Nine months after giving birth to my oldest daughter I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. It didn’t come on at nine months, it’s just that it got so bad at that point that I finally realized it and sought out help.
Before giving birth to my youngest daughter I thought back on that experience and knew I didn’t want to go through that again.
I started thinking of ways to support myself ahead of time. One of those ways was by hiring a postpartum doula. Let me tell you… that was one of THE best things I’ve ever done for myself (in my life)! I’m not exaggerating. It made an enormous difference in my ability to heal, cope, mother, rest, and avoid a second bout of postpartum depression.
After that experience, I literally cried thinking that every single woman deserves and should have this kind of support. If only it were built into our healthcare system like it is in some other countries. This entire topic could be its own blog post or podcast episode. However, for today, I just I wanted to share a bit of that experience to lead into another story…
My postpartum doula helped me in so many ways, one of which was going with me to the pediatric chiropractor with my baby. My 4 week old had an extended tummy and uncomfortable gas. It seems she had been swallowing a lot of air when she ate (breastfeeding issues… again, for another blog or podcast episode…)
While at the chiropractor’s office (who helped my baby girl with her tummy troubles) my doula put her cell phone in her sports bra strap right above her breast. The chiropractor immediately said, “Oh no! Don’t do that! Love your boobs!” Caught off guard, my doula took her phone out and said, “Ok. Why?”
My chiropractor talked a little about cell phone radiation and how it can affect the cells in our bodies negatively.
Have you heard of this?
The caution against electromagnetic frequencies, WiFi signals, and cell radiation from phones and towers has been getting a lot of attention lately. There is a new initiative to put 5G towers in front of houses on neighborhood streets. In 2018, Montgomery County in Maryland banned this initiative in their local neighborhoods. Last week Brussels became the first major city to ban 5G wireless connection.
This all came to mind as I was scrolling through potential podcast episodes to listen to during my drive from Utah to Vegas a few weeks ago. The Weston A. Price Foundation had an episode on 5G and since I had just heard the news about Montgomery County, I decided to listen in…. and it was fascinating.
At this point, it may seem a little “woo-woo” to some of you. The science may not be settled yet. However, I always like to proceed with caution with many different things in life, including new technologies being introduced. If you’d like to make some adjustments to reduce your family’s potential exposure, I’ve pulled together a few ideas.
Easy things you can do if you’d like to limit your exposure:
1. Turn your WiFi off at night. You can plug the modem into an outlet with a plug-in timer. That way you don’t have to worry about turning it on and off, it’ll do it automatically. Or turn it off manually each night and turn it back on when you need it in the morning.
2. When not using your cell phone or when sleeping, put your cell phone in airplane mode with the WiFi turned off. Sometimes moms like to use the white noise on the phone for their sleeping baby. When the phone is near your baby or kids, put it in airplane mode whenever you can.
3. If you can’t turn off your WiFi at night, see if you can move the modem away from your bed or your children’s beds/ bedrooms.
If you’d like to learn more, check out the Environmental Health Trust and other resources.
