near to God, he promises to draw near to us and comfort us. If we have any unconfessed sin in our lives, a possible solution to our arthritis is to go to God and appropriate His forgiveness. He loves us and his desire is to forgive us; all we need to do is ask and receive.

Arthritis, Bible, Science

One of our church members!

We have a dear man in our church who was crippled, he was all bent over when he walked. At his baptism, he followed the advice in the passage below by confessing his sins. A few hours later he called me all excited, yelling that he could raise his arms over his head and that he was walking upright. That happened a number of years ago and he is still walking upright and going strong. That was obviously a miracle, but God is no respecter of persons and his word is true. Maybe you need to receive His forgiveness in order to be healed of arthritis?

1 John 1:7-9

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[a] sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

I believe that if we follow God’s advice about sin and sickness, rest and exercise, food and forgiveness we can be disease free.  According to the Bible, Caleb was still able to go to war at 85. Don Pellman is still pole vaulting at 100, someone is going to live healthy past 100, might as well be us.[5][6]

 

Could I be missing some essential nutrient in my diet?

When we got home from Phoenix, I read everything I could about arthritis. Arthritis is a calcium deficiency disease, a co-factor for the absorption of calcium is   vitamin D. Our skin can manufacture vitamin D if it is exposed to sunlight.  People who live in darker climates like Astoria Oregon, don’t get enough sunshine and tend to be low in vitamin D. Eating fish like the Bible recommends would probably solve the problem, since fish contain a lot of vitamin D. I realized how little fish I eat and decided to up my fish intake, I also took fish oil capsules. After a week or so I started to feel better but not great.

Another co-factor for calcium absorption is vitamin C, even though I take vitamin C, I don’t usually get to 10,000 mg a day that Linus Pauling recommended. So, I upped my Vitamin C intake and again I felt a little better.

I ran out of glucosamine and just never got around to replacing it!

Something was still missing, then it dawned on me, I had run out of glucosamine about a year ago and never purchased more. I was desperate, we immediately went to Costco and purchased some. I continued to do all the other things and take glucosamine.

It worked so well I could hardly believe it, the last time I felt this good I was in my forties.  Now I am literally running up stairs, two steps at a time. Am I back to normal? No, I am feeling better than normal and stronger. I had no idea how weak arthritis could make you.  It is not just that people don’t push themselves, because of the pain, arthritis short circuits your nervous system which actually reduces your strength.

Why do we need supplements? People in the Bible didn’t have supplements.

I really think that if we lived in a sunnier climate we might not have this problem.  The climate God sent Abraham and Israel to live in was sunny enough to grow citrus fruits. It also had an abundance of fish, milk and honey.

If we ate more fish and boiled our bones like the bible suggests, we probably wouldn’t need all the other supplements.  When you boil bones it releases calcium and cartilage material, including glucosamine. [7]

God recommends boiling bones for calcium rich, cartilage rich, soup stock.

Deuteronomy 16:7

Boil and eat the Passover meal at the place that the LORD your God will choose.

Ezekiel 24:3b-5

 ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘Put on the cooking pot; put it on and pour water into it. 4 Put into it the pieces of meat, all the choice pieces—the leg and the shoulder. Fill it with the best of these bones; 5take the pick of the flock.
Pile wood beneath it for the bones; bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it.

If you don’t live in a place like Israel and you don’t have time to boil your meat and bones, you are going to have to supplement. Here is what I did.

Prescription for reversing arthritis and getting your strength back!

Arthritis, Bible, Nutriician, Science

Chris’s smoothie recipe. Put all these ingredients in a Nutribullet and blend for 60 seconds. Drink one of these each day for 40 days, then send me an email or comment on this blog post and tell me how you feel. This is my breakfast, I sip on it all morning. Sometimes it supplies enough nutrition that I don’t get hungry till dinner. This also helps keep my weight under control.

  1. One tablet, with 1500 mg. of glucosamine and 1500 mg. MSM
  2. 600 mg Calcium + D3
  3. 10,000 mg tablets of Vitamin C
  4. 2 mg. copper
  5. 1000 mg of fish oil
  6. 353 mg. Krill oil (Mega Red)
  7. 10,000 IU of Vitamin A
  8. 400 IU of vitamin E
  9. One packet of Knox Gelatin (cartilage material)
  10. One handful of raisins (for iron)
  11. Two Tablespoons of organic honey (to balance the ph)
  12. ¾ cup of frozen raspberry, blueberry, blackberry mix (for antioxidants)
  13. ¼ orange (for natural vitamin C)
  14. Two raw eggs, you can use hard boiled if you like (see my blog on raw eggs) [8][9]
  15. Fill the rest of the 2 cup size Nutribullet, with whole milk.

Raisins and honey can be increased to suit your taste, it sweetens the smoothie. Berries, Orange and milk can also be increased to suit your taste.

arthritis, Bible, science, nutrition

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other Wellness Gospel article, please feel free to send an email to chrisschauermann@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

If you believe God knows what is best for us, join us and the Wellness Gospel team and spread the word, share this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health and enjoy this biblical view of scientific information then I would like to recommend three must-read books.

  1. “None of These Diseases” by S. I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M.D.
  2. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach
  3. “God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris & Shary Schauermann

You can get all these books at Amazon.com

  1. Arthritis   https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/arthritis.htm
  2. Arthritis medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=23220
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446222/pdf/10800421.pdf
  4. http://www.chickencartilage.com/harvardstudy/
  5. Don Pellman pole-vaults http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/12/24/wholewheat-longevity-disease-free-living/
  6. 100 year old man pole-vaults http://www.titansreport.com/topic/19232-100-year-old-don-pellman-dominates-the-senior-olympics/
  7. Glucosamine https://draxe.com/glucosamine/
  8. Eggs http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/29/heart-disease-alzheimers-eggs-depression/
  9. Raw eggs http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/04/eggs-oldest-person-alive/
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Childbirth Part VII The V approach to child-rearing.

Spiritual warfare, sin, sickness, disease, fear, confession, pruning, Bible,

Child-rearing!

After our first child, Leslie, was born, and we began to get the hang of nursing, life seemed perfect. That is until Leslie began to get mobile, She began to get into things and the more she did the more unhappy we got. We had been taught in college psychology classes that children were born perfect and that the less we interfered with their explorations, the happier and emotionally healthier our baby would be. We were taught that discipline, especially spanking, was why there are wars and the like. The child-rearing theory we had learned, said children who are hit by their parents are being taught that hitting is OK. So we let Leslie do pretty much whatever she wanted and we tried to give her as much freedom as possible, within reason. There were exceptions, like not letting her play near the wood stove.

As you might imagine, as Leslie began to break things, including my stereo, we became more and more unhappy. Like most parents who use this system of child-rearing, we had to keep putting our valuables higher and higher, so she couldn’t reach them. At the same time, Leslie was becoming more and more of a tyrant. If the Martians had landed near our home and asked us to take them to our leader, we would have taken them to Leslie. Not only were we becoming more unhappy, but so was Leslie. There seemed to be no end to her crying and throwing fits. In the end, she was miserable and so were we!

Child-rearing is not always so easy!

Childbirth, child-rearing, discipline

About this same time, my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Ward were constantly inviting us to their church functions. We always made up lame excuses why we couldn’t go, until they invited us to a class on child-rearing. They really had us on that one; we didn’t want to go to church but we needed help. So we began attending that class and read the book, “Dare to Discipline”, by James Dobson. As we put those principles into practice, a miracle happened; Leslie got happier and happier and so did we.

The main Idea!

The main idea behind Dobson’s book is that children are not born perfect, instead they are born selfish. They don’t know what is best for themselves, so a good parent will train them to do what is right. God’s word says, “he who spares the rod hates his son”, this was becoming more and more true for us. Though we really did love Leslie, we didn’t feel very loving toward her. As we began to obey this Old Testament teaching about physically disciplining her, things changed. Leslie, contrary to what we had previously been taught about child-rearing, became happier, less violent and we began to feel more love for her again. God’s word worked like magic and it has continued to work for all our young children, and for that matter, our grandchildren as well.

Unfortunately, the magic didn’t last!

Now it would be great if that was the final chapter to a beautiful story, where Shary, Leslie and I skipped off into the sunset together as she grew older. That philosophy of child-rearing worked so well that we thought we should use it on Leslie for the rest of her life, wrong! All our children benefited from that system till they were about 12 years old.

People used to compliment us on how well behaved our children were and how much fun they were to be around. But when each of them hit puberty we began to have some serious problems. Friends began to tell me that maybe I should lighten up a little, they even quoted the Bible where it says not to exasperate your children. My response was,  “everything exasperates a teenager”. We finally had to come to the conclusion that letting go had to take place sometime and maybe it would be better to let go a little at a time until they left home. This method of child-rearing would gradually prepare them for adulthood instead of totally controlling them right up till they turned 18 and then all of a sudden thrusting them into the world where they made all their own decisions.

Making the change, taking a chance!

I remember when I made the final change in our child-rearing technique, Nathan was pushing to attend the high school dances. I had gotten into trouble at dances and up till this time had told the kids they couldn’t go. What good can possibly take place by putting kids of the opposite sex in a dark room together? Well,  Nathan continued to tell me how not going would ruin his life. So I sat him down and told him all the reasons this was a bad idea, then told him he could make up his own mind. I figured I had done a pretty good job making my case, but he didn’t even hesitate, he decided to go.

When  Nathan got home he told me all about the dance and how lame it was. If I had held firm it would have become bigger than life. He would have hated me and been convinced that dances were better than they typically are. The most amazing thing that happened is that he talked to us about it afterwards. Before, the kids would not talk to us, there was no walking them through anything because we did not communicate.

We had gradually moved through the three distinct philosophies of child-rearing.

In the last system we actually got all the benefits we were hoping for and more. We really believe it was God’s plan all along. Our children, instead of being our enemies, gradually, as they grew older, became our best friends. Most of our kids are trying to raise their kids using the third philosophy. Below we have illustrated the three philosophies in a way that people can fairly easily wrap their heads around. People often ask us how in the world did we survive rising all those kids, the answer is found in these illustrations.

Three Basic Approaches To Raising Children!

 In the following diagrams the lines represent boundaries. Between the lines is the area where children are allowed the freedom to make their own decisions. Outside the lines represents the area a parent does not allow a child freedom, this is the area where parents forbid or try to forbid certain behavior. In example; most parents would allow children to play in their home or their yard, this is inside the boundary lines. Also, most parents would forbid children tp play in the street where they could get run over by a car, that would be something outside the boundary lines.

