Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000197
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00:01 When an obstetrician engages a patient for
00:06 the prenatal period, he has at least 2 patients... 00:09 the woman, and the unborn child. 00:13 Ideally, there should be more people involved than that 00:16 in the patient's care 00:18 ...the father of the child, sometimes the grandmother, 00:21 and the grandfather, and other siblings... 00:23 So it's quite a group of people who are involved in 00:26 1- patient care. 00:28 To get all the things that a prenatal program requires, 00:34 requires some study, and so we hope that you will be 00:37 with us as we make a study on this subject 00:39 during this program. 01:00 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 01:03 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 01:06 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash 01:10 A prenatal program comes at a very receptive time 01:14 in the life of a woman. 01:15 Most of the time, if you talk with a woman 01:18 about changes in her lifestyle, she will do almost anything 01:22 She wants to have the very best program possible 01:25 for the unborn child, and she wants to ensure that her own 01:29 health will be good after the baby is born. 01:32 So, whatever reforms you think you could make in the 01:36 entire family, NOW is the time to do it. 01:39 So, the obstetrician, or the midwife can use this 01:44 GOLDEN opportunity to make certain that there are changes 01:47 in that family, so that these changes in lifestyle can spread 01:52 to a community. 01:53 And in this way, much good can be done that would otherwise 01:56 be missed at the most favorable time. 01:59 Let's start with diet... 02:01 Diet is a very basic thing, and most pregnant women 02:05 believe that diet is something that they should control 02:09 very carefully, and so they're willing to listen 02:13 to any kind of prenatal program that you're wishing 02:16 to establish in that family. 02:18 And, the first thing is an abundant diet. 02:23 At any time that a woman is restricting her diet, 02:27 she may cut out whole classes of foods. 02:31 She may cut out all breads, all sugars, all fats. 02:37 She may cut out all nuts. 02:39 And just with a big sweep, she just cuts out things that 02:43 she knows to be fattening. 02:45 But, this is not the time to make those sweeping changes 02:50 in a person's diet. 02:52 What you need to do if you're pregnant, 02:54 is to know that you're eating for 2 people, and 02:58 therefore, you need to eat enough for your own maintenance 03:01 needs, as well as for the growth of the baby. 03:03 The baby is going to grow from just a fraction of an ounce 03:09 to several pounds by the time of birth. 03:12 To make this growth, the baby needs an abundance of 03:15 nutrients supplied by the mother. 03:18 Now the mother's diet should have fruits, vegetables, 03:21 whole grains, nuts and seeds. 03:24 Now these are basic to all women. 03:26 It's the most favorable diet that a woman can have 03:30 to have those items in her diet. 03:33 Anything else that she adds besides fruits, vegetables, 03:36 whole grains, nuts and seeds, ANYTHING else that she adds 03:40 is either superfluous, or may not be the best thing. 03:45 Now, what can we say about other things that could be added 03:50 Heavy sweets... for some reason many women CRAVE 03:55 heavy sweets during pregnancy. 03:57 Very salty foods... again, some women CRAVE very salty foods. 04:02 Very highly spiced foods... some women crave those things, 04:06 and some women are just repulsed by the very thought 04:09 of eating something that's highly spiced. 04:11 So the whims of the appetite, get to be a prominent thing 04:14 during pregnancy. 04:16 A woman has a craving for this, or she has an aversion to that, 04:19 so she may leave out some very good foods, and take some 04:23 that are not good for either her, or for the baby. 04:26 What are some of those foods that are not good? 04:30 Things like ice cream, those should be avoided, 04:34 unless the ice cream is made from something very healthful. 04:37 A banana ice cream can be substituted for the heavy 04:41 and unhealthful forms of commercial ice cream 04:44 that are often available. 