©iStockPhoto.com - Ahmad Hamoudah

Birth control: Most of us use it, have used it, or will use it in some form or another. Whether you opt for hormonal methods like the pill or the patch, barrier methods such as condoms or diaphragms, intrauterine devices, or surgical sterilization, no method is without its drawbacks. Hormonal methods can cause side effects such as weight gain, headaches, depression, decreased libido, and nausea, and the potential dangers of ingesting synthetic hormones for extended periods of time are still largely unknown. Barrier methods are inconvenient. Intrauterine devices can be painful and are associated with complications such as uterine puncture and tubal infection. Surgical sterilization is costly and usually irreversible.

You may be surprised to learn that there is another option, one that is virtually free of side effects, costs, and inconveniences: natural birth control. (continue reading…)

©iStockPhoto.com - Ahmad Hamoudah

Right around now I usually look at my personal planner and feel like crap. Because it’s usually empty. The beginning of each year I buy day-view or month-by-month view pages for my binder, and vow that I’ll use them, and then I don’t and feel like I’m a loser and a tree-killer. February is when I usually clear my desk of last year’s stack of unused “day-at-a-time” sheets and vow to do better.

My problem is that I either fly by the seat of my pants and don’t plan things ahead, or the things we do (music lessons, karate, etc.) are the same time each week so there’s no point in my writing that down on a gazillion pages. I’d imagine most moms with young kids are in the same boat. Do you really need to write down your Tuesday morning Gymboree class on every Tuesday in your planner? Even worse, do you find yourself writing things in after the fact just so your planner doesn’t look so pathetic and empty? (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - lisegagne

If you ask any doctor, or look in any magazine, the symptoms of stress are pretty clear: you’re tense, have a hard time making decisions, and you’re snappy; everything other people do seems to be calculated to drive you crazy. Yet, most of us run around all the time so much that this kind of condition is natural. If we’re not stressed, we’d probably stress out about not being stressed. But is it okay to be this stressed all the time? Is it okay for our kids?

Most of the time management books talk about how to budget for relaxation time, or make appointments for exercise or “me” dates. What they don’t talk about is just how unlikely it is you’re going to relax if you know you’ve only got fifty minutes between the hours of 3 and 4 and only if there’s no traffic and you don’t really have to stop and get bread and you know you’re going to pay for this dearly when you come out of hiding and your small child is desperate for your attention. It’s possible that the trained lab rats were able to relax under these conditions, but quite probably just before they dropped dead.

But how do you make time to relax and de-stress yourself? (continue reading…)

The profusion of red on Valentine’s Day is appropriate, considering the holiday is about as far from green as one can get.  While some holiday traditions, like champagne and black eyed peas for New Year’s Day, seem oblivious to what is in season, the typical Valentine’s Day celebration with greeting cards, flowers, candy and a romantic meal is one of the few holiday traditions that seems bent on openly defying seasonality and good environmental sense. All is not lost, though.  A few simple tweaks can green up Valentine’s Day, and make it even better than the traditional celebration, for you, your partner, and the planet. (continue reading…)

I know that the nine-year-old can be difficult and moody, but when mine wrote “2008—another year to live through” in his journal, it got me to thinking: those teenage years are going to be bad, bad, bad. Sure, there’s no way to guarantee your kid isn’t going to be miserable or get into trouble, but there’s got to be some way to help inoculate them against the troubles of life.

What I really wanted to know was how to tell whether my child is depressed, or just has a really bad attitude. If you’ve got a phlegmatic child who by nature complains a lot and will always comment that the glass is half-empty, what can you do to help that child survive his middle-school and teenage years, never mind the trials of adulthood? How would you even know when this kind of child is actually depressed as opposed to just constantly negative? (continue reading…)

Breastfeeding is good for babies and moms, and planet Earth, too. Breast milk is produced through a natural process that takes place inside the mother’s body. Baby formula, also known as artificial baby milk, is produced through an industrial process. Now more than ever, environmental concerns are spawning closer scrutiny of industry’s impact on our air, water, and ecosystems. From an ecological standpoint, breastfeeding makes more sense than formula feeding. Breastfeeding conserves resources, and does not directly contribute to pollution and global warming. Formula feeding, on the other hand, is associated with a number of environmental concerns. Deforestation, soil erosion, water and air pollution, massive energy consumption, and global warming are some of the environmental problems aggravated by the looming presence of the baby formula industry. In a world where people are moving toward more sustainable ways of living, breastfeeding is a very green behavior.

Baby formula manufacturing utilizes a vast quantity of natural resources. Because cow’s milk is the main ingredient in baby formula, making it requires acres and acres of pastureland for grazing cows. More land is needed for growing food to feed those cows. Deforestation to clear land for more cow pastures and more cultivation leads to soil erosion, and damages plant and animal species. Cultivation of cattle feed consumes tons of fertilizer and enormous amounts of water for irrigation. Heating baby bottles uses up even more water. Fresh from the mother, breast milk is always the perfect temperature, and requires no heating. In some non-industrialized parts of the world wood is a valuable commodity, and may be the only fuel available for heating water. Breastfeeding even for a few months can help to minimize the misuse of natural resources, and conserve land, water, and trees. (continue reading…)

Most of us are pretty anal-retentive these days about purchasing anything. We check Consumer Reports, Amazon reviews, we do Google searches and ask all our friends what they think. But when it comes to childbirth, women don’t often shop around with the same intensity. But they should. Whether you’re picking a hospital, a childbirth class, or an alternative birth place, you should be checking out your options and figuring out what works best for you.

When I was pregnant with my first child, my OB told me not to worry too much about where to give birth; since it was such a small amount of time in the whole process it just didn’t matter much. But if that was true, how come you could talk to 80-year old women and they’d be able to tell you in great detail about their children’s births many many decades ago? How could it not matter? (continue reading…)