Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. So the topic for today is about the importance of natural birth. And I wanted to start out just talking about what is natural birth? Because I think because birth is so disturbed in the normal setting of birth in the hospital, oftentimes there are many different interventions that come into play. They don't always come into play, but a lot of times they do. And so for us to really understand what really is how Allah swt made women and how amazing the process is if it was just left alone, or even just what is really going on that we don't maybe don't even know. Like, oh, that's why that happens or something. So I wanted to talk about that, inshallah. Just to introduce myself, my name is Nidol Abdul-Mutman. I have a bachelor's degree in Islamic studies from Damascus, Syria. I am a Quran teacher. I teach Tajweed. I also am studying to be a home birth midwife. And I work as a doula currently. And I work as a midwife's assistant as part of my degree. I also am a child-worth educator. And I'm working on a curriculum for Muslim couples to learn about birth before they have kids. And like during pregnancy. So there's a book out there that I co-authored in child-worth education. And now I'm working on having my own curriculum because that curriculum was through another company. So what else do I do? Yeah, but anyways, I'm a mother of four. I live in Berkeley. And I had all my children at home. And I was born at home. So in a lot of ways, what I'm going to describe to you about the natural process of birth is what I experienced myself and what my family has experienced. So I think it's kind of unique where I'm coming from to understanding birth and being a birth worker from a space of like, of course it works. Of course it's best to be natural, of course. And so a lot of people come to it from a place of something has happened to them where they were like, well, I don't really like the way that went down because they had a baby in the hospital or they had an experience, an out-of-hospital that they didn't like. And so they're hurt by that. And they're trying to mend that. Um, if you want to, but I don't know if it makes any difference. Yeah. I just didn't want to make the sound go out to the main hall and then because they're going to have a session starting in like five minutes. The semester is so busy now, which is great. So, oh, and then so I have a sign up sheet if anyone wants to get my emails for my mailing list and cards. And I do have a few handouts here. And even though I have failed to mail out the other handouts from last week, I still plan on doing that to people who requested them. And if you guys want to come up and just get what I have here for you, they're kind of supplemental. One is a handout about nutrition because last week people were asking about nutrition. And I was like, you know what? I just should bring nutritional information. Maybe you could just bring the stack or I guess everyone can. OK. Inshallah. Yeah, this is those ones, just two. She's bringing them for you guys. So the one of them is about nutrition. And there's a few recipes there. And then the other one is about questions. There's like a lot of questions to ask if that will help people make decisions about where they want to give birth, because that's like the whole big decision, right? Where am I going to give birth? And with whom? And all of those decisions that we make that are really important. So it's helpful. Inshallah. Thank you. OK, perfect. Andallah. All right. So I don't know. I don't think I need to tell anyone that the way we live in the United States right now, for most people, it's like a really unnatural state in terms of how much women are exposed to birth and seeing other people, other women in their family give birth and seeing other women breastfeeding and seeing other women have really, really be supported after they have a baby. A lot of us are, and maybe not so much in this community, because I think we have a lot of intact cultural practices that are very healthy for women in terms of nurturing them after they have the baby and families will come together and support women at birth and stuff like that. But in the American society at large, a lot of people and also in the Muslim community, a lot of people don't have that support and don't have the, haven't seen, like a lot of young women haven't seen someone giving birth, haven't been there, and seen someone struggle with breast feeding or struggle with what it takes to recover from birth. So ideally, women grow up and they hear stories from the women around them about birth and how it was difficult or it wasn't difficult or how they, what they did and what they regretted or what they were happy about.   And they're like, okay, and they survived. So I think I'm gonna survive, you know? And there's like this feeling of like, we're all together, like we can do this, right? Even though sometimes bad things happen, right? Sometimes people lose babies or a woman is sick and different things can happen, obviously, but a general sense, a social sense of that, like breastfeeding works and birth works and all of that. So I think that's really the natural state that women are in. And I think when we don't have that, it's very, it makes things difficult because you, if you've never seen like a woman breastfeeding, then you're like, I don't even know how to do this at all. Like it's not even a picture in your head. So then when a woman gets pregnant, then she starts her road to like, her actually giving birth herself. And so her body is getting ready for that from the very beginning. And so her hormones are changing to allow a baby to grow and also to pass through her body, right? And so it's really amazing the way Allah SWT made the pelvis of a woman and the hormones that are going through her body, namely relaxin', during pregnancy, it loosens up the connections in her pelvis so that she can actually expand to let the baby out when the time comes. And it's kind of like why a lot of women feel like maybe they're not as sure-footed, they might slip or fall because their pelvis is actually not as solid. So there's here in the front, she can actually expand. And in the back, on either side of the sacrum, these joints can actually open up. So to make it easier to birth the baby, right? So that's happening during pregnancy, she's getting all loosened. She's, you know, as she gets closer to having the baby, the baby's head is getting lower and lower and she's probably feeling uncomfortable and feeling like, I wanna have this baby. So like all of that is like, even if she was afraid of birth, she's probably like, you know what, birth isn't so bad. I'd like to get this baby out. So it's like, I think that's part of what Allah is preparing her for. Like, okay, now you're ready, right? Okay, let's do this, right?  