This week’s observance of National Women’s Health Week, with its theme of “This Is Your Time,” underscores the need for every woman to stay vigilant, through regular health screenings, good nutrition and exercise, about maintaining her own health. I applaud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for raising awareness this week that individual women need to make their own health a priority.

But I would like to broaden the conversation. So many of the threats to women’s health stem not just from their own choices but the environment they live in, the public policies that affect them and their access to health care – all factors beyond their control. I’m referring to things like whether a woman has health insurance to pay for health screenings, breathes air that is polluted or lives in a low-income community, or even whether medications are available to meet her distinct needs.

Guiding all of the work we do at the Public Health Institute (PHI) is the awareness of the social and economic factors that contribute to everyone’s health. Many of our cutting-edge programs focus on ways to change the conditions that shape a woman’s health and better understand her health needs:

• The Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) at PHI is a landmark longitudinal study that tracks the health of 15,000 pregnant women from the SF Bay Area between the years 1959 and 1967 – such as Sue above – as well as their children. Their work includes the Three Generations Breast Cancer Study, the first womb-to-breast cancer study in the world, which also examines disparities in environmental exposures and breast cancer. CHDS is uniquely able to trace the long-term effects of environmental exposures in women and girls, examining the effects of chemicals including DDT and PCBs on fertility, pregnancy and the health of the mothers who were exposed and their children and grandchildren.
• In Kenya and Tanzania, PHI supports local organizations to increase women’s access to Misoprostol. An inexpensive and widely available drug, Misoprostol can prevent post-partum hemorrhage and unsafe abortion, the two leading causes of maternal mortality in many countries. Most important, evidence now shows that women can use this drug safely, in their communities, without going to a facility or seeing a provider.
• PHI’s Global Clean Cookstoves Project is at the forefront of developing clean energy technologies to make cooking safe, environmentally sound, and healthy for women and families. Together with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, PHI is field-testing state-of-the-art stoves with village women in Western Kenya to replace open-fire cookstoves used by 3 billion people worldwide. By identifying stoves that reduce killer levels of exposure, PHI hopes to reduce the impact of cookstove smoke, the fifth leading cause of death in developing countries.
• The Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations (CAMI) at PHI works with researchers, biotechnology developers, policymakers, advocates and providers to promote the development and distribution of prevention products with more than one purpose. The products would prevent unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses. For example, testing of a microbicide gel supported by CAMI has been shown to protect against acquiring both the AIDS virus and the genital herpes virus.

These programs don’t just better the conditions, health and lives of millions of women. Together, they are building stronger families and communities. Investing in women and mothers has a huge multiplier effect on the well-being and productivity of the family, the community, the nation and the world.

PHI will be hosting a Facebook chat Wednesday, May 16th at 3pm ET, noon PT, to talk about domestic and global women’s health. ‘Like’ Dialogues to Health to join the conversation.

A Rachel’s Network report entitled “When Women Lead: A Decade of Women’s Environmental Voting Records in Congress,”  compares the environmental voting records of Congresswomen and Congressmen from the 107th through the 111th Congress.  The conclusion:  in both houses of Congress, whether red or blue, women are greener!

Here’s Annie’s personal account of a moving conversation:

How did a girl raised and hardened on the streets of New York City become a passionate environmentalist, geeky master gardener and full-fledged compost queen? I read Rachel Carson’s bestseller, Silent Spring.

Overnight, I became a Rachel Carson groupie and went searching for my teammates. I found them at Rachel’s Network, a nonprofit that builds productive alliances among women funders who care deeply about the environment and women’s leadership.  These impassioned leaders and agents of change have collected the latest statistics showing that women are uniquely positioned as environmental stewards and that women in policy-making positions will vote to protect the environment more than their male counterparts.

This is all swell, you may be thinking. We can stop worrying about clean water, safe food and the ubiquitous barrage of industrial and agricultural chemicals. But American women account for only 23 percent of state legislators and 17 percent of Congress, and the United States ranks 73rd in the world in gender parity in governance.

