Heading to Hawaii for dolphin-assisted birth

[Diana]

I couldn't resist, this ones for you Ponoh. I tried to post their picture but couldn't figure it out, but if you want to see a pic of the lovely couple just click on the link.


Heading to Hawaii for dolphin-assisted birth

Last month, Adam Barringer, 29, and his pregnant wife Heather, 27, boarded a plane for Hawaii. The couple traveled over 4,500 miles in the hopes of welcoming baby Bodhi into the world during a dolphin-assisted birth in Pohoa, Hawaii.

The couple will stay and study with Star Newland, founder of The Sirius Institute, a consortium with the purpose of “dolphinizing” the planet.

Heather and Adam’s idea to welcome their first child into the world via water and hopefully dolphins, was inspired by the book, “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life” by Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Before they learned they were pregnant, the idea of a water-and-dolphin birth appealed to Heather and Adam and they say they have experienced signs along the way, pointing them to Hawaii and the institute. Preparations for a dolphin-assisted birth began as soon as they arrived, long before Heather’s July due date.

At the institute, the couple will spend time in the water, forming a connection with a dolphin pod they hope will bond with them and ultimately their newborn.

 “It is about reconnecting as humans with the dolphins so we can coexist in this world together and learn from one another,” says Heather.

The couple hopes to find this connection during prenatal and postnatal swims with the dolphins.

 “Having that connection with the pod of dolphins anytime – even if the birth doesn’t happen in the water – still brings peace, comfort and strength to the mother and baby during labor,” says Heather.

They believe a dolphin-assisted birth will be calming experience and beneficial.

“It’s total relaxation for the mother,” says Adam. “Dolphins are very intelligent and healing which in turn calms mother and baby for the whole process,” adds Heather.

If the birthing process doesn’t happen in the water, Heather will be accompanied by midwife, Mala, on a family/community farm in Akaka Falls, about 35 miles from Pahoa.

Traveling and living in harmony with the earth is a way of life for this couple. They’ve traveled across the country, staying with friends, living in and out of their car and picking up odd jobs or doing trades when they need money, food or supplies.

“We are all about living off the earth,” says Adam. The couple has been together 11 years and married for four.

Even if their birth plan is unconventional, they have the same hopes and fears as most new parents.

 “I’m excited about doing all the things I didn’t get to do as a child,” says Adam.

Heather smiles at Adam, “I’ve always wanted to be a mom, I was just waiting for this guy,” she says. After the baby arrives, the family will stay in Hawaii for a while until they figure out where they want to go and do next.

They say friends have been supportive but admit the soon-to-be grandparents are concerned, “because we always do things on a whim,” laughs Heather.

With a few more months to go, they know they are off on another adventure this time as a family of three.

“Showing him or her all the love possible is what matters,” smiles Heather.



Courtney McLaughlin is a freelance writer for South Charlotte News. Have a story idea for Courtney? Email her at realewriter@yahoo.com.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/24/4061962/heading-to-hawaii-for-dolphin.html#storylink=cpy

[Autumn]

That's funny.  Especially the comments section.

This is their website:  http://www.planetpuna.com/Rense/FAQ.html

And another way of looking at the story:

Is the Sirius Institute serious?

This is "possibly the worst idea, ever," Discover reports, noting that a powerful carnivorous animal might not be the ideal companion for a woman giving birth, or for her newborn.

"They're wild animals, and they are known to do some pretty terrible things," the Discover article said. Male dolphins, in particular, can be aggressive and have been known to rape and kill other dolphins; killings have also reportedly included infanticide.

"To make any claim that a dolphin-assisted birth is beneficial to mother and child, a researcher would need to unravel the many factors involved in order to tease out the potential effects of the presence of dolphins," according to an article in Medical Daily.