In this diagram the bottom of the lines represents birth and the top of the lines represents the age a child leaves home and is not under their parent’s authority any longer. This usually means the bottom of the lines start at birth and the top of the lines is about 18 years of age.

child-rearing, discipline
Child-rearing Philosophy #1

The above diagram represents modern child psychology’s approach to boundaries. It is based on the belief that children are born perfect, a clean slate if you will. So, the less we restrict children and the fewer judgments of right and wrong we place on them, the happier and more whole they will be. This philosophy believes children should be free to do whatever they want as long it does not put them in danger. Again, the idea is that they are born perfect and we mess them up.  The proponents of this approach site psychological research to prove that corporal punishment is the cause of all kinds of problems for children and society at large.

Parents with this philosophy usually let their young children do whatever they want when they are young, but begin to put more and more restrictions on them as they get older.

It usually goes something like this; it’s OK for Johnny to kick or hit mommy when Johnny is little, but as Johnny gets older, mom and dad believe he should stop that behavior. It is OK to throw temper tantrums when you are young, but as you get older that is not socially acceptable. It is cute to be selfish when you are young but is discouraged as you get older.

Parents who are fully devoted to this philosophy will make the boundaries tighter and tighter until their child leaves home. Most of these children end up hating their parents because the rules keep changing, and they are in trouble more and more as they get older. They seem to be in constant conflict with their parents. Most of these kids can’t wait to leave home, and have very strained relationships with their parents. They feel they are never good enough for their parents. Some people have noticed the diagram looks a little like a volcano and that is pretty much what we create with this philosophy.

Kip Kinkel

I have a family member that lived a few houses down from Kip Kinkel, the mass murderer. He was the high school student that shot both his parents and then went into Springfield, Oregon’s Thurston High school, killing 2 students and wounded 25 others. [1] Thier kids played with Kip as he was growing up and knew his family. Kip’s parents where fully devoted to the modern psychological approach to raising kids. Kip is the extreme result of that philosophy. Fortunately, most people do not apply that philosophy fully; most people’s philosophy has some of the next two mixed in.

child-rearing, discipline, child psychology
Mother rethinking the advice she received in a child psychology book.

This psychology has never worked, as indicated by the wildly famous Norman Rockwell drawing of a mother abandoning what she learned from a child psychology book. New research has proven that many of the studies done by the child psychologists were not rooted in scientific procedure. These psychologists made things up in order to push their theories. these theories have been taught in our colleges, as fact, for many years.[3] The problem is so widespread that it has been called the psychology research crisis.[4] The cheating is so prevalent that over half of psychological studies have been found to be bogus.  Some Harvard researchers are looking for ways to detect fake studies without having to do the research all over again. [2]

child-rearing, discipline

Child-rearing Philosophy #2

The strict moral approach to boundaries looks something like this. From birth to 18 the parents call all the shots. The parents made a lot of mistakes in life and want to protect their children from making those same mistakes. So, their children have very little freedom. These parents decided what is right and wrong, what is good and what is bad. They then impose these boundaries on their kids, hoping the children will turn out to be far better, less damaged, individuals than their parents. These parents decide what they should eat and not eat, how they should and should not dress, who their friends will be and how they will wear their hair. They regularly tell their children what is right and wrong and they discipline their children when they get out of line.

Shary and I applied this approach to child-rearing on our oldest daughter after we abandoned the first philosophy. We only let her hang out with other children who were being raised the same way.  In the beginning this approach works great. Unfortunately the final outcome of this approach was similar to the first approach, in that, these kids could not wait to get out from under our control. When our daughter Leslie was grown and raising her own children, she told us that she lied all the time and so did all her other friends who were raised this way. They knew we would not approve of a lot of what they did, so they just lied and were sneaky, pretending to love and follow our rules.

We have apologized to our children for treating them this way and they have been gracious enough to forgive us.

Our relationships with our children have greatly improved since we abandoned this philosophy. OK we are slow learners, it is good that we had 12 more kids to practice on.  We have never been perfect parents, but as we followed God’s advice more closely we have become happier parents and our kids have become happier as well.

How bad was it?

To give you a little example of how bad it got under the strict moral approach, here is one of our stories. Our oldest daughter, Leslie disliked us so much as a teenager, that she would not eat dinner with us. When we invited her fiancé to the house for dinner for the first time, we thought she would certainly break with her avoidance of us and join the meal.

He showed up and we all sat down to eat and Leslie did not come. Her fiancé, David, asked where she was, we explained the situation, telling him we mistakenly thought she would join us for dinner, since he was there. He said that was silly, so he went to her room to talk her into coming to dinner. Evidently, it wasn’t that simple. He had to physically drag her down the stairs and put her in the chair, it was quite a sight. She does not remember it, but we were all highly amused. Our kids do not remember a lot of things they did and said to us when they were in their teens. God has a way of removing the past, isn’t that great?

child-rearing, discipline

Child-rearing Philosophy #3

What we now believe to be God’s approach to boundaries. This approach suggest that we are fairly strict when children are young but slowly loosen up on the boundaries as they get older. It is based on two scriptures.

  1. Proverbs 22:15

 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

  1. Colossians 3:21

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so they won’t become discouraged. 

The Bible teaches that we are all sinners, that we were born selfish. Selfishness and all sin is harmful to us as well as others. I still remember the speech my dad used to give me before he spanked me. He would say something like this, “Chris, I love you, but I can’t allow you to act this way. If you keep treating people like this you won’t have any friends and people won’t like you. I know you don’t understand this but this hurts me more than it does you”. At this point I always thought he had lost his mind, since I could not see any way that it hurt him more than my bottom was going to hurt. Now as a parent, I get it.  No one enjoys disciplining their children.

Hebrews 12:5-7a, 10b-11 says…

“Have you forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves. And he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline…. but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 
childrearing, discipline, boundaries

 

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                       http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                         http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                       http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2      

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

References

  1. Kip Kinkel  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_High_School_shooting
  2. Lying about research http://news.stanford.edu/2015/11/16/fraud-science-papers-111615/   
  3. Lying about research    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-replicated-100-psychology-studies-and-fewer-half-got-same-results-180956426/ 
  4. Psychology research crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

  Continue reading “Childbirth Part VII The V approach to child-rearing.”

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Childbirth Part VI  Nursing, circumcision and sleep!

Childbirth.

My wife, Shary, is a voracious reader and a maven, that is, someone who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. So, when it came to childbirth, Shary inhaled child rearing information like a tornado inhales mobile homes. In all the reading she did, she kept coming across fantastic claims for the practice of nursing. She then force-fed me everything she had learned. When she was finished, I  believed babies who were nursed would have super powers. She also convinced me that if she did not nurse Leslie, our precious baby would be lucky to survive childhood.

Another thing she taught me, was that nipples on baby bottles and pacifiers, were of the devil and would deform our Leslie’s little mouth. This would mean large sums of money would have to be spent on speech therapy before Leslie could enter school. So, my wife had the only equipment approved for our baby and thus were the only safe alternatives for Leslie’s food intake and nursing needs.

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Well, it wasn’t but a few days after  childbirth and Shary had been nursed raw.

Leslie cried day and night!

Leslie was crying day and night, my need for a child with super powers was fading rapidly and replaced with the need for survival… OK, Shary’s need for survival too. One sleepless night my finger had been sucked raw after Shary gave up. I was so desperate, I made a pacifier from a wine bottle cork, proving necessity is the mother of invention. It was like some kind of cruel torture, I would have done anything to stop the crying. And it is not just any cry, each baby has a cry that is specifically designed to vibrate their parent’s spinal columns, starting at the base of the brain. That cry is more effective at reducing humans to a pathetically compliant state than water boarding.

childbirth, sleep
Typical scene, Chris and baby exhausted, crashed out in the middle of the day.

After a few weeks without sleep, in the middle of the night, Shary broke. My beautiful intelligent loving wife was just sitting up in bed mumbling strange things to herself, when she turned to me and said, “I’m not nursing anymore, go get formula”. But it was the way she said it and the look in her eyes. That look says, “if you know what is good for you, you will obey me.” I carefully got out of bed and went directly to a Seven Eleven store and bought formula. I was so tired I felt like a zombie. It seems like it took hours to heat up the formula and feed it to Leslie, I feel tired just remembering it.

The next morning I begged Shary to reconsider, I still wanted Leslie to live. I also did not want to heat up formula in the middle of the night again ever. Shary found a pediatrician who supported her decision to nurse and directed her to LaLache League International, an organization devoted to helping mothers nurse their babies.

What are the real benefits to babies who are nursed?

 It’s  almost as good as Shary told me. God’s food for babies is and always has been, mothers milk. Man’s attempt to improve on mother’s milk has failed miserably time after time. Each mother’s milk is specifically designed for her baby, with antibodies that help her baby fight diseases that are found only in their environment. The nutrition and the nurturing that takes place during nursing too has phenomenal benefits.

  • A new long range study finds children who were breastfed for at least 12  after childbirth went on to have higher IQ scores as adults.
  • They completed more schooling.
  • They earned higher salaries.
  • According to researchers, children who are breastfed after childbirth, tend to enjoy a number of other health benefits. They are less likely to suffer from a variety of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections
  • There less likely to suffer from asthma,
  • They have a much lower rate of diabetes
  • Studies have also shown children breastfed right after childbirth have better thinking and memory skills and score higher on cognitive, language and motor development tests as toddlers.[2]
  • SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome kills approximately 2500 US babies each year. A new analysis of past studies has strengthened the theory that breastfeeding reduces health risks – and could prevent SIDS also known as crib death.[4]
  • Breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infants. It has a nearly perfect mix of vitamins, protein, and fat — everything your baby needs to grow. And it’s all provided in a form more easily digested than infant formula and much easier to prepare.
  • Breast milk contains antibodies that help your baby fight off viruses and bacteria.
  • Breastfeeding lowers your baby’s risk of having allergies.[5]

What are the real benefits to mothers who nurse right after childbirth?

 Once again, God’s plan for mothers and babies is flawless. The benefits of breastfeeding to mothers is equally impressive.

  • Much lower chances of developing breast cancer. Mothers who breast feed all their babies at least one year after childbirth, reduce their chances of breast cancer by 91%.
  • Much lower chances of developing ovarian cancer.
  • Much lower chances of developing uterine cancer.
  • Lowers risks of hypertension.
  • Lowers risk of osteoporosis.
  • Some studies have found that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
  • Mothers who breast feed lose weigh faster after childbirth.
  • Exclusively breastfeeding, will delay ovulation, which means you get a menstruation vacation after childbirth.
  • Exclusively breast feeding a baby has proved to be 98-99% effective as a birth control method which is better than condoms.
  • According to a study published in the journal of Pediatrics, the United States would save about $13 billion per year in medical costs if 90 percent of U.S. families breastfed their newborns for at least six months following childbirth.
  • Another study showed that the low rates of breast-feeding (26%) cost society $17.4 billion from maternal deaths before the age of 70.[1]
  • It is cheaper; according to La Leche League International, the cost of formula can range anywhere from $134 to $491 per month. That’s $1,608 to $5,892 in one year! [6][7]

 How important is it for Dad’s to support their nursing spouse?

