May 21, 2023 | Environment, Front Page, Health, Infosec, Uncategorized
Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
——- Forwarded Message ——-
From: < >
Date: On Tuesday, March 28th, 2023 at 4:37 PM
Subject: CODE RED
To: Patrick Eddington <***********@**.com>, ******@comcast.net < >
Hi, folks. No time for lengthy introductions. Pat is ex-CIA. When we last corresponded, earlier this year, he was living in Washington DC and working for the Cato Institute. David is my mentor and a former client. I am also copying a friend of mine who is part of one of the wealthiest families in America. I am not sharing her name, but she is welcome to pass this information along to her family.
Please bear in mind that I am a civilian and not associated with any branch of U.S. or foreign intelligence, so you may take what I say with some skepticism. With that said, I believe that all of us are in some danger from a possible coup. You are welcome to pass on the information that follows, as I believe it is extremely urgent and important.
——————————————————————————-
THREAT ASSESSMENT : HIGH
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My concern is that Kamala Harris has been drugged with the same poison gas used against Iranian schoolgirls and reported in the BBC. I think I was exposed to the same gas several times starting on the November 4, 2022. It would explain a lot. I am calling this toxic gas “the stupid gas.”
So, we are dealing with the possibility of a WMD here, deployed on US soil. Even if you find my hypothesis unconvincing, I urge you to check things out.
The important thing to know is that many hotels and indoor spaces, as well as bunkers, fallout shelters, and hospitals, have closed ventilation systems. This makes them especially vulnerable to gas attacks. Think of it as “the aromatherapy of evil.”
This is to say, you could go into a closed space, with only the best of expectations, and come out a completely different person. Anyway, this is just a theory. Please check it out with your other intelligence sources. But be aware — they may also be compromised.
More information below:
Are Iranian schoolgirls being poisoned by toxic gas?
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Reality Check
IMAGE FROM IRANIAN SOCIAL MEDIA
IMAGE SOURCE,TWITTER
By Reality Check, BBC Monitoring and BBC Persian
BBC News
More than 1,000 Iranian students – mostly schoolgirls – have fallen ill over the past three months in what has been reported to be a wave of poisonings, possibly with toxic gas. What is making people sick?
Dozens of girls in at least 26 schools across the country reportedly fell ill on Wednesday – a clear escalation in cases.
Many patients have reported similar symptoms: respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.
So what could be behind all these reports – and how have they spread across the country?
The first case
The first known case was reported at a school in the city of Qom, when 18 schoolgirls fell ill and were taken to hospital on 30 November. Since then, at least 58 schools in eight provinces have been affected, according to local media.
Most cases have been at girls’ schools. There have also been some reports of teachers and schoolboys affected, along with parents who have arrived at the scene.
The BBC has analysed dozens of videos posted to social media and has verified many of the school locations filmed.
Many of these show young people in distress in school settings, with some being loaded into ambulances and others lying in hospital beds. Others show ambulances arriving and crowds gathered outside school gates.
Map of Iran showing reported poisoning incidents
One pupil at a school in Shahryar, near Tehran, said she and her classmates smelled “something very strange”. It was “so unpleasant, like rotten fruit but much more pungent,” she told BBC Persian.
The following day “many of the students fell ill and didn’t come to school, our English literature teacher also fell ill,” she said.
“When I went home, I was feeling dizzy and sick, my mum was worried cause I was so pale and out of breath.”
“Fortunately I recovered soon,” she said. “Most of the kids in our school recovered in 24 hours.”
She said the school’s headmistress and principals were “scared”, adding that after reports of cases at other schools surfaced they “came and told us students to not talk about what had happened”.
Finding a cause
Government officials have given conflicting reasons for the pupils’ illness and Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, has ordered an inquiry to get to the “root cause”.
Many in Iran believe students are being deliberately poisoned in an attempt to close girls’ schools, which have been one of the centres of anti-government protests since September.
In Iran, almost all schools are single sex.
Some pupils and parents suggested that schoolgirls may have been targeted for taking part in recent anti-government protests.