I contacted Laurie Syms, co-director of Rachel’s Network, to ask how both women and men could earn some badly needed extra-credit points from Mother Earth.

To read Laurie’s answers to Annie’s thoughtful questions, see their interview in the Huffington Post, or learn more about ways The 2012 Project is propelling women into the political pipeline here.

And as you celebrate Mother’s Day, consider the influence you could leverage by running for office yourself.  Whether you’re most moved by education issues, toxic chemicals, family-friendly workplaces, or health care for kids, there’s no more effective way to effect lasting change than by setting the policy agenda yourself.

Don’t get me wrong:  breakfast in bed is dandy.  But a seat at the decision-making table is invaluable!

The answer is, as soon as you have a baby, YOU ARE MOM ENOUGH!

TIME is sadly out of touch with what Moms really want. It’s time to ask, “Are we Mom-friendly enough?”

In my circle of “Mom” friends, we largely think that the “Mommy Wars” are over. Until, of course, some stupid news outlet uses the Mommy War to try and sell magazines. We trust that the choices that you made about parenting your children were made based on the information that you had at the time. “We do better, when we know better” is a phrase we often share with each other as we gather new information and work to improve our lives and the lives of our children.

But the question is not the only insult. The cover photo is also offensive. Not because the mother is breastfeeding an older child, but because the picture does not represent the actual relationship that this mother has with her child.  To the many mothers, physicians, and public health advocates, who have strived to bring breastfeeding back into the mainstream, it is offensive to have such an exploitative and staged photograph become emblem of what is a normal part of motherhood.

In my 12 years of motherhood, having breastfed all my children into preschool, I have never seen another mother of a toddler or preschool aged child, pull up a chair, stand like a mudflap girl and nurse her child, while gazing off into the knowing eyes of the camera. I wonder how this picture would have looked if there was a little girl standing on that chair, as opposed to a very boyish boy?  Typically, mother’s who are extended breastfeeding an older child, reserve their nursing for the needs of the child, not the needs of the photographer.

I have seen mothers, whose children have fallen down, with a bloodied knee, comfort their children with nursing. I have seen mothers of children with severe diarrhea, comfort and hydrate their children with nursing. I have seen mothers of children, who have been scared and frightened, comfort and love their children with nursing.

I am not opposed to the beautiful pictures of women nursing older children, as was represented within the article and video, but the cover photo that TIME chose was intended to inflame and misrepresent.  TIME’s use of this inauthentic representation of what extended nursing “looks like” is simply a lie.

Some families choose to breastfeed beyond infancy because of the evidence-based health and neurological benefits. Yes, I said families, because very frequently, it is the fathers that see, support and promote the nursing relationship.

But the reality is that many women never breastfeed beyond the first weeks of life, because of the many barriers that prevent them from achieving their dream. Women need accurate and timely information, not hypersexualized hyperbole.

TIME, here are the questions you should have asked:

-                Where can we get the best information to make an informed choice?

-                Are we supporting a Mom’s choice to breastfeed for 1 minute, 1 day, 100 days or 1000 days?

-                When are we going to get paid maternity & paternity leave?

-                How can we get more flexible work options?

-                How can we ensure our children are educated?

-                How can we get health care?

-                When will we expand lactation accommodation rights for all working women?

-                Are we providing Moms with real food to feed their children?

-                Are we supporting families in the workplace to parent their children?

If you are ready to opt out of the Media-Industrial Mommy War Complex, please join us here.

Here’s a hilarious Mother’s Day fantasy just for you!

Click here: http://www.momsdaycard.com/index2.php

Happy nearly Mother’s Day!!!

- Kristin, Joan, Monifa, Elisa, Ashley, Nanette, Sarah, Julie, Sarah, Anita, Ruth, Claire, Donna, Mary, and Gloria

www.healthychild.org

Potential Autism Causes Identified

What causes autism? Dr. Phil Landrigan, professor and chair of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York and Honorary Board member of Healthy Child Healthy World, recently released a comprehensive list of environmental triggers, published in Environmental Health Perspectives and concisely presented in a slideshow on Rodale News. This powerful research looks at environmental factors—including lead, mercury and pesticides—and connects the dots on early exposures to problems in childhood, with the goal of informing the medical community and changing chemical regulation to better protect kids.

