For the mothers we don’t know

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Laura

May is a month filled with emotion for me. With so much focus on Mother’s day, I am filled with gratitude for my own precious children and the opportunity to be a mother. At the same time, I am often filled with sadness as my own mother passed away 4 days after Mother’s day in 2006. I wish she would have been able to see my children. I wish she could have held them in her arms. I wish she were still here.

This year, in honor of my children and in memory of mother, I am joining with Adriel of The Mommyhood Memos and supporting Bloggers for Birth Kits. Both of my children were born at home with a midwife-provided birth kit. I had simple, uncomplicated births. My children were strong and healthy. But there are women all over the world who are not as fortunate. Were you aware that every minute a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and birth?

In rural Papua New Guinea 1 in 7 women die in childbirth. Not only is this mortality rate unacceptable, it’s preventable. If these women just had the clean birthing supplies, those rates could have the chance to drop. If these women just had the chance to survive, they would also have the chance to continue loving their babies. No different from you and I, these women dream for the day they get to hold their own healthy, thriving babies in their arms. Bloggers for Birth Kits is about raising the awareness, the supplies and the money necessary for these women of PNG to realize their dreams.

How can YOU help?

1. Make a birth kit. Assemble one yourself or gather a group of girlfriends, a moms group, work associates, or a church group to make a box full of them! Mail your kits to: Adriel Booker, Bloggers for Birth Kits, PO Box 6221, Townsville, Queensland, 4810, Australia. We will distribute the kits in some of the poorest regions of Papua New Guinea on our Medical Ship.

2. Donate for a birth kit to be made on your behalf. ($10 will buy 5 kits!) All donations for B4BK go toward the assembly and distribution of birth kits, as well as maternal care education. Make your online donation here. Please be sure to write Bloggers for Birth Kits in the “additional comments” box so the funds will be allocated properly.

3. Help raise awareness by posting about the cause on your blog, facebook, pinterest, and twitter. (Please use the hash tag #B4BirthKits!)

4. Add the Bloggers for Birth Kits button to your blog. (Here’s the code: <a href=”http://themommyhoodmemos.com/bloggers-for-birth-kits” target=”_blank”><img alt=”The Mommyhood Memos Bloggers for Birth Kits” src=”http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m223/adrielmc/bloggersforbirthkitslogo125.jpg” /></a>)

Last year, this intiative raised over 2000 kits!! Do you realize how amazing moms are? Moms just like you and I saw a need and filled it! My birth kit contained gauze and gloves and clamps and herb bath packets, a hat… it was an entire garbage bag full of items. These birth kits contain only a few simple items:

1. Soap (for the birth attendant to wash her hands). Use a hotel-size soap or cut a regular bar of soap into 1/8-sized pieces. (Microwave the bar of soap for 30 seconds to soften it for cutting).

2. One pair of plastic gloves (for the birth attendant to wear).

3. Five squares of gauze (to wipe the mum’s perineum and baby’s eyes). Gauze pieces should be about 10×10 centimeters or 3×3 inches.

4. One blade (to cut the cord). You can buy individually wrapped sterile blades at the pharmacist or buy utility blades (much cheaper) at the hardware store. We teach the women to boil the blades for sterilization, so utility blades work just fine.

5. Three pieces of string (2 for tying the cord, 1 for “just in case”). String should be about 30 centimeters or 10 inches long.

6. One plastic sheet (for a clean birthing surface). Sheet should be approximately 1×1 meter or 1×1 yard and can be purchased at your hardware or paint store.

7. One sandwich-size ziplock bag (to pack the contents).

This Mother’s Day, I urge you to think beyond Hallmark and brunch. Think about women you don’t even know; ones you will never meet and consider giving them a special Mother’s Day gift: a clean, safe birth to welcome their child into their family.

Community in a Columbus Coffee House

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Laura

I’m always so thrilled to find other mothers who are as passionate about the same things as I am. Motherhood can be quite a challenge without having friends around you, but when you have passions that aren’t as mainstream as everyone else’s, well, allies are hard to come by.

Photo Credit: Jenny Confer Linn

Thursday, I made another trip to Columbus to meet with the ladies of Moms Clean Air Force Ohio, a few newly interested moms and Ben Famous, the aid to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). It was a great session for questions and answers. For the second time in a month, I got to sit back and watch other mothers find their own passion. It’s just the most gratifying thing in the world to watch someone learn a new thing. The amazing part about being involved with a group that is on the ground is that you don’t have to wait for the page to reload to watch the changes in people’s lives. You can see it right in front of you.

Moms Clean Air Force is a community. Just by meeting these women, I’m making new friends, learning new things and finding other mothers who are as wild about the air we breathe as I am finding myself growing day by day. So Thursday, I got to sit in a coffee shop with my children and listen to Ben Famous talk about Senator Brown’s position on clean air. I got to be re-inspired and watch other mothers be inspired. And I loved every second.

