MTBE: The Harmful Chemical in Your Backyard

Oven and window cleaners. Drano. Mr. Clean. Ajax. Carpet Shampoo. Toilet bowl cleaner. Laundry detergents and bleach. 

We all know about the dangers these household chemicals pose to growing bodies, which is why we child-proof our bathroom and kitchen cabinets well before curious little ones are mobile. But your children's developing neurological systems could be put at risk everyday from something as seemingly harmless as the water they drink and bathe in.

“All of [my and my neighbor’s] kids had breathing problems. My husband and I would get rashes occasionally that we just relegated to the laundry detergent or soap,” says Rena Meyer, a mother of two who used to live in a trailer park in Orange County, New York. She says that many people in her neighborhood have experienced strange rashes, unusual blood blisters and respiratory illnesses since about the mid 1990’s. 

Not much was made of the illnesses in the park until about 1997 when an interesting discovery was made: the water supply had somehow been contaminated with a methyl tertiary butyl ether or MTBE - gasoline additive that helps boost the fuel’s octane, causing it to burn cleaner.

MTBE is a colorless, man-made liquid that has been added to gasoline since the 1990 Clean Air Act which mandated that the chemical be mixed with all gasolines sold in the US. to help reduce the amount of pollution emitted from the nation's automobiles.

Unfortunately, MTBE-treated gasoline - stored in gas tanks that are buried underground - often leaks out of the tanks and into ground water supplies. Having been found in lakes, streams, creeks and an estimated 20% if the nation’s urban wells, it has also been detected in the ground water of 49 states. Unlike other gasoline additives, MTBE adheres to water molecules and does not break down into less harmful chemicals which causes ground water contamination. As a result, it has become the second-most common water contaminant in the country (lead is number one). 

In laboratory tests, MTBE was shown to be extremely toxic in high doses, causing lymphoma, leukemia and testicular cancers in laboratory rats. It is also known to cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, eye, nose and throat irritation in humans following short-term exposure and is believed to possibly cause central nervous system, liver, kidney, adrenal gland and reproductive system disorders as well. Because of the studies, some have suggested that MTBE be classified as a carcinogen and banned from use in the US entirely.

In July of 1999, a congressional blue-ribbon panel recommended that a phase out of the chemical be planned and last November, New York Gov. George Pataki signed a bill that reduced the “acceptable” levels of MTBE in state drinking water from 20-40 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion, guidelines which are the most stringent in the nation. In May of 2000, Pataki signed another bill banning the use, sale and importation of fuels containing MTBE which will begin in 2004. But because the Environmental Protection Agency warned about the dangers of MTBE as early as 1987 the gradual phase out of the additive may be a case of too little, too late.

“We are not being protected by our government at all,” says Deborah Palmentari, vice president of Oxybusters of New York, USA, a grass-roots organization formed to make people aware of the health risks associated with MTBE and get the chemical banned from use nationwide. "People are saying that we should be happy because MTBE has finally been banned, but...can’t they see how far 2004 is away?”

Her family has had a rash of health problems in recent years which she attributes to the MTBE detected in her home’s well water. Almost every member of her family has come down with out-of-the-ordinary illnesses, including the physical, behavioral and emotional delays suffered by her youngest son, Jimmy; the treatment for teen depression and psychiatric disorders for her son, Nick; extreme forgetfulness, stomach aches and diarrhea for husband, Jim, and two dogs who had to be put to sleep because of advancing cancers.

Palmentari says that MTBE was first detected in her family’s water by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in November of 1995, although they never located the contamination source. “But, that doesn’t mean that is when it first came here,” she says, adding that her sons, who drank lots of water straight from the tap, started exhibiting physical and emotional problems, including constant congestion, sever stomach aches, weird rashes and violent, aggressive behavior when they were 18 months and 10-year-old respectively - just months after the family moved into their Orange Lake home.

The DEC installed two four-foot carbon filters that work to rid the water of the contaminate and she has installed other filters on the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Although the DEC tests the water every two months and the levels are well below US Environmental Protection Agency safety levels, Palmenteri says that when she changes the kitchen and bathroom filters every week, they smell like turpentine, the distinct odor associated with MTBE.

