At every turn, I find that the policy makers of this world want to control women and women’s bodies. The latest news to hit my radar is that the FDA wants people (almost always women who work from home) to pay an annual registration fee to sell their reusable cloth menstrual pads on the grounds that they’re supplying ‘medical products’.
lower or eliminate the registration fee for makers of reusable menstrual products.
FDA Regulation #884.5435 states that a reusable menstrual pad maker must be FDA compliant (pay a yearly registration fee). The fee is $3,646 for 2015; and an est. fee of $3,872 for 2016.
This fee is unattainable for most reusable menstrual pad makers which are operated on a small scale. Unlike a corporation, these small businesses cannot afford to pay such a large yearly fee to register with the FDA. This high of a yearly registration fee will shut down business; stop the owner’s income; and weaken the local economies. If this registration fee does not lower; it will also greatly increase the price of large scale pad makers. Small businesses are the strength of the American economy and the backbone of American freedom (American women should have the choice and money to make the choice).
If you think this could only happen in America, don’t be fooled. If you live outside the US, please don’t think you’re immune from such ridiculous red tape. Governments worldwide are always looking for more ways to generate their income, and if they hear of this then no doubt it will spread to other countries.
Take back your power, women, and speak up.
If you’ve not read my book Cycle to the Moon, there is a pattern inside for making your own menstrual pads.
https://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.png00Veronika Sophia Robinsonhttps://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.pngVeronika Sophia Robinson2014-12-10 09:41:532014-12-10 09:41:53Menstruation is not a medical condition
For years, my family and I have used a fabric re-usable advent calendar. As a child, it was one of my favourite parts of the Christmas season and I was keen to recreate this with my children. My grandmother always sent a beautiful advent calendar over from Germany, and us children would delight in taking turns to open the little windows.
In the advent calendar I use, there are pockets for putting in little goodies. My younger daughter was rather delighted when she realised recently that with her big sister now at uni, that was one less person to partake in the advent treats!
But what sort of mother would I be if I didn’t put some Advent love in the post for the daughter who is far away across the land but always close in my heart?
For twelves years, I edited the holistic parenting magazine The Mother.
I’m excited to bring you a huge collection of podcasts (the largest of its kind anywhere!) based on all the topics I had the pleasure of exploring and/experiencing, both as an editor and as a holistic parent.
I will be launching in December, with weekly podcasts added to the collection. I hope you enjoy them! Love, Veronika xxxxxx
In December I’m launching my series of meditations: Five-Minute Meditations, on an assortment of themes.
Many people know that meditation removes stress and brings inner calm, but at the same time they’ll say that they don’t have time to meditate or don’t know how.
My guided meditations are just five minutes long, and can be fitted into the day of the busiest person.
I will walk you through the meditation and take you to a peaceful and calm place.
These meditations will balance the emotions, calm the physical body and ease psychological distress.
Regular meditation may also help your problem-solving abilities as well as enhance your creativity. Studies show that it can slow the aging process, improve learning, and offer restful sleep. These meditations will teach you how to live in the present moment.
Five minutes a day dedicated to gentle relaxation, guided meditation and positive affirmations can change your life. Baby steps lead to quantum leaps.
I invite you to join me, Veronika Sophia Robinson, for five minutes a day.
Instinctive parenting: is it an art or science? To parent instinctively means being in tune with your body and that of your baby/child. Is this an art or a science? Actually, it’s both.
There’s an art to listening to your heart and the way your baby communicates with you, rather than listening to the call of our culture which rewards mother and child separation. An artist must believe in their calling; their life’s work.
Each day they must develop skills and build upon their talent. A bonded mother instinctively knows what is best for her family in the same way an artist knows which colour or shade works for his creation.
The science of instinctive parenting shows that, as mammals, we’re meant to nurture our offspring biologically, at the breast, for at least the first few years of life.
Nature designed us to carry our helpless infants throughout the day until they’re ready to begin crawling. By carrying them against our bodies throughout the day, their muscles work against ours; this helps them to become strong as well as offering them the chance to discharge some of their own energy. It builds their immune system, as well as encouraging healthy brain development when they have a regular ‘face’ to engage with throughout the day.
As mammals, we’re designed to sleep with our babies rather than place them behind bars and away from us.
When science and art meet seamlessly we call this conscious, connected parenting.
The needs of modern babies are exactly the same as those born in the Stone Age:
[] to be birthed peacefully, gently and in private, with natural smells and muffled noises
[] to be held by the mother, and hear her heartbeat immediately after birth
[] to be breastfed, on cue, full term
[] to be carried throughout the day
[] to be slept with at night so the mother’s and baby’s heartbeat and breathing can synchronise
[] to be actively part of family/community life
[] to live in the natural ‘field’ rather than the modern-day electro-magnetic one of wi-fi, electrical equipment, computers, mobile phones, etc.