Approval Sought for GE Corn

According to the Just Label It! campaign, of which Healthy Child is a member, the USDA may approve corn that is genetically engineered to withstand 2,4-D, a potent herbicide that may be linked to major health problems including reproductive abnormalities, birth defects, and several forms of cancer. The FDA is currently considering approval of genetically engineered salmon, which is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round to make the fish grow at twice its natural rate, and would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States. If these “foods” are approved, we won’t know they’re on our shelves because GE foods are not required to be labeled in the U.S.—as they are in 40 other countries. 90% of Americans are against unlabeled GE foods. Healthy Child is, too!

House Hearing on Cancer

Information from the House assessment of the “Report on Carcinogens” continues to trickle down. The report, which recently classified formaldehyde as a “known carcinogen” and styrene as a “reasonably anticipated” human carcinogen, was under attack, most notably by Dow Chemical, for being “bad for business,” according to Andy Igrejas of the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families coalition in the Huffington Post.

Honorary Board Kudos

Last week, we told you about the study published in Pedriatrics about Dr. Harvey Karp’s “Happiest Baby” methods to soothe infants experiencing pain.  This week, Scholastic named the doctor the second most important person in American family life —after moms and before Steve Jobs.

Also this week, fellow Healthy Child Healthy World Honorary Board member Olivia Newton-John’s new “Livwise” book shot to the top of the bestseller list.

Congratulations to these amazing visionaries; we are so grateful for their support and thankful as they continue to expand the healthy parenting movement!

May is Pregnancy Awareness Month!

Pregnancy Awareness Month (P.A.M.) is an organization dedicated to inspiring women during pregnancy with educational initiatives spotlighting nutrition, wellness, and all around nurturing.  If you’re in Los Angeles on Sunday May 6, be sure to join P.A.M.’s annual flagship free event at the Skirball Center that features features a variety of brands, specialists and experts in the field of pregnancy, motherhood and kids.  Click here for more information.

P.A.M. was established in 2008 by Healthy Child Healthy World Board Member, author & holistic lifestyle expert Anna Getty and producer & mompreneur Alisa Donner.

by Rachel Sarnoff, Executive Director & CEO
Healthy Child Healthy World
www.healthychild.org

Happiest Babies Are Soothed by 5 S’s

Can simple soothing take the place of sugar? That was the takeaway from a new study published this week in the journal Pediatrics. In a study involving more than 200 infants, researchers found the “5 S’s” baby-calming tactics worked better than the sugar-water supplements traditionally given to infants after experiencing pain, according to ABC News. The 5 S’s tactics were developed by Dr. Harvey Karp, a founding board member of Healthy Child Healthy World and author of “The Happiest Baby on the Block” book and video series. Yet another reason to “shh-shh-shh”!

Carcinogens in the House

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives will hold an investigative hearing on the Report on Carcinogens of the National Toxicology Program, a government program that identifies cancer-causing chemicals. The Subcommittee on Science, Space & Technology will meet to assess the impact of the Report on small business jobs. Healthy Child has signed on to a group letter urging the Committee to continue funding the Report; we’ll share more information as it emerges.

The Story’s Not Over on BPA

The FDA’s recent decision not to ban BPA has been criticized by scientists who are concerned that low-dose exposures may be linked to health problems, according to the Washington Post.

Earth Week is for Mothers

Earth Week started Sunday and there’s nothing more powerful than moms doing their part for the Earth. In addition to the awe-inspiring “Mom on a Mission” finalists and all the incredible hosts teeing up for Healthy Child Party Week, we wanted to take a moment to recognize…

Lori Popkewitz Alper of Groovy Green Livin’, who took on P & G with a petition that’s racked up nearly 75,000 signatures encouraging the company to strip carcinogenic 1,4 dioxane from its Free & Gentle detergent.

