Midwives,Home deliveries, and high risk pregnancies

I left this as a comment on Kevin MD's blog, here goes the link

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/05/doctors-and-midwives-need-to-cooperate-more.html

Just had to share this with my own readers

Here goes my comment:

I agree completely with Dr.Greg.I have seen midwives who have no idea of many obstetric complications and don't diagnose things early enough during routine Obstetric checkups and then take it till the last minute when all they know is that the delivery is not happening and there is some complication but they themselves have no idea what exactly and precisely the problem is.They do not have enough clinical acumen to pick up signs early and treat them and simply rely on luck often times which sadly is at the cost of the life of the mother and child. I myself have witnessed women come to emergency rooms and then die on the ER table there coz they kept trying to deliver till the last minute at the home and only came to ER coz the mother collapsed due to massive bleeding which is essentially too late to seek medical help .A mother's life is important, You cannot let her die due to problems that could have been easily managed had it been a hospital birth. Yes, midwives can play a role in routine check ups and doing home visits to ease the burden of Obstetricians in remote areas where not many Obstetricians are available, but having a hospital delivery is the safest.But then this is sensible only after the woman first visits at crucial points during a pregnancy and makes sure it is not an already predetermined complicated pregnancy. Please remember that even a seemingly normal case can become complicated during labor due to massive bleeding and what not. It is unfair to first mess up a case and then run to the Obstetrician in the last minute for help .

Hormones , and other substances causing anger

I got a large number of reader queries asking the same thing.

WHAT ARE THE HORMONES THAT CAUSE ANGER.?

Well, for one, before answering this question, I have to clarify something. No, hormones are not what cause anger. yes, the life situations that evoke anger might cause certain hormones and other substances to be released during that course of anger but no, hormones on their own are not the ones causing anger.

Anger is a mere response to something that is there in your environment that is happening or happened to you and is now recorded in your memory and your replay that past moment and get angry. Yes, so therefore, anger is not an independent entity. It is a response to an environmental stimulus or a mental though stimulus.

Similarly, Hormones per say don't cause anger. Moreover, it is not certain hormones that predominantly figure in anger and other emotions. It is certain neurotransmitters that are associated with anger or mania or psychosis or depression etc. 

Yes, there are certain hormones which when produced in excess in the body can reduce your threshold for certain environmental stimuli and cause you to get angry quickly and such and i did talk about these hormonal imbalances in my previous blog entries. Please look at all my archives to find more than one article on hormones and their effects thereof. As far as neurotransmitters are concerned, I am gonna take some time and simplify complicated neurotransmitter lingo and then post a blog entry about them at a later point of time. 

Meanwhile keep those questions coming. All these blog entries are only advisories are not actually meant as specific medical advice. Please visit your family physician if you feel you need medical attention .

A compost pit in your backyard

A compost pit works so well for effective recycling of soil nutrients..
When you eat fruit, there are going to be peels that you might not eat.
yet again, i do insist that you not waste food..eat the peels as much as possible..
 dont peel your apples or pears and other fruits that have very thin edible peels..The peels are where the vitamins, minerals and the fiber is at and we really need all those nutrients.

But ofcourse there are going to be peels which we absolutely cannot chew with comfort..for example the peel of a pineapple or a banana peel or a durian fruit peel(not that durian fruit is widely eaten in the US--but if any reader in thailand is reading this...this one is for you).. These peels nevertheless still contain nutrients. that are better returned to the soil of your own kitchen garden(btw if you have a backyard and dont have a kitchen garden yet, it is time to have one.Gardening is so healing an exercise that one must surely try it .)

A compost pit effectively breaks down all these peels into smaller bits that can then become soil over time and this happens so organically .
A compost pit needs to be sufficiently deep enough , around 3 feet deep ..
Keep disposing all your vegetable peels, egg shells and other food waste into the pit and each time cover your veggie garbage with a thin layer of soil.
DON'T discard processed food into this pit--processed foods contains artificial chemicals that are no good
Just so that there are no flies buzzing over this compost pit.. have a large leaf or palm front or reed woven lid to cover this compost pit.The cover of the compost pit must have air escapes available.Don't use a tight fitting lid,use something that allows for gas escape
Once the compost pit is 3/4ths full..you can cover this pit up and seal it.Leave it sealed for months.
This sealing time allows for earthworms and microbes to consume the garbage and break them down.
Mark this sealed pit with a date of closing,so that you you know where to dig up later.
Meanwhile,open up another compost pit in another area of your garden.
This compost pit that you just buried?wait for a good month or two or more,then you can dig the soil from this pit and use it as a manure for your plants...

I hope you will look up more information about how to make a compost pit on the internet and try and have a compost pit in your home.
The earthworms are the ones that convert the peels into pure manure.. the soil naturally has earthworms , so not to worry to include earthworms before closing the pit..
If your soil is too full of artificial insecticides.. then your soil might be dead (as in , it has no natural earthworms or friendly insects.In such a case, do procure some live earthworms and include them in the pit before closing it up)
Happy composting.

Also,for people who don't have backyards and those who live in apartments,NOT TO WORRY.
Another method of composting is possible,but more about that method in another blog entry.