04:45 And by doing so, she can improve her general nutrition 04:50 and also satisfy her appetite a bit. 04:54 How does one make a nice banana ice cream? 04:57 Well, it's very easy. 04:58 Get a nice ripe banana, peel it, freeze it. 05:02 Then if you want to make it in a blender, 05:04 you can cut it into a number of pieces, maybe 8 or 10 pieces 05:09 ...put it in the blender along with some pineapple juice, 05:13 or other kind of sweet, fruit juice, and blend that 05:16 until it's about the consistency of soft-serve ice cream 05:20 and then it's very delightful! 05:22 It can be eaten with a waffle, or just on hard toast 05:26 ...hard, whole wheat toast 05:28 And it's a remarkably delightful dessert, 05:31 and is just made of fruit. 05:34 She can, if she would like, add to the banana something 05:38 like a few blueberries, or a few strawberries, 05:41 and she's got strawberry ice cream, or blueberry ice cream, 05:45 or any other kind of fruit... peach ice cream, 05:48 just any kind of frozen fruit can be added at that time 05:51 and blended up nicely, and you've got a good ice cream. 05:56 Now, the Champion Juicer can also be used as that thing 06:02 that you use to make the ice cream... 06:05 Of course, it's the champion maker of ice cream. 06:10 I have a Champion Juicer for that very purpose. 06:13 In the south, on a hot day, sometimes very pleasant 06:17 to have a small dish of some kind of ice cream. 06:21 Banana makes up the very creamiest ice cream 06:24 of all the fruits, and so I always use the banana 06:27 as a base for making the ice cream, and add the more 06:32 icy fruits, and crumbly fruits to the banana, 06:36 so that it can be aerated, and creamy, 06:39 and taste very good, and have a good consistency. 06:42 Now in addition to the very heavy sweets, heavy fats 06:47 and heavy salty things also tend to be 06:50 those things that women crave. 06:52 They may crave chips. 06:53 They may crave unhealthful, very salty pickles. 06:58 Or unhealthful, very salty, very fatty, hot dogs. 07:03 And, all of these kinds of things are unhealthful for her. 07:07 One study done a few years ago, showed that if a woman 07:11 ate a lot of hot dogs during pregnancy, 07:13 that her offspring was more likely to develop a brain cancer 07:18 in the future, so we just recommend that those 07:22 are refuse meats anyway, so that hot dogs just not 07:26 be taken ever, but especially not during pregnancy. 07:30 Now with the diet, we need to understand also the times 07:35 of day that one would eat. 07:37 Normally, we recommend a 2- meal plan for women 07:41 and for men as well, but especially for women since they 07:45 tend to get overweight more readily. 07:47 Two meals a day represents the ideal number of meals 07:53 for a human being. 07:54 But during pregnancy, because the entire digestive tract is 07:58 slowed down, we usually recommend the third meal. 08:03 It should be a small meal... 08:05 something like bread and fruit, and she should be able 08:09 to gain weight properly with that, and also to be 08:11 quite satisfied with her meals. 08:13 There are BIG changes in a mother's body during this time. 08:20 and the gastrointestinal tract is one of those organs 08:23 making these big changes. 08:24 We can understand why when we consider the fact 08:27 that certain hormones in a woman's body are 08:31 50 thousand times higher in pregnancy, than they are 08:35 in the unpregnant state... 08:37 So, she's making quite enormous changes 08:40 in her body's mielur? and to keep up with this 08:46 she needs to make certain changes in her lifestyle. 08:49 The emotional state is one of those important areas 08:53 where she needs to pay close attention... 08:56 and Dr. Don Miller is going to talk with us about 09:00 the emotional states of women during pregnancy 09:04 and what can be done to help control that... Dr. Miller 09:07 Thank you so much... 09:08 You know, a woman who is pregnant, as Dr. Thrash is 09:12 explaining, is carrying a precious bundle within her... 09:15 And whatever the woman has going on in her body 09:18 will be going on in the child's body in many ways. 09:21 She talks about this great influx of hormones; 09:25 well, the hormones and other emotional things that are 09:28 going on in a woman's body passes into the child 09:31 and her mental state is extremely important 09:34 during the time of her pregnancy. 