But the cause of illness remains unclear.
Chemical weapons expert Dan Kaszeta, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said that “finding the alleged causative substance is often the only useful evidence, but can be extremely difficult”.
As substances can dissipate or degrade, collecting a sample “pretty much requires you to be there, with the right equipment, at the time of exposure,” he tweeted.
Many witness accounts from Iran have focused on smells – describing a tangerine or rotten fish odour – but this can be misleading, he said.
“The various odours described in the Iranian incidents are difficult to tie to particular chemical hazards,” he said.
In some videos, girls can be heard complaining about tear gas, which has been widely used during recent anti-government protests. Mr Kaszeta said that was “plausible in some way”, as poorly-made tear gas can release off “a lot of junk” with a range of odours.
Mr Kaszeta said biomedical tests – like blood and urine screening – could provide an answer, but were complicated by the number of possible culprits.
“The list of things that are plausibly nasty and irritating enough to make people sick runs into the hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds,” he said.
The incidents in Iran have similarities with a series of alleged poisoning cases in Afghan schools in the 2010s, according to Mr Kaszeta. These, he said, were not properly investigated and so remain largely unresolved.
Twitter screnshot of photos online of pupils’ arms after blood samples were taken
IMAGE SOURCE,TWITTER
Image caption,
Schoolgirls with symptoms have shared photos online after blood samples were taken
Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, has reviewed the results of blood tests from some of the Iranian schoolgirls, but said no toxins had been detected. He said he was sent these results unofficially from sources in Iran.
“It’s difficult to rule anything in or out at this point as that would require a full screening for a whole variety of things,” said Prof Hay, who has investigated suspected chemical attacks across the world.
However, he said, from what he had seen, it was unlikely that a nerve agent or an organophosphate poison – like those used in pesticides – could be responsible.
“What’s significant about these cases is that people generally recovered quite quickly,” he said. In contrast, in many poisonings, victims are “ill for quite some time,” he said.
There have, however, been reports of longer term effects. BBC Persian has spoken to the family of a girl who was unable to walk for over a week, describing her lower body as ‘paralysed’. Other similar cases have also been reported to the BBC.
Prof Hay said investigators should take a “very systematic” approach and conduct thorough interviews with all patients, as well as carrying out blood and urine tests.
A psychological source?
While not ruling out a possible toxic substance, both Prof Hay and Mr Kaszeta suggested psychological factors could play a part.
Prof Simon Wessely, a psychiatrist and epidemiologist at King’s College London, said several “key epidemiological factors” led him to believe these were not a chain of poisonings, but were instead a case of “mass sociogenic illness” – in which symptoms spread among a group with no obvious biomedical cause.
The spread of cases across the country and the fact it has been predominantly affecting schoolgirls, with fewer boys and adults falling ill, were central to his conclusion, he said. The nature of the symptoms and the fact most patients quickly recovered were also key, he said.
Twitter screenshot of emergency vehicle attending scene of school incident
IMAGE SOURCE,TWITTER
Image caption,
Emergency services attended to reported poisoning cases at a primary school in east Tehran
In cases of mass sociogenic illness, the symptoms experienced are real, but they are caused by anxiety, not toxic poisoning, Prof Wessely said.
“The early stages of poisoning by most things are pretty similar, your pulse starts to race, you feel faint, you go pale, you get butterflies in your stomach, you feel shaky.” These symptoms could be from an infection, poisoning or a mass anxiety, he said.
Against a backdrop of harsh government repression of protest, Prof Wessely said it was “not at all surprising that you would get this happening now in Iranian schools”.
The Iranian cases appeared to be “very reminiscent” of outbreaks of undiagnosed illness in Kosovo in 1990 and the occupied West Bank in 1986, he said. No biomedical cause was found in either and experts believe they were the result of mass sociogenic illness, Prof Wessely said.
Rusi’s Mr Kaszeta, said: “We have to accept the distinct possibility that we will not know what happened or that, actually, multiple different things happened and we’re muddling them up together.”