[] To be connected to Nature
It’s understood that human babies are born about nine months ‘early’, which means they need the first nine months of life ‘in-arms’ to provide an optimal external gestation. The in-utero needs of warmth, movement, food and connection are now met by being carried all day, slept with at night, breastfed on cue (not demand), and by the mother living her life. Constant caregiving by the mother should ensure that all needs of the baby are met almost instantly. The fields of science, anthropology and medicine recognise that this traditional way of nurturing babies is best for short and long-term physical, emotional and psychological health and well-being. This is commonly known as attachment parenting, but is more suitably described as intact parenting.
The needs of our growing children and teenagers are the same as those of Stone Age children:
[] To live in awe and celebration of the natural world
[] to climb trees, swim in lakes, cross rivers, climb rocks and hills, see the sunrise and sunset, the Moon, stars and visible planets
[] to eat natural, living wholefoods and drinks
[] to exercise all muscles of the body every day
[] to understand survival skills
[] to feel the Sun, rain and earth on their skin
Their bodies were never designed, and haven’t adapted to, sitting for hours on Facebook, ipads, iphones and YouTube, and eating deadened processed foods and drinks.
Do parents who wish to raise their children in a more natural way to the mainstream face an impossible task? Only if they let culture pull them away from their art and from Nature’s science.
The Powerful and The Empowered By Veronika Sophia Robinson
When it comes to defining joyous birth, it’s important to understand the role of power.
I believe the difference between an interfered-with birth, and a joyous ‘hands-off’ birth, is fear. Fear can come from a deep primal urge in the old brain, or from our centre of logic (the neocortex or new brain) ~ a place where we try to make sense of the unexplainable. Our ego freaks out when it can’t control the information. Taming our powerful ego empowers us.
In the dominant cultural model of birth, the leading actor is The Powerful One who ‘delivers’ our baby. In the sub-culture of joyous, autonomous birth, the leading role is played by The Empowered One. Indeed, there is no place for The Powerful One in this culture.
Never will you find such different characters. In fact, they are so diametrically opposed, that you would never find them both in the same room ~ much less on the same birthing stage. The only connection might be if, through the performance of The Powerful One, a woman becomes transformed, at a later time, into The Empowered One.
Their props, their scripts, their guiding drive are contradictory.
The Powerful One becomes so through domination. He conquers the other characters by taking charge of the stage and wielding tools which say “I am in charge”. He is defined by his use of three specific tools. They are light, language and observation. Whether he is conscious of this or not, is irrelevant, because as soon as they are introduced into the delivery room, his status is confirmed.
Light is the enemy of every birthing woman. It stimulates her ‘new brain’ and changes the course of labour. Her mammalian instincts wish to seek out the dark, but The Powerful One shines a laser beam on her, freezing her in time like a startled rabbit in headlights.
He controls her by his use of language which actives her neocortex (new brain). While this is engaged and stimulated she is incapable of slipping into her old brain ~ the very place she needs to be in order to birth instinctively.
The Powerful One stands guard over the woman whose baby he’s delivering. If he can’t be there, he sends others to guard her. Their eyes ensure that she can’t escape. She is watched. Her every movement observed. She is ‘held in place’ by their paranoia. Privacy is the number one need of every birthing woman. The Powerful One ignores and denies this, keeping a woman prisoner in her ‘new brain’ so she can’t birth without his ‘help’.
Light, language and observation ~ the three deadly enemies of joyous birth.
And what of The Empowered One? What would she make of these tools? She’s a wise woman who, like the three wise monkeys, has her own mantra:
See no light
Hear no talk
Allow no eyes
The Empowered One is a woman who honours the ancient tradition of birthing. She creates a birthing nest of dimmed light, if not complete darkness. The external language of choice is non-vaginal touch, or music and gentle singing, as she slips into her birthing zone. If she chooses to have her lover or anyone else with her she lets them know beforehand that eye contact is another form of power, of control. The support she seeks is of skin contact, and being held from behind. Beware of any man or midwife who demands or encourages you to look into their eyes while you’re birthing. Contrary to our culture’s childbirth classes, they are stealing your inner power. Remember, our eyes are the mirror of our soul. When we’re birthing, our soul needs to rise ‘upwards’ and greet the new soul who is coming Earthside, not to be distracted by someone else’s needs.
The Birthkeepers
The Empowered one is clear to her supporter that all the power she needs for birthing is within her, and that ‘coaching’ of any description defies what is innate within her. The instinct to give birth is always heard by those with ears to hear. Sadly, joyous birth is inaudible to The Powerful One.
It has been said that ‘when the power of love overcomes the love of power, there shall be peace.’ It has also been said that ‘peace on earth begins with birth’. True power and true peace are internal and can never be found outside of ourselves. The Empowered One is a woman whose power is always internal. Instinct is beyond anyone’s control. It can’t be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen. Perhaps that’s why it terrifies the medical world so much?
The Powerful One requires tools and gimmicks and fear to ‘create’ his power ~ something which is always external, and therefore, transient.