09:36 If a woman is happy, if she is just cool during 09:41 the whole time of her pregnancy, the child, itself, 09:44 when the child is born will seem to have the same nature. 09:47 But if the woman is agitated, and if she's unhappy, 09:50 if she's combative, if she's battled by her husband, 09:54 all these different things... 09:55 Because basically when a woman is going through the pregnant 09:57 period, there are changes going on, 10:00 and the husband, sometimes, is not in tune with these things... 10:03 And, his treatment of the wife has a profound effect 10:06 upon the baby once that baby is born. 10:07 You know, you see examples, once of the examples 10:11 that I like to think about is in the Bible 10:13 Let's over here to 2 Chronicles 23 10:17 I find this an interesting study. 10:19 As you study down through the kinds of Israel and Judah, 10:23 it almost always mentions something significant 10:26 Here in the first verse, chapter 23, 10:28 Amaziah was 20 and 5 years old when he began to reign 10:32 and he reigned 20 and 9 years in Jerusalem... 10:35 And then the next thing is very significant... 10:38 "... and his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. " 10:44 And then the next statement always follows, whenever 10:48 it talks about the mother, it says something else about 10:51 the child... It says, "... and he did that which was 10:54 right in the sight of the Lord, and did it with a perfect heart" 11:01 It was the fact that in his mother's womb, and under her 11:05 tutelage, as he was growing up, the Lord was with him 11:09 because the Lord with the mother. 11:11 And so the mother needs to be very sure and very clear 11:14 that when she's raising that child in her womb, 11:16 that she's giving it the very best environment that she can. 11:20 What she listens to, what she sees, what she even thinks 11:24 in her mind, will have an effect upon that baby. 11:27 You know, the baby, upon the point of conception, 11:31 is a human being... 9 months from being born, 11:35 but it's as much a human, as you and I are human, 11:37 as far as I'm concerned... 11:38 And EVERYTHING that goes on in that mother 11:40 is transferred to the baby, 11:42 so we need to be very careful... Dr. Thrash 11:44 Yes... Very good. 11:46 The clothing of the mother also needs to be carefully 11:49 designed... it should be loose, and it should be warm 11:52 Those 2 features are the major features of the 11:56 clothing of the mother. 11:57 No tight bands anywhere... not around any of the 12:00 extremities; especially not on the legs 12:03 or above or below the knees. 12:06 Not around the ankles because the circulation is also not as 12:10 brisk during that time. 12:11 Then warmth, because of the fact that the extremities 12:15 need to be nicely warm so that the circulation 12:20 to the trunk can also be very nicely balanced. 12:24 So warm and loose clothing... we need to be very careful of 12:30 for the pregnant woman. 12:31 Tests have shown that cold feet will reduce the circulation 12:37 to the pelvic organs, and we could assume that that would 12:41 also include the placenta. 12:44 So with a reduced circulation to the placenta, 12:46 the nutrients that would get to the baby 12:49 would also be diminished. 12:51 Now, water for the pregnant woman needs to be abundant. 12:56 The baby is surrounded by a sac of water, 13:01 and the mother's body is also laying in a store of water, 13:05 ...so that at the time of the birth of the baby, 13:08 she can release this water which is now in the form of 13:12 blood serum, or blood plasma... 13:14 And at that time, she can release this extra fluid which 13:18 which can wash out some of the products of conception 13:22 from the uterus, and thereby, cleanse the uterus of these 13:26 products and blood and membranes that might otherwise be retained 13:31 These can be nicely washed out. 13:34 And also, she has in her body fluid that can be put into the 13:40 bloodstream to give her essentially a transfusion. 13:45 So, if she loses some blood during the time of the 13:48 birth of the baby, she has this little transfusion of extra 13:54 fluid in her blood vessel system so that it makes it so that 13:58 she is in much better health than she could otherwise be. 14:02 Now what about the rest that a woman needs during pregnancy? 