What is this? What is that? And you're noticing more and more. And so, inshallah, getting a lot of good advice. You don't always get good advice, but inshallah, getting a lot of good advice. And there's also women, what do they do when they're almost gonna have a baby? They clean the house, right? They nest, right? They're like, okay, I gotta get the perfect, you know, they wanna get things for the baby and they wanna have this place where, and oh yeah, that box that's sitting in the corner that's like really, I've been meaning to get to it. I wanna clear that out. She wants to clear out all the space for the baby, right? And that's like natural instincts that we get. And then also she wants to clear out her way emotionally, right? We get like, you kinda like want to, you want to like clear out anything that you feel emotionally would be in your way. And so, I think that means totally different things to different people, but definitely, you're trying to figure out your emotions, you're trying to figure out like, well, who do I want at my birth? Like who would support me in the way that I want them, that I need right now? Who is benefiting my life right now and who do I need to change my relationship with in order to benefit me? Because I need to be able to raise this baby, right? And then it's really amazing as well because the baby is gonna travel through the birth canal. And so the bacteria in the birth canal actually changes to be the kind of bacteria, like the body promotes the growth of the bacteria that will be most beneficial to then seed the baby, like go, because the baby comes out and all of the her secretions are going into its nose and mouth and that's the way a lot made it, right? So those are the first, almost like, it's like the first connection they have to the outside world and those bacteria, the body promotes the growth of the bacteria that are going to be the best for the baby and that's why babies that are born vaginally have less asthma and a lot of different health things, like they're less likely to have those illnesses when they have the right bacteria, like from the very beginning, right? And so the woman is feeling, inshallah, that her body can do it, you know? Even though she's never done it before, she knows that a lot made her body to have a baby and that it might not look like everybody else's birth, but her body, it hasn't let her down yet, you know? She's like, she eats and she poops and she does all these normal natural body functions so why wouldn't birth happen normally and naturally, right? And she's grown and she's, you know, she has milk and she has all of these wonderful things that her body can do and birth is just another one of those signs of health that should happen just as naturally as everything else. And then there's the relationship with Allah that she's turning to Allah and really, you know, because right, it's scary like when you don't know what's gonna happen. Many things can happen. And in a setting where there's like, say no medical intervention, obviously, I don't even think that exists because women help women. So say there's no caesareans and no like major medical interventions, like 95% of the women are going to be fine. There's a 5% that they're gonna need some help, right? So really turning to Allah to ask for his help and knowing that he's the one who's gonna get her through this, you know? No matter what, no matter what is available to her in help, it's Allah's will that eases it and gives her really what she needs, inshallah. And then also just really listening to her body, right? So women's bodies, like they might crave certain kinds of foods or they might crave certain kind of movements and like it's wise to listen to that because our bodies are feeling what's going on. And since it knows how to give birth, it's also knows how to be nourished and all of these things. So listening to your body is a really, really important thing. And I've heard many, many birth stories now and a lot of the ones that are, you know, something bad happened the woman was always like, oh, I didn't feel like that was right. Or I was saying, I don't, you know, I need more attention or I need this or that and they weren't listening to me. So something bad happened. So it's so important to listen to other women but listen to ourselves. Like what is our body telling us right now? This, maybe this movement isn't comfortable or I want to do this movement or I want to sit differently. That's all wisdom that we need to really pay attention to. So being more intuitive, I mean, it's definitely a practice for any time of life but especially in birth, it's a very physical thing. And then so in early labor, which is like usually labor, the contractions come in the beginning, they're not going to be, usually they're not as close together, right? They're like spread apart, maybe like 15 minutes apart and lasting for like half a minute long. And so the woman is able to just be really excited and oh wow, labor and, you know, start to get ready for the harder work that's coming. And what's interesting as well is that, which you wouldn't