What is the function of Yang Qi? The thyroid?
‘Is it safe?’ thus to me is a strange place to begin
I start where the middle heater has to support life, and where maternal Jing has to be transformed for the new life and the continuation of her reserves. Mum has to support her own life whilst founding a new one. She often is starting from way behind the health ball, needing to repair and restore herself. As Dr John Shen discovered, women can improve or wreck their rest of life at the pregnancy interface, so all this work I present is in the knowledge that we are moving her to a new normal, not just doing a U-turn from where biomedicine may have predicted (without any assistance past watchful waiting/medical monitoring) she could go.
Is it safe to watchfully wait? From the intuitive to the ‘scientific’
Returning the body to optimal is the endeavour of all treatments in natural medicine. Not forcing, not destabilising and definitely not disempowering/feeding fears or giving false hope.
I feel that for the practice of Asian medicine, we may need to take back the cultural assumptions. Here is a technique that has not much in the way of written resources – as it was home medicine that the elders just passed on. Then came a political round up of all who followed what had always worked, in favour of one man’s new version of life and how it was to be.
The question – ‘is it safe?’ is asked of anything that is not current ‘best practice’ in mainstream medicine – irrespective of whether what they are doing even is. (I suggest that you start investigating for yourself ‘safety of fetal scanning’ – or anything covered in Henci Goer’s articles and books – she has lists on her sites other sources/background reading). Induction and using epidurals, and elective C sections – not getting mum to birth – as at least 94% of all should be doing easily.
‘Safety’ does depend upon your definition – and ‘safe’ for mum and baby bonding is a far cry from ‘safe’ for the hospital and the accountants, and the bottom line of a medical centre. You may perhaps look no further than why it took so long for the childbed/ puerperal fever cause to be nailed. (The then doctors had a monopoly, and wanted to keep delving into dead bodies, and without washing their hands even – often used the same tools within a living, breathing, birthing women’s body as they had a few short hours ago in the week old corpse dug up and investigated to see how anatomy worked). With obvious consequences. Again and again the cause was found and shelved – with tens of thousands of women dying needlessly.
Now this is known, there are other less fatal but not more dangerous procedures that have slipped through. ‘Safety’ for the medical profession is still coming at huge cost to bubs and mums. We all pay it. As a culture. Please see here (The genesis of antisocial behaviour) and here (the future of suicide). The research as a healthy template has been done.
Disrespecting mums and babies is not sustainable – as more and more dislocated and disconnected and uncaring children arrive and grow up – and often they are not even seen as lovable – unless conditionally – by their parents. This is presenting a very large burden to the tribe that must carry them. Perhaps look no further than the epidemic of parents not knowing what to nourish their children with as food and the cost to all as the obesity hits even babies.
There is no reference to the epidemic of unbonded babies, psychotic mums and a stream of what has been predicted by Dr Michel Odent – violence in birthing leads to a primal instinctual outpouring of violence for all of life. Frederick le Boyer. Babies are getting overlooked in the birthing process, ahead of other more vested interests. Many are now rediscovering his wisdoms.
Mums all knew this. Women were the birth attendants as they were the ones who watched, tended and cared for all.
Can we afford to ignore this as a society?
I would argue we can not.
It is too late – as the knowledge base of what was handed down through the oral traditions of the older women is being quickly lost, as these are replaced by the youngsters whose uni training came from what is in text books – not what has always worked in the past. Minus refrigeration, electricity and running water, anything other than breastfeeding infants would (and did) result in their death.
Who is driving this? Why is this now happening, when in the past the elders were revered and knew what to do?
What was directly obvious in all agrarian societies – where nature must be respected – paying attention to detail and what had happened always dictated survival or death. No excuses, no welfare and no second chances afforded in nature.
The old people used to know, and were counseled, and knew to pass on their knowledge for the ongoing survival of all.
This is not just about health – but all of life.
All people prior to antibiotics knew to take care of themselves – as they knew from experience that a weakened body would not be resilient. Herbs and herbal gardens /apothecaries and wise women abounded. Now, in the face of ‘science’ ‘old wives’ tales are relegated to superstition and antiquity – science and chemicals being seen as being superior. They were effective and quick – in the past.
In a written form a few thousands years ago – as Asian medicine is well ahead of the ‘modern’ peoples – were the wisdoms that had been passed down, no doubt originally orally. Chinese/Asian medicine – shows the beginnings of understanding through observation – and in a simplified/agrarian language – still pertinent today.
In today’s world, almost no one is living as their grandparents were, or could even could possibly conceive we would be now. In modern colleges, the teachings of students of Asian medicine (through the emulation of biomedicine) are not providing age old wisdoms, but modern theories. Missing is the cultural foundation.
Acupuncture and Asian medicine has crossed from here it was just embedded, through language, location and time barriers. People lived the knowledge as all their relations also knew the foundations as it was totally old people’s wisdoms. Not spelt out in the transmission of facts in theory lessons was the reality of real causes of disease, as now we can be clever with needles and herbs. Life returning to the Way of the Tao was part of the more classical trainings.
With the Chinese Mao times, the ‘Four Old’s’ (ideas/culture/customs and habits) were stamped out where possible. Incalculable information was lost – similar to the loss of well over a thousand universities in Tibet when ‘liberated’ by the Chinese. The loss of the wisdoms that were shared we can do nothing about now. We can however look to what is left with the still alive older healers whose own teachers had parts of the mastership/eldership and oral traditions. I would argue that retaining these is vital to us all. From the throw away words of one healer, I have researched and renovated what this practice may mean in the modern world – so very far away from China, yet so very pertinent as a short cut to explain, and to also assist all in their healing journeys.
Many examples can be seen of how this process is fraught with beliefs, inconvenience as to what will be altered from common practice if it were true . . and with vested interest. (If in doubt – look to the hand-washing history for what is currently seen as ‘modern’ medicine. We could ask – who owns the gate to allow those in the ‘clan’.
We could ask what are we doing in front of a person who is suffering and has been lead to believe that we have answers? Do we have any understanding of the role this problem has in their life’s journey? Is it even appropriate we intervene?
My first pregnant patient was a heroin addict who had asthma, who was unsure of how to be well and pregnant. I reasoned that although I had been taught not to treat pregnancy (just out from college – it was a specialist field) if I proceeded within guidelines, surely the baby would be better off with me than what she had been doing so far. After a few sessions, she rang to say that she would not be returning, although was feeling so much better – as she heard from an acupuncture student that acupuncture in pregnancy was ‘unsafe’. Heroin in pregnancy is also not a good idea. . .
I was adhering to what became my focus – thinking through what was happening and enhancing her body’s journey back to self-healing/homeostasis.
Paying attention to the five imbalances needed in a well pregnancy, I was encouraging her body to discover itself a new balance within this. An increase in blood, heat, dampness and liver energy and a decline in maternally available Kidney Qi meant I was working to provide all that was needed – and calming her Shen was central to this. Of course if she then felt ‘safe’ away from life affirming assistance, it was her choice.
