LOOK WHO’S TALKING

An Australian lady has discovered that certain baby sounds mean something.
I have written down the list of words and their meanings for any interested mothers with their newborns.
They suggest to print out the words & sticky-tape/blue-tack to your cot or bassinet for when you are sleepy during the night and can't remember what the sounds mean.


Listening to your babys sounds.


Neh
• I’m hungry
• The baby will respond well to your breast/bottle
• Mother’s body will respond to Neh (produce milk, feel a let down)
• If you hear any other sounds & you put baby on the breast, they won’t latch on properly, unless it is the ‘Neh’ sound
• The baby’s tongue goes in a sucking motion on the roof of their mouth

Owh
• I’m tired
• Put me to bed straight away (before I get too tired & will be harder to settle)
• Parent’s choose how to settle (Eg: put them to bed awake, use dummy, put on breast)

Eh
• Burp me
• Pick me up
• Reflex in their chest
• It’s trying to get the air out
• Baby can make this sound when they are asleep (pick up & burp & put straight back to bed before they properly wake)
• Can burp in between feeds, before or after.

Eairh
• I’ve got lower wind pain
• Listening for the “Air” sound or the “R”
• A reflex in the lower intestine pushing down
• A very upset sound
• The baby has no hope of going to sleep if they are making this sound
• Try using the bicycle leg movement or laying them on their tummy
• If this happens often, you ‘know’ it is a bad colic sound & can act upon it & get medication at the doctors.

Heh
• I’m uncomfortable
• Sign of discomfort
• A skin reflex
• Too hot
• Too cold
• Needs their nappy changed
• Clothes are too tight or wrap is too tight/constricting

Neh and Owh
• Is tired, but wants to go to sleep sucking on something (breast or dummy)


If baby is making several of these sounds at once, find the sound that is the clearest & respond to that 1st.
One sound should be clearer than the other/other’s.

1)List on Cot/Bassinet/in Hospital
2)Listen and Look
Eg: jerky movements = tired.



NEH – I’m hungry

OWH – I’m tired

EH – Burp me

EAIRH – Lower wind pain (bicycle legs, tummy)

HEH – I’m uncomfortable (nappy, temp, clothes)

Are Ultrasounds safe?

Worried professionals

We know that Professor Stuart Campbell (the most vociferous ultrasound propagandist) attended the same Medical Research Council conference in 1985 as we did, where a number of experts made their anxieties clear. Yet, Professor Campbell persists in his claims of safety:

"Some 100 million people throughout the world are walking around having had scans before they were born, and there has never been a shred of evidence that it does any harm."1

No one then - or since - has thought to ask whether that statement was based on any research evidence. The press was (and still is) happy to accept without challenge a statement made by a medical man who, as one of the most enthusiastic promoters of ultrasound, can hardly be unbiased.

A number of private companies have been quick to set up these money-making services even though exposure to high intensity ultrasound has never been properly researched for any possible risks to either fetus or mother. This proved to be too much for some members of the medical profession. Martin Whittle, professor of fetal medicine and chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' working party on ultrasound was quoted in The Sunday Times as saying:
"We don't know the effects of repeated ultrasound".

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that ultrasound is a form of energy that can't be considered harmless, even at low levels, and is considering regulatory action against the commercial companies that are offering ultrasound videos in the US.

Dr John Steed, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine said that, although there is no proof that ultrasound is damaging, "We used to think that about X-rays". (Indeed, X-rays were vigorously promoted for viewing the baby in the womb, and it was many years later that research showed that X-ray exposure in utero caused cancer in the children who were exposed as babies).

Nevertheless, there appear to be no such concerns in Professor Campbell's mind. Having created a company to offer these keepsake videos (at a cost of £200 a time), he was asked for his views: "A great deal of research has been done over the past 30 years to investigate if fetal ultrasound has any effect on the baby and there is no evidence whatsoever of harm."

