Showing posts with label Blogging With Others. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging With Others. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

mission birth

So today I am deviating slightly from what I normally write about. As, some of you may know, we are in the process of expanding our family...yay!!!!! In our quest for a midwife, we have come to realize that the hopes of a homebirth can be extremely expensive, and for some of us even financially unattainable. As birh and the work surrounding it is one of my great passions, I felt that something needed to be done to take some (if not all) of the strain off of families trying to birth in their truth...how it is right for them. In my quest, I found nothing...no sites, no funding, nothing to help families looking to birth at home. So I feel it is one of my missions to create just such a venue! After many nights trying to figure out how to start, what to say, I came up with Project Access Homebirth. Please go check out the blog at http://projectaccesshomebirth.blogspot.com/
Share the link with your friends! Let's make this flow into hearts world wide!

To all my friends and family out there, I am on a mission. A mission of love, charity, and birth. It is my goal to create a non profit donation site for women- like myself - who wish to have a homebirth but do not have all of the financial resources necessary to make this dream a reality. I believe that every woman has the right to birth in the way she believes is best for herself and her baby. For some women, this means preparing for a hospital birth where all of the details are dealt with and mom can rely on the staff to make things happen. For other women, this means birthing in the comfort of home surrounded by loving friends, family, or simply her partner. It might even mean birthing with no one but the midwife beneath the tree with a cool breeze as the only witness. I feel that no matter what the choice of birthing venue is, every mother has the right to birth in her own way. 

With insurance being how it is in this day and age, though, many mothers are forced to accept hospital birth as their only option. Even if a birth center is available, the insurance may not be a match. Seeing as the government will not be making the decision to put midwives on the payroll anytime soon, I believe it is up to each of us as individuals and as a community at large to take our mothers under our wings. Yes some families can afford to birth with a midwife and it does not affect them financially. This is wonderful! However, there are many, many more families who work hard and while they can afford the day to day life stuffs, the cost of a homebirth is simply more than they can generate. Through Project Access Homebirth, I am working to bring the ability to pay for a midwife to all women.

Through the generous donations made by those of us in the community who can afford to give, the gift of a sacred birth experience will be given to women who truly desire it. It does not take a huge donation to make this happen. Even $5.00 can make a difference. Think about it; if 100 peole donate $10.00 each that is $1000.00 in donations. What is $10.00 really? Two organic smoothies or maybe two gallons of gas? Do you believe that helping a mother (and family) have the birth of their dreams is worth blending smoothies at home for two days or riding your bike to the park instead of driving the car just once? I do! And I know that many of you out their believe this as well. For those of you out there who can give more, 10 people who donate $100.00 can generate that $1000.00 with lightening speed. It is within our power to take care of each other. 

While I am one of those mothers who is in need of a bit of a financial boost to make my dream of homebirth into reality, I did not start this fund for myself alone. This is simply a small part of a much larger dream for me in bringing loving life support to each and everyone of us in the community who might need it at one point or another. But for now, I ask you all to look into your heart and find the ability to donate to Project Access Homebirth. Together, we can work Miracles!!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mama Bliss

Hi all! Today I am honored to be taking part in the "Bliss Filled Mama Blog Tour" presented by Kathy of Bliss Beyond Naptime.

Among my many "talents" and abilities is bodywork. And as a body worker, I have found the the most complained about area of the human body (outside of back pain) is the feet. We beat, batter, bump, and bruise our feet on a daily basis and very rarely do we offer them the thank you of pampering. It is usually only on a special occasion  that we get our feet rubbed and scrubbed and treated with some love. This is not good!

Our feet carry us, and as mama's our children, every where we need to go. So as a thank you to our hard working, unsung, feet, here is a recipe for a homemade foot soak and foot cream from Natural Foot Care by Stephanie Tourles...

De-Stressing Foot Bath
Items you will need:
foot tub
German chamomile flowers (any organic or whole food store should have these in bulk herbs)
enough water to fill foot tub ankle level
1/4 cup (60ml) Epsom salts
1/4 cup (60ml) baking soda
1 tablespoon (15ml) borax  (click on the word borax for information on it)
3-5 drops lavender, German chamomile, geranium, or clary sage
Yield: 1 treatment

To make:
1. Use 1/2 cup (120ml) of dried German Chamomile flowers for each gallon of water. Boil the water, remove from heat, and add German chamomile flowers. Cover and steep for 5 - 10 minutes. Strain and cool until comfortable.
2. Pour all ingredients into foot tub and swish with feet to dissolve salts. 

To use:
Soak feet for at least 10 minutes. Pat dry. If you know how do a mini reflexology session or massage (or get someone you love to help you with this...I will try to post a good reflexology session in a few days). Reflexology is best practiced on dry feet.

Vanilla Foot Butter
Items you will need:
4 tablespoons (60ml) almond, olive, jojoba, soybean, or calendula oil
1 vanilla bean (can buy from trader joe's for a less expensive price), chopped into 1/4 inch (.6cm) pieces 
1 tablespoon (15ml) beeswax
2 tablespoons (30ml0 cocoa butter
1 tablespoon (15ml) anhydrous lanolin (click the word lanolin for a link)
20 drops geranium, rosemary, or peppermint essential oil
Yield: approximately 1/2 cup (120ml)

To make:
1. In a small saucepan warm the oil over low heat.
2. Add the chopped vanilla bean, cover, and allow to steep for 1 hour.
3. Remove from the heat and strain. It's all right if you see tiny brown specks in your oil. That's just the vanilla bean seeds - they're harmless. Save the vanilla bean for other uses.
4. Add the oil back to the pan and add the beeswax, cocoa butter, and lanolin and heat until just melted.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in essential oil if you desire. If left plain it will smell like white chocolate!!!

To use:
Scoop out approximately 1 teaspoon (5ml), rub between your palms to warm and improve spreadability, then massage into eachfoot as necessary to keep them wonderfully moisturized and smooth.

Storage:
Store in a 4 ounce (112g) jar...preferably glass. No refrigeration is necessary. This butter may harden in cold weather, but will soften upon skin contact.