Studies have shown that, if dad is not supportive, it is almost impossible for mom to continue the practice of breastfeeding. A supportive spouse is vital to successful breast feeding. It is one of the most important and beneficial things a dad can do for his wife and child.

Ephiesians 5:28-29     In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.

 

Childbirth, breastfeeding, sleep, circumcision
Chris and baby passed out from exhaustion in the middle of the day.

How can I avoid the sleep deprivation after childbirth?

I get it, the misery of sleep deprivation after childbirth is real. Some of the greatest days of my life were when each of our children slept all night for the first time! Those mornings were hallelujah mornings, praising God from who all blessings flow! So here are some simple rules we discovered that helped us survive new babies.

Don’t try to get work done when the baby is sleeping.

  • Sleep when the baby sleeps. All the other things will eventually get done, and if they don’t, the world won’t come to an end. If you don’t get enough sleep, you will be hoping for the end of the world. Things eventually get back to normal. Remember you are a better parent, spouse, person if you are not sleep deprived.
  • Don’t try to keep your house super quiet. Let the baby learn to slept with white noise. If it is too quiet, any noise will wake them up. You will then start blame each other for making a noise that wakes the baby, which could start world war three, no joke. Medium loud music, fans, radio, anything that would hide noises you or your family might make will help you survive.
  • Babies get crazy too if they don’t get enough sleep. Believe it or not they don’t always know what is best for them. If your baby is crying and you know they need to take a nap, check their needs list first, (have they had enough to eat, have they been burped, are their diapers clean and dry, have they had enough love?) If all those things are good, then put them in their crib and turn on a long-playing music box and let them cry themselves to sleep. Again, they need to sleep too and if you keep picking them up and playing with them, some babies won’t sleep, which creates a viscous cycle of crying. Shary says if they are still crying after the 15-minute music box stops, go back and check their needs list again.
  • Remember you are always training them. If you pick them up everytime they cry, you are teaching them to cry. Shary says to wait till they take a breath and aren’t crying, then rush in and pick them up. By doing this you are training them to be nice to you if they want to be picked up.

Circumcision  8 days after childbirth, is it necessary?

“Outdated staple of American medicine”

“The most unneeded surgery of all”

“Legalistic and opposed to grace”

These are just a few of the criticisms leveled at the Biblical practice of circumcision.   Its opponents are notable and numerous.  Among them are the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics), the ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology), and even some theologians and pastors.

The questions then must be asked are, “why do we circumcise?” and “where did we get the idea in the first place?”  Believe it or not, it was God’s idea.  The creator of our bodies said in

Genesis 17:12…

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations”

It seems natural to assume that the one who created us would know what our bodies needed.  Some tell us that if boys are taught proper hygiene, there is no need for circumcision.  This is, at the outset, an admission that without circumcision there is a hygiene problem.  Man’s answer to this problem is frequent cleaning.  God’s answer is to remove the hiding place for bacteria.

Shary had a long-standing disagreement with a former physician and friend.

He was openly opposed to our opinion about circumcision.  During childbirth with our fourth, Nathan, we noticed he was uncharacteristically pushy and seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere.  Since we don’t believe in rushing the birth of our children, and he believed the same, we queried him on his unusual behavior.  He reluctantly admitted that he needed to get back to his office because a very uncomfortable 35-year-old patient was waiting there to be circumcised, presumably because some bacteria had gotten into that tender area and he couldn’t get rid of it.

One anti-circumcision report stated, “No valid medical indications exist for circumcision in the neonatal period.”  It is interesting that they did not mention the mid-life period.  In the United States, prior to World War I, it was not the standard practice to circumcise newborns.  During the war, however, many uncircumcised soldiers “in the trenches” developed a painful inflammation of the foreskin called phimosis.  This condition required emergency dorsal slits, followed by circumcision.  It was the opinion of these men that their sons should never have to experience what they had suffered.  Because of their experiences and similar experiences of men during World War II, circumcision of newborns rapidly became the standard practice throughout our nation.

Romans 3:1 & 2 “What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?  Much in every way!  First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.”

Why didn’t God make it right in the first place?

The question arises, “Why didn’t God make it right in the first place?”  To answer that question, we need to recognize that when God created the first man, there was no sin, no sickness, and no need for circumcision.  Since we live in a sinful, disease laden world, can we guarantee that our boys will, at all times, live under circumstances where proper genital hygiene is possible?

Some Critics

Some critics point to the “significant complications” occurring in one of every 500 babies circumcised as a reason for not circumcising.  In our country, many babies are circumcised at childbirth, in the delivery room, and most are circumcised within the first couple of days (prior to hospital discharge).  God commands that circumcisions were to be done on the eighth day of life.  In Israel, where God’s instructions concerning the eighth day are generally followed, complications are almost unheard of, so why is that?

It is widely recognized that the two most important blood clotting factors, vitamin K and prothrombin, are at their highest concentration eight days after birth.  (These levels are approximately 10% higher on this day than at any other point in life.)  Modern medicine has just figured this out.  But 4000 years ago, God said, “He that is eight days old shall be circumcised.”

Isn’t Circumcision opposed to the teachings of the Bible?

And what about the clergymen who say, “circumcision is part of the Law of Moses and has been done away with”?  And “if anyone follows the law, he has fallen from grace”.  God gave circumcision to Abraham before the law.  Circumcision was also included in the law.  Romans 7:12 says “the law and the commandments are good.”  It is wrong to try and use the law to gain salvation: but to follow the law is good and pleasing to the Lord.  For the law states “Love the Lord…honor thy father and thy mother…thou shalt not steal.”  If circumcision is to be disregarded because it is part of the law, then these other commands must also be disregarded.

In Deuteronomy 30:6, God says he will circumcise our heart.  Circumcision of the body is an example of what God wants to do to our heart.  God wants to circumcise our hearts so that we won’t need the never-ending cleansing from sin with its temporary results.  He wants to circumcise our hearts so that the job is done once-for-all and so no sin can hide and fester there.  If we believe the AAP, the ACOG, and other anti-circumcision voices, then we are saying that God used a poor example.

If we say that physical circumcision has no value, then the spiritual circumcision it portrays would be equally valueless. 

It is our belief that if we avail our children of the physical circumcision that God recommended to us, and we avail our children and ourselves of the spiritual circumcision that he has provided for us, we will have honored the God who came that we might have life and have it abundantly.

Is there any Science to back up the practice of circumcision?

In his classic book None Of These Diseases S.I. McMillen points out that cancer and venereal disease is much higher in uncircumcised men and their wives than men who are circumcised. Yes you heard that right women who marry circumcised men are less likely to be infected. It is much easier for men to keep themselves clean if they are circumcised.

childbirth, circumcision

In the 80’s Shary and I attended an International Childbirth Convention in Seattle Washington. During a special session on circumcision, some young doctors began ridiculing the “superstitious, unnecessary, and dangerous practice of circumcision.”  I mentioned that our doctor had been of the same persuasion, and had given us a bit of a bad time about our decision to circumcise, until the day he had to do a circumcision on a grown man and realized that maybe it wasn’t such a useless procedure after all.

As soon as I had made my comments, the room exploded. 

Nurses, who had seen countless similar situations first hand, voiced their opinions.  The brash and haughty doctors who had been ridiculing the Bible and anyone who practiced circumcision were embarrassed and humiliated by older nurses who had witnessed the pain and suffering of uncircumcised men during time of war or distress when it was difficult to maintain a normal cleansing routine.

According to McMillan, there have been approximately 50 studies that show circumcision protects against many different STDs and circumcision has a 2-10 fold protection against HIV.  In the U.S. circumcision prevents more than ten thousand infant urinary tract infections per year.  If not circumcised, those infections would kill 200 of those boys each year.

Our heavenly father has given us instructions in the Bible that can greatly reduce our chances of infections if only we will obey.  When the Bible says that some things are clean and others are unclean, it is not superstition.  As human beings, we often want to know all the reasons why, before we are willing to obey God’s word.   Jesus said in…

John 7:17

“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

Jesus is asking us to obey him before we get all the answers, then we will find out that his words are the very words of God our maker.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20 “Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written; “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

 If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

 

Childbirth series

I       Nutrition

II     Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and bir

III    First stage, what you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

IV    Transition

V      Second stage and post-partum.

VI    Breastfeeding, sleeping and circumcision,

VII  The V approach to raising kids.

 

Our purpose for writing each week is to provide you with Biblical/scientific advice on the care and feeding of your body.  We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.

 

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                           http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                             http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                           http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2

4.”Husband Coached Childbirth” by Doctor Robert Bradley & Marjory Hathaway                                        https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=husband+coached+childbirth&sprefix=husband+coache%2Caps%2C314&crid=1UFTVMXOML1BS

      

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

References

  1. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-breast-feeding-could-lower-breast-cancer-rates-by-thousands/
  2. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/breastfeeding-benefits-higher-iq-education-income-in-adulthood/
  3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2003219/Breastfeeding-lowers-risk-sudden-infant-death-syndrome.html
  4. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2003219/Breastfeeding-lowers-risk-sudden-infant-death-
  5. http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/nursing-basics#1
  6. https://www.fitpregnancy.com/baby/breastfeeding/20-breastfeeding-benefits-mom-baby
  7. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/breastfeeding/Pages/Benefits-of-Breastfeeding-for-Mom.aspx
  8. https://www.sleephelp.org/pregnancy-sleep-help/
  9. https://www.sleephelp.org/childrens-sleep-guide/

 

 

Posted on

Childbirth Part V Second stage and bonding

Birth bonding, sibling bonding, Childbirth second stage

Childbirth part V

Chris smitten with new baby!

 When second stage labor hit, I was in for a shock!

Childbirth. At the ripe old age of 21, my wife Shary, had just pushed our first child out and the nurse or doctor, I can’t remember which, handed Leslie to me. Now I must explain who I was in 1973. My best friends gave me the nick name Stony, why, because I was pretty much a flat-line of emotion. It wasn’t that I had a stony heart, I just didn’t ever get real happy and I never cried. But when they handed Leslie to me and she was literally seconds old, she looked me in the eye just like you would if you were trying to read me. She and I communicated with our eyes and she got to me; I cried like a baby. It was kind of like when Jim Carry playing the part of the Grinch says, “What’s happening to me? I’m feeling, and I am leaking.”