However, as a professor of obstetrics and the leading protagonist for ultrasound, it is astonishing that he seems not to have considered the following studies.
Obstetricians in Michigan3 studied 57 women who were at risk of giving birth prematurely. Half were given a weekly ultrasound examination; the rest received pelvic examinations to assess the state of their cervix. Preterm labour was more than doubled in the ultrasound group - 52 per cent - compared with 25 per cent in the controls. Although this was a small-scale study, this statistical difference was unlikely to have emerged by chance.

In a large randomised controlled trial from Helsinki,4 9000 women were randomly divided into two groups. The women in one group were scanned at 16-20 weeks whereas the women in the other group were not. Comparing the results from these groups revealed 20 miscarriages in the scanned group and none in the controls.

A later study carried out in London5 randomised 2475 women to receive routine Doppler ultrasound examination of the umbilical and uterine arteries at 19-22 weeks and at 32 weeks of pregnancy compared with women who received standard care without Doppler ultrasound. There were 16 perinatal deaths of normally formed infants in the Doppler group compared with four in the standard-care group.

It is not only pregnant women receiving antenatal care who are at risk. Physiotherapists use ultrasound to treat a number of conditions. A study done in Helsinki6 found that, if the physiotherapist was pregnant, handling ultrasound equipment for at least 20 hours a week significantly increased the risk of a spontaneous abortion.

Also, the risk of spontaneous abortions in practitioners after the tenth week of pregnancy was significantly increased when they gave deep-heat treatments (for strain injuries or as mobilization therapy) for more than five hours a week, and ultrasound for more than 10 hours a week.
One can only wonder what exactly is Professor Campbell's definition of harm?

Mouse study shows ultrasound affecting brain development

by Nicole Yannoulatos

SYDNEY, 9 August 2006 - The impact of ultrasounds on embryonic brains may be more damaging that was previously thought, according to U.S. researchers.
A study conducted by Pasko Rakic and colleagues at Yale University in New Haven, Conneticutt, has found that a significant number of nerve cells in the brain of embryonic mice do not migrate to the appropriate location following exposure to ultrasound.

"Proper migration of neurons during development is essential for normal development of the brain's cerebral cortex, and its function can be impaired if neuronal migration is disrupted," said Rakic, chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at the university.

His team analysed how effectively neurons in the brains of one 146 mouse embryos migrated to the brain's cerebral cortex once exposed to ultrasound waves.
They found that after several prolonged exposures, a small number of neurons did not migrate to their necessary position in the upper layers of the cerebral cortex, and instead moved to the lower layers or became embedded in supporting white matter in the brain.

In an accompanying commentary, Verne Caviness of Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and Ellen Grant of Harvard Medical School, explain how the implications of this research for the developing brain is unknown.

They argued that since the number of misplaced cells is so small, their effect may be little more than minimal background noise. The cells also appear to retain their intended cell characteristics, despite migrating to the wrong position.

Caviness and Grant describe how after the neurons have migrated, a large proportion of them are naturally eliminated as cells die from the development of new tissues in the brain as the embryo grows. Essentially, all of the misplaced cells in the mouse's brain may be eliminated and will be of no consequence for the organisation of the cortex.

This study does not necessarily suggest that ultrasound will have the same affect on human foetuses. Rakic and his colleagues said there were clear differences between their research and the average pre-natal ultrasound women would undergo during pregnancy.

The brains of the embryonic mice were exposed with a larger volume of ultrasound waves and more frequently than a human foetus would be, they said. The authors also highlighted the differences in the biology of mice and humans, making it difficult to predict what affect the ultrasounds may have on humans.

"It is not known whether or to what extent ultrasound waves affect migrating neurons in developing humans," said Rakic.
He highlighted the difficulties in identifying the position of neurons, since it requires researchers to label the DNA replication, a procedure that cannot be used in humans. This means that the misplaced cells in the embryonic brain could be missed totally when tests are taking place.

However, they said the study serves as a reminder that we can't always take routine medical procedures for granted. While the research does not suggest ultrasounds are anything to be concerned about, it does highlight an area of embryonic development that calls for more study.
Rakic and his colleagues intend to extend the study to non-human primates to see if similar effects occur.

