In parenting, there are more choices than you think
By Nancy B. Loughlin
Published in News Press on March 12, 2013. Published with permission.
It’s a myth that life begins at conception. It’s also a myth that life begins at birth.
Life is a continuum. The decisions made generations ago are rippling through our bodies now and in children of the future.
The prospect of parenting sparks awareness of life’s profound interconnectedness. No relationship is isolated: mother to child, human to human, human to planet, individual to life. Even if we choose to be childless (I am in this group), our actions and choices impact future generations.
This is what conscious parenting is all about. Decisions and relationships reverberate.
Pathways Connect (aptly named) is an educational outreach program of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. The SWFL chapter is bridging the great divide between the granola green brigade and those who don’t spot what the fuss is all about.
According to Pathways Connect SWFL facilitator and Cape Coral chiropractor John “Doc” Edwards, times have changed. It may be too late to rectify individual choices in the past, but right decisions can begin now.
“People in their 20s don’t think about how the food they’ll put in their bodies will impact their unborn children because we’ve never needed to care before. Food used to be fuel and building blocks, not a multigenerational teratogen,” Edwards said.
At a recent Pathways Connect gathering, Edwards talked about how contraceptive pills, mass production and distribution of antibiotics, and cheap convenience foods have wreaked havoc on the immune systems and the literal guts of today’s children.
The past is prologue and the future is a reflection of today.
“This has massive ramifications for our culture, and it’s going to take a conscious shift by future generations to untangle this whole mess,” Edwards said.
Bringing children into the world may be as old as time, but modernity has added hurdles with abundant choices including and not limited to healthy eating, birth methods, drugs, breast feeding and discipline.
Are we choosing to recognize the actual birth process as the ultimate rite of passage that it really is?
The birth location is a choice, and it doesn’t have to be a hospital. Would you prefer a birthing center? A home birth?
Is a C-section inevitable, medically necessary or even desirable? Do you want your child delivered by a doctor or by you with the help of a midwife?
Circumcision is a choice. (Believe it.) Whether to vaccinate is a choice. (Yes, it is.) How long should a mother breast feed? (As long as she wants.)
How have we been treating our bodies? Ourselves? The planet? What can we do about it now? Let’s start talking. And choosing.
For more information, Netflix “The Business of Being Born” and “Pregnant in America.”
Visit www.pathwaystofamilywellness.org for educational resources with Pathways Connect. Friend Pathways Connect SWFL on Facebook.
