Commercial formula is NOT the answer!

Unless a baby is galactosemic, if there are lactation issues or an adoptive mom has not yet, or was not able to, lactate, then donated human breastmilk from local moms is what should be given to babies! Human babies were created to eat human milk, even if from a donor, that is a much healthier option than an inferior formula!

Adoptive moms CAN lactate in most cases, and successfully breastfeed their adoptive babies!

If receiving donated breastmilk, you CAN STILL BREASTFEED! Feed your baby the donated breastmilk AT THE BREAST via a Lact-Aid or SNS!!!

I provide support to mothers with induced lactation and re-lactation as a service in my practice, as well as, support for increasing milk supply! Please contact me if you need support of information on this! LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com

For donated milk, which is, unfortunately hard to come by sometimes, please look locally! Some great resources for anyone are their local La Leche League groups, at MilkShare’s website, and online community group; as well as, for the local Dallas/Fort Worth area the Mother’s Milk Bank of North Texas. Also consider looking to your local Mom’s groups who support breastfeeding, a local Holistic Moms Group, etc..

If you are at ALL concerned about the donor milk you receive, you don’t have to be if it comes from a milk bank, use this method of flash heating, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNw1odieIoI.

It doesn’t destroy the nutrients. Here is a chart that shows exactly what is lost in the process of flash heating, very little, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/microbiology/table7.html! Flash heated breastmilk is far superior to formula.

If galactosemic, or a highly allergic baby, then a homemade LIVE nutritious liver-based infant formula with some minor alterations to make it lactose-free from the Weston A. Price Foundation is a much superior option to any commercial formula organic or not, regardless of who makes them!

To alter this formula it is best to work with a Weston A. Price Foundation aligned practitioner. You can usually find them via a local chapter.

However, the basic idea is to replace lactose in the liver-based formula with a natural, organic (preferably raw) sugar and add coconut oil. For a baby in the latter part of his first year adding coconut milk to the formula is possible and beneficial too.

I support families in finding the resources (ingredients, and financial means if necessary) to make these homemade infant formula.

Again, just like with donor breastmilk, unless the baby is galactosemic, you CAN BREASTFEED your baby with homemade formula via the Lact-Aid and SNS.

We MOTHERS need to CLAIM our power to lactate and nourish our babies, and ACTIVELY SUPPORT mother’s who cannot by donating our milk. Mother’s, we all, need to STOP FEARING another mother’s milk! It just might save your child’s life and/or give them a much healthier one than if you were to choose commercial formula.

Another commercial formula is not going to solve the problem of not having enough donated breastmilk! Only advocating, supporting, and encouraging every single mother who has a baby that can lactate to actual do so and breastfeed their baby, and then do the same for all lactating mothers to donate their milk to moms and babies in need; AND advocating, supporting, and encouraging the mothers in need to stop fearing another mother’s milk and to openly and lovingly receive the donation, support, and help to nourish their babies the way they were suppose to be, with human milk!

Nor is another commercial formula going to solve the problem of needing a quality breastmilk alternative for galactosemic babies. All commercial formulas are dead, inferior, non-nutritious, and some even poisonous, MAN-MADE synthetic products. Only the advocating, supporting, encouraging, and educating of a mother’s right to choose to make homemade LIVE nutritious infant formula to nourish her baby will make a difference!

We need to support ALL MOTHERS even if breastmilk was not an option for them! We need to realize that the commercialization and marketing of infant formula HAS and IS undermining our right, power, desire, and ability as Mothers to breastfeed our babies, to receive donor breastmilk, AND to choose to provide our babies with a homemade LIVE nutritious infant formula when breastmilk is not an option.

We need to stand together and support what is BEST for our babies!

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene, BS, Nutritionist

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If you have questions, or would like to book a private class or session please contact me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene

Congratulations Antonese!

Winner was drawn at random after the entries were mixed up, by the last visitor at our booth for the day. Winner will be contacted via email and phone to be notified of her prize.

BUT WAIT! EVERYONE IS A WINNER!!!

For everyone else that entered the drawing at the Birth Fair yesterday, they will receive 20% off their placenta encapsulation service. All entries will be notified of their discount.