Putting their money where their mouths are, Palmentari and Oxybusters president Diane Atkins of Liberty have has begun a letter-writing campaign to state assembly members and senators asking for their help in getting MTBE banned sooner. They have begun soliciting testimonies from people who think their families have been effected by the chemical. 

Currently, there is a class action law suit being filed in New York State for homeowners whose water has been contaminated by MTBE, but, Palmenteri says the maximum amount recoverable is only for the value of the effected home. “I doesn’t cover medical costs or anything like that,” she said.

For now, Palmenteri said she will keep working to get chemical banned while making others aware of the hazards of MTBE. She has designed a bumper sticker that she hopes will prompt a lot more people to get their water tested for the chemical.

“People have to know what a horrible nightmare this is,” Palmenteri says. “It is everywhere and most people don’t even know it.”

“Every single child that I know that was exposed to it got sick," Meyer adds. "All of our kids had breathing problems that they’d never had before. It might have been a coincidence, but you don’t know what it will do to any of us down the road.”

            

For More Information:

Oxybusters of New York, USA

P.O. Box 10541

Newburgh, NY

e-mail: Debpalm6@yahoo.com.

Get information on water testing, the latest nation-wide MTBE ban and how you can protect your family from harmful affects of MTBE.       

SIDEBAR:

Fast Facts

It is estimated that Ritilan use has increase by 600% since MTBE was first introduced.

For every 10 gallons of gasoline pumped, one is pure MTBE.

75-100 million people live in areas where MTBE is used.

Nationwide monitoring by state municipalities for MTBE contamination will not be required until later this year.

Boiling water for drinking doesn’t rid it of MTBE because heat converts the chemical into formaldehyde and acetone, the vapors of which should not be inhaled for an extended period of time. 

Although they have no idea how to actually de-contaminated water supplies, the EPA estimates that it may take years to make sure that contaminated water is MTBE-free.

Felicia Hodges is a writer/editor from Upstate, New York.

Baby Wearing: The Emotional Benefits for Mom and Baby

You’ve seen them on the department store shelves. Maybe you’ve even thought about getting one for your girlfriend’s baby shower. And why not? Baby carriers are cute, convenient and on-so-reasonably priced, but did you know that the Snugli® you tossed into your cart has a history that dates back several hundred years?

Way before the modern playpen or the baby carriage were invented (and being a stay-at-home mom was what every mother was), moms had a bevy of chores to do that took a great deal of time and energy. When there was laundry to be done, no Kenmore machines were around yet to toss a load into. Washing clothes - done by the edge of a river or creek or in tin tubs with washboards - was an all day affair. And, since we humans need our mamas almost constantly while we are infants, mothers kept their babies close at hand so they could be fed, changed and comforted while the chores got done.

The brightly-colored harnesses of today started simply as nothing more than a type of sling designed to keep baby near mama’s breast for nursing. Worn over the neck and shoulder, the baby carriers of old were made of old, soft fabric from somebody's no-longer-used quilt or stitched together from pieces of  material from too-small clothing.

Americans of African decent used them not only in the motherland but here in America, while doing tasks ordered by their masters. Necessary to keep working and keep the little one alive, baby slings were used until the child no longer nursed or was able to walk on his or her own. 

In this country, the Industrial Revolution came along and moved more and more Americans from the farmlands and into the factories. Although women were still responsible for the bulk of  the child rearing tasks, gone were the days of schlepping laundry to the river or cooking over a huge, outdoor open flame, thanks to the invention of creature comforts like the oven, washing machine and icebox. As a result, the baby sling sort of lost its appeal. Later in the 50s and 60s, when formula feeding virtually replaced breastfeeding, baby wearing sort of  became a thing of the past.

But now, thanks to the resurgence of nursing and all the buzz about parent-child bonding, baby wearing is making a strong comeback, much to the delight of  experts in the field of  infant development. 

According to pediatric professor Dr. T. Berry Brazelton in his book Touchpoints,  pediatricians Marshall Klaus and John Kennel were the first to talk about the bonding that takes place between parents and their infants. “As a way of enhancing the new parents' closeness to the baby, they recommended a period in the delivery room during which each parent could touch, hold and communicate with the newborn,” Dr. Brazelton writes, adding that such contact was not always encouraged in modern hospitals. 

