We had the pleasure of hosting a house party for Judy Norsigian at our home this week. The party was to celebrate the  40^th anniversary of the publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves and to learn more about the ongoing efforts of Our Bodies Ourselves (aka OBOS), the nonprofit health education and advocacy organization that  Judy co-founded as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective in 1969.

How important is Our Bodies, Ourselves? How about this as an indicator: Time  magazine named it one of the 100 most influential nonfiction books written since 1923. And it remains a trusted resource—Library Journal selected it as one of the eight best consumer health books of 2011. What can I say? As a writer, I’m jealous!

My wife and I have different recollections of the early editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Elisabeth has a special place in her heart for the book – like many, many women she learned a great deal about her own body and the larger world of women’s health on those pages.

Me? I was one of the very few people at the party who hadn’t read a single page of Our Bodies, Ourselves in my twenties. That’s not to say it didn’t influence my life. Nearly every woman I knew back then had a copy on her bookshelf, but I kept a respectful distance. Our Bodies, Ourselves was a mysterious woman-thing, all about their bodies and themselves. (I kept waiting for somebody to publish an equivalent guy-book—maybe Hey, Man! It’s Your Body!—but they never did.)

I first met Judy Norsigian in 2009, when I was on the Portland stop of my Birth Day book tour. We were introduced by a mutual friend (the indomitable Judith Rooks) and Judy very kindly agreed to introduce me at my Powell’s Books reading. I still have the sneaking suspicion that the audience was there for Judy, not me…

We reconnected at the Home Birth Consensus Summit in Virginia last October, where Judy was the Summit’s go-to person for her wisdom and her well-grounded-in-reality common sense. She mentioned to me that she would be coming to Berkeley in April, and since we live just an hour away, we decided to do the house party.

It was a remarkable evening. Twenty-five women (and three men) listened as Judy spoke eloquently and passionately of OBOS’s ongoing advocacy efforts, which included a few topics that would have been straight out of a science fiction novel in 1969:

1. Calling for policies that preserve or expand access to sexual and reproductive services—a white-hot topic in the current political climate.
2. Advocating for improved maternity care policies, especially expanded access to midwifery care, the promotion of VBACs, and a reduction in unnecessary labor inductions.
3. Urging better FDA oversight of siliocne breast implants.
4. Serving on the Steering Committee for this summer’s  third Tarrytown Meeting, where prominent health advocates and academics will work for more responsible governance of new human genetic technologies.
5. Establishing better informed consent for women seeking assisted reproductive technology.
6. Serving as co-plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit regarding the patenting of human genes.

As soon as the party ended Judy was hard at work, answering emails and preparing for the rest of her northern California trip. We dropped her off in Berkeley the next morning, after an enjoyable ride that included a thorough hashing of the public health challenges facing California (that’s Elisabeth’s turf, as director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for Sonoma County—I played the role of driver/active listener).

Rough economic times are particularly rough on nonprofit organizations. I hope you’ll be inspired to contribute to OBOS here (not to put too fine of a point on it, but DONATE HERE!!) We need OBOS more now than ever!

© 2010 by Mark Sloan, MD

Mark Sloan, MD has been a pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics for more than 25 years. His book, Birth Day was named a finalist for the 2010 Northern California Book Awards in Creative Non-Fiction, and named one of fifty notable Bay Area Books of 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Read his complete biography here.  Also, find more Dr. Sloan via his new blog here.

Vitamin D: A buffness requirement

This is the first in a series of frequently asked questions I hear from parents in my practice. If you have an FAQ about children’s health, send it along!

Is vitamin D supplementation really necessary for breastfed babies?

Vitamin D supplementation for breastfed newborns is a hot topic. Though it’s strongly recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, many parents understandably question the need for it. After all, isn’t breast milk nature’s perfect food? Aren’t we undermining breastfeeding promotion by saying mother’s milk is deficient in something? And, hey…if this is such a problem, how did the human race manage to get by without vitamin drops all these eons??

Let’s look at the issue from a number of angles and see what the fuss is all about. I’ll start with a basic Q & A and then go into more detail in future posts.

1) What is vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone. It belongs to the same chemical family as cholesterol, testosterone and estrogen, among many other compounds.

2) What does vitamin D do?

It was originally thought to only play a role in bone health, by helping the body absorb calcium. In recent years, though, vitamin D has been shown to play an important role in immune system functioning, both by heightening the body’s responses to invading bacteria and preventing the immune system from attacking normal tissues.

3) Where do we get vitamin D?

There are two major sources: sunlight and diet. Sunlight is the more efficient way to get vitamin D.

The good stuff

4) What happens if we don’t get enough?

Historically, the connection between lack of sunshine and rickets–soft, deformed bones–was made in the 19th century. (Pelvic bones shrunken and deformed by rickets were the cause of many deaths in childbirth in those days.) Later, a lack of vitamin D was identified as the cause of rickets. Osteoporosis, especially in women, also results from inadequate vitamin D. Recently, as vitamin D’s immune system role has become clearer, a lack of vitamin D has also been linked to a number of serious chronic conditions, such as Type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosis, and multiple sclerosis.

5) Why is there so much vitamin D deficiency these days?

It’s mainly due to decreased sun exposure and poor diet.

6) So why are breastfed babies at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

Many pregnant or lactating women don’t have enough vitamin D for their own bodies, let alone enough to build up their babies’ supply. A mother’s problem soon becomes her baby’s problem, too.

Interested in reading more about Vitamin D?  See my posts here:

Vitamin D (Part 2): Where do we get it?

Vitamin D and…food allergies?

© 2010 by Mark Sloan, MD

Mark Sloan, MD has been a pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics for more than 25 years. His book, Birth Day was named a finalist for the 2010 Northern California Book Awards in Creative Non-Fiction, and named one of fifty notable Bay Area Books of 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Read his complete biography here.  Also, find more Dr. Sloan via his new blog here.