Happy Day Doula

Maternal Mental Health Awareness

Here are several ways to lower your risk of Maternal Mental Health disorders:

◾Preconception therapy working towards healing childhood trauma(s)

◾Holistic, comprehensive, and conflict of interest free childbirth education.

◾True nutrition including whole foods and proper hydration throughout pregnancy

◾Mindfulness practices - meditation, body scanning, focused breathing, mindfetalness, etc - throughout pregnancy

◾Daily outdoor movement in the sunshine including walking or stretching throughout pregnancy

◾Quality doula support and hiring a responsive midwife

◾Birthing outside of the medical industrial complex

◾Creating your own unique 'village' including but not limited to - out of hospital lactation support, mothers groups, etc

◾Naturopathic, functional, and or chiropractic whole family care

◾Time spent with seasoned mothers who have come before you and hold similar mothering philosophies

Learn more: happydaydoula.com

A pediatric office in Fort Wayne shared a post a few months ago that said “MULTIPLE VACCINES AT ONCE” and “VACCINE SAFETY.”

They stated that “research shows” giving multiple vaccines at the same time is “safe.”

I clicked the source they linked, which led to an article on HealthyChildren .org, a site run by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The article was titled “Multiple Vaccines at One Time.”

In that article, it says:
“Combining some vaccines in a single shot—or giving several shots at the same visit—has been ‘carefully studied and tested over many years’ to ensure it works well for children.”

The source cited for this information was the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases. In other words, the organization was citing itself.

So I decided to look further on my own. I searched for an up-to-date, high quality study that examined the question of multiple vaccines at once, What came up was a 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.

This systematic review included 26 different studies and looked at data from over 15,000 children, comparing the safety of giving three or more vaccines at once versus giving them separately.

The key findings from this Level 1 evidence were that there was no increase in serious adverse events, and that “the pediatric immune system has the capacity to handle these antigens simultaneously without causing long-term health problems.”

Naturally, the next question was, who conducted and funded this review?

The review was conducted by a research team at the University of Florence. The authors reported no conflicts of interest. On its face, this is an important study, because a systematic review gathers years of data and carries more weight than a single trial. Right?

I then asked a few more questions. This is apparently what I do for fun 😄

Did the researchers themselves work for vaccine companies? No.

Did the university receive funding from vaccine manufacturers? No.

But looking more closely, another layer appeared!

When examining the 26 individual studies included in the review, MOST of them were funded by the pharmaceutical industry.

In most of those studies, at least one author was either a direct employee of a vaccine manufacturer or had received money from a vaccine company. We’re talking MILLIONS.

The parties who stood to gain the most funded these studies and had their employees conducting them.

A systematic review can act like an “independent audit,” but it’s only as reliable as the honesty of the original data. In this case, the “proof of safety” was largely generated by the same industry that profits from the product.

The only way to find truly conflict free raw data would be a large, double blind, placebo controlled trial. However, under modern international research ethics, once a vaccine is considered “effective,” it is deemed unethical to give children a placebo.

But here’s the catch! The “effective vaccine” is already in circulation because of safety and efficacy studies that were created with significant industry involvement.

In plain language, we’re told we can’t use a placebo because the vaccine has been “proven” to be protective, and it would be wrong to leave a child unprotected. Yet the proof that it’s protective was produced and paid for by the very companies selling it.

If the vaccine industry were required to fund a truly independent, large scale placebo trial, it would be the first time in modern history that Level 1 evidence was tested without this closed loop of industry influence. The cost would be less than 0.5% of annual industry revenue, but the results could reshape the entire medical landscape.

The fact that a trial of this scale would cost less than 0.5% of annual revenue suggests that the barrier isn’t money or logistics. It’s the risk that a truly independent, large enough study might show that many positive health outcomes credited to vaccines were already achieved decades ago through improvements in sanitation and nutrition.

This is as far as I got researching regarding the OP. I think the moral of the story is to not blindly trust safety claims. Look further, always ask questions.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/196846

Save your seat, space is limited!

