Care of a Pregnant Woman

pregbelly

What is the best way to care for a pregnant woman among your survival group ?

This question is a little more complex than it first appears . First of all , any pregnant woman must first avoid any toxins , chemicals or poisons as much as possible,this includes the obvious smoking , drugs and alcohol , and also the not so obvious environmental toxins and poisons that will be everywhere in a post apocalyptic scenario.

The first step is to make sure she is not exposed to anything that would appear noxious or harmful , especially her water. Clean, pure water is an absolute necessity. Even if you are somewhat confident about the purity of your water supply, I would take the extra step and run any water you are giving a pregnant mother one more time thru some activated charcoal.

You can make a very simple and effective water filter using activated charcoal. You should always have a generous supply of this in your survival supply kit . It has multiple uses including poisoning , snake bites etc , I go into it in great detail in The Doomsday Book of Medicine. You can make a very simple effective water filter using plastic two liter soda bottles. If you don’t have activated charcoal you can make something similar but obviously not nearly as effective by using the charcoal from burnt wood and crushing it as finely as you can ( to increase its surface area ). It is all about surface area , activated charcoal has an incredible surface area due to its convoluted surface that also contains many little tunnels and channels in it . How it works is not be absorbing (with a b ) but rather adsorbing (with a d ). Absorbing as you know is like a sponge , it soaks into a substance and attaches to it , greatly expanding the substance that it absorbs into. That is not how activated charcoal works , it does so by adsorbing which means it chemically binds to the surface rendering it inactive. That is why we use it for drug overdoses, poisoning and even snakebites, it absorbs the drug , chemicals and even snake venom onto its surface and inactivates it . If activated charcoal absorbed water and chemicals onto its surface it would expand to an incredible volume and rupture your stomach and kill you.

You can use any size container to build your filter , but due to their great availability I will use two liter soda bottles for our example.
First drill a hold in the cap , cut the bottom of the bottle off . Now you need to create a small barrier just inside the cap in the neck of the bottle , here you can use anything , a piece of cloth , even some grass if you were in a pinch. Pack the cloth or grass into the neck of the bottle tightly , the purpose of this is to prevent the activated charcoal from running out of your container. Now, fill up your container about half way with activated charcoal . The key point here is to pack it in as tightly as you can get , this will increase the surface area that the water will come in contact with, thus increasing its filtration. Now , either place another piece of cloth on top of this packed in charcoal or use grass again or a layer of sand, once again this is to prevent the loss of activated charcoal . Now place the filter bottle with the cap end on bottom ( upside down ) into a larger bottle so you can catch your filtered water. Now you should fill the remaining half of the filter bottle with your dirty water and allow it to slowly percolate through the filter and drip steadily into your empty container. You will probably have to do this several times until it is as clear as possible.

Here is the critical step, remember you are only filtering your water with this activated charcoal filtering bottle , you are not purifying it by which I mean you are not destroying all those germs that will make you sick . In order to do that you need to boil your water. You should only boil it for a few minutes until it is develops a rolling boil , ie the water is rolling over itself . This will destroy most of the viruses and bacteria in it , don’t do it too long you will lose too much of it by steam. Also remember , the higher your altitude the lower the boiling point of water , on Mount Everest water boils at an incredible 160 degrees F . If you find yourself in a high altitude and you want to insure that you are killing all your waters germs you can add a pinch of salt , that will raise the boiling temperature and insure a good kill off . That goes back to the simple concept that adding anything to water will lower its freezing point and raise its boiling point . Hence antifreeze is basically water with chemicals added to lower its freezing point , but I digress . You can add a small piece of charcoal to your finished product simply to improve its taste , especially for a pregnant woman who as you know frequently have weird taste problems.

Note : You can make a similar filter using layers of sand , pebbles , cloth and activated charcoal . From top to bottom it should include in this order : pebbles layer, sand layer , cloth layer , activated charcoal, cloth layer ,sand layer and finally pebbles again at the bottom where the cap of the bottle is.