An Open Letter to the 2012 Republican Candidate Hopefuls

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Laura

This has been Cross-posted at Moms Clean Air Force Ohio

An Open Letter to the 2012 Republican Candidate Hopefuls:

Dear Sirs,

Every morning as I drink my coffee, I read the news updates on your preliminary campaigns and I’m so sad. All of you are religious and conservative. You’ve made your positions clear on issues like Abortion and National Debt and Education. Not one of you agrees 100% with the other and that’s ok. That’s why there’s a choice and how we decide who will be the best fit for our presidential candidate. As time as passed and debates have been won, I feel a very limited sense of confidence in my potential Republican candidate.

I realize that since President Nixon’s tenure, Republicans haven’t placed a high priority on the environment, but now is the time for change. NOW is the time in our country’s history that you need to stand up and make positive choices for our natural resources. These resources are all that we have to give our children for their future. These children are the future of our country!

Mothers all over the US are angry. We’re angry about the pathetic state of our air quality. We’re angry that our children suffer from asthma in unprecedented numbers and cannot live like children should live: enjoying their days, running and playing.

As a mother in Ohio, I don’t want my state to continue to be the most toxic state in the union. I don’t want to wake up on summer days and worry about the air quality being too poor for us to play outside. I want to be able to let my children enjoy nature without fear of toxins and pollution. Please hear our voices and take the time to revisit your positions on environmental issues. Take the time to truly count the cost of the Clean Air Act and see the long-term benefits. Consider the damage done if we throw away all that has been worked toward in the last 2 decades. Listen to us mothers, fighting for our children, their health and their world. If necessary, go against the party line and take a stand with us for our environment and for Clean Air.

I implore you to think about our children, your children, and their future. Remember as you debate over healthcare, that 1 in 5 Americans suffer from Asthma. This Asthma eats up billions of dollars in healthcare, causes thousands of missed days at school or work and sadly claims hundreds of lives each year. Asthma sufferers would be some the first people who could benefit from some consideration for our environment. Please consider the whole picture as you make your decisions and don’t write off the environmental issues as ones that won’t really be worth your time. I promise you, that when it comes to Clean Air and our children, even the smallest issue is worth your time.

Sincerely,

Laura Burns (Mother of 2)

Clean Air for Ohio

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Laura

I was a little reckless in college. Passionate. Opinionated. I was in love with environmentalism. I recycled regilously. I sent letters to politicians advocating change and supporting their eco-friendly decisions. The more I got involved, the more I wished I had time to change my major or even double major so I could just stay in the wonderful world of people who were as angry about pollution as I was. I went to college in Oklahoma where there are some significant issues with pollution and poor air quality. I truly enjoyed my weekends spent slogging around the Tulsa waterways picking up trash. I loved the people I met through those groups and recently, when I found my t-shirt from the Environmental Club I was VP of on campus and honestly wished for those days of camaraderie. Since then, I’ve grown up and learned a lot about how to NOT turn people off when inviting them to join you in a cause. Also, I haven’t cornered anyone in my family with a non-reusable drinking bottle and demanded they listen to my lecture on plastics in landfills and BPA and waste and …

I’m a mother now. I can’t engage a complete stranger in a debate about the evils of GMOs without consideration for my children. I want to be involved, but there are limited opportunities in my town. A few months ago, I was introduced to the group Moms Clean Air Force and started to educate myself a little bit more about the need for advocates right here in Ohio. Were you aware that based on air pollution data Ohio is the most toxic state in the entire country? That pollution is partly comprised of mercury. Ohio is home to 8 of the 100 top polluting factories in the US. I can’t say that I’m proud that the Buckeye state is number 2 in the nation for mercury pollution from power plants. There are millions of children in the US whose lives have been devastated by asthma; asthma which can be triggered by environmental irritants.

As a parent, I don’t want this to be the future of my children, or my grandchildren. I want them to be happy and healthy. I want them to be able to continue to play outside daily, without fear of poisoning. I’m not being dramatic, either. Sadly, more cancers and illnesses are being linked to the contaminated air we breathe. Mercury itself is a neurotoxin. This is why they always warn pregnant and nursing women to keep their consumption of tuna (and other fishes) low. Mercury accumulates in the fatty tissues of the body, like the brain, and slowly poisons it’s victims. Over 400,000 newborns in the US are impacted by mercury every single year.

Tuesday night, I had the extreme pleasure of spending time with Moms Clean Air Force OHIO! That’s right, we have our own satellite office in Columbus. I had met with Jenny (who runs the office and it’s contacts) in December and came away from our time amped up and excited to be more involved. When I got the invitation to the event on Tuesday night, I hunted down a sitter right away. On Tuesday, the 3 ladies from the Columbus office and MCAF’s founder Dominique Browning hosted an event to introduce Ohio mothers to the real issue at hand regarding air pollution. Fresh off the victory of new standards for mercury and air toxics standards by the EPA, we are all bolstered with the hope that this is the first step for a better future for our children.

