Monday December 14 - Beldon Johnson

Today's show featured Beldon Johnson, co-founder of The Primal Center in 1979 and author of new novel, "Fathers and Teachers". He is a primal therapist and has worked with 100's of adults to heal their early birth and circumcision traumas.

We talked about these links:

http://www.humpjones.com/rear/entry/facial_cream_and_the_foreskin_mafia/

SO WHERE DOES TNS RECOVERY GET THEIR STUFF? You could ask one of their vendors....so I did. I don’t know why I’m actually putting effort into a Hump Jones article, either, but here’s the fruits of my labor:

Hi there,

Indeed it is made from proteins and other ingredients that have been found in foreskins, but we don’t think they actually get live foreskins and use them. We believe they reformulated it in a lab (like cloning).

Here is a link to a lot of information on TNS Recovery Complex, as we sell it right here on the site and the whole Skin Medica line. We offer samples of other skinmedica products with a purchase.

Ajolla, California.
A U.S. Food and Drug (FDA) Committee recommended FDA approval of Dermagraft, artificial skin made from circumcised baby foreskins to treat diabetic foot ulcers, on condition that manufacturer Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., do a post-marketing study. NOCIRC’s attorney was given just five minutes to speak to the Committee in defense of the babies whose foreskins are cut off and marketed without their consent.

A commenter on the blog:

I have an uncle who received a foreskin treatment for his diabetic foot ulcer. I believe it worked for him. I understand the absurdity of foreskins getting recycled into high-dollar face cream. But somehow this all doesn’t really bother me that much. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman. I can’t imagine the foreskin harvesting industry to be that lucrative, but maybe I’m wrong. It seems to make sense to me, on a basic level, to reconstitute and re-use leftover human cells. Of course this does open a Pandora’s box regarding the ethics of cloning.

I guess I need to understand: do circumcised men feel they were cheated or exploited in some way?

THATS THE TOPIC TODAY .... DO circumcised men feel they were cheated or exploited in some way? Are any of us impacted by the experience of our birth.... csection, pulling the baby out ... or a gentle birth at home where only mother and father are touching the baby or at least there are no interventions.

And from Dr. Momma Blog:
http://drmomma.blogspot.com/2009/12/stealing-foreskins-science-of-skin.html

Now, doctors who specialize in wound management are growing skin to help people like Tomas save their limbs and extremities. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are extracting collagen -- a protein that makes up 75 percent of skin -- from donated skin and creating grafts, or patches, that can induce a patient's own skin to grow. The donated skin can come from a variety of sources: anything from a pig's pancreas to a newborn baby's foreskin. "In some cases, we can get four football fields of skin out of one baby foreskin," said Dr. James McGuire, head of wound management at the Foot and Ankle Institute at the School of Podiatric Medicine at Temple University, in Philadelphia. "If taken care of, skin can grow and grow."

and,

Human Reproduction, Vol. 18, No. 7, 1404-1409, July 2003
© 2003 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

A culture system using human foreskin fibroblasts as feeder cells allows production of human embryonic stem cells

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/7/1404

We used post-natal, commercially available human foreskin fibroblasts as feeder cells.

Did you receive compensation for your son's or your own foreskin?? Did the baby boys give their consent? MILLIONS of dollars are being made on the foreskins of babies.

Choose well, your legacy, Dr. Susan Blank -- American Academy of Pediatrics task force on Circumcision

From INTACT AMERICA:

The AAP is actively considering whether they should recommend circumcision.

Make sure they hear our side of the debate!

Send a message to Susan Blank, chair of the circumcision task force, today.

"Very compelling."

That's how Susan Blank – who chairs the American Academy of Pediatricians' task force on circumcision – described studies of adult males in sub-Saharan Africa that suggest circumcision reduces the risk of HIV transmission.

Well, here's what we think is very compelling: circumcising babies is wrong – ethically, morally, and medically. It's shocking to think Dr. Blank and her task force are considering policy recommendations for baby boys in the United States based on misconstrued data from controversial African studies.

Send a message directly to Dr. Blank today and urge the AAP task force not to recommend circumcision. http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5922/t/6483/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2318

Here's my (Janel) letter:

Dear Dr. Susan Blank and American Academy of Pediatrics,

The human baby feels and remembers everything that he or she experiences in the womb, in labor and at birth, and in the first seconds, minutes, and hours of life. The prenate feels, tastes, hears, and responds to the environment - via the mother. The human being is in a continuum of NEVER-ending brain development from conception forward, and the primal period is the foundation for the rest of life.

It is logical and scientific that during the birth process the newborn brain is not somehow miraculously selective, thus being capable of "turning off" during time in the hospital with medical caregivers and interventions. There is no mechanism that allows that -- so that medical people can do whatever they wish to a baby. The human newborn is not capable of "de-selecting" the violations of medical caregivers on his personhood. The science is clear: Your own science tells us "what fires wires" so we know the birthing and newborn brain "wires what fires" and learns, even more so outside the womb than she or he did prenatally. The newborn baby is an aware, feeling being - a fully sentient being - and the brain IS "on" while in your hands in your institution. We/You can no longer say: "the baby won't remember" and "the baby won't feel it". Circumcision is just one of the medical interventions experienced by newborns in your hands.

