Expecting times two or three or four

Expecting times two or three or four
Clinic Cares for women pregnant with twins or more*

Barbara Luke is a firm advocate of bed rest.

At least that’s what she prescribes for women expecting twins, triplets or quadruplets.

Luke, a nutritionists and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, founded her 4-year-old clinic to provide personal care and specialized treatment for women expecting multiple babies.

The clinic helps to meet a growing need. Statistics from the National Center for Health show that there were more than 110,000 multiple births in the United States in 1997.

“It’s a huge rise in the last 10-15 years,” Luke said.

Luke, 49, said her method gets results.

Women who go to her clinic have babies that are born later, heavier and healthier than those of mothers who don’t get such counseling, she said. Luke hopes to reach even more women with her recently published book, “When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads” which she co-authored with Tamara Eberlein, a New York mother of twins.

Luke’s patients quickly find out that their pregnancies are different from what she calls a singleton pregnancy.

Kristi L. K. Mawby, 31, who lives in Ypsilanti Township, first went to see Luke when she was eight weeks pregnant back in 1996. The rules laid down by Luke at Mawby’s first appointment were intimidating, Mawby said.

“First you will gain lots of weight,” she recalled Luke saying. “I was hoping not to. Second you will eat protein, red meat, until its coming out of your ears; third was all of the vitamin supplements; fourth you will rest. You will stop working; you will be lazy and gestate.”

“Maybe I was in denial of what a twin pregnancy was about,” Mawby continued. “At first I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding. It’s not that bad.”

But as Mawby learned more about twin pregnancies, she began to see Luke’s advice as sound. Put on bed rest for eight weeks, Mawby later delivered at 38 ½ weeks. Her twins, a boy and a girl, will be 3 in May.

Although multiple births have become more common, Luke said. many people don’t seem to understand the risks involved , including low-birth weight, learning disabilities and other long-term effects if babies are born prematurely. Good nutrition and proper care help to significantly reduce these risks, she said.

Many expectatnt mothers of multiples, Luke said, are guilty of not taking care of themselves or continuing a high-paced lifestyle at work and home. And the main detrimental result of not slowing down is the risk of premature delivery, Luke said.

Part of her job as a nutritionist, coach and advocate for women expecting multiples, she said, is to get mothers to relax and take the time to gestate.

A multiples pregnancy is different physically, Luke said. Women get larger faster than if they are pregnant with one child. For example, a woman expecting triplets who is 24 weeks pregnant may look like a woman pregnant with a singleton at 36 weeks, Luke writes in her book.

At first many mothers of multiples are determined to work until their ninth moth, not always realizing that their children may be born a few weeks early and that working can cause stress related problems on the pregnancy.

That’s why early on, Luke counsels her patients on the importance of scheduling time off from work well in advance.

Ann Seifart of Jackson took Luke’s advice to heart when she found out she was pregnant with quadruplets in 1996. Seifart, now 46, took off work from her dental hygienist job when she was four months pregnant. Her quadruplets were born at 31 weeks and, though small, all thrived.

“I took things one step at a time,” said Seifart. “I had success and unfortunately there are women who haven’t.”

Tim Johnson, chair of the OB/GYN clinic at the University of Michigan, said Luke’s clinic and research on multiples is an effective part of the [University of Michigan’s] multidisciplinary effort.

A woman’s regular check-appointment may only be 15 minutes, Johnson said. So that’s why it’s important that a team of nurse-midwives, nutritionists, social workers and other health care providers supplement the prenatal care women expecting multiple babies receive, Johnson said.

“You can imagine why patients love Dr. Luke. The doctors love her and the hospital loves her. Having healthier babies is good for everybody,” Johnson said.

At a patient’s first visit to her clinic, Luke puts the emphasis on nutrition, particularly during the first trimester. The early weeks—the first 13 to 14 weeks— of the pregnancy are the most crucial. “That’s really when the major organs are formed,” Luke said. “The risks of birth defects are greatest during that period.”

Luke finds patients often get unhelpful advice, such as, “Try not to gain too much weight,” from family members and others. Luke’s advice is to eat as much as possible during a multiples pregnancy.

One of her biggest battles, Luke said, is convincing women that during such a pregnancy is not the time to watch her weight.