Reporting by Shayan Sardarizadeh, Niko Kelbakiani, William McLennan, Jana Tauschinski, Joshua Cheetham and Kayleen Devlin
Clarification 6 March 2023: This article has been amended to remove a term for mass sociogenic illness that has the potential to cause offence. Details of reports of longer term effects have also been added. In addition, the beginning of the piece has been edited to emphasise the fact that most of the reported cases were at girls’ schools.
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Jul 22, 2022 | Health
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If you or someone you love lives with bipolar disorder, please take the time to read this article. Also be aware that abrupt discontinuation of medication carries serious risk of relapse. Always consult with a doctor before changing your medication.
The Myth of Bioequivalence:
Why Generic Lithium Is Unsafe
A Statement of Facts
Introduction
In the World War II historical drama The Imitation Game, Alan Turing and his team manage to decode a radio transmission warning of an imminent Nazi attack to an ocean freighter. They are anguished, knowing that if the British Navy acts upon their warning, it will tip off the Nazis to the existence of this newly developed ENIGMA decoder machine, potentially resulting in far greater loss of life. The information they have gleaned is too dangerous to be used.
Public discussion of the issues with the safety of generic Lithium raises a similar paradox.
For many patients, there is no good alternative treatment available. Reports that the drug was unsafe would cause many patients to abruptly stop taking the drug, putting them at high risk of withdrawal symptoms. While the issues surrounding the safety of generic Lithium are well-known to clinicians and pharmacists, they may be hesitant to raise the alarm in the media because the consequences to patients from abrupt withdrawal may be even worse.
Yet over the border in Canada, a safe and effective prescription may be obtained for approximately $30 US per month. Closer to home, new laser measurement techniques make routine quality screening possible and affordable for every prescription filled–if there were only a market incentive to make this technology widely available.
All Lithium prescriptions in the United States have been generic since Eskalith (formerly manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline) was discontinued in 2008. The drug, still widely used to treat bipolar disorder, is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines and is the 205th most commonly prescribed drug in the US. Over 2.6 million Lithium prescriptions were filled in the United States in 2019.
The problems with the generic drug supply in the US have been well documented in such books as Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, by Katherine Eban. This New York Times editorial does an excellent job of summarizing Eban’s main arguments.
However, the pitfalls of generic Lithium are even more severe, due to the drug’s narrow therapeutic range.
For a Narrow Therapeutic Index (NTI) drug like Lithium, the dosage required to be effective is very close to the amount that is toxic and potentially fatal. This poses a problem for the FDA’s current drug regime, known as bioequivalence, because the strength of generic medication in each dose is permitted to vary between 80% and 125% of the prescribed dosage.
This means that an individual who is prescribed a safe-but-high dose of Lithium (for instance, 1500 mg daily) might in fact, on any given refill, find themselves taking a daily dose of 1875 mg… a dose high enough to cause symptoms of Lithium toxicity and organ damage.
End “Lithium Roulette.”
Taking daily medication should never be a gamble. But that’s exactly what people experience when taking Lithium, one of the oldest and most trusted medications for treating mood disorders. Lithium is only available in generic form in the US, and FDA regulations allow the actual dosage of generics per pill to vary between 80 and 125% of the prescribed dosage. This “one-size-fits-all” approach, known as bioequivalence, ignores the fact that certain medications, such as Lithium, require precision dosage. Dosage fluctuations produce toxicity at the high end of the range, and trigger withdrawal symptoms and relapses at the low end. As far back as 2010, the FDA voted to tighten the allowable dosage standard for Lithium and other Narrow Therapeutic Index (NTI) drugs, but these recommendations were never enacted. It is time to hold healthcare providers and generic drug manufacturers accountable.
Abstract
This document describes an issue with drug safety which has played a role in more than 20,000 deaths in the United States since 2008. If not addressed, it will unquestionably result in many more deaths. Because these are deaths by suicide, they tear apart families and bring anguish to loved ones like nothing else
- The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.
- Improving the quality, safety, and dose consistency of generic Lithium is inexpensive and attainable with current technology.