Circumcision is the worst human rights violation of mankind, done by mankind to mankind, wherever it is inflicted upon on a non-consenting uninformed baby, child, or third world country. The American Academy of Pediatrics is being called upon to protect and defend our babies, and to be protectors of the human rights of newborns in our society. As a society we will look back on this action against males, and we we see how it is the primary cause of violence of all kinds, but especially against women and children. We will see how "we" plundered the world's people because of it. People will wonder how we could have been so barbaric at this point in history in our human evolution. Your name will be there, Dr. Susan Blank ... either as the person who helped stop the routine, barbaric, torture of NON-CONSENTING, UNINFORMED baby boys, or the one who pushed for it; the one too blind, too bought to see the impact to every aspect of a male's life and to our society, and to our planet.

Choose well, your legacy, Dr. Susan Blank.

I am a birth trauma therapist, baby advocate, and filmmaker doing a birth film for and about fathers in birth. Part four of my film will address the impact of circumcision on the male baby disconnected from his mother, unprotected, and so unspeakably violated ... for no medical reason ... and how this plays out his entire life, including family and child abuse, sexual assault, violence, and war. On my radio show this fall I have done a series with guests who are advocates of intact males; they are doctors, psychologists, midwives, and therapists in a series this fall. I have come to believe that circumcision of our baby males is the most barbaric act of humanity. It is outrageous that female genital mutilation is seen as such, while male babies in our culture are tortured, and these tortured males lead us to war after war, while porn is number one money maker, and pedophiles are a number one concern for communities and parents. Circumcision is torture Dr. Blank, and from what I have learned there is no medical reason to do it, only political and financial gains. The research in Africa is inconclusive and even shows no decrease in AIDS for these men, while AIDS has risen for women.

I have one circumcised son, age 34, and one intact son, age 27. I was holding my son when he was circumcised. It was horrible and shocking, and I couldn't stop it. I had assumed that what I was told to be done next was humane and science based. Now, we do know that it is not. It was tragic to learn later there is no reason for it, and more tragic, as a mother, to learn the resulting outcomes for him that he has to live his whole life with. For example, the violation of the body part responsible for creating pleasure results in a lifetime of dysfunctions in sexual functioning, from minor, like premature ejaculation, excessive masturbation, and being unaware of one's partner's needs (rough because he doesn't have the part of his penis meant to communicate to his brain about pleasure), for which we now have industry after industry to "fix" to the violent crimes against women, children, and society. Men do not know what it is they are missing, and depending on other aspects of their early life and violations, to varying degrees, they go after what is missing with a vengeance; and, Dr. Blank, they go after women and children. This one act against male babies/men provides multiple industries to this country and fuels war.

I am grateful that I became aware of alternative methods of emotional and physical healing, besides the ineffective talk and drug therapy that dominates our society. I could begin to support my son to heal his soul, an apology from the one who allowed it instead of protecting him begins the healing, and he can now choose to even restore his foreskin. Even so, as a mother, I suspect I will never get over the brutality and loss that I allowed my son to experience for no reason. We know now many modalities for healing those who have been harmed, but these modalities are also diminished and vilified by your profession, after promoting the violation, for financial reasons. To embrace the healing of the trauma one has to see the violation inflicted upon helpless newborn babies.

I guarantee you the American people are wising up, and rising up, and they will continue to become a majority against circumcision. Three cultures circumcise their male children: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. You figure it out. Do the research outside your status quo of medicine funded by drug companies, about the real reasons your professional group struggles to promote what it knows is true one minute and then is promoting it again the next. Your profession has a responsibility to tell and BE the truth, and to stop the torture of our male babies. EVERYWHERE.

Again, Circumcision is the worst human rights violation of mankind done by mankind to mankind, wherever it is inflicted upon on a non-consenting uninformed baby, child, or third world country. As a society we will look back on this action against males, and we we see how it is the primary cause of violence of all kinds, but especially against women and children, and how we plundered the world's people because of it. People will wonder how we could have been so barbaric at this point in history in our human evolution. Your name will be there, Dr. Susan Blank ... either as the person who helped stop the routine, barbaric, torture of NON-CONSENTING, UNINFORMED baby boys, or the one pushed for it; the one too blind, too bought to see the impact to every aspect of a male's life and to our society, and to our planet.

Choose well, your legacy, Dr. Blank.

L. Janel Martin Miranda, MA
Columbia, MO
573-424-0997
www.theothersideoftheglass.com
www.thoughtcrimeradio.blogspot.com -- you can listen to podcasts of many professionals from many areas speaking about the impact of circumcision.

I agree with Intact America:

Your statement to ABC News that recent African studies of male circumcision are "very compelling" suggests that the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Neonatal Circumcision may ignore the ethics, risks and harms of performing medically unnecessary surgery on non-consenting infant boys.

As chair of the task force, please respond to the following questions regarding your upcoming decision:

- How will the task force address the ethical problems related to performing medically unnecessary circumcision surgery on non-consenting newborn males?

- How is the task force taking into account the risks and harms of circumcision?

- Aren't circumcision trials conducted on consenting adults irrelevant to circumcising baby boys who cannot consent?

I look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,

L. Janel Martin (Miranda), M.A.
BabyKeeper
Baby Doula/CranioSacral based Birth Trauma and Attachment Therapist/Birth Videographer

573-424-0997
Check out the fund raiser trailer for my film: "The Other Side of the Glass: Finally, A Birth Film for Fathers" on www.theothersideoftheglass.com

Here's Rich's feedback to Dr. Blank:

Subject: Titanic vs iceberg

Perhaps you're unaware of the growing outrage of american men and
their lovers who are discovering what was taken from them at birth,
and how it damaged them and their relationships with women, starting
with their own mothers. I assure you that regardless of your
decision on male genital mutilation, american medicine will soon
find itself trying to disown this monster which haunts the nightmares
of children and which has done so much harm to our families. The
emotional stake of "researchers" who attempt to justify what was
done to them as children has perpetuated this farce long enough.
One need only compare HIV and MGM rates between the USA and europe
to put the lie to the claim that it somehow protects against HIV.
The research demonstrating MGM's adverse impact on M->F HIV
transmission has already been done, and the mechanism by which it
acts is also known. The HIV argument will soon be added to the
long list of fraudulent rationalizations which have helped to
perpetrate this unspeakable atrocity on 6 generations of helpless
american children.