Luke has counseled mothers of 150 sets of twins, a dozen sets of triplets and Seifert, the mother of the quadruplets.

Despite the long hours, Luke said she can’t imagine doing any other type of work.

“I really love what I do,” she said. “I realize admire my patients. The women have tremendous strengths.”

And the best thing for the nutritional health expert, she said, is hearing from former patients months or years afterwards about their children.

“It’s a vote of confidence that we’re doing it right,” Luke said.

Copyright Feburary 2000 by Pamela Appea for The Ann Arbor News.

Are Black Girls Growing Up Too Fast?

By Pamela J. Appea

When Nicole Turner (not her real name), then an eight-year-old second-grader, got her period, developed breasts and grew pubic hair all in the same year, she was the first in her class to hit puberty.

That was 15 years ago. Now, early puberty is more common than ever; and some are worried about its possible impact on black girls.

The Chicago resident, now 23, remembers being embarrassed at the time because she had to wear a bra to school.

“Starting puberty sooner does make you grow up faster. You’re not a kid anymore,” Turner said. “My mom was shocked when I first got my period. I’ll never forget the look on her face.”
The trend overall for American girls is that they’re reaching puberty sooner and developing at an early age – some feel too early.

But research shows the early onset of puberty is particularly salient among black girls, who, according to some studies, start menstruating and developing as much as two to three years sooner than white girls.

On average, black girls get their periods before age nine. White girls typically start their periods a little later, at around 10. Just 10 years ago, researchers measured the average age of menarche, or first menstrual period, at 12.5 years of age.

In a 1997 University of North Carolina study headed by Dr. Marcia Herman-Giddens, more than 17,000 girls ages 3 through 12 were surveyed during routine doctor’s visits for signs of sexual development.

About 27 percent of black girls started developing by age eight, while only seven percent of white girls had started puberty by that age. About ten percent of the girls in the sample were black, while the rest were white.

In the North Carolina survey, the results of which were published in the medical journal Pediatrics in 1997, researchers reported they found 48 percent of black girls and slightly less than 15 percent of white girls had begun breast or “secondary” hair development — pubic and armpit hair — or both, by age nine.

Surprisingly, Herman-Giddens and her research team also found three percent of the 1,700 black girls in the study showed some sexual development by age three, while just one percent of the 15,300 white girls showed the similar development at that age.

Herman-Giddens, who is now an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, said she and others she worked with noticed five- and six-year-old girls were coming into the clinic with developing breasts or pubic hair when she was working as a physician’s assistant years ago.

Girls who started puberty any time before the average age had previously been considered “abnormal,” and sent to a specialist for evaluation and possible hormone treatment, Herman-Giddens said. But the study’s results saw the incidence of puberty among younger girls as less an anomaly or abnormality than a trend, with the exception of girls under five.

What’s behind this trend? And if it does seem to affect black girls more than whites, why? Although researchers have raised a number of possible causes – from birthweight to diet to stress levels – none has been proven.

Among the general population, and the parents and educators of girls in particular, the riddle of early puberty is especially alarming within the American context of ever-younger exposure to sex in the media. Girls in our society, many fear, are being forced into maturity before they are ready to deal with it.

Turner said that when she first got her period, as the oldest daughter growing up in a rural Illinois community, she didn’t know what was happening at first. Turner’s mother, who was still in her twenties at the time, took her daughter aside and showed her how to make a mini-pad using toilet paper.
But Turner didn’t actually start using sanitary napkins for some time, because she didn’t know about them or where to get them. “I don’t know why my mother didn’t buy pads for me.”
Turner knew the family’s finances were tight at the time — she had several young siblings — but looking back, she still doesn’t think the family’s tight purse strings was the only reason. Her mother may have been embarrassed, and may not have wanted to believe her eight-year-old daughter was menstruating.
“I feel sorry for all these young girls growing up before they have to,” Turner says.
Dina White, a 28-year-old Maryland resident, remembers growing pubic hair around the age of seven or eight, and getting her period at age eight or nine.
“My body was developing much quicker than the other girls in my neighborhood,” White said.
White thinks a high-fat diet may have something to do with the fact that black girls seem to have a tendency to start puberty sooner.