14:06 Certainly during the nighttime hours, she needs a good, full 14:12 8 hours sleep, and at other times during the day, 14:16 she may also need a nap. 14:18 But, the nap should preferably 14:20 come before the meal, rather than after the meal. 14:23 So before lunch, or before the little supper that she should 14:27 take, she should take a nap... 14:29 maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes. 14:31 Such a nap will refresh her enormously, 14:35 and also make her better able to take care of those 14:39 internal changes that are going on with her. 14:43 The mental health of the mother needs to be carefully guarded 14:48 because she is going to give a legacy to her offspring 14:53 of those emotions that she experiences during her pregnancy 14:57 Now consider this fact, during her pregnancy, at various times, 15:03 during the pregnancy, she's going to be 15:06 putting neurohormones into the bloodstream, 15:10 her own bloodstream, because of thoughts she has had... 15:14 If a person is angry, if they are irritated, 15:18 if they are lonely, or sad, or angry, or oppressed 15:22 by the husband, or if she is fearful, 15:26 whatever her emotional state, she'll be putting neurohormones 15:30 into the bloodstream that reflect her state of mind. 15:37 The baby is developing brain cells at an enormous 15:42 rate of speed. 15:43 And sometimes, during the pregnancy, the baby will be 15:47 grinding out as much as 100,000 brain cells per minute 15:53 What an enormous factory of brain cells... 15:56 So that at the end of the pregnancy, 15:58 the baby has between 50 and 200 billion brain cells. 16:05 Well, it takes a long time to develop all these. 16:07 Now when 100,000 brain cells are being ground out, 16:11 that means that any kind of emotional reflection 16:16 that she has by the hormones that she is producing 16:20 by those thoughts, these hormones can DRIVE 16:25 the development of the neurons in the baby. 16:29 So if she is angry at a certain time, her neurohormones will 16:37 sway the development of the neurons in the brain 16:41 a certain direction. 16:43 We want those to be peaceful, calm, joyous, studious, 16:48 spiritual, laid back... 16:51 We want all of those things and not high-tension, 16:54 high-strung types of emotions that are possible. 17:00 Then, of course, there are spiritual considerations 17:03 both for the mother, and for the baby. 17:05 And in keeping with that thought, 17:08 Dr. Miller is going to present to us some things from 17:12 the Bible, and also some thoughts that he has 17:15 from inspired sources. 17:16 You know, going back to the Book of Judges, 17:19 we see one of the first instances of someone who was 17:22 preplanned... Of course I think that we're all preplanned. 17:26 Going back to the Book of Judges 13, we find an angel 17:35 visiting a man's wife, and the man's name was Manoah 17:38 It says in verse 3, chapter 13... 17:41 "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman 17:44 and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and barest not; 17:49 but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. " 17:51 So heaven already had a plan for the delivery of Israel 17:56 through the child that this woman would bear 17:58 who had formerly been barren. 18:00 Verse 4, "Now therefore beware" 18:02 BEWARE, and that's the subject we're trying to 18:05 talk to women about today. 18:07 BEWARE of what you do, or don't do! 18:10 "I pray thee, and drink not 18:12 wine, nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing" 18:16 ...Because you are basically the vessel from which this 18:20 vessel that I'm preparing is going to come from 18:22 ...the Lord is telling them through the angel. 18:24 "For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, 18:28 and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child 18:31 shall be a Nazarite unto the Lord from the womb" 18:34 From the very womb, this child was set aside as somebody 18:37 SPECIAL, as somebody the Lord had specially chosen for work 18:41 And I believe that EVERY single human being that comes 18:44 into this world, God has a SPECIAL plan for. 18:46 From the womb, they have a job to do. 18:49 And God is telling the mother, take care of this child 18:52 starting right NOW 18:53 And, basically, right now, she wasn't even pregnant yet. 18:56 That was going to come some time later. 