Do yourself a favor and make a stand now, so that you don't find
yourself out of a job later.

Google "frenar band" for further information.

Join the discussion with Rich, Janel, Patricia Robinett, and Marilyn MIlos

L. Janel Martin wrote:
Marilyn,

Do you know of studies and stats on the incidence of violence against women comparing circ'd and uncirc'd men? Domestic violence, men in prison, etc?

Marilyn answered:
No, Janel, as far as I know, those studies have never been done. It's about time, doncha think?!

Love, Marilyn

Janel wrote to Marilyn, Rich, and Patricia Robinett:
So, how can we say we are more violent because of circ if there's no "proof". And humans apparently have been brutal forever ... I can't help but think the circ actually docilates men from being the fierce warriors they were. Definitely, as men have become civilized over time, uncir'd men are kinder maybe as Patricia said on the air and it's still true that circ'ing has added a whole new dimension to the brain of the modern man.


Rich:
Here's my take: MGM teaches fear and rage. The rage is suppressed. The fear causes passivity and disempowerment in the face of "authority"thus promoting mass social organization (i.e. warmaking). The rage can come to the surface either at the direction of authorities (torture etc) or in the absence of authority figures (i.e. when with friends and family). Sexual frustration, domestic difficulties and the link between sex and violence makes lovers especially vulnerable.

Marilyn Milos:

Hi Janel,

Karl Menninger said, "What we do to children, they will do to society." It's the infliction of a primal wound that affects the male throughout life. And, of course, not all circumcised males are violent, but every circumcised male is affected by his circumcision, whether he knows it or not. Sometimes, as Michel Odent has spoken about at a couple of my symposia, when excruciating pain is inflicted without the victim being able to fight or flee, the fight or flight hormones, without an outlet for expression, become destructive to the victim's own body. This is the genesis of "learned helplessness."

After Obama was elected, one Black, circumcised man said to me, "Obama must be intact. Look at his kind, gentle nature, his easy smile, his mellow demeanor. He's too relaxed a man to have been circumcised." There is a difference, too, with intact boys, who don't have the edge their circumcised brothers have. Now, I know there are other reasons for males to act out or be aggressive. Look at non-circumcising Germany; yet, we know the needs of German babies was not met. Infants were kept separate, by themselves, to cry it out... Alice Miller, of course, talks about the horrific ways in which German babies and children were raised and how it adversely affected them, how easily they became soldiers who followed orders.

According to James DeMeo and James Prescott, humans haven't always been violent. The earliest cave drawings showed peaceful societies, breastfeeding mothers, man and animal living together without harm. DeMeo claims that it was the desertification in sub-Saharan Africa that introduced hunger and then the fighting began. First, the fight was against the animals and then it was man against man. Perhaps we'll never really know what happened at the dawn of civilization, but we do know that when we birth babies peacefully and answer the needs of our children, they will thrive not just survive, and, isn't that our work, i.e., to work toward making the planet a peaceful place again by how we bring our children into the world? For, as Gandhi said, "If we are ever to have real peace, we must begin with the children."

With love and appreciation, Marilyn


Patricia:
hmm... that's interesting, janel.
i think that circumcision could go either way...
either to 'cow' the person or to enrage her/him
like an angry bull. :)

i personally do not think that humans -- men --
are created angry, violent, or withdrawn... i think
the 'personality' is made -- perhaps a carryover
from another lifetime, but you can always see
good 'reasons' why people are the way they are
from just this lifetime... .

i think this is an important discussion.

not all people will respond in the same way to 'fear'
(lack of love). but still, 'fear' (tension) will reign
in that person's life, rather than 'love' (ease)
when one is overpowered... when a person feels
powerless, they are as far from their true nature
as it is possible for them to get.

i think of the causes of trauma as anything that
overpowers another... circumcision, sexual abuse,
the birth process itself, rape, physical violence,
mental oppression, and so on. people hold the
'less than love' in their bodies and are chronically
tense.

from my humble observation, it appears that
there are three primary modes that traumatized
people will enter. they are all coping strategies for
protecting oneself from abusive 'authority figures':

1) acquiesce to authority (withdraw, hide)
2) rail against authority (attack)
3) BECOME the authority (join them)

no one who has been abused really trusts authority.
they all see authority as dangerous.

a psychologist i know here in town has done a study...
he says only 5% of the population is 'violence-prone'
or 'warmongers'... i would call 'violence-proneness'
or 'warmongering', symptoms of sociopathy.

circumcision is a violent act.
it teaches violence.
it teaches people to circumcise.
a circumcising culture is a violent culture.

people pass the violence on that was done to them.
or they bury their heads in the sand...
or they fight for the rights of children.

thank you all for fighting for children's rights.

love, patricia


What do you think?

November 30, 2009 - Patricia Robinett

Patricia Robinett is the author of two books: "Knowledge: The Essence of World Scriptures" and "The Rape of Innocence: Female Genital Mutilation and Circumcision in the USA". In her work as Clinical Hypnotherapist, she de-hypnotizes people from the trance induced by trauma.