Although Klaus and Kennel emphasized the importance of such contact during the first few days of the baby’s life, additional research has shown that the feelings of love that a parent feels for his or her child develop over time as the parent and child get to know each other, not only in the first few moments or hours after birth. Baby wearing today may simply be an offshoot of the need for parents - many of whom work full-time and spend a whole lot less time with their little ones than their parents may have - to better connect with their children.

How Holding Helps

Grab any infant-rearing book from the bookstore or library shelf and, if it has a section on baby bonding, chances are, it will discuss the need for contact between caregiver (mother, father, grandmother or other) and baby. But is human contact absolutely necessary to raise an emotionally secure individual? 

Science seems to say that it is. Research has shown that babies who are carried a great deal are less fussy and may even cry for shorter periods of time when they are in distress (i.e. wet diaper, hungry, etc.) A study done in early 1997 suggests that infants who were held a minimum of three hours a day cried considerably less than children in the study who were not held as long, as often or nearly at all. The carried babies not only cried less when they were in the arms of or worn by a caregiver, they also cried less when they were put down.

Other studies, like those done by Dr. George Engle in Rochester, New York, show that if interaction with an infant is limited during feeding, he or she will not digest food properly. But, when a child is held, and talked to and played with while feeding, nutrients will be better absorbed by the body.

The most convincing argument about the need for human contact by babies began in 1997 at the St. Christopher Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. The hospital’s “Kangaroo Care” program began by using simple skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest contact in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for premature babies. 

The program places the new mother and her baby in a quiet area with low lights and a blanket which helps keep them warm. Infants in the Kangaroo Care program not only sleept longer and deeper but they also maintained their body temperature, moved onto oral feeding sooner, gained weight faster, came off ventilators sooner and left the hospital earlier than other pre-mature infants.

Touch is also something that fathers can provide. For those feeling left out of the “getting to know you” stage if their partner is breastfeeding, baby wearing allows dad to connect with baby in ways an hour of watching the little tike sleep cannot.

So go ahead and encourage a little human contact. Buy that Snugli® or make your own using a bit of quilted Kente cloth. It may help get the new family off to an emotionally healthy start.

Sidebar:

With all the attention being paid to baby bonding, baby wearing has become popular once again. There are so many different brands of baby carriers that in specialty stores like Babies “R” Us, the selection takes up an entire wall. Here are a few of the more unique finds:

1. NoJo’s Original Baby Sling - Developed by Dr. William Sears, the sling allows for parent and child to connect in a variety of different carries, including the kangaroo carry, the chest-to-chest snuggle or the over-the-shoulder cradle hold. Fits newborns to children weighing up to 30 lb. Sells for about $29.99.

2. Fisher-Price Deluxe Perfect Support Carrier - Allows for carrying a 5-26 lb. baby facing towards parent or away to view the world. Comes with a removable weather protector that converts to a shoulder sling to cradle the little one. Also has padded shoulder and back harnesses with wide, adjustable straps for comfort. Retails for about $39.99.

3. Snugli Comfort Supreme - A division of Evenflo, Snugli has been around for 35 years. This carrier features a special lumbar support pad so the weight of the baby does not cause too much discomfort for the carrier. Designed for infants from 5-26 lb., it allows for rear (towards parent) or forward-facing positioning. Sells for about $49.99.

4. Graco 3-in-1 Infant Carrier - Parent can either use it on their bellies or on their backs. Features adjustable leg and arm openings for baby, a padded head bolster, detachable infant head support and adjustable belt clips. The padded lumbar pad also doubles as a zippered storage pouch for small items like keys. Retails for about $49.99.

5. Infantino 6-in-1 Carrier - Made for infants up to 35lbs., this carrier not only lets the caregiver use it as a forward or rear-facing front carrier, but it easily converts to a backpack carrier, chair attachment or grocery cart seat attachment. It also fits in most infant car seats and includes an instructional video. About $19.99.

© 2000 Felicia C. Hodges

Felicia Hodges is a freelance writer/editor from upstate New York.

 Originally appeared in Black Family Digest magazine Winter 2000.