think, based on the way birth is handled usually in the United States, but women are, as we know, animals when they want to give birth, they want to have a safe place, right? They want to have a quiet place. They want to be around people that they trust and they can really, they know that are going to be there for them in the way that they need them to be, that they know them. So a safe place, a quiet place, maybe probably a dark place, that she knows who's there and has control over who comes into the room. So what's really interesting is that like in the animal kingdom, animals that are nocturnal, they'll usually give birth in the daytime and animals that are like us, we're awake in the daytime, I don't know what the opposite of nocturnal is. We usually give birth at night, right? So where that animal part of us is saying, like I need a quiet safe place, right? And so, I mean, that's why it's so important in terms of like everything going well, like all of these things are coming together to have this event happen that needs to go well, right? And so her safety, her feeling safe is such an important part of that and an important part of that is choosing her provider who's gonna be there for her and knowing who's gonna be there. So that's kind of like why I have a whole list of questions for you guys to use and helping you choose who your provider is. So, okay. So, right, her hormones of labor have come on and a lot of, they don't even know what puts women in labor, but they're learning more about the actual, the baby actually has something to do with that. So a baby that's ready to come out then will give off certain hormones or whatever and signal that to the body. So it's not just like a mechanical thing, like, okay, I'm done, the baby's fully cooked at this hour and then it doesn't matter when I go into labor. There is a process of like your body, the baby being ready and things that maybe are not, can't show up on a ultrasound, but that there is still important development that needs to happen maybe in those last couple of weeks that would make the woman ready to have the baby. So when she goes into labor naturally, that means that everything in her body is saying that it's the right time. This means the baby is saying it's the right time. So it's really important in terms of safety to not do an induction unless it's, you know, unless there's really serious reasons for it. Induction is becoming a lot, lot more common and they, a lot of them are done out of like precaution.  So inshallah, so going into labor naturally and then as labor progresses, the woman generally will feel like very, very focused and right, she's focusing on managing her pain. She left the door open, if someone could get the door, thank you.    This major event that's happening. And so it's, people call it labor land or they're kind of like, they're not, they kind of lose track of time, they're very, they wanna have their eyes closed, they wanna be, they don't wanna be talked to a lot because it like almost like distracts them, it takes them out of that place where they need to be to have the baby. And you know, it's also a blessing we don't, we start to not care as much about our modesty, right? As we're in that state, which is good because you kind of have to uncover something to have a baby. So yeah, and so it becomes more serious, right? Active labor is when you're really working hard, right? The contractions are coming probably every five minutes apart or closer and you're more open and you're between, what is it, four centimeters and seven centimeters. So you're doing a lot of hard work. And then, but you're still managing, right? You're still like, hey, I can do this or this is no fun, but maybe someone enjoy it. Everyone has a different experience, right? Some women, it's not that bad. And so then transition is where those last bits of dilation usually, that's the hardest part. And that's a lot of times when women ask for pain medication because it's very intense, right? A lot of women are feeling like I can't do this anymore. I've gotten to my edge, the edge of what I can handle, which is actually, it's not gonna get any worse, so. But, and so what happens in those moments and sort of like that's the mountain of that the woman has to climb in a natural labor is to get through transition. And I think that that is like the major spiritual growth happens there because she's no longer feeling strong and oh, I can do this. She's like, I need help. I need a lot of help me through this, right? And so she can't get the baby out any other way, right? I mean, it's gonna have to come out that way. And if you're not taking pain medication, you're gonna have to deal with the pain, right? So you're really growing in that moment of saying like, okay, a law like I know that you're not giving me anything harder than I can bear. And I'm just gonna take one contraction at a time and like Bismillah, you're taking that leap of faith of like, okay, it doesn't feel like I can handle this, but I'm not dead yet. And I think I'm okay, I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna trust you that I'm gonna make it through this. And so you make a transition spiritually and physically you're transitioning into the next stage of your labor and you, and so it's like that major growth that has to happen for you to completely let go and just be like, okay, we're gonna ride this wave and I'm gonna trust in the law that is extremely satisfying about natural birth. So, goodbye. And so after that, it's just the shortest part of labor usually, then the baby is pushed down far enough so that it will signal the body to push, right? So the cervix is in the way of the opening of the cervix is like, it's like in the way of the body pushing the baby down far enough to signal the body to push it out. So, but once that's out of the way, then the body, then the baby can push the body down, the baby, your uterus can push the baby down into your birth canal to like signal, okay, it's