Birth Bonding

There is a phenomenon in childbirth called birth bonding. It is powerful and it can happen to anyone who is at the birth. At Forest Grove Community Hospital, it was common for nurses to stay past their shift if a baby was going to be born. They just wanted to get that feeling and they didn’t care if they weren’t getting paid. Is it God in the room, or is it just the smells and sights? I don’t know the answer to that question, all I know is that it’s real. That is, if the mother, baby and father are not medicated in childbirth. Don’t laugh, I have seen medicated fathers at birth, and it is not cool.

Birth bonding, sibling bonding, Childbirth second stage

Bonding in childbirth has a lot of very valuable side effects. We had a family show up at one of our childbirth classes, they had already given birth and wanted to show off their new baby. When they came in, their son, who was about nine, was carrying the baby, he unwrapped it for us to see, he was so proud. His parents said that he was so loving and helpful with the baby that it was amazing to all who saw him. They said he would change diapers and hold his new sister any chance he got. This nine year old did not exhibit any sibling rivalry, which is almost universal among young children . Most kids treat the new arrival as competition; someone who is crowding out their time with mom and dad. This young man had been at the birth and got bonded.

My wife has witnessed just the opposite. Not only siblings but mothers who did not bond with their child. Right after a childbirth mothers will act like they don’t even have a new baby. They would just as soon leave the baby in the nursery and do their own thing. Mothers who have been bonded can’t get enough of the baby, this sure makes parenting a lot easier. People often ask us, “how did you do that, how did you give birth to and raise all those kids? We just couldn’t do it.” I usually tell them that we wouldn’t have done it either if we had to do it the way most people in America do it. Working with the way God created us is much easier than trying to do things the way the world does them.

Childbirth can be a wonderful experience!

Childbirth can be this wonderful thing, there is that potential, but it needs to be done God’s way for that to happen. That means the less interference, the better. Many people believe that it is virtually impossible to safely have a baby without medicine, doctors and hospitals. We often emphasize that childbirth is not a disease, it is not a malfunction, it is how God planned for us to bring human beings into the world that were made in his image. Shary often says, “How do people think the human race grew to its present size? Women have been giving birth for thousands of years, without doctors.” Someone at this point usually points out how many women died in birth a hundred years ago, and we will agree. But a hundred years ago, they were not doing it God’s way either. Doctors who were carrying disease were infecting women with life threatening bacteria, women were giving birth flat on their backs; there is a better way.

The urge to push and getting baby in position.

The end of  transition in childbirth is signaled when the mother gets the urge to push. This is because the baby has moved down the birth canal and has engaged in the pelvis. Often medical people want to rush childbirth with a drug called pitocin. Pitocin is a synthetic replacement for a women’s natural hormone oxytocin. At our second birth, Shary was given Pitocin. While siting with her, I read the drug insert. Seriously, it was simply because I was bored. But the more I read the more alarmed I got. There was a list of symptoms, the drug manufactures said if you have any of these symptoms, you absolutely should not take this drug, Shary had almost all of them. When we told our doctor, he freaked out and told the nurse to stop giving it to Shary immediately.

Pitocin makes the contractions harder which is supposed to making the baby come quicker. Shary said those contractions were very different than the normal contractions. Later at a childbirth seminar a pharmacist explained that pitocin just causes the uterus to squeeze. But oxytocin, God’s hormone causes the uterus to squeeze and twist. The twisting motion is necessary to get the baby into the proper position to make it through the woman’s pelvis. It is almost like God knew that the baby’s head is an oval and the mother’s pelvis is an oval and that rotating the baby would get the ovals to line up.

The practice of inducing labor to speed up the process.

Then there is the practice of inducing childbirth with drugs. Doctors persist in inducing labor when THEY feel that the baby is ready to be born. Ecclesiastes 2:2a  says, “There is a time to be born and a time to die” God knows when that time is. It cannot be improved on with drugs and scalpels.

Often inducing childbirth is done for the doctor’s convenience. In Astoria, Oregon, in the late 70’s, during a panel discussion with five doctors and five midwives, the topic was argued for some time whether or not artificially inducing labor was a good thing or not. The theory is that all babies need to be born nine months after conception, and that if they are in the mother longer than that, bad things will happen to the baby. Some cited that the placenta begins to calcify after nine months and presumably that would mean that the baby wouldn’t be getting the nutrition it needed to be healthy. The discussion went back and forth till I asked two simple questions.

  • “How many of you have ever seen a baby harmed by inducing labor?” They all admitted that it was a common occurrence. Babies were born prematurely quite often, simply because the due date was miscalculated. In every case this became a huge financial burden on the family, as well as an emotional one. In many cases there was permanent damage to the child, and in some cases even death. But, they reasoned, it was a chance that had to be taken; because sometimes when you guess at a due date you get it wrong. Everybody makes mistakes, which is only human. Then I asked my last question which proved to be the last question of the day.
  • “How many of you have seen babies that were harmed by being left in the mother too long? There was a long uneasy silence in the room, no-one spoke, none of the doctors or midwives could think of a single case where the baby was harmed by being left in the mother too long. There was an accumulation of over 100 years of childbirth practice in that room, yet no-one could think of an account of a baby that had actually been harmed by being allowed to remain in the perfect environment of it’s mother’s womb till she naturally went into labor. Often times inducing leads to cesarean-sections. Cesarean-sections are dangerous. they are dangerous to the mother and child. First, cesareans are major surgery, cutting through some of the largest muscles in a woman’s body. Secondly approximately one third of the babies born cesarean, get pneumonia because without the squeezing process of birth they are born with their lungs full of water. If that is not enough Cesareans are horrendously expensive.[3][4]

 

In childbirth, God thought of everything.

childbirth, 2nd stage, umbilical cord.
Newborn with the umbilical cord still attached.

It gets even better. God made babies with plates in their heads that have not connected yet. The size of the baby’s head can be bigger than the mother pelvis but the plates are able to slide past each other in order make the baby’s head longer and narrower so it will fit through her pelvis. If that was not enough, God provided a hormone that would loosen the mother’s joints so her pelvic opening could enlarge. That hormone also changes the molecular structure in the mother’s perineum, (the skin and muscle opening the baby has to go through). It causes the tissue to become like Silly Putty. Silly Putty will break if you pull on it quickly, but if you slowly pull on it, it will stretch and stretch.  The mother’s perineum will do the same if you slowly keep pressure on it. God thought of everything, we just need to work with him and how he made us. That cannot be improved upon with drugs, knives and machines.

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

We suggest a mother push when she feels like it and doesn’t push when she doesn’t feel like it. If she feels her perineum burning she should stop pushing and wait. This is where the birthing stool mentioned in Genesis comes in. If a women is lying on her back, almost all the pressure on the perineum is on the lower half her perineum. That half is required to do all the stretching. If a woman is on her back, the lower half of the perineum is always where she will tear. If she is upright and squatting on the birthing stool, there is even pressure on the entire perineum, thus making it much less likely for the perineum to tear.

What to do about the umbilical cord?

After the baby is born the cord will still be attached and pulsating. This is God’s extra protection for babies. As long as the cord is pulsating the baby is still getting oxygen from the mother, even if the baby has not started to breath on it’s own. According to new studies sited by the National Institutes of Health delayed cutting of the cord can lower a child’s risk of low blood volume, anemia, cerebral palsy , autism , asthma and ADHD. [1] God did not miss anything, he even made the cord long enough that the baby can still be attached and reach the mothers breast to nurse. Why is this so important? Nursing causes oxytocin to be released into the mother’s blood, which contracts the uterus, detaches the placenta and prevents unnecessary loss of blood.  The practice of clamping and cutting the cord before it stops pulsing on it’s own is unnecessary at best, and extremely harmful to the mother and baby at the worst. [2]

Childbirth, 2nd stage, cutting the cord
Clamping and cutting the umbilical cord.

Often people mention that their baby almost died because the cord was in a knot. The cord is more like an electrical cord than a garden hose. It is extremely difficult to restrict the flow of blood with a knot. Most knots can easily be untied by a trained midwife or husband with a little common sense.

More benefits to bonding!

After the baby and the placenta have been born, it is important for the mother, father and siblings to spend some quality time with the baby. One to two hours is necessary for bonding to be fully effective. This is not a time for a big party it is better for the immediate family to be left to themselves. The more skin to skin contact the better, the quieter and more peaceful the better. Studies have shown that babies who have been able to bond up to one hour cry 500% less than babies that do not bond, and mothers who do not bond clean their babies 400% more than mothers who do bond with their babies. I am not sure I understand the cleaning thing but I do know that crying babies will drive you crazy, so maybe crazy moms clean babies as a form of therapy.

Seriously, we could never have given birth to and raised 13 kids without doing all the above. But by working with God’s plan and design for birth we have been able to experience it as the blessing it was intended to be.

Healthy family
Chris and Shary Schauermann with their all of children and some of their spouses and grandchildren.

Next week we will discuss brestfeeding, sleeping and circumcision. Women who nurse their babies are much less likely to develop breast cancer and a multitude of other ailments. Babies are much healthier as well.

 

Childbirth series 

Part I       Nutrition

Part II     Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and birth

Part III    First stage, what you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

Part IV    Transition

Part V      Second stage and post-partum.

Part VI     Nursing, sleeping and circumcision,

Part VII   The V approach to raising kids.

 Our purpose for writing each week is to provide you with Biblical/scientific advice on the care and feeding of your body.  We do it because this advice is rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                                                           http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                                                                      http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                                                    http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
  2. ”Husband Coached Childbirth” by Doctor Robert Bradley & Marjory Hathaway                                      https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=husband+coached+childbirth&sprefix=husband+coache%2Caps%2C314&crid=1UFTVMXOML1BS    

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

 References

  1. Umbilical Cord http://www.cbsnews.com/news/not-cutting-umbilical-cord-immediately-may-boost-babys-health/
  2. 8 reasons not to cut the cord early https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/reasons-not-to-cut-your-babys-umbilical-cord/
  3. C-section   https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/arsdarian-cutting-the-number-of-c-section-births/?_r=0
  4. C-section    http://www.consumerreports.org/doctors-hospitals/your-biggest-c-section-risk-may-be-your-hospital/

 

 

Posted on

Childbirth Part lV  “Transition”

Childbirth, planning, transition, husband coached

 

 

Childbirth, natural, medicated, transition
Childbirth. By the time I was through the ER and in my room I was strongly advised to get my epidural or it might be too late.