- Bureaucratic apathy and medical negligence are to blame for the current crisis.
Once prescribers, psychiatric associations, and generic drug manufacturers are held accountable, those affected may be able to receive compensation and rebuild their lives. Most important of all, an essential and lifesaving medication may again be made safely available in our country.
Witnesses
I am aware of three doctors, all MDs with years of experience in the practice of psychiatry, who may be contacted to provide testimony that generic Lithium is unsafe.
The FDA recommended stricter bioequivalence standards for Lithium as early as 2010.
Source: https://fda.gov “Quality and Bioequivalence Standards for Narrow Therapeutic Index Drugs,” p. 24. An archived PDF file for this presentation may be viewed and downloaded here.
Midway through the first term of the Obama administration, the FDA announced its intention to adopt stricter standards for generic Lithium and other drugs with similarly narrow therapeutic ranges. In 2010, an FDA committee voted 11-2 that the current bioequivalence standards were not sufficient for Narrow Therapeutic Index drugs [including Lithium] and it was suggested that the standards need to be stricter.
Sadly, we find no evidence or public record showing that these recommendations were ever enacted. Faced with little public awareness of the issue, lack of professional engagement and interest from doctors, their professional associations, and other potential “watchdogs,” it would appear that the FDA never followed through with their stated intention. Under the Trump administration, public discussion of changes to bioequivalence standards ceased altogether.
Here is a firsthand account of what this type of Lithium poisoning looks like:
“…two years ago, my nurse practitioner (psych) discontinued my Depakote and started me on Lithium due to unrelenting depression. I was okay for three days on the 300 mg twice a day, but when I increased it to 600 mg twice a day, according to her instructions, I became very ill, very suddenly.
I was so ill I didn’t recognize it myself and never attributed it to my change in medication. I was totally confused, couldn’t walk in a straight line, and was vomiting several times a day. I know now the green haze that I saw is due to Lithium toxicity but thought it odd at the time.
Needless to say, I had to go to the ER and they kept me in. I had Lithium poisoning and had five times the level in my blood. Nearly died. I was very sick indeed for two days in hospital, then released home with two new diagnoses: hypertension and kidney disease which are now being treated with medication, but not welcome diagnoses at all.”
– Sally Alter, on Quora.com
The author of the post does not realize it, but the symptoms she describes are entirely consistent with being prescribed generic Lithium at the high end of the current dosage range allowed by the FDA. It is especially telling that she was able to tolerate Lithium at an earlier period in her life and encountered no problems.
Prescribers who know of these risks and do not inform their patients, insist on the necessary blood tests, or advocate for stricter standards are in violation of their Hippocratic Oath.
Lithium toxicity, while the most dramatic byproduct of the current negligence in bioequivalence standards, is only the tip of the iceberg.
Bipolar disorder affects about 5.7 million adults in the United States, and the fatality rate is staggering–as high as 20 percent. Nearly 12,000 lives are lost to bipolar suicide each year. Lithium remains the first-line treatment for many individuals experiencing bipolar disorder. We see evidence of its declining effectiveness in the population at large. Success rates of 70 to 85% were once expected with lithium for the acute phase treatment of mania, however, lithium response rates of only 40 to 50% are now more common.
Using the most conservative assumptions possible, we should assume that over the past 14 years, generic Lithium was a factor in at least 20,000 of these deaths. This figure is derived from 12,000 bipolar suicide deaths per year x 12 years x reported Lithium usage rate of 14.3% = 20,592 deaths. For data on rates of Lithium usage for patients in the United States from 1996-2015, see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32739706/
This estimate is low, since it does not include those people who discontinued generic Lithium after experiencing toxicity or relapse.
Why would generic Lithium be a culprit?
Because variation in dose strength leads to relapse.
Relapses lead to acute mood swings: bouts of psychotic mania and extreme depression that may themselves lead to suicidal actions, or to the words and actions that destroy relationships, marriages, and careers. Even if the first relapse does not kill somebody, it may leave them dangerously isolated and vulnerable. The effect is to decrease an individual’s belief in the effectiveness of medication and increase stigma in the population at large.