“I think one difference [between us] is our eating habits. We eat more fried foods, we eat larger portions — but not always a balanced diet,” White said.

Growing up in an all-black neighborhood in the Orlando area, White says she and her friends would always eat a lot of junk food. “I was always a thick little girl,” White says.

“My friends and I ate cookies, chips, Hostess cakes and all that. Then in the summers, when I went to the country to visit my grandma, we ate full breakfasts every day with grits, bacon and eggs, biscuits and sometimes even cornbread,” White recalled.
Researchers like Dr. Frank Biro, professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, have conducted research that backs up White’s hunch.

The pediatrician found that heavier black girls are more likely to get their periods and develop faster than other girls, including skinnier black girls. Black girls who were “early maturing” were 1.61 times more likely to be overweight at age 15, while less overweight black girls started menstruating at 12.2 years, more or less in the “normal” time frame.

According to the three-year-old study, black girls who were late in maturing were 0.71 times, or much less likely, to be overweight at that same age. The study also pointed out that “early maturing” girls are overweight at an early age, and they may be less likely to lose that weight later on.

But overall, researchers and scientists agree that more puberty-oriented research needs to be done not only on blacks, but also on Latina, Native Americans and Asian girls.

Average age figures for puberty were reached by studying exclusive samples of white girls several decades ago. Now researchers aren’t sure why there is a “puberty age gap” between black and white girls. Researchers say it’s possible that black girls have been developing and getting their periods earlier than white girls for decades, or even centuries.

On the other hand, data from some African countries, like Kenya, show the average age of menstruation falling from 14.4 years in the 1970s down to 12.9 in the 1980s, according to the Population Information Center at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.
No matter the cause, the effects of early maturation may be profound.

An Oregon puberty study surveyed a community sample of boys and girls, including blacks, and found early-maturing girls and late-maturing boys were more likely to have adjustment and behavioral problems than other teens.

The implications of the Oregon study for blacks, if the results are duplicated in future research, are significant: poor urban black girls, who live more stressful lives, may menstruate sooner than their wealthier, suburban counterparts. If proven, this could have significant implications on social issues such as teen pregnancy.

Irene Johnson, 31, a Virginia resident, works regularly with elementary to middle-school children on a volunteer basis. Johnson says she feels black girls overall are definitely developing earlier than they did a generation ago, when she was growing up in a town 90 minutes away from Cleveland, Ohio.

Johnson said she is “concerned” that girls are developing as early as they do. Johnson credits today’s parents for telling their kids more about puberty than they did a generation ago, but popular culture still gets in the way. Developed kids, she says, act older than they really are.
“I think girls today are developing a little quicker,” Simmons says. “I was an exception, but today, I see middle-school girls at the bus stop who look like grown women with hips and butt and breasts.”

Although Nicole Turner says people are more open to talking about sex today, she still doesn’t feel black girls get the information they need on puberty as early as they should.

Puberty101.com, an informational Web site for adolescents, posts an open letter to parents: “Do you think your child is too young to view this Web site? According to recent research, one out of six girls start puberty by age eight.”

D. Sands, a 25-year-old Maryland resident and mother of a two-year-old girl, says she plans on talking to her daughter when she thinks the time is right. Sands says she wishes now her mother had told her more about puberty before it actually happened.

Sands said she got her period at age 11, roughly around the same time as most of her peers. But Sands quickly grew into a D-cup by seventh-grade. An aunt who was a nurse at Howard University Hospitals told Sands at age 16 to seriously consider a breast reduction after the teen reached size 42DD. Later, Sands’ mother counseled her daughter “not to worry about the unsolicited advice,” and the issue was dropped.

Sands says that if her daughter develops in the same way in a couple of years, she will try and give her the information she needs.

White, who now has an 11-year-old daughter, said it’s hard to know all the answers.
“The next generation of black girls — and their parents — will not be as prepared for puberty, especially if they’re getting younger and younger.” She worries that girls will get their information not from parents and professionals but from their friends.

“We have unknowledgeable kids teaching our kids about puberty. And that’s a shame.”

2001 Article written by Pamela Appea for Africana.com

Please do not re-distribute or re-post this article without my consent. Thank you!
pjappea@hotmail.com.