Childbirth does not always go according to plans. Some friends of ours, who will forever remain nameless, were having their first baby and hoping for a drug free natural birth. They had heard about the benefits of birth bonding without medication and really wanted to experience it. Unfortunately, during the transition between first and second stage labor, they gave in to the hospital’s pressure for her to be medicated. Afterwards, regretting the decision, they determined not let that happen the next time. But, with their second child, once again during transition they gave in and again regretted the decision. The reason she regretted having drugs was because she felt so crummy after the birth, and the bonding experience was not at all satisfactory while she was drugged up. So, on the third try, mom told dad, “no matter what I say in transition, no matter what I do, don’t let me take drugs, I always regret it.”

They took our childbirth classes and we explained to them that transition only lasts for a very short time. We also taught her husband, during transition, to just keep telling her, “You are almost there, just relax, this only lasts for a short while, you can do this”. So, her dutiful, loving husband followed her wishes and our advice. Once again during transition she lost it and began to beg him for drugs. He told her to, “Just relax, it’s almost over, you can do this”, and; “Honey, you told me not to let you take drugs this birth”.  About the third or fourth time of this, she grabbed him, looked him in the eye and said, “Forget what I told you, give me the drugs!” He quietly repeated his mantra and sure enough she went into second stage labor. Things went a lot easier the rest of the birth,  and afterwards she profusely thanked him.

There is this thing in labor called transition. Yep, there is a transition between first stage labor and second stage labor. This is where women say the darnedest things to their husbands, things good Christians should never say to anyone. It is normal, it happens, so we tell husbands and anyone else who might be on the receiving end, not to take it personal; she didn’t mean it and she may not ever remember she said it afterwards. So why does this happen? It is very important to recognize, during labor, a women’s body is exerting an incredible amount of energy to expel the baby. At birth, the uterus is the largest muscle in the woman’s body, and for that matter it is larger than any muscle in a man’s body. So, when she is giving birth, she can be likened to an Olympic athlete who is running the mile and is on their third lap. This is not a time when they are in the mood to chit chat, as a matter of fact, their body is sending all the blood to the working muscles and not much is going to the brain. This is not a bad thing, it’s just the facts. At this stage the husband or coach needs to be like an athletic coach and just keep encouraging his athlete, that the race is nearly over. In a few more contractions she will be in second stage where her body will get to take some regular and longer breaks.

My wife is smarter than I am, has read more books on childbirth than I have, she has attended and delivered far more babies than I have, but when she is in labor, she can’t remember a thing. The big problem in American childbirth, is that the woman studies up on birth in preparation for her delivery. Her husband, on the other hand, figures, she has it all covered. But, when the actual birth happens, she forgets everything. This is one reason we recommend husband coached childbirth. We believe that a trained husband is far more valuable at the birth than any number of other attendants. Why? In Childbirth part III we shared how God preprogramed women to listen to their husbands during childbirth, when they often won’t listen to other birth attendants. [1]

Childbirth, planning, transition, husband coached
Expectant mothers typically study up on childbirth in preparation for the event.

Because most mothers invest more time and energy in planning their birth, we suggest mothers put on paper how they want the birth to go. Then we suggest she gives this written plan to her husband, doula, doctor and any nurse that might get involved. This gives her the best chance of having the birth end up the way she envisioned it.

First stage and second stage labor require totally different strategies. In first stage, the best thing the coach can do is to help the mother relax her stomach muscles. (see Childbirth Part III) Transition, is the brief period between first and second stage labor. It is when the uterus has pulled itself out of the way and gathered itself behind the baby and the baby starts to move down the birth canal.  During transition, there are virtually no breaks between contractions, each contraction seems to be followed immediately by another, until the baby engages, and second stage begins. When second stage starts, there are longer breaks between contractions and mom gets to work with the contractions to deliver the baby. Second stage begins when the baby engages and the mom gets the urge to push.

Mothers who have prepared for birth, by eating good baby building food, and who have exercised their bodies in preparation to this athletic event, have much easier births. Studies show that they have healthier and more active children. [1][2][4] There is a story in the Bible that illustrates this point.

Exodus 1:12b-18 “the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

Evidently, Pharaoh’s experience with Egyptian childbirth, led him to believe that childbirth was so dangerous, and the babies so fragile, that it would be easy to kill the babies without anyone being suspicious. As the story goes, the midwives never killed any babies, so Pharaoh called them in for a little chewing out. But the midwives told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were vigorous, unlike the lazy Egyptian women. The reason they did not kill any babies at birth was because the athletic Hebrew women gave birth so easily that they were done before the midwives could get there. This was not exactly true, but it was close enough to the truth that pharaoh bought it. Pharaoh mentions the birthing stool, which is not easy to use, unless you are in good shape. Eating right and exercising in preparation for birth is important.

Next week we will discuss second stage labor, post-partum, birthing stools and other helpful ways to make second stage a joy instead of a disaster.

Childbirth series

Part I       Nutrition

Part II     Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and birth

Part III    First stage, what you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

Part IV  Second stage and post-partum.

Part V     Nursing, sleeping and circumcision,

Part VI   The V approach to raising kids.

 

Our purpose for writing each week is to provide you with Biblical/scientific advice on the care and feeding of your body.  We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                                                                http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                                                                    http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                                                              http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2

4.”Husband Coached Childbirth” by Doctor Robert Bradley & Marjory Hathaway                                                                                                                 https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=husband+coached+childbirth&sprefix=husband+coache%2Caps%2C314&crid=1UFTVMXOML1BS   

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

References

  1. Childbirth part I   http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/18/childbirth-part-l/
  2. Childbirth part II  http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/25/childbirth-part-ll/
  3. Childbirth part III   http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/03/02/childbirth-biblical-first-stage-labor/
  4. Exercise and healthy active babies    http://www.irishmirror.ie/lifestyle/health/women-who-exercise-during-pregnancy-7927336

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Childbirth Part lll What you believe about birth can dramatically effect how it goes!

Joy and childbirth

First stage labor and husband coached childbirth!

Joy and childbirth
You did this to me!

My first experience with childbirth was in 1971 at the ripe old age of 20.  I had just dropped out of college and gone to work for Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis Oregon, as a janitor. I have vivid memories of entering the OB wing and hearing women screaming and crying out in pain. After my first few visits to that wing of the hospital, I did my best to get assigned duties elsewhere. So, when Shary announced to me she had picked Forest Grove Community Hospital as the place she was going to deliver and informed me that they had husbands attend the births, I told her she could count me out; not interested. Shary is pretty persuasive, that is, she doesn’t usually take no for an answer. She said all the other husbands were going to do it. I figured those husbands didn’t know what I knew.  I resisted as much as I could but in the end she got me to attend the first class. In that class we watched the movie “Childbirth for The Joy of it.” In the movie we saw five women having their first babies, which are usually the hardest, and they were beyond ecstatically happy, they were crazy happy and they were not screaming in pain. I was pretty confused, but willing to check this thing out, so I attended all the classes. I was also supposed to read the book “Husband Coached Childbirth” by Doctor Robert Bradley.

In those days I didn’t like to read much, Shary was the reader, and did most of it for the both of us. During first stage labor we had been taught that Shary was to relax. What I didn’t realize was that an average first labor lasts about 14 hours and the mother can’t remember anything she read.  I was going to have to help her relax for 14 hours? Rubbing her lower back was what she wanted most, but after about 10 hours I had literally rubbed the skin off my hands. I resorted to using my elbow and then my foot. I was so bored that I picked up the Husband Coached Childbirth book and started to read while rubbing. I had just finished the chapter on first stage labor, when Shary started to really complain about how much it hurt during each contraction. Like any clueless young husband, I just blurted out, “your doing it wrong”. Believe it or not, that started a fight, go figure? I finally read out loud what I had just read about first stage breathing, she was desperate, and tried it. It worked like magic, so much so, that the last part of first stage was better than the first.

So what did she do? She began to stomach breath, which is what almost all mammals do when they are in labor. When women chest breath, and tighten their stomach muscles, they are unwittingly in a fight with the most powerful muscle in the female body, the uterus. The uterus is capable of exerting 700 lbs. of pressure to expel the baby. When a mother tightens up her abdominal muscles, she is creating the pain associated with first stage labor, that’s when the moaning, rocking and screaming starts.

In our classes, we have couples stand with the mother’s back to her husband. We have the men place the palm of their hand on the mother’s back. Then we ask her to lean back till she feels pain. They will lean back with all their weight and then tell us they feel pressure but no  pain. Next we ask the men to make a knuckle with their pointing finger and place that in the same spot on her back, and repeat the exercise. The moms cannot put hardly any weight leaning back without a sharp pain. This is exactly what is happening when women tighten their stomach muscles in first stage labor they are focusing all that pressure into a knuckle sized area. If they stomach breath which relaxes the stomach muscles the same pressure is spread out over a hand sized area and is simply felt as pressure.

What we tell the men who are labor coaches, is to ask the mother, where the pain is. Then have either the mother or father place their hand where it hurts and tell the mother to make the hand move as she breaths. This relaxes the stomach muscles and once again turns the pain in to pressure.

relaxation breathing in labor
Shary and I practicing what we preach!

In  last weeks blog, Childbirth part ll, we shared about when Shary was just beginning to consider teaching childbirth classes, a dear friend of ours, Betty Warren, called Shary one night and asked her to come to the hospital, another friend of ours from church was having a really hard time in first stage labor and Betty thought Shary might be able to help. Betty was one of the OB nurses at Forest Grove Community Hospital, she had also been our childbirth instructor. So Shary headed right over to see what she could do. When Shary got there our friend was jumping out of bed with each contraction, grabbing the end of the hospital bed, rocking and yelling. Her mother was near her calling her name and saying “This is just one of those things you can’t get out of”. Obviously, this is not the best technique for relaxing your stomach muscles. This scenario turned out to be fairly common among our Christian friends. One day we discussed this with Betty Warren and she confirmed our observation saying that Christians had the worst births. Now if you are a Christian you are probably saying the same thing we did, “what’s up with that”?  Why would Christians have painful births while their unchristian neighbors have really great births? The answer is found in what the Christian mother said to her daughter “this is just one of those things you can’t get out of”.

Most Christians have been taught that childbirth is supposed to be painful. Armed with that idea it is almost impossible to get these ladies to relax. That is when we started teaching Christian Childbirth Classes and even started our own Christian Childbirth Teachers Association. Here is what we taught them, according to the bible, childbirth can be painful or just hard work. Childbirth can be awful or a joy according to the bible. The difference is in whether you trust God and relax or you don’t trust him tense up, it is just that simple. God never intended for women to be in excruciating pain during childbirth. And he surly didn’t want Christian women to have births that were more painful than non-Christians.

So what does the bible say about pain in childbirth?

And why is husband coached childbirth preferable?