To REGISTER for the next course email [email protected]
To LEARN MORE visit happydaydoula.com

**Kellie Bailey is a Certified Birth Doula with over 14 years of experience supporting growing families, a Certified Childbirth Educator, Certified Lactation Specialist, wife of 16 years, and mother of 3 beautiful blonde babies.**

WHAT *NOT* TO READ:

While the late Penny Simkin brought much valuable education to families and doulas alike, The Birth Partner is a concerning book that I do NOT recommend.

Interventions such as repeated vaginal exams, controlling the birth of babies head, directed pushing as well as telling the birthing woman not to push, and hands-on management of the perineum, are all presented as routine and expected.

The guidance for birth partners leans toward managing or influencing the process, rather than supporting the birthing woman’s instincts and autonomy.

The Birth Partner assumes compliance with provider direction, even when it acknowledges that it may go against what the birthing woman’s body is doing.

There are also sections that raised red flags around topics like cord blood banking and fundal massage.

Additionally, the description of a doula’s role is limiting, suggesting that doulas cannot truly advocate or give voice to the laboring woman, which doesn’t reflect how many families experience supportive care.

This book is widely respected, however, it doesn’t actually align with a model of birth that centers trust, informed decision making, and autonomy.

🚩🚩🚩

"The birthing person may find it difficult to comply."

Our community has poor maternity outcomes that are largely a direct result of the maternity care provided.

I trust that you can hear and hold the truth: You are the expert of and responsible for your body, birth, and baby.

Does that mean that our bodies are perfect and should perform perfectly always? No, and no one is saying that.

You can, however, learn how to influence your experiences toward safety and satisfaction. Of course, influence does not equal control, and maternity care varies wildly based on who you choose to be a part of your birth team.

Childbirth education shouldn’t teach you *how* to give birth, but rather, help you understand the process as well as navigate the current context in which you will birth.

As an example: How does the hormonal system respond to current routine care? What options do you have and how do you make informed decisions along the way?

Learn more: happydaydoula.com

Register for the next upcoming childbirth education course: [email protected]

This conflict of interest free 2-class childbirth education course is comprehensive and covers:

🌙pregnancy health (nutrition, movement, mindfulness)

🌙making informed decisions

🌙the birth process (interventions and comfort measures)

🌙the postpartum process (comfort and healing)

🌙baby care and breastfeeding

This course also includes a virtual no out of pocket cost extended prenatal breastfeeding education class with a partnering IBCLC.

To REGISTER for the next course (April 25 + 26) email [email protected]

To LEARN MORE visit happydaydoula.com

Save your seat, space is limited!

**Kellie Bailey is a Certified Birth Doula with over 14 years of experience supporting growing families, a Certified Childbirth Educator, Certified Lactation Specialist, wife of 16 years, and mother of 3 beautiful blonde babies.**

Next 2-class Childbirth Education Course dates are posted!

This course is comprehensive and covers pregnancy health, making informed decisions, the birth process (interventions and comfort measures), baby care and breastfeeding.

This 8 hour educational course includes a virtual no out of pocket cost extended prenatal breastfeeding education class with a partnering IBCLC.

To REGISTER email [email protected]
To LEARN MORE visit happydaydoula.com

Save your seat, space is limited!

She becomes more than herself.

In a culture such as our own, the interaction of mother and infant is perceived as an unfair exchange:

The mother gives and the infant receives; (a situation to be temporarily tolerated but changed as soon as possible).

The consequence of our unnatural ways of caring for the infant is that he becomes the person we imagined him to be, someone who is separate in the world.

Our pervasive perception of life in individual separateness prevents us from seeing and experiencing that nurturing our children is not a diminishment of self, but an expansion and enhancement of who we are.

In the nurturing process natural to our species both mother and infant grow. As a child grows in humanness from being mothered, a mother grows in her humanness by participating in, and by affirming, the life she has created.

She becomes more than herself.

James Kimmel, Ph.D.