Now that we have secured a safe water supply for our pregnant friend , lets make sure she is getting all the nutrients she needs . Human blood should carry a complete source of nutrients for the developing fetus , including essential fatty acids , essential proteins , vitamins , minerals and all the trace elements . Essential means substances that cannot be produced by the body and need to come from outside . In my opinion one of the best books written on this subject is from Roy Dittmann called Brighton Baby . It is almost a thousand pages of well researched information on pregnancy and nutrition both before conception and during the development of the fetus. Why does human blood carry so many minerals and trace elements ? The truth is , we are not sure ,however it is my strong belief that nature never does anything by accident , we are discovering slowly but surely all the uses of the different minerals and trace elements and I think it is very prudent to make sure that all of these are at optimal levels and therefore available for the developing fetus. So, how do we get all these essential nutrients , minerals and trace elements to the mother . There are several ways to do this , most of which involve the sea/oceans . Human blood is basically identical in its mineral and trace element composition to that of sea water . The main difference is that sea water is currently saltier than blood, the reason for that is that humans left the sea millions of years ago and our blood reflects the composition of the oceans at that time, since then salts from land have dissolved into the oceans making them more salty than when humans left .However, everything we need in our blood can be found in sea water, in fact during WWII desperate doctors on Okinawa used sea water in place of plasma when they found themselves with too many wounded marines and not enough plasma.Currently we can get all these minerals and trace elements two different ways , one is from deposits of ancient sea beds, a product called Supreme Fulvic . Supreme Fulvic contains all the minerals and trace elements as well as many amino acids (building blocks of proteins) and Fulvic Acid . Fulvic acid is an incredible substance that causes the cells to open up and allow all these nutrients inside . It is reasonably priced and readily available online at supremefulvic.com .

The second source is Quinton’s Marine Plasma . This is also an incredible product and has been in use for over a hundred years and used very widely in Europe . Quinton’s Marine Plasma is gathered from large plankton blooms in the oceans which form very large funnels with the open part at the top of the ocean and the bottom of this funnel on the oceans bottom , where it spins and forms a vortex that gathers nutrients from the ocean bottom and swirls them towards the surface . Here phytoplankton (plant plankton) feed on it and multiply and in turn are fed upon by zooplankton (animal plankton), these zooplankton then become food for all kinds of ocean life from small krill to large whales.Marine life travel thousands of miles to feed and breed in this primordial soup and do so for a reason, because they intuitively understand that this Marine Plasma provides all the ingredients that their developing fetuses need for ideal growth. This Marine Plasma contains prebiotic carbon derivatives, micro-enzymes, co-factors, vitamins, RNA, DNA, polysaccharides, fatty and organic acids, carotenoids, peptides and other nutrients , all in a form that is easily recognized by your body and therefore easily assimilated for immediate use (since it developed out of the very same primordial soup ). Quinton’s is gathered in these plankton vortexes and is cold processed to avoid damaging it and sealed in glass vials . This is an incredible source of nutrition for a pregnant woman and in fact was used for many years to treat women who were having fertility problems and miscarriages , or born with deformed fetuses and it worked incredibly well for them , many of these women gave birth to healthy babies. You can find this incredible product at www.purative.com.

These product will ensure that the developing fetus gets all the minerals and trace elements needed . Now , you need to make sure the pregnant woman is also getting all of her essential amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and protein is what your baby’s body needs to grow . The American Indians living in the barren southwest desserts developed an ingenious method of obtaining all the essential amino acids they needed by using three different vegetables , known as the three sisters. These same three vegetables will provide all the essential amino acids for your pregnant woman, they are corn , squash and beans. First they planted the corn, as it grew taller they planted squash at its base to shade the corn (and cut down on water loss ) , then they planted pole beans that grew up the corn stalk .Eating these three vegetables will provide all the essential amino acids your developing fetus needs.