Sexual Abuse Of Women on Prison Called an Epidemic

Pamela J Appea, Washington Bureau.
Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.:
Mar 5, 1999. pg. 5
Full Text (395 words)

Stepping up its attack on human-rights violations in this country, Amnesty International charged Thursday that widespread sexual abuse of female inmates is "virtually a fact of life" in U.S. prisons.

Amnesty's report cited court records and accounts by female inmates of sexual abuse by prison guards, including being sold to male inmates for sex, groping pat-down searches, rape and prurient viewing of women while dressing and showering.

"These degrading and dangerous abuses reflect an epidemic of violence against women and the continued second-class status of women in the U.S.," the report said.

Amnesty International said that, although it is difficult to estimate how many women are victims of sexual abuse or assault, the number of women in U.S. prisons and jails has more than tripled since 1985, to 138,000, increasing the likelihood that a greater number of women will be subject to human-rights abuse in a prison system primarily designed for male inmates.

Amnesty claims that 12 states lack laws prohibiting prison guards from having sexual contact with female inmates.

Coercive sexual abuse was the report's most frequently cited abuse, said Christine Haenn, media director for Amnesty International in Washington.

The report cites the case of a female inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago who alleged in a federal court hearing last October that she was forced into a sexual relationship with a staff member in return for contraband hair products and food.

The woman said she was groped and fondled by another employee on a number of occasions after the first employee bragged about what he had done.

One of the employees has been reassigned to a job where he has no contact with female inmates, Amnesty said.

Amnesty's report also said the penal system's medical system and prenatal resources for female inmates are inadequate. It said shackles are sometimes used during hospitalization, including childbirth, by various institutions, including Cook County Jail.

The report recommends that prisons place women with infants in halfway houses so they can be with their children for at least part of their prison term.

Illinois permits qualified inmates--those without a history of violent behavior or severe mental illness--in residential programs for up to two years.However, only 15 slots are available for this program. In 1997, the report states, at least 120 pregnant women were incarcerated in Illinois state prisons, and 51 babies were born to prisoners.

Theology conference encourages spiritualism, racial unity

Thirty years ago James Cone, currently of New York’s Union Seminary burned the midnight oil, like any other intellectual, in order to write.

Cone, who had studied the great Western theologians and thinkers for years in the seminary, decided, however, to break away from what he deemed to be the uninspiring type of publication produced by his peers in order to pen the groundbreaking book entitled Black Theology & Black Power. This single work opened the floodgates to theological and intellectual discourse across the nation on the discipline of black theology, a previously unheard of concept.

This past weekend marked the first U of C black theology conference, arguably the first black theology conference held anywhere in the United States. It was hosted by the Martin E. Marty Center and the University of Chicago Divinity School. The conference, organized by Associate Professor of Theology Dwight Hopkins, along with Divinity School students, was entitled “Black Theology as Public Discourse: From Retrospect to Prospect,” and helped to honor the 30th anniversary of the publication of Cone’s book.

“I think we needed to be better prepared for the overwhelming response, said Hopkins. “Hotels were not available. People called and said they could not come because there wasn’t a place to stay, particularly students. [This response demonstrates that] black theology is an essential issue.”

Over 2,500 community leaders, students and faculty congregated in Hyde Park in order to discuss, debate and question black theology and examine black theological issues in relation to every day social reality of blacks, both during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and current times.

Cone, Cornel West, professor of Afro-American studies and religion at Harvard University, Manning Marable, professor at Columbia University, and Emilie Townes, of the St. Paul School of Theology, were featured speakers for the conference. The conference also featured workshops and panel discussions.

West spoke Friday, April 3, at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel about the relevance of black rage with black individuals’ intense desire to be considered human, which every individual grapples with in their lives from a theological standpoint.

“[Cone’s] classic … changed the lives of thousands and thousands of young brothers and sisters who were trying to reconcile the times of the Civil Rights movement and their own Christianity,” said West.

Cone spoke on the afternoon of Saturday, April 4 for the annual University of Chicago Aims of Religion Address at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Cone talked about his awakenings, prompted by the unjust assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The Civil Rights and the Black Power movements awakened me from my theological slumber. The curriculum at Garrett and Northwestern did not deal with the questions that black people were asking,” said Cone.