“There is no cure for bipolar illness” is one of the most harmful and misleading statements ever coined. For many individuals, including myself, name-brand Lithium with precise dosage was effectively a cure. Now it can only be obtained by venturing outside the United States.
Let’s go back to our hypothetical individual who is prescribed 1500 mg daily of Lithium. Data suggests that the risk of symptoms from abrupt Lithium withdrawal actually exceeds the risk from the untreated disorder. Dose variations in generic Lithium means someone could go from 1875 mg to 1200 mg in dosage over a single refill–enough to cause withdrawal symptoms.
How often does this happen? Remember that Lithium is a maintenance drug. Even if a significant fluctuation in dosage happens with only one drug refill out of 10, if you are bipolar and taking generic Lithium, the odds are that this “yo yo effect” will happen to you at least once every year. If you have a relapse, you will likely wonder what you did wrong and blame yourself, never realizing the role played by drug manufacturers and clinicians who knowingly allowed an unsafe product to remain available to consumers.
My Story
In 2018, I was about to embark on the seed round of fundraising for my social media and cryptocurrency startup. We had a great product and a terrific founding team. Everyone involved was optimistic about our chances. One of our early investors asked me to apply for life insurance. I was surprised to learn I did not qualify, due to the high death rate associated with my diagnosis. I was healthy and under a doctor’s care. It made no difference.
Being unable to obtain what it is known as “Key Man” insurance meant that my hopes of launching a venture-backed tech startup were dashed. I turned my passion and energy towards wellness coaching instead, hoping that I could make a difference and model a successful outcome for individuals struggling with mood disorders.
Operating with almost no name recognition or word of mouth, I quickly connected with a large pool of coaching clients. The experience was rewarding, but it also made me aware of the shortcomings of our mental health care system–in particular, the issues surrounding generic mood stabilizers.
My frustration with the treatment options available to persons with mood disorders led me to eventually close my practice. I did not wish to profit from a system that was so seriously broken. I was committed to working with doctors and licensed clinicians, and would only see clients who already had a doctor and/or therapist. However I did not feel I could be honest about the risks associated with drug therapy without a scalable, accessible solution at hand.
Conclusion
If you are prescribed Lithium, you should expect to have your blood drawn several times each year in order to determine whether your Lithium blood level is in the therapeutic range, or whether the serum level is too low or too high. That is what is entailed when prescribing and monitoring a potentially toxic drug with a narrow therapeutic range. The experience is painful and inconvenient, but medically necessary. Dosage fluctuations have transformed this established medical procedure into an empty ritual.
This is not an issue of side effects or isolated incidents of poor quality control. This is an issue of systematic negligence which has rendered one of the most important and trusted treatments for a life threatening disease to lose its effectiveness, and in some cases be worse than no treatment at all. Because of the risks from abrupt Lithium withdrawal, those most directly impacted cannot even safely cease taking the medication. We are looking at a situation where a serious and well-known safety issue was ignored for over a dozen years. Care providers, drug manufacturers, and professional associations who should have been motivated to act on behalf of patient safety instead did next to nothing. Apathy and inaction led to death.
Many people have experienced Lithium toxicity and preventable manic or depressive episodes due to negligent bioequivalence standards, but the most tragic harm rests with the individuals who have lost their lives, and with their families. Potentially, the pool of people harmed includes anyone with a family member who took generic Lithium and then had one or more episodes before ultimately committing suicide. These stories number in the tens of thousands. Practices, prescribers, professional associations, and generic drug manufacturers all bear responsibility.
Stigma is a major factor that keeps successful, high-functioning bipolar people from organizing for better care, more research, and treatments that actually work! We remain closeted and are busy living our lives until the moment when illness strikes us down. Earlier in this document, I alluded to an anecdote from Alan Turing’s life. Readers may be aware that Turing died by suicide, driven largely by homophobia and repression from the British government. Unless you have actually lived through prejudice, it is very difficult to comprehend the experience of being hated and shunned for something you cannot control. This was certainly the hardest lesson for me to learn as a wellness coach. I had never before had to face hatred head-on.
