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Welcome to The Natural Family Site

Hello,

I would like to tell you an interesting story. I have a number of friends who have had babies, and all of them went through a "normal" hospital childbirth by today’s standards. They had narcotics, epidurals, and episiotomies. Several were induced. One of them had a cesarean because of "failure to progress," although there was nothing wrong with the mother or the baby at the time.

When I became pregnant I was headed down the same path. My doctor never gave me any indication that there was even an option. I now know that nearly every doctor works that way. You take a hospital childbirth class while you are pregnant and then you go in and get the standard hospital treatment.

I have to tell you that early in my pregnancy I was truly frightened. I had heard all of these stories from my friends and none of them sounded happy. I did not want to have drugs injected in my spine. In fact, I don’t like the thought of drugs in the first place. I wanted to learn more about the whole process, so I started looking for information on the Web and at the library.

In retrospect I was incredibly lucky, because in the process of searching for information a whole new world opened up for me - the world of natural childbirth. I learned that it is possible to have a relatively calm, beautiful experience at childbirth. I learned that natural childbirth is much better for the baby in every way. I learned that I could do things to lower the likelihood of epsiotomies. But most of all I learned how important it is to find a doctor who would actually listen to, or better yet accept and encourage, natural methods. As it turned out I chose to use a midwife to get the experience I wanted.

I also learned that there are classes you can, and really should, take to get ready for a natural childbirth. My husband and I took what are called "Bradley classes", and it turns out they are totally different from hospital classes. In these classes you learn how to prepare for and manage a natural childbirth as a couple. We also read every book we could get our hands on.

I consider myself so fortunate to have found this information before it was too late. I have done an informal poll in Raleigh, and my poll indicates that only 1% of births are natural. On the other hand, my Bradley instructor has a 92% unmedicated rate for her students. All five of the couples in the class I took experienced successful unmedicated births.

So why do so many people have "medicated" births rather than natural births? Why are 99% of all deliveries medicated? Why do doctors never mention natural childbirth? Why did I very nearly have a medicated birth myself, but managed to find out about the natural birth phenomena by accident? It’s because no one knows about the natural techniques. It is almost like, for some odd reason, these techniques are hidden from everyone in society.

It is the same way with natural family planning, which my husband and I use for birth control. Natural family planning uses no drugs, has no side effects, is totally natural, is absolutely free and is amazingly effective. Why does almost no one know about it? I have an answer for that - it's because no one makes any money off of it. Condom manufacturers and birth control makers earn money for what they sell, so they advertise their products heavily and make sure people know about them. No one makes money from natural family planning, and there is nothing to buy, so you never hear a word about it unless you are lucky.

It’s the same way with breastfeeding. Formula makers make a lot of money selling formula, but no one makes money if you breastfeed. So many people never even think to try breastfeeding because they are hearing so many ads and messages about formula. But breastfeeding is so much better for the baby and the mother both. For example, according to Kaiser-Permanente, "Infants who were breastfed for a minimum of six months experienced $1,435.00 less healthcare claims than formula-fed infants." That’s a big difference in the health of your baby! Plus, breastfeeding is free - have you priced formula?

That is why I have created this web site: The Natural Family Site. In this web site I help people like you and me find out the right information about all of these natural practices. I am doing that both for you and your well-being, as well as for the health of your baby. I have included in this site a set of nine topics that all seem to go together naturally:

To me all of these things go together, but you may want to choose just one or two of them to get started. There are many excellent sources of information available for free on the Web, so this site is full of links. There are also a number of books available at the library or your local bookstore that you can read to become better informed.

I hope that The Natural Family Site helps you to discover a whole new world of natural practices that really are better, both for you and your children. These practices let you take control of the health, happiness and well-being of yourself and your family.

If you have any comments or suggestions on this site, I would love to hear from you. Please send email to info@bygpub.com or sign the Guestbook. I look forward to hearing your stories and experiences!

Member of the Natural Parenting Web Ring

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