Patricia stated the EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is good resource for healing trauma from circumcision and other traumas. The website for EFT is www.emofree.com. EFT is a technique for self-care and for helping others. It is so simple when you first look at it, you won't believe it. Please believe it. EFT is profound technique for healing anything and everything in your life. At emofree.com you can download the manual for free.

Wendy McCarty, PhD, pioneer in birth trauma healing and co-founder of the BEBA Clinic, www.beba.org has integrated EFT in her modality. Her site is www.wondrousbeginning.com.

You can find out more about Robinett's book at www.patriciarobinett.com.

November 23, 2009 - Barbara Harper, RN

Waterbirth International and author of "Gentle Birth Choices".

Barbara's expertise is in waterbirth and gentle, undisturbed birth is widely sought in all areas of the globe. She has lectured in 43 countries, including many medical schools, nursing schools, midwifery programs and university women’s studies departments. Barbara has been interviewed by hundreds of newspapers and magazines and has appeared on dozens of radio and TV shows to talk about her work with waterbirth and gentle birth.

www.waterbirth.org

November 15, 2009 - Star Newland

Star Newland from Hawaii, is a Dolphin Researcher and Founder of the Domestic Harmony Initiative. This is the tenth anniversary of Star's project, The Domestic Harmony Initiative and November is Domestic Harmony Month in Hawaii. Star shared that project, and how it connects to work with dolphins, the program for women to give birth in water with dolphins, and her "pod" project of community living.

Read about The Domestic Harmony Initiative, her work with dolphins in birth and trauma healing at www.planetpuna.com.

Star and I (Janel), co-wrote the Safe Baby Resolution that was introduced into the Hawaii in 2007 and this is on www.SafeBabyResolution.com.

November 9, 2009 - J. Steven Svoboda, JD

Mr. Svoboda is founder and Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (ARC), a federally and state-certified non-profit corporation Steven founded in early 1997.

In July and August 2001, Svoboda traveled to Geneva on behalf of ARC to consult with the United Nations’ Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, making oral and written submissions, the latter of which became part of the official UN record and the first document ever accepted by the UN focusing on male circumcision.

Details of Mr. Svoboda's extensive work in safeguarding children's bodily integrity is at www.arclaw.org/arc_about/arc_svoboda.php

October 26, 2009 - Janel and Rich

October 26
Stuart Fischbein, MD
Obstetric physician from California who is a strong advocate for patient's rights to informed consent and refusal. He is a long-time supporter of midwifery care and creating partnerships with midwives. He is currently one of the few obstetricians to speak publicly and to stand up against his own professional organization on behalf of women's rights to true informed consent and choice. Recently, for allowing patients the dignity of true informed consent in his community he and his midwives are being threatened with disciplinary action. www.supportdrfischbein.blogspot.com.

Dr. Fischbein, obstetrician from northern Los Angeles area, had to cancel and Rich and I winged it. I shared some recent research that showed that mother's breast milk has stem cells in it, meaning that the mother's body CONTINUES TO BUILD the BABY'S BODY for months or years. I shared my personal experience of having a profound connection to my son who is in Afghanistan where 16 American soldiers had died that day. Our conversation zig zagged around the topic of the impact of obstetric interventions on the human being and on society. Rich's paper, Munchausen Obstetrics, link at top of page here, has many, many resources on this topic.

At t the end of the hour, with only minutes left, we had a caller who doubted what we were saying. She said she is a scholar and doesn't believe the anecdotal stories. I gave her a resource, Dr. William Emerson's site, www.EmersonBirthRx.com, but she said that's just one person. Both he and David Chamberlain, PhD are coming out with new books very soon. Dr. Chamberlain is the co-founder of the Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health, www.birthpsychology.com, founded in the mid eighties. Members are international and include physicians, nurses, psychologists, music and craniosacral therapists, and many, many others all who have done research in the area of the primal period of life. The research is there and it has been for years. Here's one from the seventies, http://www.birthpsychology.com/violence/verny.html.

Aside from the research there is just plain logic ... birth has to matter. Once one embraces how fully present we are in the womb (and before) and at birth one has to stop what they are doing to human babies. Meanwhile, DENIAL permeates every aspect of birth and consideration for the full sentience of the human baby. Why? Because to acknowledge that we are fully present at birth, one has to deal with their own birth, their primal brain imprinting, and how it has created who they are today. And, one has to deal with their own decisions or their own victimization as a woman birthing her children. THIS IS the biggest obstacle. I would bet that our caller had a cesarean, chosen or not, or something profound that happened to her giving birth. Our society doesn't acknowledge it so it doesn't provide or research options to support healing, so people deny it. Babies can't be fully aware. It can't matter what we do to them in the first moments, hours, and days of their life because then we have to deal with what we did to so many babies.

I found my old site cached on google and I am posting links to a couple of pages here. One is a newspaper article about my work in the Peoria Journal Star in October 2003.

The Baby Whisperer

The other is the testimony of the same mother featured in the article about her experience of doing therapy with her baby and me. He was born at home but had to have multiple heart surgeries in his first two weeks. A psychology professor at the local community college wrote a seething "letter to the editor" about my work. This and my response are also on this page and it includes many, many references.

A Mother's Story

With all due respect to our caller, I realized how tired of I am of having to be the one "to prove" with science my premise that we can be kinder, we can honor the mother and baby (soul) being born. The truth is that obstetric medicine isn't and hasn't been scientific based. NEVER were the drugs ever used shown to be safe prior to using on NEWBORNS. Humans, baby humans, are NON-informed, NON-consenting subjects in one long, horrid research project. Obstetric medicine is the place of manufacturing of human deficits and dysfunctions, namely the ones that create broken human connections as well as drug addiction and propensity for violence, for being a culture of people with little respect for the boundaries of others.