 First of all, if you believe the bible to be the Word of God, then you have to have an explanation for the fact that some women experience Childbirth as enjoyable. If the Bible teaches, as some believe, that childbirth is supposed to be painful then why did the women in the movie Childbirth for the Joy of It, look like they were having the time of their lives? I believe the problem is not with God’s word but with some interpretations  of the Bible, from Hebrew and Greek into English.

Jesus explains the second coming to 12 men by using childbirth as an example. Evidently it was common for men to see women giving birth naturally (without drugs) in Jesus day. And more interestingly is that this was the best example Jesus could use for the extraordinary joy. Jesus was trying to explain how much joy the disciples would experience when he, Jesus, returned at his second coming. So he used the example of joy a woman has when she gives birth. This would have made no sense to me until I saw for myself, women giving birth joyfully.

John 16:19  Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20I tell you the truth; you will weep and lament while the world rejoices. You will Lupe (be heavy), but your Lupe (heaviness) will turn to joy. 21A woman in labor has lupe (heaviness)  because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of (heaviness), but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take your joy.

Genesis 3:16-17 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy (Etsev) and thy conception; in (etsev) thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in (etsev) shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

In Genesis, God made four major changes for women, and one for the man, after sin entered the world. It is my belief he did this for their benefit.

  1. He said he would Multiply her ability to conceive. Judging by all the different methods of contraception we have invented; most people would say that a woman’s ability to conceive is more than most people want.
  2. God said he would give her a desire for her husband. It is amazing how strong the desire most women have for their husbands to be with them during labor and birth.
  3. God said that the husband would rule over her. During labor and delivery, it is undeniable the focus a women has on her husband. Often a doctor or midwife will tell a woman to do something or stop doing something, while she is in labor, and she does not hear them or does not respond. But, if we tell the husband to tell her, she will immediately listen and respond. Husbands should take advantage of this, it may be the only time in their marriage he gets that much compliance.
  4. God said he would multiply her (etsev) and in etsev he she would bring forth children. The Hebrew word (etsev) has a range of meanings that goes from labor to toil, to sorrow, to pain. It is the perfect word because women experience birth in all four of those ways. Ideally then, labor and birth would simply be hard work. That is exactly what women experience when they trust God and breath naturally. Yes, I realize that there can be complications that change all of that, but most women can and do give birth without complications serious complications. If you follow our guide to pregnancy found in Part I and part II, if you eat right and exercise, you can virtually eliminate those complications.

Finally God told the man that in (etsev) he would work to grow food. So, do all men experience their work as pain? No, most men would say it was labor or toil. God used the same Hebrew word to explain what the man would experience as he used to explain what the women would experience.

1 Timothy 2:14-15. …”And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression. 15Women, however, will be saved (or kept safe) through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

According to Timothy, a woman’s experience in Childbirth has to do with her faith in a loving God and her trust in him.  Fear produces tension in childbirth and tension produces pain! Trust produces relaxation in childbirth and relaxation allows the uterus to work without conflict. A relaxed birth is usually a safer birth.

After we began to teach this and breathing techniques to our Christian audiences, they began to have better births than their non-Christian counterparts. We would typically have students attend our classes that had tried other childbirth techniques and failed to experience birth as a joyous experience. After taking our classes they would be ecstatic about their birthing experience. One day my wife had a couple of ladies over to the house to discuss their recent births. I overheard one say “I can’t wait to do it again”. I said, you mean you can’t wait to have another baby to hold and play with? She said no, I can’t wait to give birth again, it was such an amazing experience.

God wants you, your family and friends to experience childbirth in a non-drugged state, so that your family can be knit together in a physical and spiritual way. Each time my wife Shary and I experienced birth we became bonded in a deeper way. Our first few years together were a little rough, now she is my best friend in the whole world. Each birth added to our oneness.  If it had not been for the people who shared with us how to have babies God’s way I do not think we would have made it and we certainly would not have awesome family we have today.

Chris and Shary with all thirteen of their children, two grand-kids and one son-in-law.

This Series on childbirth and pregnancy includes the following topics.

Part l    Nutrition

Part ll   Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and birth

Part lll First stage, husband coached Childbirth. What you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

Part llll Transition

Part V   Second stage and post-partum

Part VI Nursing, sleeping and circumcision,

Part VII  The V approach to raising kids.

If you have questions or another perspective please send us a comment, we would love to hear from you.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann

http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau

  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                                                                        http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.

http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2

      You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

References

  1. Childbirth Part I   http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/18/childbirth-part-l/
  2. Childbirth Part II   http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/25/childbirth-part-ll/
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Childbirth part ll; Nutrition and exercises for an enjoyable pregnancy!

Childbirth and pregnancy

Childbirth and pregnancy are not a pleasant experience for many women!

Childbirth and pregnancy

 

When Shary was just beginning to consider teaching childbirth classes, a dear friend of ours, Betty Warren, called one night and asked Shary  to come to the hospital, a friend of ours from church was having a really hard time in first stage labor and Betty thought Shary might be able to help. Betty was one of the OB nurses at Forest Grove Community Hospital, she had also been our childbirth instructor. So Shary headed right over to see what she could do. When Shary got there our friend was jumping out of bed with each contraction, grabbing the end of the hospital bed, start rocking and yelling. (By the way, this is not the best technique for first stage labor, we’ll talk more about that next week)  While she was yelling in pain her husband sat reading the newspaper and her mother sat near her,  saying, “This is just one of those things you just can’t get out of”.

So often, as we began to teach childbirth classes, we were told that many of the common problems with pregnancy were unavoidable. We were assured that you just have to suffer through these things. Often this advice came from doctors but it also came from family members, friends and even well-meaning clergy. But, over and over we found people who had discovered solutions to those problems. We would try the things they suggested, and more often than not, their ideas worked. We believe the Bible when it says, “God will remove all sickness from you.”(Exodus 23:25-27)That means that there is a solution to every disease, we just need to preserver and find out what that solution is.

Some of the common ailments associated with childbirth, we were told, have no cure. Toxemia, stretch marks, constant back pain, varicose veins, permanently damaged stomach muscles, permanently damaged kegal muscle, heartburn, high blood pressure, cesarean-section and seizures to name a few, were said to be normal. It is no wonder most women don’t want to have babies; who could blame them? But, over and over we found people who had discovered solutions to those problems and that is a big reason we, and many of our students, continued to have children when others have decided it just isn’t worth the trouble.

Genesis 1:27-28a
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

Psalm 127:3-5a
“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.
4 Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
5 Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them!”

God wants us to have children, but all the “common” problems modern women have in childbirth make it almost crazy to consider.

So did God have a better plan? Sure he did, not only did he want us to be fruitful and multiply but he said that people who have many children are blessed and happy. He also said that if we would listen to his advice and follow his laws he would remove all disease from us, he would bless our wombs, none would miscarry and he would give us a full lifespan.

So what have we found that would help you have a relatively problem free birth?

First, in childbirth, what you eat is your main priority!

If you gave your home builder some straw and asked him to make you a house you would end up with a home like the one the big bad wolf blew down!

childbirth, pregancy and nutrition

If you gave your home builder, good lumber, bricks and mortar, he could build you a house the big bad wolf couldn’t blow down.

Childbirth, pregnancy and nutrition

The same thing is true when making a baby, if you give your body materials like what is pictured below; your body cannot build a healthy baby, nor can it keep you healthy while it is trying to create this new life. One of the reasons so many people miscarry, or give birth to babies with birth defects, is because their  bodies simply didn’t have the raw materials necessary to do the job. Proverbs 23:1-3 says, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony, do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.”

childbirth, preganancy and nutrition

Babies bodies are primarily made up of calcium and protein. Milk is a high-quality source of calcium and eggs are the best protein you can consume.

Childbirth, pregnancy and nutrition

The basis for a great pregnancy diet is 1 quart of milk and two eggs each day. This gives your body the basics for building a healthy baby. For more detail check out this link. http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/02/18/childbirth-part-l/

Secondly, there are exercises that will make childbirth much more enjoyable and get you back into your pre-pregnant condition right after the birth.

Exercises for comfort, health and beauty.

1. Tailor sitting as often as possible, will help you limber up for birth. Shary actually took the legs off our dining room table with our first pregnancy. We ate tailor sitting on the floor, not my favorite position. Later, she let the rest of us sit on chairs while she ate sitting on a trunk, pulled up to the table.

childbirth, pregancy and exerciese

2. Squatting. When you go to pick up your kids toys or maybe even your husband’s cloths, squat down instead of bending over. Women who are comfortable squatting, find birthing much easier and are less likely to tear during birth. It is also much better for your back, which means fewer problems later in life.

childbirth, pregnancy and exercises

3. Pelvic rocks, 40, 40 and 80. Do 40 in the morning, 40 at noon, and 80 before you go to bed at night. This is truly the secret weapon of childbirth exercises. It solves many of the common problems associated with pregnancy, delivery and post-partum. Pelvic rock exercises, if done as prescribed, can eliminate back problems in pregnancy. They also help get the baby in the proper position for birth and will produce a flat stomach right after the birth. Pelvic rocks are done on your hands and knees by rotating your pelvis all the way down and then all the way up, for one pelvic rock. Speed is not the goal, rotating as far down as possible and as far up as possible is where the benefit comes. You are literally dropping the baby down and out of the birth canal and then pulling the baby back up tight. This strengthens the stomach muscles so that after the birth your stomach will be back to normal. When these muscles are strengthened, they take pressure off your back and the ligaments that hold the baby in place, making pregnancy much more enjoyable.

childbirth, pregnancy and exercises

4. Sleep or nap in the side running position at least 8 hours a day. Your body needs rest in order to keep you healthy and make a healthy baby. Lay on your side with your bottom leg straight and your upper leg bent. This is the best position for you and your baby. Sleeping on your back actually constricts the blood flow to the baby and sleeping on your stomach is never advised. Sleeping on your stomach simply becomes less possible the more pregnant you get. One time at the beach Shary had me dig her a hole in the sand so she could put her stomach in it. Her plan was to get some sun on her back, as you might guess, it didn’t work very well.
5. Aerobics, 2 mile walk, 5-6 days a week. Any exercise that elevates your heart rate and increases your breathing, is a benefit to pregnancy and childbirth. But, we have found that walking is almost a fool-proof way to assure a quick easy birth. Whenever we hear about a very easy and quick birth we ask what kind of exercise the mother did, almost every time we are told they walked outdoors a lot. So if you want an easy, no complications birth, this is a must.
6. Kegel, 10 times each urination or at least 100 times a day. There are several reasons why it is important to exercise this muscle. First, you need to have control of the muscle during the actual birth. When you relax the muscle, the baby is able to come more quickly. This exercise helps you to become aware of the muscle when it is relaxed, and when it is tense. If this muscle has been exercised and is in good tone at birth, it will stretch as the baby’s head comes through, like a rubber band. If it is in poor shape, it will be drug down the birth canal with the baby, and in the case of an episiotomy, it may be cut. Second, it improves the ability of the muscle to return to normal bladder and rectal control after the birth. Third, it makes intercourse more comfortable and improves a mother’s ability to achieve vaginal orgasm after giving birth. This muscle also keeps the bladder in the proper position. Many women complain that their bladder has dropped after birthing and has never returned to it’s normal condition, causing life long problems. The design of the western style toilet makes this even worse. Most other cultures squat when they go to the bathroom. The modern invention of the Squatty Potty was developed to solve this problem.