Cone detailed the beginning of his search for this “theological identity.”

“Malcolm taught me how to make theology black and to not be ashamed of my African roots. Martin taught me how to make theology [truly] Christian and to deal with socio-political injustices,” he said.

In that time period, Cone declared that his identity was transformed from a Negro theologian to a black theologian.

“As someone who has followed black theology, it has challenged me to be critically engaged with issues of black liberation … and to rethink creatively the foundations of the black theological movement,” said Kazi Joshua, director of the organization for the conference, research assistant to Hopkins, and a third-year student in the Divinity school.

Cone went on to discuss the idea that liberation theology must strive to include disenfranchised individuals of other minority groups.

“After the Holocaust, theologians asked whether anti-Semitism was an extractable segment of Christianity. [Then] Feminist theologians asked whether patriarchy is so deeply rooted in Christianity. Gay and lesbian theologians are asking whether homophobia is part of Christianity, third-world theologians are asking the same,” he said.

Cone challenged individuals to explore Christianity, which he says has been used for unjust purposes by white theologians and white ministers.

“Christianity was used to justify slavery, colonialism, and socio-economic injustices for over 500 years. I sometimes wonder how they are not embarrassed to deal with the issues,” he said.

Cone concluded that individuals should not give up hope. However, Cone believes that the “racial edge of theology” should not be dulled or dropped, but rather honed for education, racial healing and theological discourse.

Copyright 1998 by Pamela Appea for The Chicago Maroon.

Chocolate Vault Proves to be a Gold Mine

A Tecumseh (Michigan) institution, The Chocolate Vault offers patrons a chance to savor home-made raspberry cremes, amaretto truffles and double dipped brownies.

And that's just the beginning.

Since husband-wife team Jim and Barb McCann opened the Chocolate Vault in 1985, the shop's popularity has drawn customers coming everywhere from Toledo to Windsor.

Locals, who are regulars, also support the store, Barb McCann said.

Large corporations commission Chocolate Vault staffers to make end-of-the-year chocolate gifts. Kids in Harry Potter book clubs request custom-made chocolate frogs for the group.

The shop's name was inspired by several community banks that the building housed in the 19th century and early 20th century. And the 110-116 W. Chicago Blvd. address has seen a number of other shops and businesses open and fold in its 150-year history, Barb McCann said. Doctors treated patients in the building, insurance companies did business, and postal clerks sold stamps.

The McCanns also previously operated cake decorating, candy shop and bridal-service businesses from the 1970s to the early 1980s at the same address. But the couple decided to convert to an all-chocolate business by the '80s to simplify everyday operations.

Focusing on selling chocolate and ice cream was the natural next step for them, said Barb McCann.It's the kind of store that makes Tecumseh a destination, said Cindy R. Helinksi, economic development director of the city.

The store gets visited by regulars who must have their weekly truffles or turtles or a pound of mixed chocolates for their relative, said Jim McCann.

And the staff are glad to oblige with the requests they get for unusual or specialized chocolate molds orders.The McCanns have filled orders for 500 chocolate train engines, 1,000 post office boxes, 500 boxes of chocolate with chocolates inside (with the company logo on top of the box)

Even a chocolate brain.

The Chocolate Vault will do it all.

Despite the old-fashioned community feel to the store, most of the Chocolate Vault's business flows from the Internet, said Barb McCann. Since the Chocolate Vault went online in September 1998, the majority of the Chocolate Vault's customers haven't even met the McCanns or sipped on a coffee or ice cream shake in the old-fashioned seating room there.

"Fifty-five percent of the candy business is from the Internet," Jim McCann said.

According to Jim McCann, the Chocolate Vault's candy sales total in 1999 was up by 13.1 percent as compared with the previous year. Breaking the numbers down, local sales in 1999 went up by .25 percent, while Web sales went up by 42.5 percent.Most days are long, said Barb McCann, who routinely works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week.

With a few staffers on board at the shop, Barb McCann works a full day on the Web and Jim McCann juggles orders for special occasions like Valentine's Day, working the counter and acting as the technical support.

"We like what we do" Jim McCann said.

Copyright 2000 by Pamela Appea for The Ann Arbor News