time to push. And so pushing usually feels really good to me because they instead of sort of feeling like, okay, I'm trying to just manage what's happening to me, they're like, okay, you can like do something with it and your efforts can actually produce tangible progress because the baby will be getting closer and closer to coming out. We mentioned something earlier about the labor pains in terms of like your body, the more that you have pain, the more that your natural coping mechanisms come in. So your body has natural endorphins, kind of like the runners high they talk about when you run so much and then like after great exertion, then your body will like produce these hormones, like feel good hormones. That happens also with women in labor. So it's not just her like sort of muscling through it, it's like her body is actually giving her aid in that. And the pain is also a benefit because you, one year it's like it gives you an extremely powerful spiritual experience once you get through it, but also it tells you something, like if it hurts doing one movement, then you're gonna say, well, oh gosh, I'm gonna like change the way I'm sitting here, I'm gonna change the movements I'm doing here, oh gosh, when I'm swaying it really helps, but when I sit down it doesn't feel good. So that's all telling you like how you need to move to get the baby out, right? Because you can't see what's going on inside of your birth canal, like where's the baby's head and where it needs to move and stuff like that, but your body's giving you those signs through the pain and through that. So it's really important to make birth safer to have the connection between the nerves in your pelvis and your brain and so that your whole body can react to what's going on. And so if we use numbing medication, we actually cut off that the pathway between to be like connected to the baby, connected to our whole body and we don't actually know like what position would be better to be in. So it doesn't make birth safer. And so pushing is kind of like this physical, it's very physical, physically exerting, so which kind of feels really good after being in labor and you're almost done. And the, what the body does, a lot of time with Alamedas have like adrenaline rush when we have pushing, cause we need that extra energy to push the baby out, right? But also we need to be alert. Like if you're about to have a baby and say like in terms of safety wise, right? You can't be like in labor land, right? You need to be like alert. Like if something were to happen, you need to be able to like react to that. So Las Funetales gives women in that moment this adrenaline. And so as the baby emerges, and it's not usually, I mean some women have babies really quickly, but usually it's a process of the babies rocking back and forth with each new trash and it comes down and then it comes back a little bit and it comes down a little further and comes back a little bit. So this rocking process is actually making it really gentle. Because the baby's head, I'll pull out my baby, right? The baby's head is made with different plates of the bones are not fused, right? It's actually a problem if the baby's head, the bones are fused and it's like a disorder, right? It's extremely rare because the baby, I mean, there's an amazing amount of head compression that babies are made to endure, right? And this is like really health giving to the baby. It's not like torture. I'm sure the baby's, I'm really fascinated as to what babies are experiencing. I don't know if it necessarily feels good to them, but it's something that is satisfying on a very deep level, right? Babies that are born through cesarean, they actually have therapies for them where they like, you know those big exercise balls, they'll like put the ball on them and like press it down on their chest to like give them some of that experience of being squeezed, like to give them like grounding, right? And so Allah swt made a baby to squeeze through. Like it's better for their lungs, it's better for like, it triggers certain hormones in their body and they actually are better at digesting once they are through that, so it's squeezing also their lungs so that they can clear mucus and things like that. And so it's like, it's the perfect way to be born. Like this is like how we're supposed to be born, right? Even though it sounds really crazy. And so the head is being compressed and so that's what these beautiful bones that are not fused yet are made for. And then the pelvis is stretching. So, you know, like a lot of people are like, oh, I don't wanna have a natural birth because then I'm gonna have like problems with incontinence or problems with what else happens. Just your pelvic floor not being intact and like loose muscles and things like that. So not to say that that doesn't happen, but it's gonna happen a lot worse if you're not having a natural birth because say like you don't, you're not able to like feel your body and move in a way that feels the best than your pelvic floor. It's basically like force. Like what is it still? The baby is coated in what you call vernex. So it has like this like white, like oily, like their body secretes this oily substance, right? And so it's what's really amazing about that is that the baby is it's like a protective coating, right? So, you know, like you're pushing a baby out.  