So, let me say, "NO, YOU prove that what is being in done in modern medicalized birth for sixty decades is NOT damaging." My guts, my heart, my logic and science tells me is it profoundly damaging.

In November of 2006 a month after my son first deployed to Iraq I began writing on a blog and I wrote 600 pages between November and May. It was my therapy as I wrote about birth, war, obstetrics and mother-child attachment. That blog is www.Hospitalbirthdebate.blogspot.com. It is full, full, full of articles with research to back our discussion.

October 19, 2009 - Gloria LeMay

Gloria is from Vancouver, B.C., Canada and is a midwife and Intactivist. We continue talking about the "cutting" of intimacy during birth and early infancy. Gloria work involves:

*holistic education for midwives and doulas

*keeping baby boys intact

*homebirth

*breastfeeding

*health and wellness

Gloria is contributing editor of Midwifery Today Magazine. She is an Advisory Board member of the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN). Gloria is a keynote speaker at childbirth conferences and has traveled throughout N. America teaching midwifery.

September 28, 2009 - Stephanie Dawn

September 28
Stephanie Dawn
Stephanie Dawn, ASLP is a licensed therapist and healer with a private practice in Santa Monica, California. She is the founder of Sacred Birth Work, conscious childbirth preparation education including classes, workshops and private sessions in person and via telephone, to support pregnant women and men to vision the birth of their dreams. Her work takes into account the whole person, emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual and that includes the baby! She is the author of The Sacred Birth Workbook and the mother of Jasper and Zephyr, born at home and in a hospital, respectively, with midwives and doulas. Learn more by going to www.stephaniedawn.com

Stephanie Dawn shared her power insights and work in helping parents to prepare for SACRED BIRTH ... an experience that is the result of the parents individually clearing their own issues and creating together, envisioning together the birth of the One coming into their lives.

Information from the show:

Rich:
New book on 911.

Janel:

Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States.

Hatoyama blames America for the global economic crisis and says that the U.S. is responsible for “the destruction of human dignity.” He campaigned on protecting traditional Japanese economic activities and reducing U.S.-led globalization. ics

70% of Japanese births are attended by midwifes, often in dedicated birth houses or in private homes. Japan's cesarean rate has doubled in the last 18 years from 11% to now about 21%. That means that less than 10% of births in Japan are non-surgical, vaginal births in the hospital. Compare that to about 60% in the US. In the US it's said to be less than 6% of all births are home or birth centers while 95% of births are in the hospital. Over 30% of those births in the US are surgical birth. In the US it's over 30% and as much as 80% in some hospitals.

The World Health Organization recommends no more than a 10% cesarean rate in developed countries, based upon research indicating more harm than good to both mothers and babies when the cesarean rate tops 15%.

A recent study in Birth 2006 showed that looked at national linked birth and infant death data for the 1998-2001 birth cohorts (5,762,037 live births and 11,897 infant deaths) and they were analyzed to assess the risk of infant and neonatal mortality for women with no indicated risk by method of delivery and cause of death. RESULTS: Neonatal mortality rates were higher among infants delivered by cesarean section (1.77 per 1,000 live births) than for those delivered vaginally (0.62).

Basically they found that c-section triples the rate of newborn death, even for healthy, low-risk moms and healthy babies.

Crime in Japan is lower than in many other first world countries but child abuse, a known precursor to crime and incarceration is on the rise in Japan. Machiko Ayukyo, is a lawyer who handles child abuse cases and is a director of the Center for Child Abuse Prevention says this year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare commissioned its first child abuse survey. THAT is amazing. HOW LONG have we had the war on child abuse in this country? The ministry also plans to start specialized training for social workers in child abuse, to provide increased psychological support for abused children and to distribute a video to publicize the problem.

http://www.nospank.net/n-f10.htm

September 21 - Guest Lynn Reed

September 21
Lynn Reed
Trust Birth Augusta. Jewish mother shares her story of coming to new awareness of circumcision. She talks about the numerous cuts made to human during the primal period of life: circumcision, cord cutting, cesarean surgical cut, episiotomy .., all of which "cut us off" from our mothers and our foundation for empathy and intimacy.

This is a must-listen-to show. Lynn lays it down so we can all get a better understanding of the Jewish traditions and how her struggle over circumcision led to some of the new ways for Jewish familes.

Check out www.trustbirth.org.

The Tenants of the Trust Birth Initiative

The decisions that women make concerning their birth should be based on the truth rather
than fears and misconceptions.

Every woman deserves the right to hear the truth about birth.

Women know how to give birth. They may not realize that they do, but they do.
Birth is a natural function of life.

Our bodies were designed to give birth just as they were designed to conceive and grow a
baby. Our bodies know how to finish what they began.

Birth should not be a time in a woman’s life when she has to FIGHT for anything.

Birth should not be a battlefield.

Birth is not normally a medical event and rarely needs any medical interference.

Birth belongs to women and not to their birth attendant.

We don’t want to promote any birth attendant as being more essential to the process than
the woman giving birth.

We don’t want to promote any place as being safer for birth than the woman’s home.

We don’t lie to women about what may or may not happen if they follow a formula or a plan.

If supporting a woman’s choices is really our goal then we have to tell her the truth about the
limitation of her choices once she enters a hospital.

We tell the truth: Interference with birth starts the minute she leaves her home and the minute
she is in the hospital she is no longer in charge.