Childbirth, pregancy and exercises

Directions for Kegel exercises;
a. Practice when you are urinating by spreading your legs and tightening the vagina, stopping the flow of urine so that you are letting out only a teaspoon at a time.
b. Try squeezing the sides of the vagina together: squeeze from the bottom up, rather than starting with the abdomen which is at the top.
c. The rectum will squeeze together as you are squeezing the vagina. This is perfectly normal and, in fact, cannot be avoided.
d. Squeeze the vagina together slowly, and when you are squeezing full strength, hold to a count of three. Give a final short squeeze before relaxing, even though you may already think you are squeezing full strength. It is alright to use the abdomen during this “last effort”.
e. Relax the muscle, count to three, and relax again. The idea is to be able to get as much movement in the muscle as possible, hence the maximum contraction and the maximum relaxation. This builds the muscle strength quickly.
f. It is important to do the exercises throughout the day rather than all at tone time. Good times are morning, prior to arising, evening at bedtime, and times in between when you go to the bathroom. Other than those done while urination, the exercises should be done either lying flat or while standing.

Thirdly, miscellaneous tips!

a. To combat stretch marks, varicose veins or hemorrhoids, take 4 mg copper each day.
b. To specifically combat varicose veins, increase pelvic rocking, elevate legs at ten minute intervals, do foot circles, leg stretches and take Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopheral is the only type that works).
c. For leg cramps, point your heel till it stops and increase your calcium intake.
d. For heartburn, do not take antacids or baking soda, they destroy your B vitamins (energy vitamins). Eat slower, frequent, small meals throughout the day; sugar makes it worse. Place your hands on your ribs and take deep breaths to separate your ribs.
e. If you are having some problems in pregnancy that we did not cover or you have a friend or loved one who is having pregnancy issues, send us a comment and we will do our best to get you an answer.

This series on childbirth and pregnancy includes the following topics:

Part l    Nutrition

Part ll   Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and birth

Part lll First stage, husband coached Childbirth. What you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

Part llll Transition

Part V   Second stage and post-partum

Part VI Nursing, sleeping and circumcision,

Part VII  The V approach to raising kids.

Our purpose for writing each week is to obey Matthew 5:19, providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians who are miserable, or whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books;
1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann
http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau

2. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                   http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r

3. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.
http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

References
1. The Bradley Method of Childbirth      http://www.bradleybirth.com/
2. Purchase Squatty Potty         https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/squatty-potty-reg-ecco-toilet-stool/3250796skuId=42494126&mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_baby_&product_id=42494126&adpos=1o1&creative=43742625109&device=c&matchtype=&network=s&gclid=CMvBgaTcqdICFQmNaQodUQYMFw
3. Why Squatty Potty http://heavy.com/entertainment/2014/11/squatty-potty-poop-toilet-stool-shark-tank-products-season-6-100th-episode/

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Childbirth Part I: Foods that Make Healthy Moms and Babies!

Healthy mom, healthy baby.

Childbirth that produces healthy moms and healthy babies!

Healthy mom, healthy baby.
Our daughter Leah Rainey and her very healthy daughter Madison.

Childbirth! When Shary and I decided to get married, we agreed not to have any children of our own; maybe we would adopt. This decision came primarily because at the time, I believed in zero population growth. Add to that, Shary was always sick and didn’t believe she could get pregnant. Even if she did get pregnant, her doctor had told her that she could never carry a baby full term. If you believe that genetics plays into this, her mother had lots of miscarriages, so genetically speaking, Shary’s chances of having a baby were slim to  none.  But, as fate would have it, after changing our eating habits, Shary got pregnant and did not miscarry during that pregnancy, nor did she ever miscarry with any pregnancy.

Someone must have been praying for us, because we also had the good fortune to live only a few blocks from Forest Grove Community Hospital. At the time, Forest Grove Community Hospital was on the cutting edge of childbirth. They required couples to attend Husband Coached Childbirth classes if they wanted to deliver at Forest Grove Community. I will be sharing more about what that all entailed in Childbirth Part II. But suffice it to say, we had exceptional birthing experiences with our first two children. Later  they encouraged Shary to become a certified childbirth teacher, and we were employed by Forest Grove Community to teach their classes.

Childbirth, husband coached

Shary and I started teaching Husband Coached Childbirth classes in 1976, subsequently, we taught non-stop for eighteen years and then off and on for nearly 22 more years after that. We have taught for hospitals, colleges and churches. We have done childbirth seminars in the U.S.  and abroad, at one point we even had our own childbirth association and trained childbirth teachers. I mention this to let you know that what I am going to share with you is not theory, it has worked for us, our children and our students for over 40 years. It comes from a lot of scientific research, personal experience, and is backed up by God’s word, the Bible.

Over and over, we and others, including doctors and nutritionists, have been able to council pregnant mothers out of common childbirth diseases. Many of the common problems of pregnancy are easily fixed with nutrition and exercise. That is why it makes me so angry every time I hear of a woman who miscarried or I hear a commercial asking for more money to do research so we can “discover” cures for  the terrible problems associated with pregnancy and birth defects. Doctors and scientists have proven over and over again what it takes to have healthy babies and healthy mothers. We just need to get the word out, more research is not the answer to this health crisis, and believe me, it is a crisis.

 According to the Preeclampsia Foundation:  “Infant death is one of the most devastating consequences of preeclampsia. In the U.S., approximately 10,500 babies die from preeclampsia each year and an estimated half a million worldwide. Preeclampsia and related hypertensive disorders of pregnancy impact 5-8% of all births in the United States”. “Worldwide, preeclampsia is responsible for up to 20% of the 13 million preterm births each year. Stillbirths from preeclampsia (babies that die in utero after 20 weeks of gestation) number between 1,000 and 2,200 annually in the U.S. Preeclampsia is diagnosed by persistent high blood pressure, trouble with the kidneys or liver, fluid in the lungs, or signs of brain trouble such as seizures and/or visual disturbances.”

“Important symptoms that may suggest preeclampsia are headaches, abdominal pain, shortness of breath or burning behind the sternum, nausea and vomiting, confusion, heightened state of anxiety, and/or visual disturbances such as oversensitivity to light, blurred vision, or seeing flashing spots or auras” [1]

Not only is preeclampsia life threatening to the baby, but it can also be fatal to the mother. According to CBS News, “between 2000 and 2014, the nation’s maternal death rate rose by almost 27 percent. For every 100,000 live births, nearly 24 women died during, or within 42 days after pregnancy in 2014. Federal health officials have already reported a spike in the nation’s maternal (mother) mortality figures, the United States ranked 30th in a list of 31 countries beating out only Mexico.[2] Not only do we rank near the bottom of industrialized countries, but our death rate is getting worse each year while other countries death rates are getting better.

Childbirth, US sees largest increase in infant deaths of any developed country.

So what does God have to say about this?

God says that if we listen to him and follow his advice he will eliminate these problems.

Exodus    23:20-21, 25-26 “I am sending an angel (the angel of the Lord, Jesus) ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him…Worship the Lord your god and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

Here God promises that none will miscarry or be barren and they will have a full lifespan. If the healthcare providers in the U.S .payed attention to God and listened to what he said, the U.S. would have the best birth statistics instead of having the worst! OK, if you want to get technical, second to worst. We could eliminate preeclampsia, miscarriages, stillbirths and maternal mortality.

Deuteronomy 7:12– 12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. 13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.14 You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young.15 The Lord will keep you free from every disease. 

Here God promises to increase our numbers and bless the wombs of our women more than any other nation. He promises that no one will be childless and he will keep us free from every disease. That includes preeclampsia and miscarries. Since the U.S. has approximately 4 million births each year, and 24 women die from preeclampsia per 100,000, obeying God would save almost 1000 mothers lives each year.[3] It would also eliminate about 26,000 stillbirths each year and [4]  approximately 800, 000 miscarries. [5]

So what has God said to us that would change all of this?

 God’s word has encouraged us to eat eggs, salt and drink milk. [6][7][8] Check out these links for details.

  1. Eggs        http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/29/heart-disease-alzheimers-eggs-depression/
  2. Milk        http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/07/30/milk-nutritious-drink/
  3. Salt         http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/09/03/stole-restaurant-salt-shakers/

We recommend that all our birthing mothers eat two eggs a day. If you don’t like eggs, pretend they are large pills. We also recommend they salt their food to taste and drink a quart of milk each day. Those simple changes have reversed preeclampsia in women who had begun to show the symptoms of this disease.  This prescription has virtually eliminated any symptoms from women who began their pregnancy with this regime.

Preeclampsia is also called toxemia, (a self poisoning).  When doctors test women for preeclampsia, they will take urine samples and tell the woman she has too much protein in her urine, which is a sign of toxemia. Then she will be told to cut down on her protein intake. Actually, what they are detecting are amino acids that are being discarded by the body. Because most woman’s diets are not rich in balanced protein, her body will kick out the excess amino acids. The result is that her body’s mechanism for ridding itself of toxins is starved. That system needs a lot of protein and it isn’t getting it. Shary has been able to help virtually every mother who has come to her, getting them to up their protein intake by eating at least two eggs every day and adding other lean proteins.  Two eggs are the best source because eggs are a perfectly balanced protein.

Tom Brewer, the head obstetrician in a large hospital saw over 500 babies born each year. He recorded that one third of those patients, approximately 166 in all, had developed toxemia. In an effort to reduce the toxemia rate, he simply asked the women to eat two eggs and drink a quart of milk every day. After one year under the new plan, the hospital only recorded two cases of toxemia. One of the women had triplets, and he thought maybe she needed to eat four eggs a day. The other patient was mentally ill and they were never sure if she had followed the instructions. By simply adding two eggs and a quart of milk to these 500 women’s diets, toxemia was almost completely eradicated. [12]

The March of Dimes has done extensive research to determine the cause of birth defects. As early as 1975 the March of Dimes was encouraging pregnant mothers to eat eggs, vegetables and drink milk. It was also stated that if pregnant mothers would avoid the temptation to restrict weight gain during pregnancy, and would instead, gain at least 25 pounds, they could virtually eliminate the chance of birth defects. If you take into account the weight of the baby, the placenta, extra blood, etc., this adds up to approximately 25 pounds. If a pregnant mother does  not gain at least this much weight she is literally starving the baby and is more likely to have a premature baby or birth defects. [13]

So, what about salt?