So that's natural too, but a lot counteracted that with this beautiful vernex that one, it makes the baby slippery and come out easier but also it protects it from any of those bacteria or whatever that it might come in contact with in this process, right? So, Subhanallah. And as it comes to the birth canal, right? It's getting all of those, the friendly bacteria from its mother and then I like this word, the fetal expulsion reflex. Those last pushes that the mother does it's actually stronger pushes than the other ones. It's called the fetal ejection reflex. So that's really cool, expulsion or whatever, yeah. So they, it's those last pushes from the uterus are like very, very powerful and it's getting that baby out, right? And normally the way it happens is that the head will emerge first and the head will be coming down like this and then but the shoulders are sideways. So the head will be coming down and then once the head is born then it'll turn towards whichever side the shoulders are on and then it rests until the next contraction. I mean, some women just, the whole baby flies out but most women, this is what happens and then the next contraction and the baby's fine. It's just like, hey, it's still breathing, right? It has the umbilical cord attached to mom and all of that's intact. And then the next contraction and then the top shoulder usually comes out first and then the bottom shoulder and then the baby is born. Right? And then everyone's like, oh, right? And very relieved. And I think that's, I mean, I just remember when I had my kids, it was just like, alhamdulillah. Like you're just so grateful. Like you never said alhamdulillah like that. It's just like so much, it's just amazing. Like I get goosebumps every time I think about just that feeling of like the baby slipping out just like so amazing. And everyone needs to take a breath, right? Everybody needs to take a breath. The baby physically needs to take a breath, for sure. But they can, they have a minute, why? Because the umbilical cord normally is attached, right? So natural birth, they don't cut the umbilical cord right away. They're still getting their blood. So when they came out, they got so squeezed in all of their blood, like some of their blood actually is reserved in the placenta so that they can squeeze through. Like they don't have as much blood volume.  All of the blood in the placenta is the baby's blood. So it's panela. So they're like, oh my God, I just got born, right?  And she's like very elated and not necessarily ready to connect to the baby right at that moment, right? Because she's been through a lot. She needs to just be like, okay, I'm alive. Oh, I did it.  Wow, right? And these moments are actually important for the baby too.  They're coming from this really hot mom that's like, oh my God, they actually enjoy. It's actually healthy for them to get a moment to cool off, right? And they're busy because they're like general after that few moments of them just being born, then what their body is naturally gonna wanna do is breathe. And so the baby in utero, their lungs are expanded, but they're not expanded with air obviously. And what's in there is lung fluid, right? And where that goes, which is really, really cool, it gets absorbed into their body. So their first breaths are not necessarily breathing breaths. They're expanding their lungs, they're pushing. What they're doing is pushing, taking the air from the atmosphere and pushing those, that fluid into their body so that they then can breathe. So they're, and they're pushing it out and then they can breathe, right?  But other babies, they might need some time, right? So it's a process and they're still attached, they're okay. And then the mom, she's back into her, she's thinking, oh gosh, well, let me look at the baby. So then she's gonna reach for her baby, right?  And then the baby can get warm and the baby's moving around and the weight of the baby is on the mom's belly. So the baby, and what happens to her uterus is now there's no baby in there. So the uterus is needing to clamp down, right?  So it's squeezing all this blood out and then eventually it's gonna get some really strong contractions and then that placenta, which was attached to the mother's veins were attached to it and feeding it oxygen, those veins are actually gonna get cut off because the placenta is gonna, you know, the size of the uterus that was attached to the placenta, it shrinks down.   And then she still has some bleeding after she has a baby, right? But she's okay because it's just part of the natural process of those blood vessels being closed down all the way. So our bleeding is coming actually from that sore that the placenta had left, right? And so the baby being here on the chest and she's feeling like all these emotions and the baby's moving around and that pressure is helping her uterus to clamp down and get small and expel the placenta. And the baby also gets whatever the mom gets, the baby gets. Any medication that are coming into your body at birth, right, the baby's getting them too. And so the hormones that the mother is getting is the baby's getting them too. They're getting all of the oxytocin, which is like the feel-good hormone. So they're like feeling great.  Like they're like getting this really, and they get the adrenaline boost. So they're like ready to, they're like looking around, which is also important why it's nice to have lower lights because they're coming from a dark environment.  So they, in order for them to really be able to see and not be like so shocked with the light, it's nice to have low lights. And one thing to really consider about medication is that the baby's body is not able to process things out as quickly as our bodies are. So any medication that goes into the baby, whether it's through the mother or directly, the baby is going to have a longer process of filtering that out of their system. And they're so, so, so new and so fragile in the state of being born. And their brain is like so much development is happening with every minute that the effects of things can be more exaggerated in the baby than it would be in a grown person, right? And then baby, once they feel, once they've settled down and they can breathe, some babies are ready earlier than others, but they're gonna look for the breast. They're gonna want to breastfeed. So, and part of that process is that they are going to be, they're gonna be like smelling their hands, licking their hands, they're gonna, all right, be looking for the nipple. They naturally have this back and forth kind of open mouth, kind of moving, rooting, right? And what's so miraculous is that babies actually can find the breast on their own. They have the instincts to grope for it. So if you were to sit with, because they do a step crawl, so they're gonna be, I don't know if you guys can see this, they like do something like this, but they have to have something to step onto, right? So if they're stepping on your legs and they're coming up, they're gonna like sort of, it's called step crawling and they do that and then they're licking their hands and turning around and looking. And then, and they can bob their head as well. And so they'll do that and then they'll lunge to one side or they'll lunge to the other side. Like this, this actually happens. And they'll be trying to find the breast.  