This barrier of ableism may be the greatest challenge to restoring justice and safe standards for an irreplaceable medication. I believe it is surmountable. Lives are at stake.
If you or someone you know is in crisis or experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call 988 or contact one of the many Crisis Resources listed on our site.
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Feb 4, 2022 | Health, Seniors, Uncategorized
If you have parents or grandparents who live far away, you may be worried about the fact that you can’t help them with daily tasks. Luckily, there are many ways to help your senior loved one maintain a great quality of life, even if you can’t be there yourself to provide hands-on care. Read on for resources that can help the elderly in everyday life.
Find Tools to Help Your Senior Loved One with Important Financial Decisions
Finances are often a primary concern for persons in retirement. Make sure your parents or grandparents are managing their money wisely with some helpful tools.
Leverage Technology to Help Your Loved One Navigate Everyday Challenges
Technology can make life easier and more enjoyable for seniors in many ways.
- Get them a senior-friendly cell phone to stay connected.
- Provide them with a smart assistant so they can do things like adjusting lighting and music hands-free.
- Invest in a medical alert system with fall detection to bring you both peace of mind.
- Find innovative ways to connect from afar, like virtual game nights.
Connect with Third-Party Providers to Ensure Your Loved One’s Needs Are Met
When you can’t provide hands-on help yourself, knowing there are others nearby to assist can bring you and your parents or grandparents peace of mind.
- Find a senior-specific transportation service to help them get to appointments.
- If cooking is a hassle, get a meal delivery service for them.
- For seniors who need more hands-on support, get a caregiver.
- If they are struggling with mental health issues, connect them to a virtual wellness practitioner. PDX Local offers a roundup.
Living far away from your senior loved one can be emotionally and practically challenging. However, there are many resources and tools to help you care for them from afar. Let the above guide inspire you.
Oct 25, 2021 | Environment, Fair Trade, Health, Local Business, Organic, Uncategorized, Vegan, Woman Owned Business
Can vegan chocolate ever be as good as the real thing?
So many people can’t have dairy or follow a vegan diet. They don’t want to settle for hard, bitter chocolate. You can still get great tasting chocolate with that creamy mouth feel and not have dairy in it. We use coconut oil for a silky-smooth mouth feel. You get that milk chocolate mouth feel without the dairy.
How do you ensure that your products are ethically and sustainable sourced?
We order from companies who source their ingredients from reputable sources. Our organic cacao powder comes from the Dominican Republic and other locations in South America. It costs more but it’s worth it.
What are some of the health benefits of coconut oil? Why choose this over other dairy alternatives?
We chose coconut oil because of the truffle like texture it provides. It also a medium-chain triglyceride (MCT’s). It helps keep you satiated or feeling full. This means that only a few pieces of Cocacao will satisfy a craving.
We are a refrigerated chocolate due to the coconut oil. We use only 3-5 ingredients in Cocacao and no stabilizers or preservatives. Due to the low melting point of coconut oil we need to be kept in the refrigerator. It doesn’t go bad if it is left out, it only gets soft in a warmer environment. In stores you can find us in the refrigerated bakery, grab-n-go, or even by the dairy. Each store is different since refrigerated space is very limited.
I am always asked what do you do with Cocacao? YOU EAT IT! Cocacao is a decadent, delicious treat that is made from 3-5 simple ingredients, no refined sugar or dairy, silky-smooth texture, pre-portioned pieces, and will satisfy in small amounts. You can melt it in short bursts in the microwave (5-10 seconds), stir and pour over granola or ice cream (creates a magic shell). People will drop it in their coffee or smoothie. But really it is just a decadent dessert that everyone can enjoy, no matter what their diet looks like.
What is your favorite flavor?
