Celebrating your period

The 28^{th of} May is International Menstruation Hygiene Day. You may be asking: what’s there to celebrate? Periods are inconvenient, messy and painful. They come with PMS (Pre-Menstrual Syndrome), pimples and mood swings. They’re uncomfortable, you have to wear pads or tampons, they hurt and they have a particular smell. I look forward to the day when I don’t have periods anymore.

True. All true. 

But, think about it. Period blood is the blood of life. It’s not the blood of war, trauma or death. The blood of the womb gives life to a fertilised ovum (or egg) that becomes an embryo, and brings New Life after nine months.

Ask any woman struggling to get pregnant, the joy when her womb finally accepts life, nurtures it and gives her a child. Ask any woman keeping her fingers crossed that she did not get pregnant, the relief of seeing her period! Ask any young girl the surprise of blood on her panties when she has her first period. Ask any older woman the relief when her periods finally stop.

The demise of mankind won’t be a bomb or a meteorite, a virus, volcano or even global warming. It will be the interference of science with the natural rhythm of menstrual cycles. Already there is evidence in first-world countries where women, after using hormonal contraceptives since first becoming sexually active in her teens, are struggling to get pregnant and have to pay for expensive artificial methods (that may or may not work) to do this.

Periods that are ‘regular’, pain-free, and last 3 – 5 days are the sign of a healthy body and a healthy lifestyle. Periods should not be so painful that women have to miss work (or school), so heavy that pads are soaked through within two hours, and so irregular that they’re always unpredictable. When women have these symptoms, they should be investigated – and not overruled by taking hormones to cover-up the problem.

Today’s woman is taking a whole new look at her femininity and learning to understand her body by reading subtle signs. We are, after all, like the moon – constantly changing within an algorithm of hormonal high’s and lows that create cycles and periods, lead to pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding and finish with menopause and New Life when baby days are over.

Let’s join hands today and celebrate our womanhood. 

   

The gift of Motherhood

The gift of motherhood this Mother’s Day

This Sunday, we will be celebrating Mother’s Day in South Africa. As usual, the commercial world has been advertising ‘Mother’s Day’ specials’ for weeks and families are enticed to buy ‘smellies’ and jewelry to ‘show mom how much you love her’.

Well, let’s forget about all that nonsense and think about what Mother’s Day is really all about.

Mother’s Day is a celebration of ‘Motherhood’. Each time I was pregnant, I would think about my growing baby when I was in the bath. I would wonder what was happening in the hidden world of my womb. While my tummy was still flat, I would think: Is a baby really growing inside there?

After a few months, when my tummy began to swell, this confirmed my pregnancy. From six to nine months, my tummy was like rising dough or an inflating balloon. Then it began to look like an island in the ‘sea’ of my bathwater. As my skin stretched and became tight and shiny, my belly button popped out like the plastic indicator in a cooked turkey. In the last few weeks, before my babies were born, I would feel the hard head just above my pubic bone, and see a tiny foot or knee move across my tummy like a little mouse under a blanket.

And then, the crumpled, wrinkly skin after birth when my precious baby lay in my arms.

The gift of motherhood makes a woman strong and protective, creative, resilient, patient, kind, loving and forgiving.

Motherhood gives a woman a purpose. A mother will sacrifice everything she has for her children. The satisfaction of motherhood comes not only from watching children grow and develop, step by step and stage by stage (without reading a book, they know just what to do). The final reward is watching your children do for your grandchildren what you did for them when they were small.

So, Moms, take time this Mother’s Day to reflect, and thank Creation for the gift of Motherhood. It’s not only about gifts and breakfast in bed – it’s about family, love, togetherness, having fun and enjoying the little things in life. 

Tips for Lupus awareness day - 10th May

Wear purple for International Lupus Awareness Day

I had many of the Lupus symptoms, but I took it that exhaustion, headaches, and body aches were all part and parcel of being a busy mom, running a small practice and the responsibilities of parenthood. I also never found the time to get these checked. This was mostly because Lupus comes in flares – you’re feeling absolutely fine one day, awful the next. Recovery takes from a few days to about a week, and when you’re feeling better, what’s the point of going to the doctor?

10^th May is International Lupus Awareness Day. Although Lupus seems to be on the increase, this may be because it’s recognised and diagnosed earlier today with antibody blood tests. Lupus also mimics the symptoms of many other chronic conditions, mostly HIV. The difference is that HIV is a virus that damages the immune system, whereas Lupus, an auto-immune disease, damages its own immune system. This affects connective tissue and because the whole body is made up of connective tissue – even blood is connective tissue – any system in the body can be attacked. The most severe being a direct hit to the heart (when this happens, Lupus is often only diagnosed at a post-mortem), kidneys, liver, lungs, and brain. It’s for this reason that people with Lupus (usually women) need to go for regular blood tests and check-ups.

They also need to:

• Avoid infections, or get these treated ASAP
• Avoid direct sunshine – this can initiate ‘discoid’ Lupus
• Avoid stress
• Eat healthily
• Exercise
• Take up a hobby
• Don’t google – ask your doctor because every case is different.

The doctor who gave me the best advice told me not to focus on my Lupus, but to focus on my passion. When he asked me what my passion was, I told him it was music.

“Focus on your music then,” he told me. “When I see you again, I want to know what you have done with your music.”

And so, I did. I joined the church choir, volunteered to be the organist, and now I play the piano just about every day, simply for my own enjoyment and love of music. Along with regular check-ups, avoiding junk food, fats, and sugar, I enjoy hobbies like knitting and card-making, writing, cooking, and baking – all of which not only keep me busy and motivated, they also help to bring in a bit of extra cash.

If someone you know has Lupus you can:

• Keep them company when they go to the doctor/hospital for check-ups
• Help them out when they have flare-ups (these can keep us bed-bound for at least a day – sometimes longer)
• Keep them motivated (depression and sleeplessness are real): take them to the movies or out for breakfast. Encourage them to take up a hobby, exercise or yoga
• Send SMS messages just to ask how they’re doing.

If you think about it, everybody needs this kind of support. We should all help and encourage one another to live and eat healthy, live each day to its fullest, and to do the best we can with what we’ve got.

Happy Lupus Day to all my friends at the hospital.