I also neglected to mention the beneficial outcome of my efforts. Despite my having newly diagnosed Celiac Disease I had a very healthy, calm and quick home waterbirth. My son only took 3 1/2 hours to be born from start to finish (he is my first child). He is in the 100th percentile for weight and height, is crawling and starting to stand at 71/2 mo, and is ahead or right on time for all of his other developmental milestones.

I also learned many of these concepts when I took the Bradley Method of natural childbirth. The class offered many terrific nutritional guidlines but never mentioned that lunch meats contain nitrates. Perhaps they thought everyone knows to avoid nitrates? So, if you are pregnant, research the processed foods, including meat. Anyway, good job Jennifer! I wish I had known about krill oil or even cod liver oil. I only had one friend with any good advice but she lived far away. All my other friends and co-workers gave horrendous advice about eating whatever you want, they mostly thought I was a nut and most tried to talk me out of my home waterbirth. Few Americans know how much safer home birth is statistically. I only considered it after all the new mothers I knew had traumatic birth experiences in the hospital where their wishes were ignored and they were treated with little compassion no matter which of several hospitals they entered. I believe this has a terrible impact on the emotional future of the mother and child.

I can't believe I forgot to mention www.mothering.com. The forums there are full of info . I particularly like the immunology and nutrition section in the vaccination page.

Way to go Jennifer! What a commitment!

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