Obviously we're human beings and we help the babies, I know. Yeah, so I mean, sometimes you need to help the baby a little bit, but a lot of times we're not patient enough. Oh, time to do that. So a lot of times we're not patient enough. Babies, they move six times slower than us. So imagine if you're like really excited, right? You're like, I wanna breastfeed and this baby is just taking forever. Like they might take an hour and a half to really bring that process together. So they can do it, but you know.  And then they're like, okay, I'm move a little. And you're like, you know, like we're used to like things happening quickly. So, you know, it's important to think about that when you're dealing with toddlers too. So you're like, I wanna put my shoes on.  You know, but it's like their whole learning process, right? It takes them time and then they'll, they'll get it eventually. So I think it's a lot of slowing down that we, that will be better for us to do. So, alhamdulillah. And then the breastfeeding releases hormones from the mother also for her uterus to contract. And so that helps her bleeding to stop, right? And I don't, I don't, I've never heard of a story of a woman who went through natural childbirth and didn't feel really accomplished, right? I mean, it's like a major feeling of accomplishment, feeling of like joy, of just like being blessed, right? And so it's like, when I was writing this, I was like, well, what? It's almost like, of course, like of course that's gonna feel really good, you know?  So, alhamdulillah. And then the last part of that sequence is that after about an hour and a half to two hours, the mother and the baby really wanna go to sleep. They've been through a lot and so they're very, they just like feeling very, very tired after that adrenaline rush and like everything going on. And then they, if they're left alone, they'll go to sleep for like four hours and just like get a good rest. And then usually after that, the babies every two hours at least is gonna wanna nurse. So they're like very, babies, they have two jobs. They want their job is to tell you milk to come in by nursing a lot.  And so they're getting nourishment in and the colostrum, which is the new milk is a nice laxative. So it helps them to push all that out and their digestive, and it seals their digestive system. Like the milk molecules fit into the gaps in their digestive system and seals it to get it ready for food. Obviously, if you're just breastfeeding, you're not gonna have food for, the baby's not gonna have food food for a while, but this whole process of breastfeeding is developing that digestive system that is so new and has like many holes in it, right? And so actually like cow's milk cannot fill those holes. It's not, the molecule is not the right shape. Yeah, and babies that are bottle-fed are actually more susceptible to infection and they're more sick, they are more sick. Places that are going through famine, they actually have changed their policies in terms of famine relief in these countries by they actually ban baby formula. They actually, they keep it for only special, special cases because if babies that are not nourished while it's, more babies will survive being breastfed by their under-nourished mothers than by getting bottle-fed. They will actually, like the death rates will go way, way down. So it's actually dangerous. So it's really, and even, yeah, even malnourished women can breastfeed their babies and they'll do a lot better job than to bottle-feed them. Especially in situations where the sanitation is not predictable or like clean water and all these things like that. So, does anyone have any questions about that? Why do difficulties in breastfeeding happen? That's a really, really good question because it seems like such a, it's like we have to breastfeed. Because in the past there wasn't all these products out there, right? So there's many different reasons. There can be like a tongue tie or sometimes the membrane which is the phrenulum like under the tongue or up here. Can be tight. And so the baby has a hard time sticking their tongue out far enough to get latched on. So like in those cases you can get, you can actually go to the dentist, the special dentist and they can like modify it. I mean, in the past like the midwife probably would just even cut it. It's like not that big of a deal. A lot of times it has to do with the mother's nipples. Like if she has inverted nipples or flat nipples it makes it a little harder. And, but I think even with all those problems a lot of the time it's women who are not, I guess getting like really good advice and being very determined. So you can have flat nipples and it's probably gonna hurt more because you're literally like the baby's sucking.  