My favorite flavor is our Blueberry. It has dried organic blueberries from Oregon in it. I love the chew of the fruit in it. The Hazelnut and Sea Salt is the most popular flavor. If you enjoy an after-dinner mint, then our Mint flavor is for you. It has the cool taste of peppermint. We have a Cayenne and Cinnamon flavor that has some kick to it. Those that like a spicy chocolate will enjoy this flavor. Our Pumpkin Spice seasonal flavor is like a chocolate pumpkin pie. And those that want simplicity, our Original flavor is for you. Only three organic ingredients.
Can you talk about how Cocacao came to be?
Ours is a story of Death, Divorce and Chocolate. After the loss of Jeff’s wife and my divorce, he asked me on our first date, “Do you like chocolate and coconut?”
My answer of yes led me to not only a new marriage, but to running a company. Jeff had a health need to have a treat that would not cause inflammation and I wanted a decadent chocolate that wouldn’t cause a migraine from refined sugar. For the full story, see “Our Story” on our website.
https://cocacao.com/
Cocacao is vegan, paleo, gluten-free, and certified organic.
https://www.instagram.com/cocacao/
https://www.facebook.com/LOVECOCACAO
https://twitter.com/_COCACAO
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cocacao/
Oct 21, 2020 | Health
If someone you know comes to you and says they are thinking about suicide, don’t do nothing. They make take it as tacit endorsement of their plan.
If you are not comfortable talking to someone directly about the subject, get someone else involved. Refer them to a crisis hotline. Or just say, “I’m not equipped to handle this.”
But don’t ignore or ghost them.
Sign up for free suicide prevention training at https://qprinstitute.com/
Oct 7, 2020 | Health, Parenting, Woman Owned Business
by Emily Graham
Are you looking for ways to support a pregnant friend, spouse, or loved one during the coronavirus crisis? These nine resources from PDX Local can help you to be the friend, partner, spouse, or parent your loved one needs during this emotionally challenging — and potentially isolating — time in her life.
How to Support Your Expectant Loved One
Pregnancy isn’t easy in the midst of a pandemic, but there are things you can do to take some of the weight off your pregnant loved one’s shoulders.
- First, take the time to understand what your pregnant loved one is going through. Many pregnant and postpartum women are feeling stressed, anxious, and socially isolated as they attempt to protect themselves and their babies from the coronavirus.
- Provide your pregnant friend with the support she needs during the pandemic with these five tips from Thrive Global.
- Plan a distanced baby shower for your mother-to-be. Several safe alternatives to in-person parties include drive-by baby showers, virtual events, and tailgate showers.
Gift Ideas for Pregnant Mothers
These resources will help you to give your expectant or postpartum loved one everything she needs to navigate pregnancy and motherhood.
- Explore the 50 best gifts for pregnant and postpartum mothers, including memory books, holiday ornaments, and handprint photo frames.
- Give mom-to-be the gift of a meal subscription box. Several options include Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Martha and Marley Spoon.
- Check out the PDX Local Wellness Gift Guide for more than 50 potential gift ideas that can be purchased now or in time for the holidays.
Tips to Save on Pregnancy Gifts
You don’t need to spend a fortune on pregnancy gifts to support an expectant loved one during the pandemic. These three resources can help you save on your purchases and make a few DIY gifts for your pregnant loved one.
- Use deal websites to find savings on purchases from clothing retailers like Old Navy. You can find Old Navy cash back offers, promo codes, and coupons — helping you to save on maternity apparel for your pregnant loved one.
- Make a DIY gift for your pregnant loved one. DIYS.com offers 20 do-it-yourself gift ideas for expectant mothers, including a two-seam maternity dress, pregnancy journal, brunch basket, and herbal foot soak.
- Look for deals on baby essentials while shopping on Amazon.com, visiting thrift stores, or buying from Target.
While preparing for the arrival of a new baby is rarely simple, the pandemic has made pregnancy and childbirth even more difficult for many expectant and new mothers around the world. However, your support can make a world of difference as your loved one prepares for the birth of her new baby, and learns to navigate pregnancy in the midst of a pandemic.
Emily Graham is the creator of Mighty Moms. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family.