The power of love which is alive in The Empowered One can teach us more about birth that any medical text book. Love and fear can’t co-exist. They are opposites. In a study of 500 tribal cultures, the researchers found no evidence of any pain or death in childbirth. Prematurity and stillbirth were extremely rare, as was malpresentation. We’ve been inculturated with the idea that birth is painful, dangerous and deadly. I agree. It is painful, dangerous and deadly IF, and only if, we allow The Powerful One into our birthing space; if we give away our crucial mammalian need for privacy.
If you’re seeking a joyous birth, look no further than you and your baby for all the power, love and support you need.
Seconds after giving birth at home, by candlelight and Mozart, to my daughter Bethany.
In issue 3 of Starflower Living magazine, I wrote a piece on mandalas as therapy. I am particularly drawn to the idea of the circle, and the importance of a baby always having access to a face. When we make nature mandalas, this helps us tap in to the innate need we have to connect with the Cosmos.
http://www.starflowerpress.com/living/index.shtml
Starflower Living magazine is publishing every New Moon. Just £2.50 per issue, and instantly downloadable.
Rather thrilled to have the gorgeous Lucy H. Pearce writing about Wild Mothering in this issue of Starflower Living (out on Saturday ~ New Moon in Sagittarius). Lucy is the author of The Rainbow Way: cultivating creativity in the midst of motherhood and Moon Time: a guide to celebrating your menstrual cycle, as well as Moods of Motherhood: the inner journey of mothering.
When I was a young girl of about seven, I would walk miles along the dusty road to the nearest church. It was for Catholics, and I wasn’t one. That didn’t matter. I would walk that road with utter devotion, always with an eye out for snakes. I was off to talk with the Divine Father!
My mother had sewn me a beautiful ankle-length turquoise taffeta dress for church.
The rural church was a white wooden building with a red corrugated iron roof and sat handsomely right beside the creek in Freestone, a rural community on the Darling Downs, near Warwick. (Queensland, Australia.)
Scrubland in Freestone
Freestone, near Warwick, on Queensland’s Darling Downs.
My childhood home nestled against beautiful eucalyptus-covered mountains.
Freestone State School. I’m on the left, third row up. 1975.
In childhood, I’d wear my baby sister’s square terry cloth nappies on my head and pretend I was in a nun’s habit. I’ve since experienced past life regression which has shown me lives in monasteries and convents. I guess those memories were strong in early childhood.
My Mum and baby sister, Ramona, 1973
Although I still delight in the nature of church buildings, my faith is far removed from any man-made religion. I pray regularly, but not in the way depicted in the movies or religious books.
Today a friend and I were talking about such matters as faith and loneliness. I said that even when I’m alone, I know I’m never alone. My connection with the Divine is a constant in my life, whether it’s when I stand under a dark sky illumined with starlight or have my hands in the cool dark soil.
Sunrise from my garden.
I pray in gratitude for fresh air, and sunshine on my skin. I touch the face of God when I brush my fingers on the bark of a tree or hear the hooting of an owl or make love with my lover.
To feel the strength of trees in the forest.
No matter how upsetting life can be or frustrated I might get with a certain situation, I always know that I’m not walking this life alone. I feel it, in the deepest cells of my being, that my Breathmaker and I are one. I may well disagree with Him/Her sometimes (okay, often), but together we walk along the path.
I pray when I read beautiful scripts by candle light, such as anything written by Kahlil Gibran.
I pray when I see a smile on my child’s face.
Sunday morning sunrise at Long Meg, the stone circle near our home.
My first thoughts when I wake and the last thoughts I have before sleep are also a prayer: forgiveness.
I pray every time I have a thought, and am on constant Guard duty making sure that negative thoughts are quickly ousted. I’m a work in progress, and that’s a prayer, too.
I pray when I move firewood and when I wash dishes. I pray when I hug a friend and imagine our hearts connecting as one.
I pray when I am beside the crackling woodstove, with nothing but the sound of flames for company.
I pray when my heart moves to the haunting sound of cello music.
I am praying when I prepare my family meals or wash their clothes.
My life is a prayer, and I’m thankful that I have an inner church in which to bow down to the Universal Energy which connects us all.
This week I had the pleasure of having my daughter home for a couple of nights. Seven weeks ago she left home to begin studying music at Bangor University (on the north Wales coast). She said she wanted to spend time together cooking. Turned out, I cooked and she chatted. And ate!
It is said, of parenting, that we give our children roots so that one day they’ll be able to fly. It is fair to say that we wondered how she’d survive away from home. We needn’t have worried, as it turns out. She is flying, and it’s such a joy to see her wings taking her to new worlds, meeting new people and discovering more of who she is.
Yes, those roots were solid and strong, and I’ve no doubt they’ll always have a place in her life. There was a certain sense of motherly satisfaction that she enjoyed being home again so much, and even more joy that she was so excited to head back to uni again. She is growing, changing, expanding and discovering. Roots and Wings.