Jenna Elfman, Kelly Preston and Laila Ali, who kicked off the Healthy Child Party campaign with a bang and showed the world ALL moms fight for children’s health.

And green living leader Sara Snow, who recently launched a petition to get cancer-causing flame retardants out of Graco baby products—for her baby daughter’s health and the health of children everywhere.

Go team!

It’s National Minority Health Month and the Maryland Women’s Coalition for Health Care Reform (Coalition) is working from the principle: Reform. It’s Good for Your Health to advance the mission of health equity in Maryland.  Through the successful implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other state-based initiatives we recognize a unique, once in a generation opportunity to transform the health care landscape and to ensure that everyone has access to the full range of health care services they need to live healthy and productive lives.  We also know that unless we address the existing gender, racial and ethnic disparities we will not have lived up to the promise of reform.

In Maryland we are fortunate that Governor O’Malley has made the ACA’s full implementation a high priority.   His Administration has used this opportunity to give stakeholders a real and meaningful role in the process and to emphasize the goal of achieving health equity.  The Coalition has been involved in drafting legislation for Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange Act of 2012 (SB238/HB443), which sets out the basic principle of health equity, and another law that established Health Enterprise Zones (SB234/HB439) for the purpose of reducing health disparities.  The Coalition has partnered with Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to implement the State Health Improvement Process (SHIP).  This establishes 39 measurable objectives to improve health outcomes, 24 of which directly address disparities.  The Coalition is engaging with groups on the local level through health improvement coalitions to support the SHIP’s goals.

We are also kicking off two exciting initiatives.  The first is the publication of a white paper, Health Equity: Maryland’s Call to Action.   In this we will highlight the challenges and opportunities to achieve health equity through health care reform and provide recommendations on how to achieve these.   This will be released in September 2012 at a forum – Health Care. Women of Color Get It.   This will bring together those working in areas that include health policy, public health, consumer advocacy, and minority health and disparities to engage in discussions throughout which will be interwoven the thread of achieving health equity in our state.   At the same time, we want to empower women of color to raise their own voices to achieve our shared goals of high-quality, affordable, comprehensive and accessible health care for all.

However, one popular advance directive could actually subvert your wishes with its stealth anti-choice language. It’s called “Five Wishes.”

There are two general kinds of advance directive. One is called a “health care proxy” or “power of attorney for health care” and it delegates a person to make decisions on your behalf. The other is a “living will,” which specifies your wishes. Anti-choice activists keep tightening the rules of evidence that govern end-of-life decisions, so you need both documents. One names the decision-maker. The other guides the decisions.

Most people use their state-approved advance directive form, and these are the most trouble-free and reliable. But the widespread form called “Five Wishes” should come with a warning label. Why? Because the religious dogma imbedded in it could actually subvert your wishes when the time comes.

In 1997 James Towey started a Florida organization called “Aging with Dignity” and wrote “Five Wishes.” With the help of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others, Five Wishes spread across the country. Aging with Dignity claims more than 15,000 organizations distribute Five Wishes, and most of them probably do not know about the religious slant. Many people now have these on file, instead of their own state forms. Five Wishes is a wonderful form in many ways, but fair warning is in order.

Five Wishes incorporates the religious creed that while it is permissible to take action you know will cause death, it is never permissible to intend death. It’s a subtle concept, but central to certain theology related to the end of life. It carries the name “doctrine of double effect.”

Those of us trained in the law usually assume responsibility covers things we know will result from our actions, in addition to what we intend. “I didn’t intend to break the window” is no defense if I knew the window was closed and chose to throw a baseball to my friend outside anyway.

The double effect dogma can trip you up if you don’t see it coming. Wish Number 2, “My Wish For the Kind of Medical Treatment I Want Or Don’t Want,” includes the general instruction “I do not want anything done or omitted by my doctors or nurses with the intention of taking my life” (italics original).