Hospitals offer no measure of safety for birth for the average woman and, in fact, increase the
chances of many potential complications.

The Trust Birth Initiative is not ANTI-hospital as much as we are pro-TRUTH.

Interfering with birth increases risks regardless of where the birth takes place.

Women and their babies are being abused in the name of “safety.”

There are too many surgical births, too many epidurals, too many episiotomies, too many
inductions, too much monitoring and managing.

Women are being scared and bullied and manipulated.

Women are being robbed experience of giving birth; babies are being robbed of a peaceful
environment in which to be born.

This is what we believe....

Monday, September 14 - Guest Marilyn Milos

September 14

Our guest was Marilyn Milos, RN.

In 1985, Marilyn founded and is the director of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC) and she is the organizer of the International Symposia on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights (there have been ten symposia, she is working on the 11th now). She is co-editor of six symposia books and is editing the seventh book now.

NO CIRC is the first organization in the US to address the circumcision issue shares her experience of starting NO CIRC and her most current concern: " the agenda by white North Americans to push circumcision in Africa to prevent AIDS, a strategy that is sure to fail--but how many will suffer and/or die in the meantime--not from AIDS but from circumcision?"

Circumcision and HIV: Yet another deception

The HIV argument is another deception to compound all the
deceptions that went before. MGM appears to reduce per-intercourse
F->M HIV transmission by about 60%. That's it. That's the sum total of
the "argument" being put forth to justify it. What is missing from this
argument, aside from the fact that the foreskin includes the primary
erogenous zone of the male body

http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/taylor/
http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/cold-taylor/

and was specifically designed to desensitize the penis by rabbinical
scholars and quack medical doctors?

http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/yedaiah1/
http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/maimonides/
http://www.cirp.org/pages/whycirc.html

Clearly what is missing from the HIV argument is MGM's impact on
M->F transmission. There is compelling empirical and clinical
evidence that MGM increases M->F transmission rates by more than
enough to have a net effect of increasing overall transmission
rates. This is due to increased vaginal abrasion, which compromises
the very effective HIV barrier presented by intact vaginal epithelium.

http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/ohara/
http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/74/12/5577?view=long&pmid=10823865
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/HIV/chao/
http://www.circumstitions.com/HIV.html#hetero

The USA has the highest divorce rate, the highest HIV rate and the
second-highest MGM rate in the industrialized world. Is this a
coincidence? I doubt it.

Furthermore, it turns out that FGM has a similar effect on female
receptivity to HIV as MGM has on male receptivity.

http://www.aegis.com/conferences/IASHIVPT/2005/TuOa0401.html

This is probably indicative of the similarity of the tissue-type
and extent of loss caused by both types of atrocities.

Finally it should be pointed out that our so-called professional
medical organizations have a long history of such deceptive
pronouncements wrt MGM, which has been promoted as a "remedy" for
everything from masturbatory insanity to clubfoot to doctor-caused
problems like forcible foreskin retraction leading to phimosis and
UTI's. As each of these bogus arguments has fallen a new one is
found. This pattern can be readily seen to reflect their enormous
fear of being exposed for the child abusers and marriage wreckers
that they are.

-rw

Monday August 31 - Guest Veronica Monet

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

CDC is coming after your foreskin - Rich

Source:
http://www.inquisitr.com/34489/the-cdc-is-coming-after-your-foreskin/>

It seemed like circumcision was rightly about to lose its place in American culture.

The American Medical Association spoke out about the US-centric procedure in 1999, saying:

"Virtually all current policy statements from specialty societies and medical organizations do not recommend routine neonatal circumcision, and support the provision of accurate and unbiased
information to parents to inform their choice."

Vastly less common in Europe and of dubious medical benefit, the controversial procedure has steadily been losing ground among people who might have opted for it for non-religious reasons. But that trend may begin reversing again, thanks to a new recommendation from the CDC.

Dr. Peter Kilmarx, chief of epidemiology for the division of HIV/AIDS prevention at the CDC, looks to be starting a new campaign to throw the baby's foreskin out with the bathwater, stating
<http://inquisitr.com/5gCu5> :

"We have a significant HIV epidemic in this country, and we really need to look carefully at any potential intervention tthat could be another tool in the toolbox we use to address the epidemic," Kilmarx told the newspaper. "What we've heard from our consultants is that there would be a benefit for infants from infant circumcision and that the benefits outweigh the risks."

Strangely, other Western countries have neglected to routinely circumcise babies and don't seem to be suffering rates of HIV significantly higher than those of the US. It's also fairly clear at
this point that the odds of contracting HIV from standard man/woman banging <http://inquisitr.com/vTj> are pretty low. What do you think- barbaric practice, or necessary protection for the locker room?

August 24 - Guest, David Chamberlain, PhD

Janel, introducing today's guest, Dr. David Chamberlain:

Dr. David Chamberlain is a Psychologist, teacher, and pioneer in the new field of Prenatal Psychology. He is the author, "The Mind of Your Newborn Baby" published in 1988 as "Babies Remember Birth" and it has been translated in 22 languages. Dr. Chamberlain is the co-founder of the Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health, an organization of professionals from diverse disciplines, psychology, obstetrics and midwifery, nursing, trauma healing, and child birth education, from all over the world.

Dr. Chamberlain is internationally known for his work and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He is currently finishing his second book, "Windows on the womb: Your first nine months" and he is preparing for a three week tour in September of countries in Europe where he will be sharing key ideas from this new book. Dr. Chamberlain has been a key person in my professional development working with babies and I am very happy and we are so grateful, David, that you could take time today to be with us .....