18:58 "From the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel. " 19:02 From the WOMB... something is going to happen 19:05 that child will start to grow to become the deliverer of Israel 19:09 Now, I'm going to go over to a very precious Book of the Bible 19:11 It's called the Book of Luke. 19:13 It's a little book that Luke wrote, 19:16 and we're going to find a couple of good situations in there. 19:19 Luke 1:15... Again, an angel talking to a man 19:26 who is in the temple... And here is what it says 19:30 in verse 15, "For he shall be great in the 19:32 sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine, 19:35 nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, 19:38 even from his mother's womb. " 19:41 Talking about John the Baptist here. 19:43 From the very WOMB, the child was to be... what? 19:46 Filled with the Holy Spirit. 19:48 Filled with the Holy Ghost. 19:50 That means it's not just a piece of something developing 19:53 until it's born, it's going to become a human being. 19:55 From the WOMB, this child was filled with the Holy Spirit. 19:58 And I think our children today have the same opportunity 20:01 to be FILLED with the Holy Spirit, 20:02 if we're giving it the proper experience. 20:05 Okay, let's go on to over here, still in chapter 1, verse 38 20:10 "And Mary said"... now the angel has come to Mary, 20:14 and tells Mary that you are going to become the mother 20:17 of the Messiah, and what is her response? 20:20 "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; 20:24 be it unto me according to thy word" 20:29 And Jesus Christ was SO submissive to His Father. 20:32 The mother was SO submissive to God's will, 20:36 and the Son so submissive to the same Father's will 20:40 ...this is what we can put into our children. 20:42 And then going over to verse 41 20:44 Now we see that John the Baptist's mother is 20:48 pregnant, Jesus' mother is pregnant, 20:50 and Jesus' mother, Mary, goes to visit Elizabeth 20:53 and this is what happens... 20:55 "And Mary arose, verse 39, in those days and went 21:00 into the hill country with haste unto a city of Judah, 21:04 and entered into the house of Zacharias, 21:07 and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, that, 21:11 when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, 21:14 the babe LEAPED in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled 21:19 with the Holy Ghost. " 21:20 So the child, even within the womb, 21:23 already filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized 21:26 that the Messiah was near, 21:27 and for JOY, LEAPED in the womb! 21:30 There is a lot that happens to that child 21:32 when it's in the mother's womb and we have to make sure that 21:35 we are just like Mary... mothers are just like Mary 21:39 "Lord, whatever you want me to do... 21:41 I'm going to raise this child for you. " 21:43 Elizabeth, knowing that this child is going to be 21:45 filled with the Holy Spirit... 21:46 Even Samson's mother, knowing that this child is going to be 21:49 filled with the Holy Ghost, 21:50 even from the womb, and deliver Israel. 21:53 These are some precious privileges that we have. 21:55 As mothers and fathers have an equal role, 21:59 I like to hear what fathers are saying now... 22:01 "We are pregnant" "We had a baby" 22:05 ...Because it is a WE situation. 22:07 And as we both get involved with the process of 22:10 raising our children for the Lord, according to the 22:13 BEST pediatric book ever written... and that's the Bible, 22:17 we're going to raise children that can truly be 22:19 filled with the Holy Spirit even from the womb... Dr. Thrash 22:23 Very good. I really appreciate these texts from the Bible 22:27 that indicate to us the prenatal state of babies 22:31 and help us to know that they are, indeed, individuals 22:35 and are truly people from the very beginning 22:38 of their conception. 22:40 Now, can a woman predict the day that the baby is 22:45 going to be born? Yes, to some degree, 22:47 but as we all know, babies can be born a month, 22:50 or even 2 before the date that we expect... 22:54 Or, they can delay, and be born even 2 or 3 weeks 22:59 after the day we expect. 