NATURAL CHILDBIRTH

This post is dedication to all mother-to-be.

This is the detailed account of what Diane Vallaster Folton did during the period of her pregnancy and how Baby Eric has been thriving on RAW FOODS. No "Baby Formulas." Read it, and in the future : GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE !

Natural Childbirth : baby Eric slipped into the World with a squawk !!

(Here are Diane's own words): There is was, June 1966 and I was pregnant ! I was due to have my first baby at the age of 33. What an astounding and sobering thought! I had one month of school still to go. Keeping thirty (30) grade one students busily occupied, and at the same time attempting to handle the endless end-of-the-year forms, left me feeling limp.

Suddenly the vegetables salads I had been enjoying so much, felt like sawdust in my mouth -- my diet formed a completely new pattern. Roughly, it went as follows:

1st,2nd and 3rd months pregnant : Nothing appealed to me but grapefruit, and freshly cracked hazelnuts (filberts) eaten three times a day.

4th, 5th, and 6th months : Though grapefruit was still a staple, I found myself back to enjoying a wide variety of fruits. By this time we were in September and the wild blackberries were at their tangy best. we also managed to find delicious plums, prunes, pears and apples all grown without chemicals. We had read that raspberry leaf tea was good for pregnancy, so early in September we visited our neighbors' raspberry field and picked bags of leaves which we dried on trays and then stored. From September until March first, I consumed at least a pint (16 oz.)of this tea daily. It was difficult to find good carrots, but we managed to obtain enough for a pint of the precious juice a day. Because I was exhausted after a busy school year, I felt I needed a few supplements to boost me along, so I took daily: 6 kelp tablets, 6 natural calcium tablets, 100 I.U. of vitamin E, 2 teaspoons of cod liver oil, because we are just not out in the sun this time of the year in British Columbia, Canada, and natural Vitamin C in varying quantities.

If ever there was any retention of water in my system, I immediately hunted for a fresh pineapple, if none was available I found that the unsweetened pineapple juice worked also.

I was feeling so wonderful that I never saw a doctor until the sixth month. Friends were becoming so alarmed that I finally consented to see one. The doctor could not get over the strong heartbeat the baby had, that I had no weight gain, and that I had no toxicity. He believed in natural childbirth so he was pleased with my simple natural diet.

I hiked miles every day. We had two puppies so I always had an excuse to be out. I took a course in prenatal exercises for natural childbirth and did them daily in addition to my housework.

Then at last March first, Eric slipped into the world with a squawk and a head of thick, long, curly, black hair. This was remarkable because most babies today are born with little or no hair. His glowing color was the talk of the doctors and nurses -- no milky white skin for him !

To the amazement of everyone, I was able to breast feed Eric, and though the milk was slow in coming, I persevered, and soon there was an ample supply of rich creamy milk, although I had always been told that such milk is usually blue and watery.

The hospital diet was rather dead after the live foods that I had been eating, but I ordered every live or living food that was offered on the menu. The nurses were constantly worried that my protein intake was inadequate, so I was bombarded with huge glasses of pasteurized milk every three hours. These I fed to the sink and replaced them with water. My husband and my sister brought a quart of fresh carrot juice to me each day, plus bags of freshly shelled hazelnuts to supplement my meager diet. The tray of sun-dried fruits that I was presented with was pronounced "dangerous" as -- they said -- it would give the baby diarrhea. i could not see how it could hurt baby or me, as I had eaten them for ten years and baby had done a beautiful job of growing on it for nine months already.

How wonderful it was to return home t an abundance of all the foods I was used to. I could no longer resist the tray of dried fruits and, as we expected, there were no ill effects !

With all the raw food I was eating (at least 60% of which was fruit ) I was horrified, after Eric was born, that he went day after day without a bowel movement. Finally, on the fifth day home, he produced a completely normal small stool -- no constipation! No diarrhea !

Where had the stool been so long ! We were mystified, but this was to be the pattern. How often I wondered if I should give him enemas. The mystery continued until, by chance, we found an old baby book on breast feeding, stating that the food was sometimes so completely utilized that it was not unusual for a wee babe to go up to seven days without a bowel movement.

This pattern continues as long as he had no solid foods. At six months of age he sipped a little fresh carrot juice, but it was not until he was nine months old that he had any solid food. Very ripe banana and a wee bit of avocado, both pressed through a fine strainer, made up his first solid meal.

Thereafter there was no waiting five days for his bowel movement. In the space of few hours after eating, he produced a stool full of tiny black threads ! I was horrified! Now (I thought) he must have worms ! The public health nurse was due in our area for her inspection. She immediately wondered what he had eaten, and when I told her just a bit of banana, she laughed and said : "Well, there are your 'worms': banana cellulose !" To this day I find it hard to believe that a soft banana is so full of cellulose !

Eric had only thee two foods - banana and avocado - plus a little carrot juice until he was more than one year old. Slowly, then we added the pulp of strained soaked raw prunes, dates, and apricots, usually accompanied by avocado, to his diet. Soon he was having blended fresh fruits as they came in season.

Eric was the chooser of his food, we soon learned. Sometimes he had only apple for days at a time. then he would switch to avocado, and so it went. He loved and still loves, to chew on dried dulse leaves.

The only milk he received was my breast milk for two and a half years. Now he drinks carrot juice, nut milk, and we hope to start him soon on raw goat milk.

He has never had a stuffy head, no mucus, no puffiness, no distended stomach and no swollen glands.

Most of my friends were busy feeding their babies pablum, and from bottles. The pablum supposedly to keep them sleeping all night. Since their babies were unable to digest the starch, it was a never ending round of colds, flu, pneumonia, diaper rash and allergies. Thankfully we have escaped all of these by following the simple but rigid laws of Nature.

One thing that bothered me about nursing was the fact that i required more sleep and did not have my usual extra bounding energy -- but I had a happy contented baby instead. I also noticed that my stomach did not go flat as I had expected, but after Eric stopped nursing it resumed its normal proportions.

Now it is May, 1970,-- Eric is three years of age. His diet consists of raw and dried fruits, fresh raw vegetables and their juices, nuts, seeds and honey. He is well balanced mentally, well developed physically, and full of energy and curiosity.

My many thanks to Dr. Walker's program.
Diane Vallaster Folton

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"Fresh VEGETABLE and FRUIT Juices: what's missing in your body?" (Formely titled "Raw Vegetable Juice") by Dr.N.W.Walker,120 pages, US$6.95.
"I can truthfully say that I am never conscious of my age. Since I reached maturity I have never been aware of being any older, and I can say, without equivocation or mental reservation, that I feel more alive, alert, and full of enthusiasm today than I did when I was 30 years old. I still feel that my best years are ahead of me. I never think of birthdays, nor do I celebrate them. Today I can truthfully say that I am enjoying vibrant health, I don't mind telling people how old I am : I AM AGELESS!"

Norman W. Walker, Doctor of Science, Ph.D.
Vibrant Health