Sitting in a CEDH-sponsored homeopathy course, I shared the discomfort that many of the allopathically-trained students felt percolating when the instructor admitted to a minimal evidence base; “When it works, it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.” There was some allusion to the difficulty of standardizing interventions for purposes of a placebo-controlled trial, and reference to
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
I have written, in previous posts, about the deleterious effects of antenatal inflammation – the effects on the mother’s mental and physical health, on birth outcomes, and on her child’s risks for chronic illness. Epigenetic effects of maternal inflammation are exacted through toxins excreted by aberrantly colonized guts, by high levels of reactive inflammatory cytokines,
Birthing Bliss, Birthing Trauma, and the Role of the Perinatal Patient
I remember looking out of my living room window, drawing on my connection to all the women in the world who had felt this energy before, all that were in that moment, and all that would in time to come. This energy, this incredible power, was like a wave that I was riding for a
Fire in the Belly
What goes wrong for the 10-15% of women who feel like hiding under the covers instead of gazing blissfully into their newborns peaceful face? Is it expectations unmet? Is it hormones? Is it the brain? Having spent several years treating these women, I believe that what we are calling postpartum depression and anxiety is in
Mental Illness in Pregnancy | To Medicate or Not Medicate
When a woman has a history of severe and relapsing mental illness, but is stable on her current treatment, and is planning a pregnancy or is postpartum, what is the best course of action for her and her baby? In my conventional training, I spent (and continue to spend) countless hours analyzing the available registry,