Nonetheless, the Sirius Institute claims it receives up to four requests each week for dolphin-assisted birth. "People who are deeply called to be with the dolphins search widely and find us," according to the institute's website.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57586482/dolphin-assisted-birth-nice-or-nuts/

[Defend the Sacred]

Yeah, as far as they know one of those dolphins is going to get sick of being pimped out to tourists and is going to grab a baby and take out their frustrations on it. Then the poor dolphins will be blamed by the people who want to think they're really humans in sleek wetsuits, rather than intelligent, but wild, creatures who have their own ideas about how things should go.

The comments rock:
_________________________________________________

 Hazen • 3 days ago
    ?
I live in Pahoa. I live a mile from what is the ONLY spot in our area where one could swim with dolphins with much frequency. After that ocean entry the next place in or out of the water is about 10 miles...and it has active lava flowing on it. After that you've got another 40 miles before there is another ocean exit. Our beach has an extremely steep and difficult path for a full term mother to navigate. But she could. Of course then there are the rocks and the often triple over-head high waves, we are after all on the windward coast, 1500 miles of open ocean for waves to build up. I've pulled bodies out of the water here. We average 3-5 fatalities a year at the beach. We also have a MRSA problem, but i guess so do most hospitals, so what's a little stap infection. The nearest hospital is 55 minutes away if the traffic cooperates. The dolphins are present about one out of 8 times i go to the beach...during the day. Assuming she births during the day, and when dolphins are there, and she makes it down a rocky cliff path in labor, and the surf is small (1 out of 6 days?), she'll have to be a good swimmer. Usually the dolphins are several hundred yards off shore... or more. They avoid most people. And especially if there are sharks about. But i've only seen three sharks there and they were only about 4' long. Of course i usually stay in 30' of water or less. I guess the big tiger and mako sharks the 20 foot monsters are usually out deeper, like where the dolphins are. But hey, i look forward to sharing the aloha with more unemployed, flaky, new-age Drain-bows with extra mouths to feed. The welfare office Hilo is only 45 minutes away, they love new haoles. Well, 45 minutes unless you take the bus, then it's about 4 hours. But it usually shows up and you can enjoy making new friends with all the sex-offenders, down and out alcoholics, and other pie-eyed Trust-afarians who've been living in the jungle enjoying 3 straight weeks of monsoon-like rain. All that mold goes well with the dreads and helps bring out the patchouli. (for the record i don't have anything against dreads, real Hippies, or people exploring our state and ocean, it's wonderful here, most simply can't hack it. You need to be comfortable braving a difficult environment, abject poverty, ignorance, and find really creative ways of making money in a poor, rural, and frankly unfriendly area. About one in four make it.) I'll give em a ride to the airport if i'm going there way. Aloha.
_________________________________________

 

[Diana]

Yeah....this is one of the more bizarre newage hippy dippy articles I've come across. And everyone was right about the comments, they were spot on. I guess the locals are no strangers to wide eyed, no skills, resource sucking newagers.
 
The only thing I'm confused about is this whole dolphin thing. As far as I know there is no swimming with the dolphins anywhere in the Hawaiian Islands. There are some captive dolphins at some of the hotels on the islands, but no one is allowed to swim with them. They have educational programs set up for mostly children, where they can get in the pool with a dolphin and dolphin trainer and interact with the dolphins. Unless Hawaii has changed their laws that is the only contact people can have with a dolphin. As for this Sirius Institute and that couple I don't know how or where they would encounter dolphins??

I looked at that website Puna Planet and a lot of that stuff is old and it hasn't been updated for some time. I googled Paradise Star Newland and couldn't find her real name or anything else about her except what was on her website. Hmmm....that seems a little strange. But then again she thinks people can learn from dolphins and that they can assist in an actual child birth. LOL, why am I not surprised.
 