So that can be painful. But if you're really determined you're gonna be like, okay, this is what I have to do to free my baby, right? So you're gonna go through that process for that first two months or whatever and it's gonna work out. Maybe the baby's frenulum is kind of tight and it does hurt more to breastfeed but like as you breastfeed that can stretch, right? So there's a process of, and I mean, I do hear women saying like, oh my gosh, the first few months of breastfeeding it was just hard and that's just, and they're just like, I mean, maybe like I think we have a lot of technology and knowledge to like make that transition easier and I totally agree we need to do that but like that's some women's experience and they still breastfeed their babies and they're fine. So yeah. And if you've never sort of like seen what it takes to breastfeed a baby in the best circumstances it is very demanding, right? It is like round the clock, at least every two hours like babies just want to nurse. Like they just like, why do you, like we put those pacifiers and they'll do like sucking on that for hours. Like they would have been wanting to nurse if that thing wasn't in their mouth, right? This is the way they interact with the world. So it's a very demanding job. And so in our society now where like women are not used to sitting down that long and focusing on something like that or just like it's even just hard to breastfeed in public, right? And try all these kinds of things and you still need to run around and you still need to like take your kids to soccer or something like that. Like, or you want to go back to work or all of these things that are like very demanding and social expectations that you're just going to like bounce up and like, oh yay, you're such a, so strong, you're right back to work. It really does a number on breastfeeding. It really does a number on breastfeeding more than even like the birth, right? So, because breastfeeding is like, it's a very long relationship and it's a very, it can be very, you know, it's very, it's very demanding.  Like I would be around my sister and she would be, you know, like I would see the baby like play a little and then they'd breastfeed and then it wasn't like she was thinking, oh, is it two hours yet? It was just like when the baby wanted to nurse, you know, and like, and I would see like, oh, how would she like cover herself in public or out with her and then she needs a breastfeed? Like, how did she do that? And so it became like for me a extremely normal thing and it was like totally part of the process. So I think we need to, you know, like when we have that kind of realistic expectation, it really helps, yeah. So I wanted to go over sort of like the pros of in terms of our health. I know I talked about a lot about them, about like natural birth that I wanted to mention a little bit more. So women who are not on an epidural, they actually their labors go quicker. Every labor is a different length of time, but in general an epidural will slow down your labor because it inhibits the natural process, right? So the way that your body starts to have like contractions come quicker and quicker is from this pressure of this baby coming down there, right? The baby is actually triggering, triggering all these things. So if you no longer have nerve connection to that part of your body, then you're not triggering all those signals. And so your body, your labor is naturally going to slow down. And so many people, I mean it's kind of like that's what they talk about, the cascade of interventions. So a lot of times you start out with a pain medication which would then either, it would slow your labor down. So then you would need something to pick your labor back up. So then they give you pitocin in the hospital. And so when you have pitocin, then that's another, the next invention intervention. So then you're on two different pain medications and then you have to have the IV and you have to have the catheter and you have to stay in bed. So these are all different interventions that are limiting the mother's movement. And so not being mobile and not having feeling and all of these things then can make it more likely for you to have a, say a four steps delivery or have to have a physiotomy, like have to have the cut because you're not in an ideal plus string position or because, or to have a C-section if those things don't work, right? So it puts you down sort of like, as you get more interventions, the more interventions you might need to have. You know, natural birth is just safer on every level. Even the best, you know, the best case scenario C-sections are three times more likely to cause death or injury to a mother than a vaginal birth, right? So even in best case scenarios, C-sections are not safer. They're safer for a mother who would have died otherwise, absolutely, and that's what they're for. They're not safer for a woman who could have had her baby naturally. And more satisfying, definitely. Like, whoops, working so. Yeah, okay, you know, anytime we do something that's hard work, I think we all find satisfaction in it. And I've talked to women who weren't able to have a vaginal birth or weren't able to have an unmedicated birth. And they're really feeling like disappointed about that. Whatever level that is, it is disappointing, you know? And women have a shorter recovery generally with a natural birth. A caesarean section does a lot of things for making the recovery difficult.  So you're trying to find comfortable positions to breastfeed that don't touch your incision. That's really tender. You're trying to maybe even just getting up to go to the bathroom is a really hard thing to do because you're in pain. So those kinds of things make breastfeeding a lot more challenging, just being a human being a lot more challenging. And so it takes a lot longer to recover and you have, you know, infection is definitely a risk. Whereas with a vaginal birth, I mean, it's much less like lead infected because like everything's going out. So a lot coming in, you know? Like you're bleeding, that's flushing things out, you know? It's like all of these natural processes are made to protect women from infection. And a lot of the death that happens through infection is because the provider is, with the vaginal exam is introducing things into that environment that the woman then gets infected from. Yeah, and that's another reason why it's really a good idea not to get your waters broken if you don't have to because you're open to infection and every vaginal exam you get, you're more and more likely to get infection. And then so if you get an infection, then you need antibiotics, right? And if you get antibiotics, then your gut bacteria dies and the baby doesn't get any of that good gut bacteria when it's coming out. So it's more likely to have asthma and isoma all of those things that come along with not having a healthy gut. How does it for the baby? We talked a lot about these things. When a baby has a natural childbirth, so if they have drugs in their system, they're a little less coordinated, right? So they might have more trouble breastfeeding because it takes that innate coordination that it normally has to be able to coordinate the whole breastfeeding ordeal.  