For those who are interested in placenta encapsulation service, but did not enter into the drawing at the Birth Fair yesterday it is NOT too late! If you are interested and contact me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com and mention BOLD Fort Worth Birth Fair, by Thursday, September 30th, midnight, then you can receive a 10% discount off of your placenta encapsulation service.

If you have questions about the service or any of our other services please contact me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com.

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene, BS, Nutritionist

FREE Chiropractic Consultation with Dr. Joseph DuChene, Jr. of DuChene Natural Health Center
DuChene Natural Health Center is located at 5206 McKinney Ave, Suite 102, Dallas, TX 75205. To schedule your free consultation please contact Dr. DuChene at 254-214-2354.

FREE Maternal or Pediatric Nutritional Counseling with Leigh Anne DuChene, BS, Nutritionist of Nourishing Origins Service provided at DuChene Natural Health Center. To schedule your free consultation please contact Leigh Anne at 254-214-4645.

FREE Traumatic Birth Recovery Mentoring Consultation with Leigh Anne DuChene, Founder and President of VBAC Support International Service provided at DuChene Natural Health Center. To schedule your free consultation please contact Leigh Anne at 254-214-4645.

FREE VBAC Preparation Mentoring Consultation with Leigh Anne DuChene, Founder and President of VBAC Support International Service provided at DuChene Natural Health Center. To schedule your free consultation please contact Leigh Anne at 254-214-4645.

FREE Holistic Parenting Coaching Session with Leigh Anne DuChene Service provided at DuChene Natural Health Center. To schedule your free consultation please contact Leigh Anne at 254-214-4645.

50% off Baby-Led Feeding Class with Leigh Anne DuChene on Tuesday, October 5th at 11:00 Am at the Sun Flower Shoppe in Colleyville Class includes a workbook for parents. Regular price $50, special price is $25.

50% off Pediatric Nutrition Class with Leigh Anne DuChene on Tuesday, October 12th at 11:00 AM at the Sun Flower Shoppe in Colleyville Regular price $50, special price is $25.

FREE Mommy and Me Meditation Class with Leigh Anne DuChene on Thursday, October 7th at 11:00 AM at the Sun Flower Shoppe in Colleyville

FREE Introduction to Breathwork for Preconception, Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum with Leigh Anne DuChene on Friday, October 15th at 11:00 AM at the Sun Flower Shoppe in Colleyville

FREE Private Meditation and Breathwork Session with Leigh Anne DuChene Service provided at DuChene Natural Health Center. To schedule your free consultation please contact Leigh Anne at 254-214-4645.

DuChene Natural Health Center and Nourishing Origins are proud sponsors of the production of BIRTH!

Childbirth choices take center stage with BOLD Fort Worth’s production of Birth

WHEN:                                    SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

WHERE:                                  MARTIN HALL, 1309 WESLEYN, FORT WORTH, TX

CURTAIN TIMES:                2:00 PM  and  7:00 PM

ADVANCE TICKETS:             $  10    (available through www.boldfortworth.org)

AT THE DOOR:                      $  15

Information:     Alexa Gumm ▪  marketing@boldfortworth.org   ▪  682-710-BOLD (2653)

Fort Worth, TX – BOLD Fort Worth is presenting a day of focusing on mother-friendly childbirth choices on September 25, 2010. Theatre goers will gather to see the DFW premiere of Birth, a play by Karen Brody, and a Birth Fair will offer new, expectant and future mothers access to professionals and companies who follow the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative.

All proceeds from ticket sales and sponsorships will benefit the Tarrant County Birth Network. The event is part of BOLD (Birth on Labor Day), a global arts-based movement aspiring to create childbirth choices for mothers around the world.

“Childbirth today is a human rights issue for low-risk pregnant mothers,” states author Brody, who spent a year interviewing over 100 low risk women before writing her play. “Choices in childbirth have been severely restricted for this large population of pregnant women despite strong evidence-based research supporting a wide variety of birth choices.”

Brody founded BOLD in 2006 with the intention to use her play to raise awareness and money that promotes childbirth choices that work for mothers. As Brody explains, “Pregnancy today is typically viewed as an illness and emergency. BOLD uses theatre to raise people’s consciousness that childbirth is normal. Once this is recognized people will start demanding a childbirth model of care that is compassionate, evidence-based and puts the mother at the center of her birth experience.”