Then the form goes on to list medical interventions that keep a person alive and allows you to check the box, “I do not want life-support treatment.” Thus it creates internal conflict within the document.

Even if you check the “do not want life-support” box, a hospital or doctor could object that stopping life support would “intend” death and the form you signed expressly prohibits that. What a confusing mess that could create!

The Five Wishes form is simple and easy to use. It avoids the legalese that makes forms written by legislatures so tedious and opaque. It also includes things you might never think to include in your “wishes,” like the wish to be rubbed with warm oils as you die, or be soothed with a cool cloth. Also, Five Wishes wisely includes brain damage (that would include dementia) along with terminal illness and coma, as a condition that triggers your instructions about life-support treatment.

But Towey makes no secret of his desire to spread the tenets of his Catholic faith and encourage others to live by them. When he left Florida to lead faith-based initiatives at the White House he described his goal unabashedly as to “get into heaven.”

My advice — use your own state forms. You can download them free in an editable PDF format, along with instructions and useful additions to the form, at the Compassion & Choices Web site. The new format eases the completion of an advance directive.

If you have already filled out Five Wishes and want to keep it instead of changing to a state form, consider crossing out the part that does not allow an intention to end life. The Five Wishes form itself instructs you to cross out portions you don’t agree with. (That instruction somehow went missing from the stealth anti-choice part.)

You can cross it out anyway. Initial and date the cross-out. Congratulations. You have just transformed a fish back into your own, personal end-of-life wish.

AMY’S STORY

In recognition of National Healthcare Decisions Day, I want to share with you my first-hand knowledge of the incalculable importance of having an advance directive, and of discussing your feelings about end-of-life matters with the people you love and trust.

My eighteen-year-old daughter and only child, Amy, was involved in a car accident in 2001. She survived the accident but sustained a devastating brain injury. As she lay unconscious on full life support in the intensive care unit, her neurosurgeon informed me that Amy’s head injury was “…as bad as it gets.” Later, he added, “I’m flabbergasted she’s still alive.”

Amy remained unconscious for three weeks before her father and I requested that the machines supporting her life be disconnected. Our beloved daughter died two hours later.

In truth, it was Amy herself who made that request. She asked me six months before her accident what a living will was, now referred to as an advance directive for healthcare. Amy had found me sitting at our dining room table one afternoon, reviewing the living will that I’d drawn up for myself, the pages having been signed, witnessed and notarized at my attorney’s office earlier that day. When I explained to her that having a living will “lets you keep control over your own life should something terrible happen and you wind up in a coma in the hospital or something”; that having a living will “makes your life your decision and prevents (I phrased this in a way an eighteen-year-old could relate to) a bunch of ‘fundamentalist crusading yahoos’ from gaining control over you through the courts,” Amy then asked,

“Can I have one for myself?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

You never know.

It was understandable why having an advance directive that would ensure her dignity and quality of life up to the end had become of utmost importance to Amy. She had borne witness to the long, terrible suffering of her beloved grandmother: her dear friend –ravaged by Parkinson’s disease; her dear friend – no longer able to walk or talk or feed herself; her dear friend – no longer able to recognize the people she loved.

It was due to the love and compassion that she felt for her grandmother that Amy became the kid who got into trouble in religion class, senior year of high school, for expressing her support and approval of the efforts of Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

When I finally came to understand that the life Amy had so emphatically expressed to me she wanted and needed and deserved – a life of independence and self-determination, the life we all want and need and deserve – was forever out of her reach, I, as her durable power of attorney, turned over her advance directive to the hospital staff. I knew that Amy was counting on me to speak her mind for her. I did what she asked.

Honoring Amy’s wishes by allowing her to die was…is…well…hard beyond description by the spoken or written word. But as I struggle to endure my grief and loss, I have peace of mind in knowing that what I did for Amy was right.

I encourage you to do this loving thing for the people you love: Children, talk to your parents about their end-of-life wishes. Parents, talk to your children if they are eighteen or older about their end-of-life wishes. Fill out your advance directives as a family. Re-initiate the conversation every so often. Because Amy’s story could someday be your story.

