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Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

The ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of Childbirth

Posted December 1st, 2008 | 2 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

I just finished watching the documentary that the Tribeca film festival dubbed “The ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of Childbirth.”  It’s called The Business of Being Born, and it is produced by actress Ricki Lake.   I’d been meaning to see it for a long while, and as soon as I saw it available on Netflix Instant, I watched it.

It’s an amazing video for those of you thinking about your birth options, now or in the future.  It’s pretty well-balanced, interviewing a range of providers and families, but the central story it tells is about why giving birth, and the place you give birth and the way you give birth, is controversial.  And why it matters to many women and their partners.  

I want to recommend it to anyone who is planning on being pregnant in the next few years, or to anyone who cares about healthcare and access to a range of care options.  I found particularly compelling the parts of the documentary about how few birth centers there are, and about the lobbying actions of ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) to make homebirth illegal.  In Massachusetts, we had 3 birth centers when I started working in the prenatal field – one closed about 3 years ago, and 1 is on the  verge of closing now, as I’ve written about here in this blog.  That leaves only one left, the Cambridge Birth Center.   They are maxed out, filled to capacity, months in advance.   Clearly, there’s a desire on the part of women to avoid the excess of interventions in birth, and yet there’s little access to low-tech birth options.

Anyway, when I watch something like this, it confirms to me that prenatal yoga is more important than ever.  As you’re growing your baby, you need a safe and sacred space away from all the hype, and the fear, and the questioning.   Each of us need that space in our lives to be still and silent, and let our bodies’ wisdom shine forth.   I think if more women felt good about themselves, from yoga or childbirth education classes, or from positive, empowering visits with their midwives/doctors, then we’d have better outcomes for women and babies.    

I encourage you to watch the documentary – it’s compelling! Next on my list is to read Birth and Pushed.   Anyone read them?

Posted under Education, Health and Wellness, Postnatal Information, Prenatal Information

Vote Mindfully

Posted October 31st, 2008 | 8 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

Hi there. I’m Gadi, Barrett’s boyfriend, and I have the distinct honor of being the first guest blogger.

We have been following the presidential elections for what seems like forever. And the time has come to actually cast our votes. I’d like to share with you in this post some of the resources I use to become a more informed voter.

Like many of you, Barrett and I have had many discussions about the political issues of the day; taxes, the economy, the wars, health care, and education. We’ve gossiped about the latest game changers and gaffs with our friends. And, we have poured over polls, political blogs, opinion pieces, and TV pundits views, but now it’s time to vote.

I’ve made up my mind about who to vote for President; however, on my ballot there will also be candidates for local races and ballot questions. In order to make a more informed decision I’ve gotten into a habit every two years of researching the details of my ballot.

So, here are some resources to help you vote mindfully.

1) Find out where to vote.

I highly recommend going to your state’s Secretary of State website. For those of you in Massachusetts you can find out where to vote at the where to vote link (this form is a little temperamental, but stick with it, the results are great).

2) Find out who is on your ballot.

Again the Secretary of State web site is likely a good source for this. In my case I was able to get a list of all the choices on my ballot. Here is what my ballot will look like.

Another site that has a fair bit of information on what you are likely to see on your ballot is votesmart.org. Here is a list of candidates and elected officials for my ward on their site.

3) Find out what the ballot questions are.

These are sometimes worded awkwardly so you aren’t entirely sure which way you are voting. I don’t think this is intentional, just a consequence of legalese and an attempt to be very precise. Sometimes it leads to not very readable prose.

Once again, I found the Secretary of State web site to be the best resource for finding out what the actual ballot measures are. I found the links on the left panel of this page (Question 1) provide the most detailed information about the ballot questions.

4) Finally, find out why.

I have found a couple of non-partisan sites that are somewhat useful for comparing candidates on the issues.

On votesmart.org candidates are asked to fill out a positions survey called the “Political Courage Test” (or “Issue Positions”). Unfortunately, few candidates have filled out this survey. To see how awesome these are check out my Congressman Michael Capuano‘s positions or my State Legislator Alice K. Wolf’s.

Still there is a ton of other information on each candidates page that makes this site really helpful. Check out the candidates for this years Senate race in Massachusetts:

Another decent site for positions of candidates is OnTheIssues.org. It’s definitely more geared towards national races but it still has good information about the candidates. For example, here are the pages for the candidates for this years Senate race in Massachusetts:

I know I’ve thrown a lot of links at you, but I hope this information helps you learn in more detail what choices you have on Election Day.

Finally, I am not in any way claiming that these resources are the be all and end all. Rather I think they are something to start from. Do you have any other sites that you really like? If so, please let me know!

Posted under Education, Local Interest

Eating for New Moms

Posted October 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

 

 

One of my favorite classes all week is my Postpartum class on Thursday mornings.  All the moms I’ve grown close to in Prenatal class suddenly disappear once they have their babies. Over the past year that I’ve been teaching this postpartum class, I’ve been able to stay in better touch with my students and continue to observe and support their entry into parenthood (even if they’re already parents to older children).  Plus I get to hang out with cute babies 🙂

 

New parenthood is hard!  Most of my students are smart, organized professionals who have a fair amount of resources, and still they can really struggle with the first few months postpartum.   Not only do babies require a lot, but so do moms – proper physical exercise after carrying a baby for 40-some weeks, nourishment for supporting feeding a baby, learning to cope with a new sleep pattern, figuring out a new work/social schedule, etc. 