Producer Shannon Blackwell became interested in the play after the birth of her second child in 2009.

“My two different births and the care I received during my pregnancies from my providers showed me the huge difference in experience a woman can have,” she states. “Being educated and knowing your options are significant factors in walking away from a birth feeling empowered. It is a milestone in a woman’s life and we should celebrate that.”

Blackwell recruited Christi Moore-Murphy, an established theatre director and long time friend, to direct “Birth” after Moore-Murphy delivered her second child via emergency c-section earlier this year.

“We have an amazing group of actors, an unbelievably talented director and a fabulous group of volunteers who are coming together for one day to change the way Fort Worth views birth,” Blackwell continues. “And the best part is that our advocacy efforts will continue through the funds we raise for the Birth Network.”

Since 2006 nearly 100 BOLD locations have raised over $130,000 for childbirth organizations. Tickets are available online at www.boldfortworth.org. The play is PG-13 and not recommended for younger children.

The Tarrant County Birth Network is a community organization, with national roots, whose mission is to provide information about, and advocacy for, evidence-based, Mother-Friendly care for expectant Tarrant County families seeking a healthy, informed, and enjoyable pregnancy and birth.

For more information about this event and BOLD Fort Worth, please visit www.BOLDFortWorth.org
We hope to see you there!

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene

This is my own version of a recipe that I originally found at The Sunny Raw Kitchen. After a little bit of trial-and-error, some minor tweaks were made to that recipe, and I finally created what I believe is the PERFECT ranch dressing. Even better than the Hidden Valley Original Ranch, if you ask me, and I have been a ranch dressing connoisseur my whole life. I grew up loving Hidden Valley Original Ranch.

soak: 2 hrs
prep: 5 mins
chill: 1 hr (optional, but it does taste much better chilled)

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cashew – soak for 2 hrs – drain
1 cup filtered water
3 Tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/3 cup of organic Apple Cider Vinegar (preferably raw and unfiltered, we use Bragg’s)
1/3 cup organic  extra virgin olive oil (preferably raw and unfiltered, we use Bariani’s)
2 Tbsp maple syrup (or other natural sweetener like agave, raw honey, or dates)
2 large cloves of garlic (or 3 small cloves)
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dill
1 Tbsp sea salt or Himalayan salt or other healthy salt
1/2 tsp basil

when finished add the last two ingredients:
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp of additional dill (optional) (if you like it a bit more tangy than add this)

Blend, thoroughly, all but last two ingredients. The longer you blend the smoother the texture will be. Now, stir in with a spoon the last two ingredients. Pour in a storage container.

Makes about 3 cups of dressing.

Will keep for about 1 week in refrigerator.

Dressing will thicken in the refrigerator to more of a dip, add water to thin to desired dressing consistency if it thickens too much for your preference.

NOTE: I use dried herbs, except for the parsley. You can use fresh, but you may have to use less or more of them to get the right flavor, as often herbs that are dried can be either weaker or stronger flavored, respectively.

This recipe, by Leigh Anne DuChene, adapted from The Sunny Raw Kitchen recipe, was first posted on her, now inactive but still live, personal blog at The Holistic Family.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Kids LOVE this dip! My 3 year old son loves this dip as much as I do! Use it as a dip, dressing on salads, wraps, just use your imagination!! Enjoy!!

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene, BS, Nutritionist

Chocolate SuperFood Cookies – Dairy-Free

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole wheat flour

½ t aluminum-free baking powder

½ t salt (preferably sea salt or Himalayan salt)

¼ cup of cacao (raw chocolate) powder

¼ cup of Amazing Grass Brand Chocolate Green SuperFood mix. (to try to make it yourself would be VERY difficult, you can go to http://www.amazinggrass.com/chocolate-green-superfood-ingredients.html for ingredients of the mix)

¾  cup of coconut oil (I use Wilderness Family Naturals Organic Virgin Centrifuge Coconut Oil)

¼ cup of coconut milk (I prefer to make this homemade from a Thai young coconut, but you can use the So Delicious brand or canned coconut milk if that is what is available to you)

1 cup of Turbinado sugar (raw sugar, or other healthy sugar, the less refined the better)

1 t vanilla extract (I prefer Madagascar Vanilla Extract)

2 organic free-range eggs (you can use substitute or alternatives to make this recipe fully vegan)

Optional – ¼ – ½ of flax seeds (depends on how much you want) (raw sunflower seeds would be great with this cookie too, or you could use both)

Optional – 1 cup of nuts (walnuts or pecans go great with this cookie, you can use both nuts and seeds in this cookie if you desire)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cacao, and Amazing Grass SuperFood mix in a medium bowl.

