Preach It!

No one can tell a woman what is best for her and her baby ... waterbirth, homebirth, hospital birth, doctor, midwife, Unassisted Childbirth (UC) or cesarean surgery ... it is for her and her baby to know. The best we can do is support her to access, trust, and know her own inner wisdom and communicate with the Being within her - the One whose birth it is through her womb and the man. - Janel Mirendah, Attachment/Birth trauma therapist, Filmmaker of The Other Side of the Glass.

Watch It! (The Trailer)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Baby's Colic Linked to Fathers Prenatal Depression

Colicky infants who cry excessively may be more common in children of depressed men, Dutch researchers said Monday. Go to full article here.

Depression before child's birth

Recognizing paternal depression next to maternal depression before childbirth could be beneficial for identifying fathers who need help for themselves and their children.

It's unlikely the baby's crying caused men to be depressed since they were screened for the condition before the child was born, they noted.

The researchers speculated that the link between a father's depression and their baby's colic could be related to:

  • Genetics (though false paternity could not be ruled out in the study.)
  • Poor interaction between depressed fathers and their infants.
  • Indirect stress from marital, family or economic pressures.
This is great new breakthrough on two levels -- looking at the PRENATAL period when baby is built and looking at the impact of the father's emotional and mental state on that period. HOWEVER, as with most research, there is NO observation, inclusion, or mention of the EXPERIENCE of labor, birth, and first hours of life outside the womb.

Most research done regarding birth -- especially about the baby, but also the mother, and definitely the father, leaves out THE BIRTH! It is a huge, huge, I think GLARING omission in most research designed to tell us very important information about babies and parents. How can it when it doesn't include the baby, mother's, and father's experiences of birth?

Think about it. Be aware and notice this. From now see I bet you will also notice that our language when speaking, reading, and researching about the baby, the mother, father, and family and baby development almost always uses the phrase "before and after birth?" The baby and parents for generations have left the hospital expected to suck up whatever happened and "be happy that the baby is alive." I believe it is a monumental break in our fundamental relationships. Women and men, mothers and fathers, go home to live their lives with these huge unnamed, unrecognized, unintegrated individual and family violations and woundings.


How could science leave out the EXPERIENCE of birth for the baby, the mother, and the father as a factor in any research? How could the impact of birth on us as a baby not be recognized and how could our mother's experience of birthing us and our father's experience of being there and seeing us come into the world not be the subject of research? When it is allowed to become the subject of joy and power, maybe .....

No comments:

Buy It!

Part One: The Other Side of the Glass: a Birth Film for and About Men officially released in digital download format on June 2, 2013. Go to www.TheOtherSideoftheGlass.com to purchase a digital download.

Men have been marginalized in birth for a long time. The old joke is that a man was sent off to boil water to keep him busy. I believe they were making the environment safe. Birth moved to hospitals and for forty years women were separated from their partners who was left to wait in smoke filled waiting room. Finally, he would see his baby from "the other side of the glass." Now a man can go in the birthing room and even get to hold his partner's hand during surgery. But they are still marginalized and powerless, according to the fathers I interviewed around the country.

Historically, birth has been defined by the medical establishment. The midwifery and natural birth movement now advocate for need "to educate and prepare men to protect their wife and baby" in medical environment. Seems logical ... if we process with the same illogic that got us here.

Through the voices of men - and doctors and midwives - men share heart-touching stories about how this is not workin' out. A man is also very likely to be disempowered and prevented from connecting with their newborn baby in the first minutes of life.

Now is the time for men to take back birth.

The film is about restoring our families, society, and world through birthing wanted, loved, protected, and nurtured males (and females, of course). It's about empowering males to support the females to birth humanity safely, lovingly, and consciously.

Donors, check your emails or email me at theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com for info to download. Release on DVD is not planned at this date.

FREE online! watch Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 10 at www.vimeo.com/75767434

"Doctor's Voices" - Stuart Fischbein, MD - Part 1

Doctor's Voices - Michael Odent, MD

Human Rights Violations

Resources - Healing Birth Trauma

"The Other Side of the Glass" has the potential to open up feelings that have been denied and ignored for a very long time. How to heal the trauma of birth at any age will be addressed in the film. Meanwhile, these are pioneers in the field.

Raymond Castellino and Mary Jackson - www.BEBA.org

David Chamberlain, Ph.D. - www.BEPE.info

Judith Cohen - www.judithleecohen.com

Myrna Martin - www.MyrnaMartin.net

Karen Melton - www.HealYourEarlyImprints.com

Wendy McCord, Ph.D. - www.WendyMcCord.com

Wendy McCarty, Ph.D. - www.WondrousBeginnings.com

And, many, many more all over the world at www.BirthPsychology.com
In both relationships and life trust begets trust.
Generosity begets generosity.
Love begets love.
Be the spark, especially when it's dark.

--Note from the Universe, www.tut.com

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so children have very little time with their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world." - Mother Theresa