Links to similar articles:
Excessive Ultrasound May Harm Embryonic Neurons
Ultrasound Scans May Harm Unborn Babies
Ultrasound scans 'safe for baby'
What is Ultrasound?
Who says ultrasound is safe?

CellAdam Is Successful, Natural, Ethical

A Believe-It-or-Not Cancer Drug
By Edward Pentin

ROME, JAN. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Imagine a medicine that has a staggering 75% success rate in treating cancer, and yet is a natural and ethical product, owned by a nonprofit company headed by devout Catholics.

Too good to be true? That's what I thought. The medical world is not short of bogus cancer "cures."
Treatment for the disease is a multi-billion dollar industry that has led to questionable or unproven methods springing up throughout the world.
Yet this little-known product, which works by rebuilding the body's own adult stem cells and destroying tumour cells, already has a 25-year track record as a highly effective cancer treatment.

Called CellAdam, it is most effective in preventing the early stages of cancer.
But it also impedes the malignant process, and has an analgesic effect in the hopeless stage of an advanced tumour.

Because of its natural composition, it has none of the hallucinogenic effects you get with morphine.
The ingredients simply include a fatty acid complex extracted from soy and sunflower.

"This is a totally unusual and huge breakthrough," says Dr. Thomas Janossy, president of Biostemworld, the company producing the drug internationally.
"In the next two to three years, it will become the first anti-cancer prescription drug in the world that is nature-based."

So why has hardly anyone heard of it?
According to Biostemworld, the reason is because it was developed in Hungary during the country's Communist era.
CellAdam was discovered, by chance, by Adam Kovacs, a Christian Hungarian researcher, who put his whole life into finding a cure for cancer.
Imre Beke, Biostemworld's chairman, calls it a "diamond in disguise" because of the numerous obstacles that have prevented this drug from reaching a wider market.
The first hindrance has been the Hungarian language.
"As the researchers of this drug only speak Hungarian, it's not been widely published in international media and so nobody really knows about it," says Beke.
Then there was the country's Communist past and personal rivalries that remained even after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Nonprofit

Once any cancer drug hits the market, it can generate revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Biostemworld is expecting CellAdam will generate over a billion dollars once it becomes fully viable in about two to three years.
"It's huge," says Janossy, "but we want the profit to be shared or managed by a Catholic interest where the hope is that the profit will help the people in need. It's a very unusual approach."

So what evidence is there that this drug really works?
Apparently, there is no shortage of testimonies, in addition to the company's claim that it has a 75% success rate.
There is a bus driver in Hamilton, Canada, who has just found out that after taking CellAdam for less than a month, a 5-centimeter tumour has been reduced to the size of pea and now he doesn't have to worry about having chemotherapy.

There is the case of a woman with lung cancer -- the hardest kind to treat -- which had become so bad that she had gone home to die.
"She started to take CellAdam and within two months she was practically clear," says Janossy.

"Constantly, every couple of days, there are these dramatic cases." Janossy says an ongoing 10-year study in Hungary is currently focusing on two groups of cancer sufferers.
One group, who all went through chemotherapy, have since died, but those who have been taking CellAdam are still alive.

CellAdam works by breaking down a shield that is preventing cancer cells from communicating with the body's natural immune system, allowing it to kill the cancer cells.
"It is putting back your immune system into balance," explains Beke, "assisting your immune system to cure the cancer, enhancing your own system to be natural and letting a natural process take over a sick body."
Certain cells react better than others to the drug, such as breast, lung and large intestinal cancer cells, melanoma malignum and certain types of obstetric tumours. But even large tumours can be blocked by CellAdam, claims Biostemworld.

Prevention

It's best track record, however, is as a cancer prevention therapy.
When used as a dietary supplement, it works by building up the body's adult stem cell count.
Stem cells can decrease by as much as 80% in the course of a lifetime, leading to signs of ageing, a weakened immune system, and diseases such as cancer.
With CellAdam and its other nature-based drugs, Biostemworld claims it can restore that count by as much as 75%, exceeding a similar product in California by 50%.
Not only do they prevent cancer, but other diseases too.