You never know.

Persis Oberreither graduated from Miami University with a degree in philosophy, worked as a paramedic, and was a stay-at-home mom while Amy was growing up. After Amy’s death, Persis wrote PINKY-SWEAR: Honoring My Daughter’s Right to Die, and has worked as a hospice volunteer. She is a member of Compassion & Choices, Bereaved Parents of the USA, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Her book can be ordered from pinkyswearamy.com/purchase/.

To obtain copies of your state-specific advance directives, and to learn ways of getting the conversation started, please go to compassionandchoices.org/G2G for information.

Dirty Little Secret

By Carly Corrigan, CTWorkingMoms.com

So I guess I could tell you that my dirty little secret isn’t the fact that my car is so messy right now that it looks like I’m living out of it; or maybe that I haven’t been to the gym since last September – both true statements. However, I’m going to get a bit more personal than that. The truth is I was diagnosed with postpartum depression about 6 months after my daughter was born. Huh, I guess it’s not a secret anymore is it?

This is my story…

I was on cloud nine when my daughter Caroline was born. I could not believe how blessed I was to have this beautiful, healthy baby in my arms. My life felt complete and I was so in love! However, as the weeks continued, I noticed I wasn’t really feeling quite like myself. The people closest to me began noticing changes in me as well. I didn’t seem as happy as I normally did. I began feeling as if I was riding in the front seat of an emotional rollercoaster and my lows were getting lower. I felt so irritable to the point where out of nowhere would come these outbursts of anger towards my husband and I felt distant from my daughter. I knew I was feeling depressed but did not understand why. I brushed the feelings off, telling myself I was just “hormonal” and I would return to my normal character soon. Weeks turned into months and it didn’t happen.

When I realized I needed help…

Everything came to a head when I began having thoughts that my family might be better off without me; that my daughter would be better off without a mom who felt this way. I am thankful to this day that I took that little voice inside of me seriously. I decided enough was enough… time to get the help I needed, whatever that may be. I wanted my life back. I did not simply want to try to make it through each day. I wanted to feel like I was living life.

Getting the help I needed…

The first step was reaching out and asking for help. In my case it was my sister-in-law and my husband. My sister-in-law drove me to the hospital where I was evaluated and admitted. I spent the next few days there and was then released into a day program where I had group therapy sessions and met some amazing people going through some very difficult times. I met another woman who was dealing with postpartum depression as well and we bonded right away. I found it extremely comforting to know there was someone else I could talk to about how I was feeling and she actually understood. In fact we still keep in touch and check in on each other every now and then. When I finished that therapy program I began seeing both a therapist and a psychiatrist on a regular basis. Looking back, I really feel like if I had reached out for help sooner I could have avoided the hospital and gone directly to making appointments with mental health professionals but I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason! Regardless of how I got there, the end result was positive.

What I learned…

I was NOT going to feel better over night (it takes a little time). I am NOT alone. I should NOT feel ashamed. I AM stronger than I thought.

My fears…

When I returned back to work I was afraid people would find out my secret and think I was crazy, incapable of doing my job, or even weak. I did confide in a few close co-workers whom I consider friends and they were very supportive, even though they did not fully understand.

Now with the birth of my second daughter just around the corner I am finding myself a little nervous about going through postpartum depression again. My goal is to just be proactive about my mental health. I came off all of my medications before becoming pregnant but will get back in touch with my doctor as soon as my daughter is born to discuss a treatment plan. I am also planning on breastfeeding so I need to take that into consideration when deciding when/if I need medication.

My hopes…

I have to admit, writing this for you to read has been therapeutic for me, a kind of release. It feels empowering to share my experience in the hopes that maybe even one mother will feel less alone or ashamed after reading about my experience. The fact is that one in eight women suffer from postpartum depression. No mother should ever feel like this is her “dirty little secret.” The good news is that there is help available and you are NOT alone!

A great resource for those suffering or know someone who may be suffering from postpartum depression:  Postpartum Support International