Saving for your Child’s Education and Your Retirement (You CAN Do Both!)

by Felicia Hodges

Life with children is not for the faint of heart - or wallet. The cost of rent or mortgage, insurance, car payments and food being what they are, taking care of your family’s basic needs can put a strain on almost any budget. You want to start squirreling away at least a little something for your future retirement and your children’s pending college costs, but how?

“The balancing act is a tough one and may [people] struggle to find a way to make it work,” says Jennifer Ridley Hanson, Director of Financial Planning for Financial Finesse, an agency that educates women on how to better invest and save money. “Sending your children to college is an important goal for most couples, but so is retirement.”

But where should you begin? Is saving for both even possible?

Ridley Hanson says it is. The trick is to make it a part of your monthly routine.

“Many people make the mistake of waiting until all of the monthly bills are paid and then they save what - if anything - is left over,” she says. “The problem with this strategy is that there may not be anything left over, or leftover money can get spent on something else.” If you have budgeted all you can and there really isn’t anything left, Ridley Hanson suggests you re-evaluate your spending and cut away what is not absolutely necessary. “If you don’t get into the savings habit now, it will not get any easier in the future and you’re losing valuable time for your retirement and college investments to grow,” she adds.

Never Too Late to Start

Whether you child is 16 days old or 16 years, most financial experts

say it is never too late to start saving for college. The same is true for your retirement.

“Any amount of money - no matter how small - saved today, will have a

greater value tomorrow,” says Michael Darne, Director of Business

Development at Wiredscholar.com, a site produced by Sallie Mae for

college-bound students, their parents and guidance counselors.

"Investing just a few dollars a week from the time a child is born can

grow significantly over 18 years. If you can’t put away as much as you

think you will need, don't give up. Something is better than nothing."

“The best way to begin is to think about what you can realistically accomplish based on your current situation and time frame,” Ridley Hanson says. “If you’re 55 and want to retire at 60, it may not be possible to save $1,000,000 in [that time]. Look at what you can really save and then look at the best way to save it.” She adds that Traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Accounts - savings which are retirement savings vehicles with tax benefits - are good vehicles to use if you don’t have access to a retirement plan at work or you are self-employed.

Also realize that you may not be able to do it all as far as saving for college goes, nor do you have to. According to The College Board, 40% of students in four-year schools contribute less than $4,000 towards college costs while almost 70% pay less than $8,000. Much of the balance is paid via financial aid, grants, loans or by the students working between or after classes. The US Department of Education says that almost $75 billion in grants and loans is awarded annually.

“Kids can work their way through college, but Mom and Dad can't work their way through retirement when they are 80 and 90 years old,” Ridley Hanson says. “Parents who sacrifice their retirement savings in order to send their kids to college may become financially dependent on those kids in the future if they don’t have enough for themselves.”

For some families, college and retirement can come around at the same time. If that is your reality, you can invest in a general investment pool which can be tapped to pay for each goal as needed. Listed below are some of the most common vehicles families just like yours look to invest their savings. Be sure to speak with a financial planner, tax advisor or other financial expert for more information on what would work best for your family’s needs.

Mutual Funds - These funds are issued via shares from an investment

company that is obliged to redeem or repurchase them from the owners upon demand. Look for a fund with a good track record and low expenses.

Savings Bonds - Generally considered relatively safe investment

vehicles, savings bonds are fully backed by the US Government. Their

rate of growth is relatively slow (maturity takes a number of years) and may not yield enough not keep up with the rate of inflation if used by themselves.

Traditional Individual Retirement Account/Roth IRA - Traditional IRA

contributions may be tax-deductible depending on your income. Withdrawals from either IRA can be used to pay for qualified higher education expenses without the 10% IRS early withdrawal penalty.

Section 529 Plans - Many states now offer college savings program lets you put money away (as little as $25 to open) then transfer your investment to any accredited college or technical school in the country.

Remember, saving a little is better than saving nothing. The sooner you start, the more you’ll have when you need it.

For More Information:

Financial Finesse - This company helps educate women on how to better invest and save their pennies through their national seminars, a radio show and web site (www.financialfinesse.com).

www.wiredscholar.com - an inclusive on-line resource for college

preparation that features evaluation, selection, application and

financing. It also features savings calculators to help you figure out

how much you should save and how much you will need in the future.