I loved this event. I loved spending time with the other mothers and hearing them ask questions. Listening to Dominique and Jenny speak was inspiring and empowering. There is nothing like real mothers speaking from their hearts to stir up your own emotions and passions. I am excited to continue to learn about the air quality in Ohio and get more involved with MCAF-Ohio. I hope that you, as readers and especially those here in Ohio take the time to read about MCAF and what we are trying to accomplish. Please consider signing up to be another voice to Congress asking them to stand up for our children. They are our joy and our future, let’s make sure they get to enjoy their lives in good health.

I’m a Concervative Christian and I want CLEAN AIR!!

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Laura

Cross Posted at Moms Clean Air Force

As a new mom, I was excited to visit play groups and moms
clubs to meet other mothers. I wanted to
connect and be a part of something. My
diaper bag was full of cloth diapers, a reusable water bottle and homemade
snacks. When asked, I was honest and told
them my ecofriendliness isn’t a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. As always, this raised eyebrows in my circle
of friends; conservative and Christian.
Somehow, being environmentally conscious and possessing any religious
affiliation has become impossible.

When I surveyed the moms in my area about the level of
importance environmental issues played in their lives, the primary answer I was
given is that they just don’t consider themselves environmental. They try to teach their children not to
waste, but when it comes to taking a stand for something like cleaning up the
air we all breathe, they’d rather leave it to the “non-conservative leftists”.

I understand that not everyone will have the same interests
or the same convictions, but in my opinion, if anyone should be above the curve
when it comes to protecting the Earth and our children, it should be those who
claim to have a personal relationship with God.
If God created the Earth and all that inhabit it, isn’t it being
disrespectful to pick and choose what we are going to protect? We spend so much time focusing on human
rights and yet gloss over the conditions in our world that silently threaten
the quality of our lives.

This is my Father’s world, and to
my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought. ~ Maltbie Davenport
Babcock

If you believe that God created the Earth, then you believe
that when he created our human bodies, He had a reason for everything he
did. Take a moment and think about
respiration. The respiratory system is a
delicate balance between the intakes of the air around us, the cleaning of said
air and the expiration of the CO2 our bodies don’t need. Our breathing is not only vital our survival,
but also part and parcel of balance here on Earth. Living animals (including humans) must intake
the oxygen in order to survive, expelling carbon dioxide as waste. In the meantime, plants are doing the exact
opposite. In doing so, we have a
constantly renewing balance in the atmosphere.
Because of this balance, the oxygen is simply renewed and never
consumed. This would lead one to the
conclusion that we’re essentially breathing the same air that the Earth was
created with, except now, through the years, it’s collected other chemicals
that no matter how hard our lungs and the stoma on plants work, never fully
gets scrubbed out.

I don’t want my children breathing air that is intentionally
polluted. I can’t imagine any mother
wanting this. But if we insist on
calling ourselves conservatives who have no interest in environmentalism, we
are signing away our voice by our inactivism.
And when we make the decision to throw away that vote because it’s not
popular at church or the moms group or the grocery, we have no one to blame but
ourselves for wasting this chance we have to stand up for our children’s
future, regardless of our creed.

The air we breathe

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Laura

On
this holiday weekend, I know many people in my area are heading up to
Lake Erie to celebrate with their families and friends. There is an air
show and a few food festivals to enjoy. I can’t help but wonder how
much local fish will be served at those food festivals, though.
Recently, I wrote a guest post for Moms Clean Air Force
about how the air pollution around the lake has effected the fish I
grew up eating on sandwiches throughout the summer. Even though I
really do strive to eat local foods in my daily life, I make a huge
exception when it comes to fish from Ohio’s lake.

As
election season is gearing up here in Ohio, I’ve decided to ask the
hopefuls who knock on my door asking for my support some questions. I
want to know why when I search for ways to get involved in my community,
there are very few ways to be involved in cleaning up our environment.
There is an outstanding lack of clean energy in my area, a few solar
panels and wind turbines excepted. So when the gentleman showed up on
my door a few nights ago asking for my vote in his bid to be mayor. I
asked him point blank why we don’t seem to care about the air quality or
our carbon footprint. He didn’t have an answer for me. That was the
tipping point for me. Since then, I’ve been on the phone with the
health department in my county, emailed the state’s health department,
the EPA and written several letters to my representatives. I want my
children to be able to enjoy the air they breathe and the Earth we live
on, so I’m taking a stand and fighting with mothers across the country
for better EPA standards and pure air for our babies.
This holiday weekend as we celebrate our troops and the freedom they
fight for, I’m asking you to join us and fight for clean air for our
children. Will you?