Furthermore, Biostemworld argues its products are without the dangers associated with synthetic drugs because they are less toxic.
Janossy says pharmaceutical companies prefer synthetic drugs because they are easier to patent and so make more money.
But he adds that synthetic drugs tend to mimic what is already available in natural drugs, some of which have been used in countries such as China for over 4,000 years.

She pointed to the growth of euthanasia, which is gaining popularity in the West as demand for health care for the elderly increases.
"My first thought when this company was forming was: bingo, this had to come because the medical establishment is saying: 'What are we going to do with all these old people?'"
Dalgarno felt it was "truly God's work," not only because it could help counter the push toward euthanasia, but also because their products are less expensive, less dangerous and more ethical.
Embryonic stem cell research plays no part in this medicine.

More details on CellAdam and Biostemworld's other nature-based disease prevention products can be found at: http://biostemworld.com/portal/

Edward Pentin is a freelance writer living in Rome.
He can be reached at: epentin@zenit.org.

Read more HERE.

Why am I Catholic?

Pope Benedict XVI quote

“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attraction fades quickly - it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.”

Pregnant women who take slimming pills 'are more likely to have gay children'

By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:51PM GMT 04 Dec 2004




Women who take slimming and thyroid pills during pregnancy are substantially more likely to have homosexual children, according to research.

A study of thousands of mothers and their adult children has revealed that Thyroxine – used to treat thyroid deficiency – and amphetamine-based diet pills appear to influence sexual orientation.
Both were identified as being strongly linked to a higher rate of homosexuality among female offspring.

The mothers of homosexuals were found to be up to eight times more likely to have taken such drugs, with the effect being strongest with daughters whose mothers took the drugs during the first three months of pregnancy.
The discovery, to be published by researchers in America, backs claims that human sexuality is determined by genetic and biochemical factors at work during early pregnancy.

Prof Lee Ellis and colleagues at Minot State University, North Dakota, traced the mothers of more than 5,000 American and Canadian students and members of gay and lesbian support groups, looking for links between prescription drugs taken during pregnancy and the sexual orientation of their children.

The researchers found that the mothers of homosexual women were at least five times more likely to have taken synthetic thyroid medications during pregnancy than mothers of heterosexual women, and eight times more likely to have used amphetamine-based diet pills such as Dexedrine and diethylpropion.

They also found evidence that some drugs have the opposite effect during pregnancy, reducing the probability of homosexual offspring.
Mothers of heterosexual males were 70 per cent more likely to have taken drugs to combat nausea than those of male homosexuals.

The results suggest that the effect of the drugs is strongest with female babies and when taken during the first three months of pregnancy, which accords with previous studies showing that sexual orientation is decided during this period.
The results will appear in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Prof Ellis and his colleagues state: "These analyses support the conclusion that female offspring are more vulnerable to alterations in sexual orientation via exposure to a variety of prescription drugs, and suggest that this vulnerability is greatest during the first trimester."
The researchers emphasise that the numbers taking the drugs were small and that a larger study should be undertaken.

Nevertheless, they conclude: "Mothers of the female homosexuals were significantly more likely than mothers of female heterosexuals to have taken diet pills and thyroid medications during pregnancy."

Dr Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, and author of a forthcoming book on the origins of homosexuality, said: "These types of medication could have an effect on brain chemistry and research suggests that this is a major factor in determining sexual orientation."

Prof Jim Dornan, the vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that the findings were in line with others pointing to the importance of pre-natal factors in adult life.
"We know that nutrients during pregnancy can affect health in later life.
This is a very interesting finding and definitely deserves further study."

The finding adds to mounting concern over the use of slimming pills by women trying to lose weight.
Prof Dornan said: "All drugs can cross the placental barrier and, looking back, we weren't so aware of what was going on inside the womb.
Nowadays, the Royal College's view is that women should not take drugs unless there is a clinical need."

Click Here to find this article.