Lim lemtsh,

Diana

[Autumn]

Here is some interesting information about Paradise Newland from her website:

As a pioneer following through on her interest and desire in birthing with dolphins, she gave birth to her second son, John Kehena Newland Lucy at Kehena Beach on August 18, 1992 to the accompaniment of hundreds of dolphins, including one giving birth at the same time. This son currently resides in London with his papa and other mom.

http://www.planetpuna.com/siriusa/paradisebio.htm

And the aftermath (and, after all, it was not in the water -- with the dolphins -- but on the beach):

Newland elected to give birth to her second child, Kehena, on Kehena Beach. An experienced delivery room nurse was present, and the birth was successful. "He was quite fine at the time," recalls Newland.

Then the state's Child Protective Services Agency heard about the birth on the beach.

"When he was four days old, the state social worker came with armed police," Newland said.

Kehena was taken from her, she says, without a spare blanket. He developed physical complications while in state custody and had to be med-evacuated to a hospital on Oahu.

The state eventually withdrew its charges and returned her son, she says, after a state expert testified that, while the oceanside birth may have been unconventional, "if the child had been left alone, he'd have been fine."

But the battle devastated her family. Kehena's father left for the mainland, taking Kehena with him. Newland stayed in Hawaii with her older son, Tiger. But the experience, she says, was "a life changing event. And part of the reason I got involved with the community was to help me deal with the grief."

http://www.planetpuna.com/Shopper/newland.htm

So, all in all, whether in the water or on the beach, it doesn't sound like a very good experience for the child.

[Pono Aloha]

Sorry I've been away for a while and missed all this! I love the commenter's "Drain-bows" and "Trust-afarians." Pahoa is where a lot of the flakes go, so it's not surprising.

Given the fact that her child was taken from her because he was born on the beach, and does not live with her to this day, I suppose this does count as a "life-changing experience," but perhaps not the kind of experience other parents want to have. She reminds me of that other couple living out of their car, I can't remember their names now, she wrote the book about her new Hawaiian husband and how wise he is, but she had sold her house and was forcing her kids to live in poverty. Talk about ego.

But swimming with dolphins is not illegal--yet. There was just an article about that today here: http://www.hanahou.com/pages/magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=1194&MagazineID=75

Could someone move this from Comedy Channel to Research Needed? It's not funny any more 

[Epiphany]

She reminds me of that other couple living out of their car, I can't remember their names now, she wrote the book about her new Hawaiian husband and how wise he is, but she had sold her house and was forcing her kids to live in poverty. Talk about ego.

Link to the other couple ‘Iokepa Hanalei ‘Imaikalani and Inette Miller

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3820.msg31983#msg31983

[Autumn]

Poor dolphins.  Why can't humans just leave them alone.

It's cultural appropriation of another stripe.

[Defend the Sacred]

Yeah... it's only funny with ironic distance. I think sometimes that distance is a coping mechanism. But this is not good for the dolphins, or the children dragged into this stuff. I'll put it in Research Needed.

[Autumn]

Here is a recent story about dolphin-assisted birth:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3218121/The-pregnant-woman-midwife-DOLPHIN-Katie-Piper-meets-mum-birth-sea-despite-experts-warning-dangers.html

Spiritual healer Dorina Rosin and her partner Maika Suneagle, from Hawaii, spoke to presenter Katie Piper about their plans to have a 'dolphin-assisted' birth - despite running the risk of another species of local marine life, the Great White Shark, turning up instead.
The couple who run a healing retreat on Hawaii's Big Island, believe in the healing power of nature and offer CDs in their retreat that include dolphin song. The pair also say their baby will be able speak 'dolphin'.

'This has to be, hands down, one of the worst natural birthing ideas anyone has ever had,' science journalist Christie Wilcox wrote in Discover in 2013.

She cites research showing that dolphins will 'toss, beat, and kill small porpoises or baby sharks for no apparent reason other than they enjoy it, though some have suggested the poor porpoises serve as practice for killing the infants of rival males.'

'Is this an animal you want to have at your side when you’re completely vulnerable?' she asks.

[Sparks]

The newspaper article linked to in the pevious post is also referred to here:

https://www.facebook.com/AboutHuna/posts/1053918877966466

In there is a link to the present NAFPS thread.