Nutrition

cont. from page 3

Calcium is another substance important to pregnant women. Found in milk and dairy products, calcium was shown to produce good teeth and eliminate brain damage to the fetus in a study done by the Oslo, Norway, Medical School.

Iron is important to the pregnant woman because it helps maintain the large amount of blood needed to circulate to the fetus.

Vitamins.

Vitamin A helps prevent infections of the bladder and kidney, and after birth, of the reproductive system and of the breasts of nursing mothers. Vitamin A can be found in yellow and orange fruits and vegetables and also in green leafy vegetables. One serving of each (yellow, orange and green) each day will provide the pregnant woman with a sufficient amount of -Vitamin A.

Vitamin C (found in such things as citrus fruits, broccoli, potatoes and tomatoes) is necessary for uterine growth. A lack of it can result in a weak uterus-labor difficulties.

Folic Acid, Vitamins B-6 and B-12 (found in green leafy vegetables and liver) are also important for the pregnant woman.

Vitamin E helps aid in the healing process. Restrictions.

In the past, doctors have placed certain dietary restrictions on pregnant women with respect to such substances as protein, salt and calories. This has been found to be no longer necessary. The average weight gain of the healthy American pregnant woman has been found to be about 35 pounds. Two weeks after delivery the woman's weight returns to normal. Conditions such as overweight, which has always been considered the result of too much salt or protein, have been found to be caused by malnutrition (which, of course, does not exist in America, as we all know, so it is never blamed for pregnancy problems). In the instance of overweight, empty calories are substituted for a good diet. Many pregnant women exist on a diet of soda pop and potato chips or other such items which contain little or no protein or vitamins but plenty of calories. These women get fat and undernourished at the same time.

Ms. Robinson, a doctor in England, found in her studies that lack of salt can lead to leg cramps, fatigue, loss of appetite, and in some cases, kidney and adrenal pathology. Water retention and swelling (usually the reasons for cutting down on salt intake)are normal conditions of pregnancy (except when combined with symptoms of toxemia).

Drugs.

Every drug taken by a pregnant woman affects the fetus. There is no placental barrier to filter out harmful elements. In America 50% of all doctors still prescibe diet pills (amphetamines) and diuretics (water pills) to pregnant women. They can result in death or dehydration in newborn infants. Find a doctor who does not follow this procedure.

Nonprescription drugs should also be avoided. In some cases even aspirin has been found to cause bleeding abnormalities in infants.

The guidelines given here are only the most. basic guidelines of nutrition understood today although there is still much more that needs to be researched in the area of prenatal nutrition. Only when more women and conscientious doctors involve themselves with prenatal care will human pregnant women receive the care and attention that is given to "good breeding stock" today.

member the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take age, join hands, stand beside us. Fight

"

US... Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958) me of the 1975 Conference on Women and Health)

Over 2500 women attended the 1975 Conference on Women and Health in Boston, April 4-7. The experience proved to be exciting, educational and exhilarating. Those who attended were struck by the solidarity evidenced by the vast network of people who want to change the nature of health care delivery. The conference was sponsored by a wide variety of women's health groups from the Boston area including: The Association for Childbirth at Home, American Medical Women's Association, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Gay Nurses' Alliance, Harvard Medical Area Women Students Association, Health Coalition of Third World Women, Health Task Force of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women, Somerville Women's Health Project, Women's Therapy of the Homophile Community Health Service, and several others.

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The women who attended the conference are working for change in four general areas. First is researching sexist attitudes of the medical establishment with the aim of educating women as consumers, secondly, to develop alternative modes of health care delivery, and thirdly, to alter the sexist bias of education of health care personnel. A fourth aim is to develop woman-controlled research in areas of particular concern to women. Most of the conference participants did not limit their concern to women, but felt their oppression and exploitation as women to be intricately connected with that of poor and third world people. However, in a post-conference evaluation session it was concluded that adequate measures were not taken to encourage participation by poor and third world women.

Basic to the problem of health care in this country is the training of health care workers. It is imperative that the women's community encourage physicians, nurses, and other health care. workers to dare to be different from the majority of their predecessors. Throughout

Women's Health

Conference

Up to ten workshops were scheduled for every two-hour interval, night and day, for four days. Workshops were concerned with a wide variety of topics: history and analysis of the women's health movement, preventave medicine, development and maintenance of alternative modes of health care delivery, occupational health, special concerns of Third World Women, lesbian related health issues (including the writing of a lesbian health pamphlet), medical self-help, population control (vs. birth control), sexist bias of medical research and the health care delivery system in general, obstetrical practices, lay midwifery,

etc.

Keynote speakers included Barbara Ehrenreich (Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers; Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness), Barbara Seaman (Free and Female), Mary Daly (The Church and the Second Sex; Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation), Dolores Huerta (United Farm Workers), Carol Downer (initiator of women's self-help), and Kay Weiss (What the Rape Victim Should Know About the "Morning-After Pill,"

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training women are told time and again that "people" do not want and will not accept any form of health care that deviates from the standard model. Students are lead to believe that people generally want doctors to make decisions rather than make them themselves; that women (especially poor Black women) cannot responsibly control their reproductive capacities; that people do not want health education...they want prescriptions, etc.... The role model presented to the students is the physician as an omniscient authority figure on the top of the hierarchy rather than as a partner with the patient and other health care workers. There is a growing number of people who do not accept the present attitudes and practices of the general population of medical doctors.

Plans are now being made for a 1977 conference of Women in Health to be held in Chicago.

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page 9/What She Wants/June, 1975