Interview with Fr Peter Kennedy

If you click on, ABC Brisbane, it will show you a video interview with Fr Peter Kennedy from St. Marys in Brisbane.

Premarital Sex

An interesting read I found in regard to the Physiological side of having Sex.
Part of an answer as to why NOT to have Sex.




Everyone talks about how hard it is to say no, but no one tells you how hard it is when you say yes.

In regard to the physiological side of things, it's very dangerous for a young single woman to be sexually active.
Because a teenage girl's reproductive system is still immature, she is much more susceptible to STDs.
In fact, early sexual activity is the number one risk factor for cervical cancer, and the second is multiple sex partners.
A girl's heart, like her body, is not designed to handle multiple sexual partners. Besides making herself vulnerable to STDs, your friend also needs to consider if she is ready to be a mom.
Lastly, consider the fact that the rate of suicide attempts for sexually active girls aged twelve to sixteen is six times higher than the rate for virgins.
Tragically, these girls don't realize the purity and forgiveness that they can find in Christ.

New scientific studies also suggest that if a woman has multiple sexual partners, this will lower her levels of oxytocin which in turn will damage her ability to bond.

Oxytocin is a neuro-peptide most commonly associated with pregnancy and breast-feeding.
It seems to act as a human "superglue," helping a mother bond with her infant.
It is also released during sexual arousal and there, too, seems to work as a "superglue."
Since estrogen enhances the oxytocin response, females are capable of more intense bonding than males, and are more susceptible to the suffering that accompanies broken bonds.

According to an article by Drs. John Diggs and Eric Keroack, "People who have misused their sexual faculty and become bonded to multiple persons will diminish the power of oxytocin to maintain a permanent bond with an individual."

In more basic terms, sharing the gift of sex is like putting a piece of tape on another person's arm.
The first bond is strong, and it hurts to remove it.
Shift the tape to another person's arm and the bond will still work, but it will be easier to remove.
Each time this is done, part of each person remains with the tape.
Soon it is easy to remove because the residue from the various arms interferes with the tape's ability to stick.

The same is true in relationships, where previous sexual experiences interfere with the ability to bond.

But a sexual relationship that is properly bonded from the start, such as that between two virgins on their wedding night, has one advantage among many:
Oxytocin helps to maintain the "high" of sex in a long term relationship.
This does not mean that if a person is not a virgin on the wedding night, he or she will be unable to bond with a spouse.

It simply means that when we follow God's plan, we have the most abundant life possible.

Struggling with the rosary

By Brian Pessaro, from Godspy.

The Rosary is excruciating. There I said it.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said it was the most perfect prayer because it takes 19 minutes, which is the maximum time the average person can maintain a state of concentration. The truth is the Rosary can be a real chore.

St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, was being more honest when she said, “I am ashamed to confess it, but the recitation of the Rosary costs me more than to use an instrument of penance. I feel I am saying it so badly. Try as I may to make myself meditate on the mysteries, I never manage to fix my thoughts on them." Amen sister. I’m with you. And yet, like St. Thérèse, I wouldn’t give up the Rosary for anything.

I’ll admit I’m not always perfect about making it my top priority. I’ve often flopped into bed late at night only to realize I hadn’t done it yet.
I groan as I slide out from the sheets and reach for my beads on the nightstand. Those next 19 minutes are a far cry from the “perfect prayer” Archbishop Sheen described.
I can barely keep my eyes opened much less my mind focused. To be honest, it’s not much easier when I’m wide awake. I stink at contemplating the mysteries. The best I can manage is to visualize a picture from one of my Rosary booklets or a scene from The Passion of the Christ.

Distractions? Don’t get me started. On my way home from work, I’m bombarded with thoughts of everything but the mysteries. “The third joyful mystery is the… now what was it I was supposed to pick up from the grocery store… Was that my 9th Hail Mary or my 10th? Oh man, I just ran a red light! Sorry Mary.”
So why do I persist if it’s such drudgery? Simple. I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for Mary’s intercession.

This is my story.