Combine coconut oil, coconut milk, and sugar in mixer. Mix for 2 – 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract, and beat in eggs.

Gradually add dry mixture.

Stir in seeds and/or nuts.

Spoon dough on to a cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 – 15 minues.

Yields 2 dozen cookies.

NOTES: If you want chewier and moister cookies you can add more coconut oil and/or coconut milk, you can play with it if you want.

Gluten-free Version

Use one of these options below instead of the whole wheat flour:

2 ½ cups blanched almond flour (Bob’s Red Mill almond flour does not work well)

or

¼ cup of rice flour

or

You can try other wheat flour substitutes as well, I like spelt (low gluten not gluten-free) and coconut flour too, but have not used them yet in a cookie recipe, with whichever alternative you use just be sure to use in proportion to yield 2 dozen cookies.

Sprouted Version coming soon!

More Notes about this recipe:

This recipe is a great basic healthy whole food cookie dough recipe. Don’t want chocolate cookies don’t add the cacao powder or the Amazing Grass Chocolate SuperFood Mix.

Instead add the Amazing Grass Green SuperFood mix that is unflavored, http://www.amazinggrass.com/superfood-ingredients.html, and turn the cookie into a chewy sugar cookie or a divine chocolate chip cookie if you have chocolate chips you like. You can use raw cacao nibs for chocolate chips too, to keep it a raw vegan superfood style cookie, though the baking obviously makes this cookie not raw! But to start with great quality whole food unprocessed ingredients is wonderfully nutritious.

You can also make this a great fruity cookie with cranberries, blueberries, or raisins.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and be adventurous and play with it, make it your own!

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene, BS, Nutritionist

Please visit my Birth & Postpartum Wellness & Service site for more details on these services, at www.Soul-Birth.com.

This offer is good through the month of April so schedule your free consultation, asap!

For questions or to book your consultation please email me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene

This bill works to get anti-depressants, and who knows what other kinds of drugs, into the hands of new moms before they leave the hospital.

The package labels on antidepressants states that the risk of psychosis while taking antidepressants is 1/100.

Postpartum women typically have a risk of Postpartum Psychosis of 1/1000.

Thus, taking antidepressants increases a postpartum mother’s risk of developing postpartum psychosis 1000%.

That is astounding!

In the report, “The Drugging of Post Partum Depression” put out by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, it is stated that, “Many people think that psychiatric disorders, such as depression or post-partum [after birth] depression, are the same as medical diseases or illnesses. However, this is very misleading, especially to a mother who has experienced the trauma of just giving birth. To have her think the emotional roller coaster she may be experiencing is the result of a “chemical imbalance in the brain,” requiring mind-altering medication, is false and harmful.”

In this report, Ron Leifer says, “There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance.’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?”

As you can see there is no test to definitively identify and diagnose a biochemical imbalance. Thus the claim of such a thing can be very harmful and misleading.

The report goes on to say, “This does not mean that serious emotional difficulties do not exist, that people’s hopes cannot be shattered or that their methods of coping with this cannot fail. But it does mean that psychiatrists, psychologists, and drug groups have used such difficulties to their advantage, promoting powerful drugs as a “solution” for vulnerable individuals.”

Not only powerful, but mind-altering drugs, known to have severe mental and emotional effects on individuals taking them, even harm to others and suicide.

This report sites Dr. Sydney Walker III’s work stating that, “psychiatric drugs ‘often create new and serious symptoms patients didn’t have before ‘treatment’’ and ‘upset the natural chemical environment of neurons (brain cells…).”

Also mentioned is the fact that, “Any medical doctor who takes the time to conduct a thorough physical examination of someone exhibiting signs of what psychiatrists say are “mental disorders”, including post partum depression, can find undiagnosed, untreated physical conditions.”

This means that there are other physical signs and symptoms that are associated with such “mental disorders” and can be addressed by correcting the problem causing both the physical and mental symptoms.