Salt is an essential nutrient. Asking people to eliminate salt from their diets is dangerous.  Dr. Tom Brewer demonstrates this fact in an article he wrote entitled, “No Risk Pregnancy Diet”. Here are sickening facts:

Salt in Pregnancy

High Salt Diet Low-Salt Diet
Toxemia 37/1000 97/1000
Perinatal deaths 27/1000 50/1000
C-section 9/1000 14/1000
Abruptio placenta 17/1000 32/1000

–Adapted from Margaret Robinson. “Salt in Pregnancy,” Lancet 1:178, 1958. 9b

Toxemia (a build up of poisons in the blood stream) is almost three times as high in women who restrict salt. Infant deaths are almost double.

 What to do in order of importance!

  1. Eat two eggs and drink a quart of milk every day during pregnancy, continue to do this until you stop nursing or, if you want to remain healthy do it until Jesus returns. (If you have twins you will need to eat 4 eggs per day.)
  2. Make sure you gain at least 25 pounds of weight during pregnancy.
  3. Cut out soda pop, energy drinks, smoking, alcohol, drugs and candy.
  4. Follow our “Baby steps to disease free living”. Follow this link http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2017/01/28/5-guaranteed-steps-disease-free-living/

Next week we will talk a little more about nutrition and get into exercises that will make pregnancy much more enjoyable and birth much easier.

Childbirth series

Part I    Nutrition

Part II   Nutrition and exercises for a more comfortable pregnancy and birth

Part III First stage, husband coached Childbirth. What you believe about birth will determine how it goes.

Part IIII Transition

Part V   Second stage and post-partum

Part VI Nursing, sleeping and circumcision,

Part VII  The V approach to raising kids.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books:

  1. “God’s Guide to Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris and Shary Schauermann                                                             http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
  1. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallach                                                                                                                                                      http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  1. “None of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M. D.                                                                      http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2  

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

References

  1. Preeclampsia, Toxemia  http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-information/faqs 
  2. Preeclampsia http://www.cbsnews.com/news/death-rate-is-up-during-pregnancy-childbirth-in-u-s/
  3. US birthrate  http://www.susps.org/overview/birthrates.html 
  4. Still births https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/placental-pregnancy-conditions-account-most-stillbirths
  5. Miscarriage rate  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/miscarriage-cause_n_4116712.html
  6. Eggs  http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/29/heart-disease-alzheimers-eggs-depression/
  7. Milk  http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/07/30/milk-nutritious-drink/
  8. Salt http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/09/03/stole-restaurant-salt-shakers/
  9. Tom Brewer “The no risk pregnancy diet” http://drbrewerpregnancydiet.com/id72.html
  10. Weight gain   http://www.marchofdimes.org/pregnancy/weight-gain-during-pregnancy.aspx
Posted on

Super-centenarian credits God and the Bible!

116 years old and full of joy.

Super-centenarian, 116-year-old, Violet Mosses Brown has discovered the secret to living a long and happy life without many of the ills associated with old age.

 

Bible obedience equals longevity.
Violet Moses Brown reading her daily Bible devotional.

Deuteronomy 33:25b  “Your strength will equal your days”

This Bible verse certainly applies to Super-centenarian, Violet Mosses Brown. Born March 4th 1900, now at 116, Violet still enjoys reading her Daily Bread devotional flawlessly without the assistance of reading glasses. She is still so sharp, she is able to effortlessly recite a poem, The Vision of Belshazzar by Lord Byron, a poem she learned while attending elementary school a century ago. She can recite it without a hitch. For fun Violet listens to music, practices shorthand and typing.  So far, her strength is equal to her days.

Violet Brown is a resident in the western Jamaica town of Duanvale, Trelawny. A local news reporter commented, “Mrs. Brown exudes peace and contentment as she sits on her cool veranda, enjoying the comings and goings of the district. Beside her is her 96-year-old son, Harold Fairweather, incredibly youthful in appearance and believed to be the oldest person with a living parent.  Harold still lives with his mother as he approaches 100. People complain that their twenty-year-old children are still living at home. Get this; Violet has a 96 year old son still living with her and a 62 year old grandson to boot.

Her son did leave home and live in England for a number of years, but felt it was his duty to come home and take care of his mother. After she is gone, he can return to England to pick up were he left off. Just think of it, many 40 year olds think they are over the hill, with this family, they would barely be starting up the hill.

Often people tell me they don’t want to live to be over 100, much less be a super-centenarian. They feel the quality of life at that age would be so poor that it would be better not live at all. At the age of 110, Violet commented with a smile, “You know, sometimes I ask myself, “Am I really 110 years old?” Because I don’t feel like 110.” Though less active at 116, Brown boasts she is still able to make her own bed in the mornings.  Her 96 year old son says she has no major illness, though her hearing isn’t what it used to be.

116 years old and full of joy.
Violet, 116 and still full of joy.

A local official stated, “This is a woman who we can say contributes significantly to the community. She has been humorous in her discussions, possesses good health, a memory that is outstanding, and, of course, she was the record keeper for all deaths in Duanvale.”  Violet kept cemetery records so well that the local government used her record keeping procedures as the standard for all future employees.

This super-centenarian has also been a major help to her family and church community.  Her grandson, 62-year-old Vernon Davis described his grandmother as the unifying force in their family. “She was a person who keeps the family together. She has been hard-working,” said Davis, who has lived with his grandmother since his youth. Her family says even at her age she continues to counsels the residents of Duanvale. They enjoy the company of this positive lady, who shares many gems of faith and poetry with them.

Church make us healthier
Violet with her pastor.

Violets influence has gone beyond the borders of Jamaca!

Her influence in her family and community has also spread to other parts of the world as evidence by this story told by her oldest son.

Harold Fairweather, appears closer to 60, than the centenarian he will be in only four years. He spoke animatedly about his experience as a migrant in Sheffield, England. He had applied for a job and was told by the manager that they did not hire blacks.  I told the gentleman, ‘When your time comes for you to go to the City Road Cemetery, I don’t think color will matter there. I have a flower garden and I do not see only white flowers there. God made them of various colors. This is God’s world, and all of us are in His beautiful garden.” The gentleman seemed surprised and asked, “Where did you get that from?” (Obviously from his mother). He hired me that day. “I became the first person of color to be employed in that business, I opened the door for other people of color; and would you believe that this gentleman became like a second father to me in England”.

So what is this Super-centenarian’s secret to a very productive, very long, very physically healthy life?

Her son says that Violet is not given to gluttony, but enjoys small meals. He also says, “She likes fish and mutton and sometimes she will have cow foot, but she does not eat pork or chicken”. Her other preferences are sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, breadfruit, and fruit, especially oranges and mangoes. The Bible highly recommends eating mutton (red meat) and fish, it also vehemently commands us not to eat pork.[2][3][4] Violet is getting a lot of vitamin C from the fruit she eats.[5] She also says, “I don’t drink rum and dem tings.”

Breadfruit eaten by super-centenarian.
Young Jamaican with a ripe breadfruit.

In my study of super-centenarians, I have not found them to simply be lucky enough to win the genetic lottery, what I have found is that they all do a lot of the same things. And all of the things in common, that they do, are backed up by the word of God and science.

Exodus 23:21, 25-26                                                                                                                                                                

“Pay attention to him (the angel of the lord) and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him…Worship the Lord your God and his blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

Violet proudly testifies that her full lifespan has come from obeying God. “I live by the grace of God. At 13, Violet was received into the Baptist Church, where she was told to read Psalm 119, verse 133 — words that she has never forgotten. According to a local reporter, “She declared them to us:” “Order my steps in thy word and let no sin have any dominion over me.”

This super-centenarian declares her greatest joy is the church, “I love the Church,” Brown told reporters.

Worshiping God lengthens and strengthens life.
Violet Brown worshiping with church members.
Prayer and worship strengthen your days.
Violet praying with her church family.

The energetic super-centenarian also said she credited her long and fruitful life to her respect for family, life, and people in general, as well as a lot of hard work when she was younger. She believes that obeying the fifth commandment, “Honor your mother and father so your days may be long” Exodus 20:12, has worked for her. I believe that it is working for me and that it will work for you and your loved ones as well. 

Somebody’s going to live long and strong past 100 years, might as well by you!

5 Biblical principals followed by Violet Mosses Brown, that contributed to her long, healthy and productive life.

  1. Biblical eating habits.
  2. Biblical worship habits.
  3. Biblical relationships with God, family and neighbors.
  4. Avoidance of sin (missing the mark, things that displease God)
  5. Steady, hard work.

The Bible does not say that your genetics determine your health. The Bible says your actions determine your healthfulness.

I will admit that, “honoring your mother and father”, was a hard one for me. When I was growing up, my dad had always been a little overbearing, OK a lot overbearing,  and even though the Bible says that honoring him would lengthen my days, I struggled with it. After being away from home and returning to work for my dad again, he and I almost went to blows one day in the back room of the golf course we were running. Our church encouraged me to keep trying to honor him, and the more I tried the easier it got.  Before he passed away, he and I had some really good talks. A plethora of studies have shown the Bible to be true in this area. One study done by  Brummett and colleagues (2001) found that, among adults with coronary artery disease, the socially isolated had a risk of subsequent cardiac death 2.4 times greater than their more socially connected peers.[6] Check out this link for a ton of evidence that points to relationships being a major factor in physical health and longevity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150158/

Once again, our purpose for writing each week is to provide you with Biblical advice and examples of people who followed that advice for the care and feeding of their bodies.  We share this Biblical advice each week, because it is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.

If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.

If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books:

  1. “None of These Diseases” by S. I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, D                                                                                                                                    http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
  2. “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallac                                                                                                                                                              http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r 
  3. “God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris & Shary Schauermann                                                            http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau

You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.

 

References

  1. Violet Brown http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100308/lead/lead6.html
  2. Mutton   http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/07/10/should-we-eat-red-meat/
  3. Fish  http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/11/19/fish-can-make-you-sick-or-healthy/
  4. Pork  http://wellnessgospel.net/?s=Pork
  5. Vitamin C  http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/10/vitamin-c-granddaddy-vitamins/
  6. Social/physical connections https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150158/