Since the age of 11, I was addicted to pornography.
It began simple enough with sneaking peaks at my best friend’s father’s Playboys in the basement of his house.
But by the time I was 25, I was so hooked on Internet porn that I would itch for my wife to leave the apartment so I could secretly jump online. Several times over the years I tried to quit.
Each time, not only did I fail, but the addiction got worse to the point where I gave up resisting.
Then a friend of mine, who knew nothing of my addiction, loaned me a book on Mary and her supposed apparitions in Međugorje. I’m undecided about whether those apparitions are real. I’ll leave that to the Church to decide. However, I can tell you what is real. That book was what finally led me out of my addiction.
It was as if Mary reached up from the pages and grabbed me by the collar. I felt her say to me sternly, “Brian you’ve got to stop looking at that garbage. Starting now!”

My earthly mother hardly ever scolded me when I was younger. I was always the “good son.” But here I was at age 30 getting chastised by my Blessed Mother in a way I had never experienced.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked helplessly. I turned the page.
Pray the Rosary and wear the Scapular.
I groaned. “Rosary? I’ve tried that before. It’s boring. It doesn’t work for me.”
But Mary wouldn’t take no. “Try it again,” she insisted.
What about this scapular thing? I had no idea what a scapular was.
I thought it had something to do with shaving your head like the monks of the Middle Ages. (I had confused the “scap” in scapular for “scalp”, as in head.) “I’m not shaving my head Mary.” I read on and embarrassingly realized my mistake. “Oh. OK. I can wear that.”

That night I went online and ordered a Brown Scapular, and then I went to my bedroom dresser and pulled out my grandmom’s old rosary. It had been in there for years, nothing more than an heirloom.
I got on my knees, and I began to pray.
The next night, I did it again. Two nights in a row became three, then four, until before I knew it I had prayed the Rosary every night for a week.
Well it’s been 7 years, and I’m still going strong. I can count on two hands the total number of times I’ve missed.

OK so I pray the Rosary and I kicked a nasty porn habit.
Ho hum. Big deal you think.
Yes it is, because I should explain that when I say the addiction went away, I don’t mean gradually. I mean it vanished that first night.
It was like someone reached inside my brain, found the switch for porn addiction, and turned it off. I can’t explain it. I’m not a sex therapist, but I know that’s not supposed to happen. You don’t just put down a 19-year porn addiction like yesterday’s newspaper and walk away from it.

A lot of it has to do with a hormone called epinephrine that’s released in the brain each time you view pornography. It produces a high similar to cocaine.
Epinephrine is the gift that keeps on giving because it has a nasty side effect of burning the images into your brain. That’s why even when I was in my late twenties I could still see those images from when I was eleven as if it were yesterday. And now they’re gone.

That brings me back to why I pray the Rosary daily, and why I think everyone should too. It’s because of who made the request.
Mary is our Blessed Mother, and she’s asked us to do this. If she wants us to pray the Rosary, it doesn’t matter if we don’t “get” anything out of it, and it doesn’t matter if we don’t understand how it “works”.
The only thing that matters is that Mary is the one who asked.
She says she needs our help, and the way we can help her is to pray Rosaries.
Let her worry about the mechanics.
Did the servants at the wedding at Cana need to understand how Jesus was going to solve the wine shortage? No, they just needed to follow Mary’s advice.
I hope Mary doesn’t mind if I borrow her line and say when it comes to praying the Rosary, “Do whatever she tells you.”

The Passion - Lessons from the Life of Christ

A great coffee table book I bought, that you can read, meditate on, pray or just look at.
Illustrations taken from Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion.
I highly recommend it.

"Complemented by quotes from the Scriptures, beautiful illustrations, a series of probing interviews with the movies main players and behind the scenes images, the book explores themes from the story of Jesus that are of as much relevance today as they were twenty centuries ago. Love, joy, peace, faith, forgiveness and much more. Beautifully designed and reproduced, this is an encounter with the story of Christ that will move you, intrigue you and leave you wanting to find out more."

To find out more go to Ken Duncan Gallery Shop.