(LINK TO PODCAST .. coming)

LINKS TO DR. CHAMBERLAIN'S WORK:
Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health
www.birthpsychology.com

Birth and Early Parenting Educators in Nevada City, CA
www.BEPE.info

RECENT RESEARCH THAT RICH SHARES:

Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts
A psychologist probes how altruism, Darwinism and neurobiology mean
that we can succeed by not being cutthroat.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=kindness-emotions-psychology&page=2

(...) DISALVO: Your team at U.C. Berkley has done a lot of interesting research on the vagus nerve and its association with maltruistic feelings. Tell us a bit about this research and its
implications for better understanding the nature of altruism.

KELTNER: The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. It is a bundle of nerves that originates in the top of the spinal cord, it activates different organs throughout the body (heart, lungs, liver, digestive organs). When active, it is likely to produce that feeling of warm expansion in the chest, for example when we are moved by someone's goodness or when we appreciate a beautiful piece of music.

University of Illinois, Chicago, psychiatrist Steve Porges long ago argued that the vagus nerve is a care-taking organ in the body (of course, it serves many other functions as well). Several reasons justify this claim. The vagus nerve is thought to stimulate certain muscles in the vocal chamber, enabling communication. It reduces heart rate. Very new science suggests that it may be closely connected to oxytocin receptor networks. And it is unique to mammals.

Our research and that of other scientists suggests that the vagus nerve may be a physiological system that supports caretaking and altruism. We have found that activation of the vagus nerve is associated with feelings of compassion and the ethical intuition that humans from different social groups (even adversarial ones) share a common humanity. People who have high vagus nerve activation in a resting state, we have found, are prone to feeling emotions that promote altruism-compassion, gratitude, love, happiness.

Arizona State University psychologist Nancy Eisenberg has found that children with elevated vagal tone (high baseline vagus nerve activity) are more cooperative and likely to give. This area of study is the beginning of a fascinating new argument about altruism-that a branch of our nervous system evolved to support such behavior.

iTunes Podcasts:

Dacher Keltner's UC Berkeley Courses
Psych 156: Human Emotion
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2008-D-74501
&semesterid=2008-D

Psych 160: Social Psychology
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978522

------------------

Abstract:

Clinical Studies have demonstrated that the cries of chronically stressed infants, medical compromised infants are characteristically higher and more variable in pitch than those of healthy infants. Other studies have indicated that the vagal tone of chronically stressed infants is significantly reduced in comparison to that of normal infants. A neural model of cry production has been proposed which suggests that decreased vagal tone among infants at risk may, in fact, be related to these increases in cry pitch. Using routine, unanesthetized circumcision as a model of stress we were able to examine the relationship between cry acoustics and vagal tone in
normal, healthy newborns undergoing an acutely stressful event.

Vocalizations, heart, and respiratory waveforms were continuously recorded from 49 (32 experimental; 17 control) 1-2 day-old, full-term infants during preoperative, surgical, and postoperative periods.

Vagal tone, as measured by the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia extracted from heart rate data, was significantly reduced during the severe stress of circumcision, and these reductions were paralleled by significant increases in the pitch of the infants' cries. In addition, individual differences in vagal tone measured prior to circumcision surgery were predictive of physiological and acoustic reactivity to subsequent stress. These results emphasize the potential role of vagal control of the autonomic nervous system during stress.

Newborn Pain Cries and Vagal Tone: Parallel Changes in Response to Circumcision
http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/porter2/

August 17 - Guest, Colin Knauf

On Monday, August 17th our guest was Colin Knauf, a father, entrepreneur, author and researcher on the primal period of life. Listen to the podcast here. NEED LINK, RICH.

This is a script of what Rich read with links following:

Shock doctrine:

I just wanted to help generalize the notion of what the shock doctrine is and how it can be applied in different domains. Naomi Klein deals with the shock doctrine in the economic domain, but the same principle can be applied in the medical and neurological domains as well. The shock doctrine is about traumatizing, colonizing and manipulating the behavior of large scale networked systems of individuals. Those individuals can be human beings in societies, human cells and processes involved in birth, or networked neurons in the brain. All of these systems are composed of very large numbers of individual entities, each one acting out essentially the same internal "programming" (so to speak) but in the context of different local environments. So for instance all the cells in your body have the same set of DNA, yet some cells become bone, some become skin, hair, muscle etc, depending on each cell's micro-environment. It's a miracle as unexpected and complex as mathematical fractals, which in a sense is what these self organized systems are.

The shock doctrine involves traumatizing the system by interrupting its self-organized internal processes so as to delete or replace the historical information embedded in it, creating a new system which in some sense is colonized by and dependent on the external disruptor for its survival.

One way to do this in the economic domain is through the control of money and credit. Money and credit are essential for even the most basic economic activity in this country. Getting produce from farmer to supermarket involves the free flow of money and credit between the farmer, the supermarket, the fertilizer industry and all the middle-men between them. If the commercial paper bond market stops functioning, as it did briefly last year, food shipments would stop even though the farmer has food that the consumer would be willing to trade his labors for. Although money is not real wealth (you can't eat it or build a house with it) it is a standardized unit of value which is an essential catalyst for large scale economic activity. And our money system is under the control of private corporations, up to and including the federal reserve. Search for record number 0042817 on the Delaware state government's division of corporations if you don't believe me. This is an opportunity for conquest of this country by these same corporations.