"Get Ready for College" - a college planning guide for parents of

younger children available from Nellie Mae, the nation's largest

non-profit provider of student loans. Call 1-800-9-TUITION for a free

copy.

Felicia Hodges is a writer/editor from New York.

Critical Mass: Keeping Breast Cancer at Bay

Somewhere today, a woman dressed only in a pair of underwear and a paper gown will sit on a crinkly sheet of white paper and listen to her doctor discuss the amputation of part of her body in order to save her life. She'll probably be forced to ingest all sorts of medical terminology and even make decisions affecting the rest of her life in the time it takes you to read this paragraph. Because breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among American women, this scene will unfortunately repeat itself about 175,000 times this year alone, sometimes to women well under 40 with no family history of the disease. Sometimes even to women with children in grade school.

That's the bad news. The good news is that four out of every five lumps found are not even cancerous and a good number of the lumps that are malignant are detected before the cancer has spread to surrounding breast tissue or other parts of the body. Women who perform monthly breast self exams (BSE's) find an amazing 85% of all lumps. Tragically though, the American Cancer Society estimates that the 44,500 women who will die this year as a result of the disease could have been significantly reduced if more women regularly practiced BSE's. The problem? Some women just forget. Others aren't exactly sure what it is they're looking for. Many are simply too afraid of what they might find.

My 50-year-old aunt, - who was 18 when she first diagnosed with fibocystic (or "lumpy" breast) disease after she found a cyst in her left breast and 28 when she had her first mammogram (low-dose x-ray of the breast tissue) - is still afraid. Although she began yearly mammograms at age 35 because of her condition, she still says she has to steel her nerves to call and make her yearly appointment. 

"I freak. I absolutely hate it. I dread it and I put it off. I know I need to go and I simply don't want to," she says. Still, to help keep her personal history from becoming a family one, she has taught her 18-year-old daughter to do BSEs and reminds her to check her breasts regularly.

Nurturers that we are, we mothers are so used to taking care of everyone and everything often before we even think of caring for ourselves. How many of us have climbed out of bed with a fever to do a quick load of laundry or prepare a hot meal for our families? Who of us hasn't ignored a nagging pain but made sure the children get their physicals in time for back-to-school? Especially for Black women, the belief that we are somehow pre-programmed to be able to endure any and every hardship that comes our way is powerful.

"The one myth that I have had to endure my entire life is that of my supposed birthright to strength," writes Meri Nana-Ama Danquah in Willow Weep for Me, a memoir on Black women and depression. "Black women are supposed to be strong - caretakers, nurturers, healers of other people - any of the twelve dozen variations of Mammy... hardship is supposed to be built into the structure of our lives. It went along with the territory of being both Black and female in a society that completely undervalues the lives of Black people and regards all women as second-class citizens." But, because no one is quite sure what causes breast cancer to develop and because there is, as of yet, no cure, we can't wait to begin fighting this disease. The only protection we have is early detection. Putting off until tomorrow what we need to do today can lead us down the slippery slope of passivity against a disease we have to be actively vigilant against to beat.

Each October, when all the Breast Cancer Awareness Month facts and figures are floating around, it hits me how much that lack of vigilance, as well as ignorance about the nature breast cancer may actually play in the number of deaths attributed to this disease. For example, before my mother lived through her own doctor's office scene in 1988, none of my female family members knew that African-American women make up too large a portion of breast cancer fatalities because it is often detected in later stages when the cure rate is so horribly low. 

Of the seven women on my mother's side of the family, only three of them - my 66-year-old grandmother, her 68-year-old sister and the aunt mentioned earlier - had ever even had a mammogram, although it is widely recommended that women have their first or "baseline" mammogram between ages 35 and 40, one every two years between 40 and 50 and one every year after age 50. My mother - who actually should have had four mammograms by the time she was initially diagnosed at age 44, was never given detailed information about mammography although she saw her doctor for a physical every year. The headstone erected over her grave site is a vivid reminder that what you don't know can hurt you very badly.