There are naturally many sources of essential and non essential amino acids. One of the best sources of nutrition is hemp seed oil. Hemp seed oil is second only to soy as a source of protein, but unlike soy it does not contain trypsin inhibitors which block protein absorption and does not contain oligosaccharides which can produce gas and cause an upset stomach. Hemp seed oil not only contains all the amino acids including the nine essential amino acids but also is a significant source of essential fatty acids and is a great source of omega3 fatty acids. Hemp is marijuana but hemp oil does not contain any THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which is the active ingredient that makes you “high” from pot. Hemp seed oil is made from seeds that do not contain THC like the leaves of the plant from which Cannabis Oil is made that does contain THC. I would try to get hemp seed oil that is made by cold pressing , not chemical extraction , thereby there will not be any butane or other extraction by products that could be harmful to the fetus.

One other element that I think is critical in fetal development and is overlooked by mainstream medicine is the element Iodine. Medically we know that a lack of iodine will damage brain development and the child will be born severely retarded in what was called a “cretin”. Iodine is so essential for health, immunity and brain development that the US government realized this and many years ago in an attempt to address this made the ionization of salt a law . This certainly helped those areas of the US where iodine was very deficient in the soil ( The Goiter Belt) and was resulting in hypothyroidism and the development of enlarged thyroid glands or goiter. However, over the years our soils have become even more depleted and our diets have changed resulting in even less iodine , made even worse by the proliferation of low salt diets! I take iodine daily (and trust me , I am now pregnant) in the form of iodoral. It is readily available on amazon and online , it also could be life saving in the event of a nuclear explosion/attack . Just adding iodized salt to a country’s diet resulted in what was called the Flynn Effect, which is that IQ points increased on average about 3 points per decade! Other studies I have read show that adding iodine to a pregnant woman’s diet increases the IQ of her child from 15 to 20 points! Iodine can be taken as a pill in the form of 12.5 mg of Iodoral ( iodoral tablets) or in liquid form as Nascent iodine (which is iodine in its elemental form and readily absorbed ) or Lugol’s solution . The liquid iodines such as Lugol’s and Nascent iodine can be added to water , a few drops a day should do the trick.

Pregnant women need nutrient rich foods such as whole milk , cheese ,butter (from grass fed cows), eggs , seeds and nuts . All of those foods are nutrient powerhouses and readily available. Eggs have everything a chick needs to develop , and therefore for your little chick as well . Don’t believe this low fat nonsense , it is ruinous of your health……full fat milk (whole milk) , butter from grass fed cows is full of nutrients including omega3 fatty acids as well as minerals and trace elements. Nuts are basically seeds and like seeds they too are packed full of protein, good fat and minerals. Another way to even further extend the nutrient content of seeds is to sprout them . Once you soak them in water you are removing growth inhibitors and thus releasing all the nutrient potential making it more easily assimilated by your body. Note that fermenting vegetables will also vastly increase their nutrient content as well as providing much needed enzymes . Fermented foods are wonderful for anyone including pregnant women.

In short a pregnant woman needs to be supplied with adequate amounts of fresh , clean water, all the essential amino acids , essential fatty acids , minerals and trace elements and clean air to breathe. Naturally , these can be obtained in an entire host of ways and have been done so for millions of years . The supplements I outlined above are useful in that they are known to supply such a nutrient rich array of substances for the pregnant woman. If you supply organic fruits and vegetables along with fresh fish and game you will certainly be providing a healthy sources of nutrients , however there will be no way to know if you are giving her all the minerals and trace elements that are so critical to the developing fetus , that is why I really like Supreme Fulvic and Quinton’s Marine Plasma. In my book the Doomsday Book of Medicine I spend many chapters discussing the role of proper nutrition and how to grow your own foods to best obtain all the nutrients you need.

This disclaimer provides that such medical information is merely information – not advice. If users need medical advice, they should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional.