The more I read about Miranda Kerr, the more I like her.
Last year, the 29 year old supermodel from Australia who is married to actor Orlando Bloom refused to cave in to pressure from the anti-saturated fat lobby by publicly professing her love of coconut oil with the following statement:
“I will not go a day without coconut oil. I personally take four tablespoons per day, either on my salads, in my cooking or in my cups of green tea.”
Mmmmm, let’s see. Shall we listen to fat, unhealthy looking doctors with expensive vacation homes and yacht payments telling us to avoid coconut oil because it will give us a heart attack who are incidentally getting kickbacks or special perks from drug companies on the amount of cholesterol lowering prescriptions they write, or …
Shall we listen to a woman who is sharing her secret for shiny hair, trim figure, and clear skin which has been used by attractive, healthy Polynesians for centuries who suffered virtually no heart disease whatsoever?
Kerr: Epidurals Result in Drugged Babies
Now, Ms. Kerr has once again stirred up a hornet’s nest with her comments about the dangers of epidurals published as part of her interview in the August 2012 issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK.
Miranda states that she decided to forgo an epidural with the recent birth of her son after observing in baby bonding videos that babies born to mothers who had epidurals did not instinctively go for the breast and appeared out of it and “drugged” unlike babies born to mothers who had not submitted to pain medication who went straight for the breast and were alert and looking around:
“The baby was a little bit drugged up, and I was like, ‘Well I don’t want that.’ I wanted to give him the best possible start in life I could.”
Dr. Deborah Stein, who practices obstetric anethesiology at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York, fired back by insisting that there “is no concern of epidural anesthesia on a newborn baby.”
Yeah right, doc. A little concerned about those yacht payments are we?
Mother and parenting forums also blasted Kerr saying that she should more carefully choose her words. Mary Fischer who writes for TheStir said that “women just need to respect each other.”
Give me a break. Isn’t the health of babies a lot more important than, sniff, mommy’s feelings (does anyone have a hankie?).
The reality of the situation is that epidural babies are drugged and if a woman can possibly avoid these medications (of course, sometimes she cannot), it is indeed giving her baby a better start in life. At the very least, a natural birth gives baby and Mom a better shot at a successful breastfeeding relationship with a normal latch and suckle more likely from the start.
Good for you, Miranda, for sticking to your guns and showing once again that a supermodel isn’t necessarily just a pretty face and can be a force to be reckoned with in this age of false and misleading health propaganda from those who are supposed to “know” the most!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Miranda Kerr’s Anti-Epidural Comments Incite Backlash
She has written a book called ‘Treasure Yourself’ & she also has the most amazing website under her business name Kora, as well as fantastic skin care products. She’s one girl us Aussies are very proud of!!
Thanks Kathie, I had no idea she had a website and business. Hopefully she delivers to little old New Zealand 🙂
It’s interesting, then, that epidural drugs are almost immediately detectable in cord blood, and double-blind studies have been done showing that there is a 12% increase in breastfeeding difficulties where the baby that has been born under epidural anesthesia does not have adequate sucking or rooting reflexes to initiate breastfeeding for the first 2.5 hours.
I love her after hearing her share on these issues!!! Though this is fairly old news, I think it’s still amazing to have a spokesperson in her who stands by what she says.
She’s entitled to her opinion, of course. However, it would be more beneficial if she based her opinion on medical facts. The truth is, an epidural is a local anesthetic which in no way affects the baby. I say this as a nurse with 18 years experience and a long history also practicing complementary medicine.
then, hon, you need to get some serious updating done on your education.
“The medication used in epidurals (local anesthetics such as bupivicaine) crosses the placenta by diffusion. This means that when epidurals are administered, the medication rapidly diffuses across cell membranes, crosses the placenta and enters the bloodstream of the baby. According to one study, bupivicaine (administered via an epidural) was found in blood samples taken from newborns after the mothers had an elective cesarean.
While it is clear that epidurals cross the placenta and reach the baby and can both indirectly and directly affect babies, we still don’t know exactly how epidurals can affect the baby in every situation and for every mother and baby.
Read more at Suite101: Do Epidurals affect Babies?: While some medical professionals claim that epidurals have no affect on babies, others say that epidurals do reach babies. What do we know about the way babies are affected by epidural analgesia? | Suite101.com “
the pure fact that mom and baby are connected says it goes to baby. the placenta on;y filter out the natural stuff not mans chemicals. Med science will say anything to justify it’s self and get $$$$$$$$$
Without any regard to scientific studies, I can say that having had an epidural, it most definitely crosses the blood-brain barrier, as it totally sedated me and made me quite loopy. And any med that passes the BBB also passes the placenta. Regardless of what my OB nurses said about it affecting the baby, after my catheter was placed, I knew better. I had to have an emergency Cesarean, and the details following birth are quite fuzzy, although I don’t recall any deficits in my baby when he was born and he never had trouble nursing (until after his circumcision, which is an entirely different discussion). And I, too, am a nurse.
forgot to mention that with my youngest, they bollixed up the epidural – it was not going *into* the spinal cord, it was being injected into the spinal cavity (between the cord sheathe and the bone, basically). it did *nothing* for pain relief (i could even feel it when the nurse’s badge brushed against my foot as she passed by the end of the bed) and every time they topped it up, the world went grey (like an old black-and-white movie) and all the monitors would go crazy. the nurse even said “what are you donig!? stop that!” as if i had some kind of control over it!
Not to mention the dangers in epidurals. Not sure what the stats are but I personally know three people that had issues with epidurals. I myself, had an epidural with my first c-section (which I now know was completely unnecessary), the epidural did not work and I felt the incision on my uterus and then it took over 24 hours to have any feeling in my legs…rather scary. I had a neighbor who had an epidural for a vaginal birth and the epidural stopped her heart and lungs. By the time they were able to resuscitate her, the baby had mild brain damage but my neighbor had severe brain damage and spent the next 10 years in a semi coma state until she died. Another family member has been in a wheelchair for 17 years after a failed epidural.
wow. Horrible stories. I feel for you in your own experience.
my 1st baby i had with an epidural. mostly because i was young and blindly followed what my doctors said. my following babies i had naturally, as i had become better informed and was more mature and knew how to stand up for myself. i can definitely tell the difference in my babies, between a medicated birth and non medicated one. my non medicated babies were so much more alert and suckled immediately after birth. i personally feel that medicated births definitely produced drugged babies.
This was my experience as well. Very young with my first child and succumbed to the “fear” being thrown around. Birth two and three – babies much more alert and took immediately to the breast. Not to mention the incredible headache that lasted for days and the bubbly sensation that settled in my shoulders from the epidural.
“Give me a break. Isn’t the health of babies a lot more important than, sniff, mommy’s feelings (does anyone have a hankie?).”
I’d like to point out that this reasoning has been used a LOT in defense of hospital/c-sections against birth center/home birth. it all depends on how you spin what best supports the health of babies.
Not alpathic med
Well, I don’t know how to support a supermodel, but if she writes a book or something one day, I’ll probably buy it to show my little vote of approval.
Miranda Kerr actually has a really fantastic line of organic beauty products: http://www.koraorganics.com/
And the blog on her website is fantastic… it has a bunch of women contributors and discusses all kinds of subjects from pregnancy to health to recipes to beauty and more… I would definitely recommend checking it out!
I do agree that it would be best for women to go without drugs, however sometimes it just isn’t possible. My son was almost ten pounds and I was having terrible back labor, with my daughter I did fine without drugs, but couldn’t with him. I think sometimes we need to recognize that we are all just doing the best we can. I wasn’t progressing because of the pain with him, so I asked for the smallest dose and was able to feel pain, but it took off the edge and I progressed and delivered vaginally rather than a c-section. So sometimes an epidural can help. Please let’s respect everyone’s wishes and know that we are all trying to do what is best for our children with the knowledge and circumstance we each face.
nobody has a problem with women who bottlefeed or have a c-section or use an epidural because they NEED it.
the problem is with the masses of women who act like sheep, buying infant formula and scheduling c-sections and having epidurals “just because” and without bothering to do any of the research.
things like inductions and c-sections and epidurals and formula were developed for a REASON – using them as a matter of routine is abusing the technology.
But the real problem is that moms are routinely convinced that they “need” these things by doctors (and advertising). If birth (and nursing) did not work on it’s own most of the time none of us would be here!!! We are built to have babies and nurse them.
Another fact that is kept hidden to protect moms’ feelings is that babies who are *exclusively* breast fed have zero incident of SIDS, but no one wants to talk about that because we don’t want women who bottlefeed for convenience to feel bad. We are so worried that people might feel guilty for their actions that we hide facts that protect babies. It’s so sad!!
Love these comments. I must also point out that it can be overwhelming to research all the time. (I thrive on it, but it can be time consuming, stressful, etc–and still I don’t have time to research EVERYthing). Doctors’ schooling, and the medical system as a whole, needs some reworking. Doctors should learn some cross-cultural data and adequately inform their patients. We SHould be able to trust them but it is difficult to do so now….
Oh, you shouldn’t post that about SIDS until you have done some research. I personally know of two instances of babies that have died from SIDS that were exclusively breastfed. The credibility of your post just went out the door. I am a proponent of breastfeeding having had three homebirths, yet I know SIDS can affect any family that is breastfeeding or not.
I’m sorry to hear about those babies. I am only passing along what I have indeed researched. From what I have read *any* formula introduced also introduces risk of SIDS. Please don’t assume I’m throwing stuff around that I haven’t looked into…that’s calling my character into question which I don’t appreciate.
OK so maybe they can still die of SIDS my Aunt died at an time when breastfeeding was what was done. the 1930’s. How ever did these kids get vacc. that causes a lot of deaths. also people, here is easy, fast way to do research… unhinderliving.com She has all the info on true natural birth. We did this with our little one, now 10 weeks. It was beautiful and no way would you get jacked up with chemicals unless you yourself decide something was truly wrong (instinctively and ended up going to H.
Im sorry Wendy, you are grossly wrong.
My nephew was breastfed from birth. Natural labour, No drugs used. Mom a total healthy eating , happy person.
He passed on at 3 months from SIDS.
I am not goign to get into a spit fight over this. I am just asking you to be careful with blanket statements without proof. In our family we are still trying to heal, months later.
Did your nephew sleep in a crib or with mom?
I heartily agree.
Stephanie my son was 10 pounds, and it was painful, hard work, but after the birth of my first (daughter) I was determined to go as drug-free as I possibly could. My daughter’s birth was longer than it should’ve been and she wouldn’t suckle. I regret not being better informed for my first child, but I was for the second and it made me tougher, able to birth a 10-pounder with no drugs and no stitches. Treating epidurals as a standard procedure helps no-one.
“Give me a break. Isn’t the health of babies a lot more important than, sniff, mommy’s feelings (does anyone have a hankie?).”
I agree with this. I mean, yes, we need to respect each other, but so many women choose epidurals without researching them and not knowing the potential negative effects. Then when someone questions their decision, they immediately go on the defense. The health of the baby is more important than the feelings of the mama.
Amen! I cheered a little when I read that sentence 🙂
I cheered, too! Why in the world do we care so much about keeping all mommies happy when they are potentially harming their baby (without knowing it). Of all the moms I’ve spoken to who were “converted” to natural birth, real food, etc., they are MAD that they were lied to by the mainstream and had to “discover” this information on their own…usually after already having babies and making mistakes that they now regret.
Yeah! Who cares that pregnant women already face a barrage of questions and judgment for every little decision they make! It’s time they learned their stupid feelings don’t matter; they are just an incubator after all.
I mean the responsible thing to do when a mother is making a choice that (without knowing it) harms her baby is make her feel like a big steaming pile of shit. We all know how well shame and derision work at changing behavior.
I also think it’s really important that while we disregard pregnant women’s feelings (it’s just hormones, after all, and no one needs to respect a hormonal woman), we also disregard that terrible health effects that persistent psychological and emotional stress have on both mother and baby, leading to increased risk of intervention, greater chance of postpartum depression (which isn’t important anyway, women and their damn feelings, especially the pregnant ones), impaired breastfeeding relationships, impaired latch, increased risk of colic, failure to thrive, etc.
None of that matters after all. What’s really important is that you make every pregnant woman considering an epidural really stressed out and feel like a completely worthless human being so her doctor defaults on his yacht payment. Yeah.
I mean, you could present her with some information (written, printed out so she can take it with her to read and think about later) in a kind, non-judgmental fashion, and let her make her own descion based on the information. After all, aren’t we big on parental rights in this community? Oh, wait, we only support parental rights when parents are making decions we agree with. My bad.
Amen to that. If you want a blog that reeks of indestructible faith in its own righteousness, it’s this one. If you disagree with its “wisdom”, you must be an idiot.
I love Miranda Kerr. She can do no wrong. Truth is, making the wise decision to go natural as much as we can is simply a better choice from an intelligence standpoint. All the emotions, hormones and boo hoos does not trump doing what works best. Let your good sense and many hours of intense research lead you to the right decision. “Knowledge, understanding and wisdom is friend to only the few not many” by Charles south . Most people are too lazy to find the correct answer to anything. “Nonsense is the diet of the lazy but the wise get wisdom and understanding. by Charles South. ” Truth is hidden and only the wise and prudent will find it ” by Charles South , “When the wicked find the truth, they build a high wall around it ” by Charles South. A few words of wisdom that I pray will fall on fertile ground and reproduce.
Me too! I cheered three! Way to fight for children, Sarah! I’m so tired of all of this tippy-toeing around the “feelings” of the mother. This attitude has permeated so many aspects of our modern-day culture and I’m really SICK of it. Do I dare say, I hear this most when it comes to arguments for pro-choice. It’s the mother’s decision… it’s the mother’s life… it’s the mother’s body…. it’s the mother’s feelings about her own child and whether or not she values “it”… with no regard for the child AT ALL. Sorry if this offends some of you, and are mad that I brought such a controversial subject into this mix, but I’m just so sick and tired of this attitude, and I can’t help myself!!!!
It does actually offend me, Teah. I am a fierce advocate for natural and active deliveries, and for giving enough information and support so women trust their bodies and power. For encouraging, as a parent we should know that, not being judgmental is the key to winning people’s trust. All this hatred and cynicism stated in the article and comments here not only leads nowhere, but undermines the achievement of serious discussions on this subject.