What you should know is that several factors, including having a personal or family history of the disease (especially if breast cancer occurred in a mother, sister or grandmother before they reached menopause), giving birth after age 30 and having a long menstrual history (menstrual periods that started early and ended late in life) can increase the chance that you may develop breast cancer at some point in your lifetime. Recent research has also linked high-fat, low-fiber diets to increase breast cancer risk.

But diagnosis does not automatically mean death or even the loss of a breast. The key is to catch the cancer early, before it has spread. So, take the time each month to examine your breasts. Have your health care provider conduct a manual exam and show you how to do one yourself at your next visit. Encourage your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your aunts, your nieces, your friends, your neighbors and your co-workers to do the same. Remind the woman in the line behind you at the grocery store about her yearly mammogram. Like you, she is someone's mother or daughter, sister or aunt, niece or friend, neighbor or co-worker.

Please don't let cost keep you from getting a mammogram. In most cases, insurance carriers and Medicare will cover the cost fully. Some states have special programs funded by county health departments and administered through organizations like area YWCAs to help women without any health care coverage or with very high deductibles obtain free breast cancer screenings. Call your local YW or the National Cancer Institute at 1-800-4-CANCER for more detailed information. 

I can't help but think that if my own mother could have read this information all those years ago, she might still be around today, spoiling the stuff out of the grandson she never got to meet.

For my mom, for the millions of women whose lives have already been lost to this devastating disease, for the daughters like me that they have left behind: protect yourself. No one else can do it for you. 

The real fear should not be in finding a lump - it should be in not finding that lump in time enough to save your life.

Felicia Hodges is a freelance writer/editor in upstate, New York.

Originally appeared in Tri-CountyWoman magazine (Fall 2007)

Learning to Feel Good About the Way You Look

by Felicia Hodges

"How's my baby Beluga doing today?"  was how Missy Taylor's husband, Frank, greeted her every morning when she was in the last trimester of her pregnancy with their daughter, Judith.  He would often pat her belly and jokingly ask her if she needed him to help roll her out of bed.

"It was awful," Missy recalls. When I told him how much his words stung, he would just shrug it off and say I was being overly sensitive because of the [pregnancy]  hormones."

For 33-year-old R.N. Lisa Crowley , the time of year that produces the most anxiety is when  her favorite clothing stores box up the turtlenecks and corduroys and put out summer shorts, spaghetti-string tops and bathing suits. "It always seems like it's too soon to be preparing myself for trying  on what seems like 100 swim suits," she says.  "I feel like I shouldn't even look at anything short-sleeved until I've lost the ten pounds I put on since the last time I had my bathing suit on, but they never give me the choice."

Two days after my son was born, I was returning to the hospital to nurse him (he had to remain a few days extra due to some lung difficulties) when a woman stepped onto the elevator. Trying to make small talk on our way up to the maternity floor, she turned to me, patted my stomach and said "So when are you due?" I couldn't get home to start the worksheet of exercises the hospital gave me to help lose my middle fast enough. 

Because of this country's  obsession with thinness, many women have experienced feelings like Missy, Lisa and I have whenever we are perceived (or we perceive ourselves) as being different than the American standard of beauty. That a good number of American women diet in any given year (and the weight-loss industry rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars annually as a result) says  that those feelings are probably more the rule rather than the exception.

"We women are unfortunately identified by our physical attributes," says Debbie DeJong, assistant division director of community programs at the Orange County (New York) Mental Health Association. "[We're] either too big, not skinny enough or [our] breasts are too small. As a result, we're always trying to change how we are," she adds.

Of course, advertisers don't seem to help matters at all, bombarding us almost non-stop with images of super-thin super-models, hawking everything from toothpaste to floor cleaners.

"Usually the modeling industry chooses women without hips, which means they are very young. They also pose women in ways that make them look like they don't have hips when they really do," says psychotherapist Elizabeth Leach. "The norms they set up for us are just not realistic."

What about how those norms effect our daughters who see the same magazine covers and TV ads that we do? Is there a way to keep them from getting sucked into accepting the "You-need-to-look-like-Kendall-Jenner-Priyanka-Chopra-or-Kate Moss-to-have-a-meaningful-life (via ultra-white teeth and super shinny floors)-and-be-truly-happy-with-yourself" message as truth?