 

So, anytime a new resource comes up that can help new moms, I’m all about promoting it.   My dear friend Christi Collins has written a fantastically practical and super helpful Ebook called “How to Eat to Survive Motherhood.” 

 

I learned a lot by reading it, some of which I’m excited to impart to my students – for example, what the most important nutritional needs are in the postpartum period, and practical foods to have on hand for those needs.   

 

But if you are a new mom, or looking to help out a friend who is a new parent, I highly recommend you buy this Ebook.   This Ebook has recipes and worksheets that I think will take the important informational content and make it actionable.

 

Check out Christi’s site here to buy the Ebook.   Even if you’re a new mom who has it pretty together, this book will help you feel even better.   And I can’t emphasize enough, that if you’re a friend of new parents, please consider giving something other than a cute outfit for the baby.   I know it’s fun to pick out those things, but parents really need a good home-cooked meal, or a massage, or a yoga class, or an afternoon of babysitting or help with chores.   This Ebook could be the perfect gift.   

 

Also, my new mom’s class is Thursday mornings from 10-11:15 at Black Lotus for any mom.   You are welcome to bring babies up to crawling (usually 6-7 months).

 

Namaste,

 

Barrett

 

 

Posted under Education, Health and Wellness, Upcoming Events, Yoga

Yoga in the Classroom

Posted October 8th, 2008 | 4 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

 

I’m excited about how much yoga is cropping up in academic settings.  On Monday I had the opportunity to present some material for a college class at Lesley University.  I did some Masters degree work at Lesley awhile back, and still have a few great connections with some of the other grad students who are there and studying yoga academically. 

 

The format of this class is exactly what I’ve always wanted a class to be:  1 hour of physical yoga practice followed by 1.5 hours of academic class.  Students sat on the floor (not at desks slumped over) and I tried to tie in the physical yoga practice to the topic we were talking about afterwards (the yamas and niyamas – perhaps more on that in a later post!). 

 

My advisor when I was at Lesley has been spending time looking at how yoga is being incorporated into K-12 classrooms as well.  Though I don’t do that kind of work, I’m so excited to think that perhaps yoga can help us in our search for a new paradigm for our education system. 

 

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of controversy about bringing yoga into public schools.  In the last 15 years, several opponents to yoga in the classroom have cited the separation of church and state in the schools, claiming that yoga is too linked to religious practice to be considered secular.   Check out this recent article about a school system in New York state that is struggling with this issue. 

 

Though yoga definitely comes out of spiritual roots, it is so clear (to me) that we have really removed the “religion” from the physical practice we engage in today.   In this classroom (admittedly, at a private university, not a public grade school), it just seemed so obvious to me how some yoga mindfulness fit in to the learning environment.  

 

It makes me sort of interested to teach kids in school and see what that’s like!

 

I’m curious if any of you teach in schools, or have kids who are learning yoga in school?  Share your experiences in this expanding field! 

 

 

 

Posted under Education, Yoga

Yoga Research

Posted October 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment » | Bookmark and Share

I am a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and they put out a yearly journal of scholarly research on yoga.  I went to their first ever conference in January 2007 and was blown away by the resources (time and money) being invested into “proving” how yoga works for people.   I was mostly excited by it, but also a little worried that we were narrowing yoga’s efficacy down to what could be “proven” in a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. 

I found this article in the NYTimes very interesting because it points out some of the other problems with “studying” yoga through scientific research.  Interestingly, Sat Bir Khalsa is interviewed in the article.  I met him at the conference in 2007 and he casually invited me to participate as a teacher in his insomnia study at Harvard Medical School.  I didn’t follow up, mostly because I wanted to focus on other aspects of yoga teaching and studying in my work.   But I think his work is interesting and will probably yield some very positive results for yoga.   I know from many many students how helpful yoga is for their insomnia.

Here’s a fascinating list of 77 health benefits from yoga practice.  This information is based off of many of the small studies that the NYTimes article mentions.  

Anyway, may each of us keep “proving” in our own ways how much yoga works!
Namaste,

Barrett

Posted under Education, Health and Wellness, Yoga, Yoga Articles

Know Your Lingo

Posted September 29th, 2008 | 2 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

This was a great article printed in the NYTimes a month ago.  I’ve been meaning to share it in my newsletter, but we will air it here instead 🙂

 

As I teach a lot of classes every week, I sometimes forget that newcomers in class don’t know all of our lingo, from the opening asanas (postures) to the last Namaste (our ending that we say to each other).  Below is a humorous run-down of what you might hear in yoga class.

 

 

See the article on The New York Times here. 

 

 

August 24, 2008   

 

NAMASTE  by Jaimie Epstein

 

‘At the beginning of class, we stood at the front of our mats and let out a long, dirgelike moan,” the first-time yoga student recollected. “Then the teacher yelled, ‘Chili-pepper pasta,’ and everyone hit the floor.” Sanskrit, the language of yoga, is said to unite sound and meaning; that is, saying the word gives the experience of its meaning. But for the novice yogi (the word for male as well as female practitioners), whose ears need to be tuned to a new frequency, that experience can be as elusive as an overnight parking spot in Manhattan. Thus, chaturanga dandasana (four-legged staff pose, which looks like the bottom of a pushup, your body hovering inches above the floor) might become “chili-pepper pasta” if you’ve got dinner reservations at the latest outpost of the latest fusion craze. And the ear-twisters don’t end there. So let’s do some untwisting…

 

To read the rest of the article and learn more about yoga lingo, go here.

Posted under Education, Yoga, Yoga Articles

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