In This Issue

About Babies
     Should I let my baby cry it out?
Birth Announcements
     Jack Isaac Joseph
     Edward Jackson Earnest
Our Charis Family
     Marsha Dawn Laycox
Charis Cuisine
     Delectable Avocado Dill Salad
 Life in Ukraine
     Snippets of Knowledge and Understanding
 Tidbits from Ebony
     Community Development - Part III

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Our new address

Charis Childbirth, Inc.
P.O. Box 6900
North Port, FL 34290

Our Director's Heart

Exactly what is “wellness”? I imagine if we took a camera crew into the mall and interviewed a dozen different people about what “wellness” means, we would get nearly a dozen different answers. Some would say it is being a healthy weight or being physically fit. Some might say it is about looking and feeling young or that it has something to do with health food. Others might say that it is the absence of disease. Are any of those ideas accurate? Without a clear definition of wellness, how do people know if they are truly well?

Over the years, as I have had discussions with people concerning health and wellness, I have discovered that many people will say that they are relatively healthy, have a good diet, and exercise some. But when I dig a little deeper, I find that they are not as healthy as they say they are, do not eat as well as they think they do, do not get enough exercise, and are living a high-stress lifestyle. So, I have found it necessary when coaching people as they seek “wellness” to first discover what their own definition of wellness is, why they desire wellness, and then spend some time exploring a theory on wellness that I learned from a trusted doctor, George Wootan, M.D.

Dr. Wootan is a family medical doctor in the state of New York who has had a unique journey in his medical career. He began over 4 decades ago as most doctors, with a full schedule of seeing sick patients and giving them prescriptions to help them recover from their sickness. Business was booming. One day he had lunch with beloved pediatrician and author Robert Mendelsohn, who challenged Dr. Wootan in the way he practiced. I won’t go into all the details here, but as a result of his conversation with Dr. Mendelsohn, he began to change the way he practiced. He started doing classes and seminars to educate his patients and put the responsibility for their health back into the hands of the patients or their parents. As a result, instead of his patients being in a cycle of getting sick, going to the doctor, getting better, getting sick again, going to the doctor, etc., his patients stayed healthier and his paycheck began to dwindle. Being committed to the health of his patients, he had to seek out other creative ways to supplement his income so he could provide for his large family of eleven children while helping his patients achieve wellness.

When I heard Dr. Wootan’s story, I decided to take his course “Pediatrics: A Course for Parents” in the mid-1990s. The following is just a small piece of what I learned from him that has hugely impacted how I view health and wellness and how I coach others who are seeking wellness.

Wootan’s Theory on Wellness:
“On a continuum between sickness and wellness, there is a third condition that falls right in the middle: unsickness.”

It is very easy to see the difference between sickness and wellness, but the difference between well and unsick is a little bit less clear.

A well person will go to the store and come home with a bag of groceries. An unsick person, on the other hand, will come home with the groceries and a virus he picked up while shopping. The well person’s immune system took care of the virus without him even realizing it, but the unsick person’s immune system wasn’t up for the fight. In his book, Take Charge of Your Child’s Health, George Wootan states, “When you’re well, you generally stay that way (although even the healthiest person is susceptible to disease sometimes). When you’re unsick, illness is as close as the nearest germ.” He also lets us in on the secret that doctors are not trained to help people go from sickness to wellness, but that they are experts at taking people from sickness to unsickness. The responsibility of achieving wellness is on the shoulders of each of us as individuals.

If a person is ready to embrace that responsibility and is willing to take a holistic approach to achieving wellness, he has already taken a giant step in the right direction and it is time to set some goals. He will likely succeed.

If you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or wanting to improve your chances of conceiving a baby, it is in your best interest to take the steps necessary to become as healthy as possible. If you want to “stack the cards in your favor” of having the best pregnancy and birth you can possibly have, why not make true wellness your goal?

If you are a birth professional who has the privilege of helping moms have the healthiest pregnancy and baby possible, you will serve your clients well if you coach them toward wellness. Remember, the healthier the woman, the better the birth outcome!

It is difficult, however, to coach someone else toward wellness if you yourself are not willing to walk that road. Someone once asked me why so many midwives are overweight. That is not a difficult question to answer. Midwives are servants. They care for others at their own expense. They miss sleep, eat on the run, carry a tremendous burden of stress, are constantly giving, giving, giving. No wonder their bodies suffer. As midwives, is that really the example we want our clients to follow? We tell our clients to take time to rest, eat healthy, and exercise. We want them to reduce the stress in their lives. But what we may not realize is that we are telling them by our actions that it is not really possible. After all, if it was possible, we would find a way to be healthy since we believe so strongly that it is important.

I would like to challenge all expectant moms, those who may become pregnant, and birth professionals to seriously consider where you are on the wellness scale. Are you Sick? Unsick? Well? If you are not currently well, what obstacles stand in the way of your reaching wellness? How might you overcome those obstacles? If you need help in reaching your goals, a wellness coach may be just what you need.

Toward healthy moms, babies, and birth professionals,

Kristin Schuchmann

Executive Director, Charis Childbirth 
 

Congratulations
Rachel Thompson!

We are pleased to announce that Rachel Thompson has successfully completed all the requirements to become a Charis Certified Childbirth Educator / Doula. CONGRATULATIONS Rachel!! Rachel serves the greater Richmond, Virginia area.
 

The information in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not intended to take the place of medical care and advice from your health care provider.