23:01 But generally speaking, if a woman will subtract 3 23:06 from the month of her last menstrual period, 23:10 and add 7 to 12 days, that will usually give her 23:14 a ballpark estimate of when the baby is going to be born. 23:19 But you can't hold nature to any kind of schedule 23:23 It may be that day, or it may be a little bit before 23:26 or a little after. 23:28 Once the baby gets to the place of maybe 2 or 3 days 23:32 before the birth, the obstetrician can often 23:35 say when the birth is going to be, but even that 23:40 is freighted with a good bit of difficulty. 23:44 Now who should deliver the baby? 23:46 The mother has choices these days. 23:49 Once, we only had the choice of an obstetrician, 23:52 but now, there are very good midwives who practice 23:56 in most of the states of the United States, 23:59 and can do a very acceptable job of delivering babies 24:04 In fact, may of them are far more skilled at this, 24:08 than the obstetricians who are their backup people. 24:11 I remember when I was getting my training in obstetrics, 24:15 after I graduated from medical school, some of the nurses 24:21 who had been 15-20 years in the delivery rooms 24:25 that I worked in, many of them had even delivered more babies 24:29 than I had even seen pregnant women. 24:32 So, I leaned on them very heavily for instruction 24:36 on the practical aspects of delivering babies. 24:39 They were extremely good. 24:42 And today, we have the same kind of thing. 24:44 There are many nurse-midwives who are SO skilled 24:47 that anyone would be privileged to have 24:49 them to be your delivery attendant. 24:52 Where should the baby be born? 24:55 Well, I can't deny the training that I had 25:00 back more than 50 years ago when my professor of obstetrics 25:04 said, "The most ideal place for a baby to be born is 25:08 in its own home. " 25:09 But the reason why we don't do it that way is 25:12 principally because of the convenience of the physician. 25:16 Well since then, we have developed a lot of high tech 25:19 procedures for women, and for babies 25:25 and delivery schedules, and these, I think, make it so that 25:30 we DO need to have a hospital nearby if you're going to 25:34 enter into those kinds of procedures. 25:37 Generally speaking, home births done in a very simple way 25:41 ...no drugs at all administered, can be the most safe and 25:45 the most pleasing of all deliveries. 25:48 Many of you, listening today, will say... 25:51 "I was born in the home, as I was" 25:54 and we, of course, felt that that was the only way 25:57 to be born because the nearest hospital was 35 miles away, 26:01 and that, by ox cart, was not very pleasant. 26:06 Now, what about breastfeeding the baby? 26:08 Every baby that is possible to breastfeed, should be given 26:13 that great privilege; otherwise, it's a poverty 26:18 program for the baby's nutrition. 26:20 But mother's milk is ideally designed to satisfy all 26:24 the needs of the baby, and the mother, and the baby 26:28 can benefit from this very convenient method of feeding 26:34 the baby. 26:35 Using a bottle is inconvenient, at the very best, 26:38 whereas, breastfeeding is hardly inconvenient at all. 26:42 Now nausea and vomiting of pregnancy can be 26:45 somewhat of a problem, and if the mother has this, 26:49 she can often handle it very nicely with ginger, 26:53 or with mint oil... just a tiny, little taste of 26:58 mint oil is usually all that she needs and that will 27:01 take care of matters. 27:04 Most women will develop some varicose veins during pregnancy 27:08 and if she does, she can just know that the time of the 27:13 increased intraabdominal pressure is self-limited 27:19 and the time is coming when she won't have that anymore, 27:24 and the varicose veins will go down to some degree. 27:29 Let cramps can be a serious problem during pregnancy 27:33 and most women have 1 or 2, either leg cramps, 27:37 or cramps of the muscles of the abdomen, 27:39 or cramps somewhere else. 27:41 Not too much can be done for that, except to rub the place 27:45 where the cramp is, and hope for the best that 27:49 they won't last long. 27:51 I hope these very simple things on how to handle 27:54 a pregnancy can be of great help to you. |
Revised 2014-12-17