This is where proper nutrition, supplementation, emotional coping techniques, and exercise come into play for any individual, but especially for postpartum mothers.

Postpartum nutrition and supplementation are critical to allowing the body to rebalance and heal after the traumatic event of birth. Please understand, I am not saying that all birth is traumatic, just that it is hard on the body and elicits stress coping hormones, which are used in dealing with and recovering from traumatic events, on a very high level. Thus, it can be preserved on a biochemical level that birth is a traumatic event on the body, regardless if the actual event was truly a traumatic one for the mother.

Actually, when the birth is preserved as a traumatic experience the risk of emotional upset and turmoil is even greater; thus, the risk of postpartum depression is even higher.

I am a post unexpected emergency cesarean birth mother after experiencing a very emotionally traumatic labor and birth with my first child, just over 3 years ago. I did experience postpartum depression and the emotional turmoil is very real. It is, however, very much able to be worked with utilizing various emotional techniques like Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique (BEST), Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). I never once took medications. I, instead, utilized these emotional healing techniques; along with nutritional therapy, chiropractic care, breathwork, and meditation to help cope with and overcome my emotional distress after the birth of my first child, and with great success. So much so, that I am now a post traumatic birth and cesarean healing specialist, offering emotional support and guidance, and bodywork treatments, as a licensed massage therapist and a breathwork facilitator, to postpartum mothers dealing with these issues.

Instead of forcing unscientific, mind-altering medication on postpartum moms, why not just give them their placenta!! It is, after all, theirs!

Collective research supports the theory that placentophagia helps to restore hormone levels to normal in the postpartum mother, therefore, potentially preventing the baby blues, and possibly even postpartum depression. Research is currently under way with Placenta Benefits, Ltd. and UNLV to determine many different things regarding placentophagia; including if, and potentially how, the consumption of the placenta can help balance hormones for a postpartum mother. The results of this current ongoing research are eagerly anticipated to help support and further the advocacy of placentophagy.

There are many ways to consume the placenta, the most common, appealing, and best for preservation way is in capsule form, a process called placenta encapsulation. PBi (Placenta Benefits Ltd.) trains placenta encapsulation specialists in understanding the research supporting and benefits of placentophagy; as well as, how to safely and properly encapsulate the placenta using Traditional Chinese Methods for postpartum mothers to use as a dietary supplement.

By the time I was pregnant with my second child, 4 months old currently, I had learned about placenta encapsulation and had been trained through PBi as a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist. I consumed my placenta postpartum, and still do so current via my placenta capsules. I have not experienced one sign of baby blues or postpartum depression this time. My postpartum experience this time has been such a beautiful, loving, nurturing, and well connected experience with my son. I do wish I could have had this same experience with my first, but I have not let that effect my relationship with my oldest son either. I have found actually that I have been able to bond on a deeper and even more nurturing level with my oldest son after the birth of my second son. I truly believe that the use of my placenta postpartum as a dietary supplement has played the key role in allowing this entire experience to occur. I am so grateful to be able to provide this service to other postpartum mothers so that they may be able to experience a joyful babymoon too!

For more information on the research supporting and benefits of placentophagy visit Placenta Benefits.

Please, make your voice heard against The Mothers Act and Health Care Bill! This bill will effect more than just postpartum women, but many people; including children in public school via the Teen Screen.

To speak out against this bill, please go to “Urgent Fax Document and Phone List – Stop The Mothers Act and Health Care Bill”.

For more information as to why this bill should not be passed please visit the Unite for Life Blog and Unite for Life.org.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit public benefit organization that investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. This is the organization that published the report I sited here and has put out a documentary on the devastating effects of psychotropic drugs entitled, “Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging.” To obtain a copy go to www.cchr-london.org.

For information on placenta encapsulation services in your area please visit www.PlacentaSpecialist.com.

If you are in the DFW or North Texas area please visit www.DallasPlacentaEncapsulation.com for information.

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene

This offer will expire on March 31, 2010!

To register for and schedule your free nutritional consultation and coaching session please email me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com with “National Nutrition Month Offer” in the subject line!

You only have to register for and schedule your free consultation and coaching session by March 31st! The actually session appointment can beyond March 31st.

Nourish Life,

Leigh Anne DuChene