The trick, experts say, is not to re-enforce such ideas at home. 

"As mothers, we need to be really clear with the messages we send our daughters. If they see us surviving off of one cracker at dinner, that's what they'll want to do as well," says Lynne Newman, a counselor and Reike practitioner who specializes in women's issues. "We need to say clearly [to them] that you need to be who you are, not who I or they want you to be." 

Newman says this is also what we should also be telling the same thing, especially before, during and after pregnancy. "A lot of how you feel [about the changes your body experiences during pregnancy] has to do with how you felt about your body before you got pregnant. Body changes during pregnancy are normal, unfortunately most people equate pregnancy with being fatter," she says. "If you are comfortable with your body before and during pregnancy, you'll feel comfortable after."

So, where does a non-size four woman with hips, thighs, a belly and a newborn daughter begin?

"Accepting what your particular body looks like, whatever it looks like, is important," says Helen Bunt, a YWCA fitness instructor, who adds that exercise is one way to make that acceptance possible. "Exercise is my personal mainstay. People who I've introduced [to it] seem, to have a better view of life. They feel good about themselves." Recent research has attributed this feeling to an increase in brain levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin during physical activity.

Leach encourages women in her practice to not become too preoccupied with their ideal weight, represented by the number on a scale. She recommends the following for women who find themselves stuck in the body image/self-esteem trap:

• Be an informed consumer - Keep in mind that the photos of women you see in ads are unrealistic ideals designed solely to sell a product. "They are geared to make women feel inadequate so we will purchase their products," Leach says.
•  Focus on the positive - Pick out your strongest physical attributes instead of your weakest when looking in the mirror. 
•  Make a list - Write down all the things that make you feel good, like walking around your block with a neighbor, watching a favorite sit-com on TV or listening to soothing (or funky) music. Put a few of your list items in a box to pull out when you're feeling down. Add to your box regularly.
•  Draw a picture of what you think your body looks like - Get feedback from friends and relatives to see if what you see and what you think the world sees are in sync.
• Keep a "food journal" - Since, Leach says, many of us eat for reasons other than hunger (i.e. comfort, etc.), using a journal to note stressful events, your emotional state and how food factored into the before and after may help.
• Remember that weight is determined by many factors - Bone structure, amount of muscle tissue, etc. all factor into your "ideal" body weight. Get a physician's opinion, if necessary, but, again, don't become obsessed with the figure. "People come in many shapes and sizes for a reason," Leach says. "Think of yourself as a whole person, not just a number."

Sidebar:
Did you know?

The average American woman weighs 144 lbs. and wears between a

size 12 and 14?

Marilyn Monroe wore a size 12?

If shop mannequins were real women, they wouldn't have enough body fat to menstuate? 

Models, who 20 years ago weighed 8% less than the average woman, today weigh 23% less?

If Barbie were a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours because of her unnatural proportions?

One out of every four college-aged women has an eating disorder?

A psychological study in 1995 found that three minutes spent looking at models in a fashion magazine caused 70% of women to feel depressed, guilty and ashamed?

There are 3B women who don't look like supermodels and only a few dozen who do?


Felicia Hodges is a writer/editor from upstate, New York.

Charmed: A stone home and carriage house in New Windsor are imbued with history and blessed with good luck

Garin Baker's art doesn't just hang from the walls of his New Windsor home. It doesn't only cover the easels and floor space in the converted carriage house–studio out back. For Baker, both his house and his studio space are themselves works of art.

But when he bought the 1790 house on Union Avenue 16 years ago, Baker, a New York City native who produces hand-painted murals and commissioned works for corporations, museums, and schools, as well as private residences, knew he had his work cut out for him.

"It wasn't livable when we purchased it," he says. "We did the kitchen, bathrooms - everything. We even made the bread oven workable, and make pizza in it all the time now."