The neural net version of the shock doctrine is accomplished via psychiatry's use of electric shock treatment to partially erase the information encoded in the brain's neural net, allowing for a crude form of reprogramming and, essentially, brainwashing.

This radio program is mainly concerned with the shock doctrine's use in American obstetrics, which has the effect of imprinting trauma and/or sensory deprivation, or creates a state of dependency of the baby on medical procedures and concoctions which would not otherwise
have been wanted or needed. The disruption of normal physiological birthing processes creates a cascade of medical interventions which can impair the baby's development and have life-long adverse effects even if the birth goes smoothly by medical standards.

MGM: (Male Genital Mutilation)

Please put down whatever you're doing and listen very closely. You may never hear this information again. Take out a pen and paper because you're going to want to write down some google search terms. I also have a blog on the columbia tribune's web site called "spells".
It's under the reader blogs section. And get a copy of Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine", because it describes the economic future of this country.

Who am I and why should you believe me? I'm just a dedicated newshound who for 20 years has has access to the most powerful instrument of intelligence gathering ever invented. I'm talking
about the internet. Why should you believe me? I don't want you to believe me. I only hope that you'll be sufficiently intrigued that you'll investigate this for yourself. As a demonstration that something very alarming is happening in this country, go to video.google.com and do two searches. The first search is "wtc bombing rare", the second one is "okc bombing rare". These deal with the world trade center bombing in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing in '95. The mass media is worse than broken. It is a tool of criminals and traitors who manipulate public perception from the shadows. We are living in the matrix.

This country is under siege from virtually every direction: economically, educationally, socially, psychologically, sexually, neurologically, pharmacologically, nutritionally, ecologically and
most especially informationally. The intelligence of the physical body can heal it from many physical wounds, but there's no healing a misguided and well controlled mind.

Our future as a soverign and relatively free country is under severe threat. And the solutions which will be presented as a remedy for the impending trauma will close a trap which has been in preparation for decades. This has nothing to do with democrats vs republicans. The tools of control go much deeper than politics.

What I'm about to explain is only one aspect of the converging tidal waves which are bearing down on this country. I'm going to be brutal here. You're not going to want to hear what I'm about to say. But you need to hear it, for your own sake but most especially for the sake of the future, if this country has a future.

We're all responsible for our own actions, but no one lives in a vacuum. Our environment affects us tremendously, most dramatically and indelibly, our EARLIEST environment. As Janel can explain better than I, the fetus's neural net indelibly imprints, I repeat IMPRINTS (you need to look this up) and retains everything that it senses. What it can sense at MINIMUM is sound, maternal hormones such as stress hormones, and probably maternal neural activity as
well. No one really knows all the profoundly intimate connections which exist between a pregnant woman and her fetus. Suffice to say that the mother's environment, the mothers heart beat and breathing, her voice and feelings, begin imprinting on babies at some level
long before they are born. Imprinting is a well known and studied phenomenon among all mammals, and the power of its influence on a person's life is readily apparent from a little reflection on how a neural net operates. Early experience creates the mind's perceptual
foundation and its interpretation of future experiences throughout its lifetime. The newborn baby is already well developed and capable of imprinting at the moment of birth. It is also acutely sensitive to sensory input. These scientific facts have somehow escaped the notice of the american medical establishment.

What is imprinted on a boy's brain at birth by standard American obstetrical practices is nothing less than physical and psychological torture, which physically, sexually, emotionally and socially impacts him for the rest of his life. There is no turning back.

Let me explain something about basic male sexual anatomy that they don't teach in american medical school. The primary erogenous zone (which means pleasure sensing zone) of the male body is called the frenar band. It contains 10's of thousands of fine touch receptors. It is far more touch sensitive than the fingertips. It is the male counterpart to the woman's inner and outer labia and G-spot. And here's the most incredible fact. It is part of the foreskin. It is
routinely CRUSHED by a sterile vise and cut off at birth by american obstetricians and pediatricians, under the euphemism of circumcision. And it has been done under a series of demonstrably false pretexts dating back over a century.

Here is a google search term: 3 words: taylor lockwood prepuce. The first two google hits confirm what the creator has given to humanity, a priceless source of ecstatic joy, parental bonding and family cohesion, which is routinely tormented and amputated by
american obstetrics.

The immediate psychological impact of this trauma on young boys is well studied and documented: google can sever circumcision.

The long term psychological impact in adults has also been studied, including its relationship to violence against women: google Rhinehart circumcision.

The pleasure sensory deprivation which results from male genital mutilation has also been linked to warfare and violence in the afflicted society. Google "Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence"

Finally, the brain damage which results from this operation, and its utility as an instrument of social control, is the subject of at least 2 published papers in psychiatric journals. Google
circumcision ronald immerman.

Circumcision became a routine medical procedure in this country about 6 generations ago, and it has had a predictable impact on the happiness, cohesiveness and mental health of american families and communities. In ancient history circumcision was the mark of a slave, and for good reason: it impacts the victim's capacity for transcendent emotional connectedness with his mate, which corrodes both family and community cohesiveness. Emotional connectedness is the foundation for community self organization. Isolated and alienated people are much easier to manipulate and control than people who possess empathy and understanding for themselves and their fellow human beings. Thus, circumcision facilitates the domination of local communities by larger and wealthier social structures such as religions, corporations and nations. Whether accidental or deliberate, the consequences are the same: circumcision has the
effect of disempowering local communities, making them vulnerable to external colonization. It can thus be seen as a tool of large scale social manipulation and control, and has been explicitly promoted for this purpose by rabbinical scholars centuries ago. Google: decoding the rabbis circumcision, and rambam circumcision.