From Grandmother's Home Remedies to Sophisticated Neonatal ICU's
(Written in response to infant deaths being reported from the hospitals of Odisha in India)
The
shift of blame in Sishu Bhawan deaths, which continue at 5+ a day despite
several measures being taken, has turned to lack of ventilators and other
sophisticated ICU equipment. Tenders will soon be floated to acquire the most
modern technology available. These equipments can prolong the agonies of little
children as they suffer the throes of death, they cannot render the intensely
sick children healthy.
If
we wish to stem the death rates we must move out of the hospitals and have a
breath of fresh air rich with oxygen and common sense. “We cannot have healthy
children from unhealthy mothers”, a senior Kolkata based paediatrician shared
with me yesterday over phone. This is the crux of the problem. We need to
understand and concentrate upon health and not get caught up in the maize of
disease names that we create when we forget health and reduce the body-mind
complex to an ignorant machine that constantly needs toxic chemicals to grease
it and keep it running. We need long term measures and a sincere audit of the interventions
directed to attack the entire flow from health of parents to health of children.
The
human body has an inherent capacity to heal. When it cannot heal it sends
signals through symptoms that the learned physician can decipher and act upon.
During the time of pregnancy the mother’s body too expresses many symptoms. The
homeopaths act upon these symptoms to detect the hereditary dyscracia
(imbalance) and correct the same with appropriate remedies that result in a
healthy mother and child.
In
a healthy society that follows morals and ethics and where people sacrifice
individual greed and base desires keeping in view the health of future
generations, the discomfort of the mother is the least. Rather pregnancy turns
into a time of bliss with the mother and child acting at several levels – both physical
and emotional - to repair damage and fulfil each other’s bodily needs. Scientific
studies are revealing how the breast milk acts with intelligence and the child
sends stem cells to the mother in a system of mutual benefit.
Pregnancy
was traditionally not a time of rest. The mother used to do her daily duty
under the supervision of the traditional attendant who took care of her
nutrition needs and also strengthened the pelvic system by massaging with
essential oils for safe natural delivery. These attendants were also
knowledgeable about the mode of delivery (standing, sitting, supine) depending
upon the position of the foetus that they could discern by feeling the abdomen.
They could also manipulate the foetus with hand pressure for a favourable
position. While researching on rice varieties in Odisha I stumbled upon
medicinal qualities of certain varieties that aided mothers during pregnancy,
labour and breastfeeding. Traditional knowledge was not unscientific, bereft of
monetary gain it gained from nature that is inherently unselfish and life
promoting.
Pregnancy
and child birth are not diseases. They are healthy bodily functions. In my
quest to find an ideal system of delivery I was surprised by statements of
doctors in the rural hinterlands of Medak district in Andhra Pradesh. “The
healthiest women are the local Muslim mothers,” they informed me. “We have seen
such mothers deliver up to 12 children and be in the pink of health.” Rather
the process of regularly taking hormonal pills, having surgical birth control implants,
and undergoing repeated abortions is intensely harmful for the mother. There
are today scientific studies to buttress this claim.
Natural
childbirth is the right of every child. The child benefits immensely from the
birth process gaining from the squeezing of the entire system as it passes
through the birth canal, from cord blood, from vaginal microbes, and from the
fat deposit on its body surface after birth. A child deprived of this process
is at a distinct disadvantage in the race for life. The modern process of caesarean
delivery is an assault upon health of human populations.
The
first milk after birth – the colostrum – is vital for the baby’s peculiar needs
as it is suddenly thrust into a foreign atmosphere. Today breast milk is
polluted with hundreds of life threatening chemicals. The process of
vaccination has polluted it further with the most dangerous toxins known to
man. The Oral Polio Vaccine unleashed hundreds of simian (monkey) viruses into
the human body and the one studied is a ferocious carcinogen (cancer causing
substance). This virus has lodged itself in breast milk of mothers and spermatic
fluid in men and continues to create havoc. The process of vaccination has also
eliminated natural antibodies – generated from natural exposure to disease –
and these antibodies that were passed from mother to child are no longer
available today! The placental fluid is similarly poisoned. The public is ignorant about practices that masquerade as life
saving but are in fact the cause of intense misery.
Infancy
is a stage where the infant is provided another opportunity to get rid of hereditary
influences. Through various inflammatory and eruptive processes that are given
names like measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, whooping cough and so on,
these are processes that aid in eliminating inherited toxins and tendencies.
During this process the child is benefited from regular bodily responses like
fever and the mother’s milk. The ill educated attempts to suppress these
processes lead to complications that can result in deaths or, if the child
survives, lead it to a lifetime of chronic illness and agonizing pain. The
dangerous toxins in vaccines (mercury, aluminum, -these are declared - lead, cadmium, tin - that are not declared - and other equally toxic ingredients) , the viruses, bacteria and toxoids, besides the
contaminants drastically reduce the baby’s chances of survival and leading a
healthy life. The process of vaccination also results in stress, trauma,
epigenetic and genetic damage that are today showing up as epidemics and
threatening human existence.
There
were certain traditional practices that protected the baby from harm and
ensured it proper nourishment. The mother was sent to her parent’s house where
she received adequate care. Leading an abstinent life ensured that the
placental fluid remained alkaline and did not pose a threat to her child.
Passions render bodily matter acidic. If this abstinence can be extended to the
breastfeeding years the breast milk too will remain alkaline and save the child
from gastric disturbances including painful diarrhoea and dysentery. Today
there are very few who are ready to sacrifice their pleasures for the sake of a
healthy progeny.
Today
we have learnt to disregard traditional wisdom. However this wisdom was vast
and encompassed generations instead of encouraging individual selfishness.
Human activity naturally veered towards a healthy life, a healthy planet, and a
healthy future for coming generations. Health was the norm and not disease. Our intelligence today – gained from
manipulated science – has emerged as a potent threat to us, our environment and
the planet. Yet we are proud of it and are engaged in spreading it in our
attempt to heighten the selfish nature of man and to divorce him from a
sustaining environment. It is one thing to reform and remove cobwebs; it is
another thing to severe one’s own legs.
We badly need to clean up our environment, detoxify our bodies, return to healthy modes of living, restore traditional diets and customs, and reinvigorate traditional healing wisdom if we expect our children to survive and stay healthy. Any compromise will not do.
We
will learn from experience if we can survive the coming crisis. The crisis
itself is unnecessary and would not have happened if we would not have lost our
moorings attracted to trinkets that posed as gold. We have to examine the
current scenario to separate the grain from the chaff and know our friends and
our enemies. We have seen a time when Grandmother’s home remedies were enough to keep our children healthy.
We have to know why we have progressed to a stage where we need sophisticated
ICU equipment to keep our children alive and perpetually sick.
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