Once, possibly, a stop on the Underground Railroad, Garin Baker says his restored 1790 home and carriage house, now his art studio, represent years of pluck, 

hard work, and unsolicited help from a friend. Photo by Dion Ogust

No small feat, especially since the kitchen alone - which Baker calls "phase one" of the restoration - took four months to complete. The multi-staged excavation went something like this: A post was removed to make one large kitchen from what was a kitchen and pantry. But when the linoleum was pulled up, a concrete slab was found underneath that had been poured because the floor wasn't level. Another oak floor was under the concrete, so the beams had to be jacked up to level the floor and the whole thing rebuilt. "At one point there was just a hole where you could look down into the basement," Baker says. His then-pregnant wife used a microwave and small dormitory-style refrigerator to make family meals while the kitchen was being repaired.

Once that was done, Baker moved through the rest of the three-story house, restoring the original wide-plank floors and the masterful stenciling he found on them, and repairing the ceiling's plaster molding and original palladium windows. He rebuilt the stairs leading to an older part of the house - the part that became the servants' quarters when the original owners, Baker thinks, came into some money and put on an addition with stately ceilings. As further support for this assumption, Baker found that there are 6,000 acres of land mentioned in the original deed. 

Baker also believes the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad, a safe house where slaves trying to make their way to freedom in the north or in Canada rested and hid. The runaways, who traveled by night and often hid by day in the basements or attics of abolitionists, would keep track of the time by marking the days. "There are markings on some of the walls, like days crossed out. That means this house could have been a stop," Baker says. "But it's an oral history and there weren't really any records of that kept."

During the five years it took to finish the house, Baker squeezed his studio and painting supplies into a room on the lower level and made the dining room his office. The plan was to eventually convert the old carriage house behind his home into his work area, but the huge space—large enough to have held four horse-drawn carriages and complete with a rear barn where six horses could be stalled—was going to take a lot of time, energy, and money to complete.

The carriage house studio, restored with help from the enigmatic
Patrick, holds Baker's office and is the site of weekly painting seminars.
Photo by  Dion Ogust

Six or seven years ago, with the house finally complete (save for his dining room office and adjacent studio) and with the carriage house still "a wreck," Baker threw a Fourth of July barbecue. An old girlfriend came up with her current boyfriend, Patrick, a native of the south of France who was working in New York City as a restaurant renovator. Patrick, whose passion was renovating old houses, looked at the carriage house and asked Baker when he was going to get started.

"I told him I was working to save the money for it and wouldn't be starting for a while. He offered to give me a list of things to get from the hardware store so the work could begin," says Baker. "I told him again that I couldn't do it for a while, or alone. And he turned to me and said, 'I help you.'"

For about eight months, Patrick came up every weekend and helped Baker gut the carriage house and make structural repairs. The two also lifted the house and replaced a header and several support beams. They removed the slate roof to make needed repairs and, like the wood and stone removed from the inside of the house, saved it so it could be replaced after the structural renovations were complete.

Some of the slate broke as it was being removed, and Baker contacted the Evergreen Slate Company in Greenville, N.Y. to find out how to order replacements.

"The woman I spoke to told me that the company had quarried the original slate. They'd been around longer than the house had," Baker says.

For all the help he'd give Baker, Patrick accepted no payment, asking only for meals and rides to and from the train station. He has come back a few times since, but he stopped visiting regularly once he saw that Baker knew how, and could do, the work that was left to be done.

"People's paths cross for a purpose," Baker says. "People come for a reason and they go for a reason. There are truly amazing people like him who have come into my life." 

Today, Carriage Art House Studios, a beautiful, airy space that houses Baker's art and gives him plenty of room to work on his larger murals and paintings, now resides where horses once slept and the carriages they pulled were stored.

Bakers office is just upstairs from where he often pains and hosts weekly painting workshops that give other artists a chance to benefit from the wonderful light and warmth that streams through the windows. 

The house's bedrooms are all occupied now as well. Baker's children - Harrison, 17, and Amanda, 15, - and the children of his partner, Astrid Frazier - Ayisha, 17,  Jovan, 15, and Alasia, 8, - all call it home. Baker's old office will be converted back to a formal dining room and two other still-to-be-restored rooms will be completed this winter. But like many works of art, the creative process can take time.

"We've already got a lot of use out of this house," Baker says.

Felicia Hodges is a writer/editor from upstate, New York.

Originally appeared in Upstate House magazine, October 2005