And that's also a big reason why there's a lot of difficulty with babies.  And like when I had Hafsa, my oldest, probably shouldn't say names, whatever. She taught me how to breastfeed. It was like, she was just like, I was just like, okay. She was just like moving her head and she'd just like get it in the right place and just be like, very, she was like 41 weeks and she was almost 42 weeks. She was like 12 days over her due date. So she was ready. She was still really strong, but like say you're getting induced before your due date or like you have a premature baby, maybe like one thing is nutrition. If you're not, nutrition can have a lot to do with like having a full term baby that's very strong. So that's, you know, like people who are afraid of big babies, those big babies are really healthy and really strong. And that's really what we want, right? It's not, you know, birthing a baby is gonna be difficult whether they're a small baby or not, but that shouldn't make you want to have a baby earlier to have a smaller baby in an easier time.  You're just gonna get a different test because Allah wants us to meet the challenges, right? Of life, right? That's what it's all about. It's like surrendering to like the path, the harder path, right? That's the only way we're gonna get to Jannah is like to really work hard. And the harder path is always going to be easier in the long run, right? So we face the challenges first then we don't have to have like 20 billion of those little challenges, right? We learn our lesson from the first few times. We don't have to like keep learning our lesson all throughout our life, right? So I mean just life in general, not this birth, but it's, I think it's like a compressed version of that lesson in life of like how to overcome difficulties and learn. So having vaginal exams during labor or getting your water broken, not the vaginal exam so much, is the vaginal exams after you get your water broken because the water is like holding in that baby and keeping it safe from infection, right? And when you're, especially when you're not in your own home environment, there's a lot of bacteria and stuff that you're not used to, like in like a hospital environment. So if you're, so they're, I mean they're using sterile gloves and all that to minimize things, but the statistics are that 12 hours after you get, after your water is broken and 12 hours after you get a vaginal exam and your water's broken, your likelihood of getting infection just is like way goes way up. So that's why they tell you like, oh, you can't go past 12 hours. You can't go past 24 hours because in that setting with the amount of vaginal exams that they're going to do, yes, you're much more likely to have infection. And so it's just the way it is. And the baby's brain development is enhanced by natural birth and their fine motor skills and their social skills. Assembled across this when I was researching for this talk, it was really wise that you're saying of how, you know how we always tell girls, you know, you can do anything, you're strong, don't think that you're weaker than anyone else. And but then do we hear that when we're giving birth? Like, do we hear that like you're strong and you can do it? I don't, not all of us hear that, right? But I'm telling you, you're strong and you can do it. I've seen so many women that you're just like, I would be like, man, like, why isn't she giving up? Cause you're like after like a day or two and you're just like, so had a lot. Like it's just like a really boost of my faith. And you know, like I'm a person who's like, I believe in women being able to do it, but like after all that time, you're just like, wow. And those women are doing it. And they're just like so strong.  And I see how much you're working. And you know, like it's like, these women are so strong, so you can do it. Can you eat in labor? So I know you don't feel like eating subhanallah. You, when you're in heavy labor, you usually don't feel like eating. But so the reason why hospitals don't let you eat in labor, some of them, not all of them are like this.  And the reason is because if you were to go to into a C-section, then if you were to vomit while you were under anesthesia and aspirate that, you could have breathing issues and it could lead to dust potentially or very serious complications, right? So that is serious. But it's way more likely for you to have a C-section if you're so depleted of energy that you can't push your baby out. So the statistics are for eating in labor. Even though you probably don't really feel like it, in early labor, you should really think about like getting some good food in you, right? Because you're not gonna really want to. And a lot of times women are very nauseous in labor, so they might not be keeping things down as well. But another, a really important thing for her support team is just like give her little sips in between contractions.  You know, something really like, something that she would like, maybe she likes garlic, I don't know.  Because then what? You don't need that IV if you're hydrated, right? And having being well hydrated and well nourished, your muscles work better, right?  You're doing a lot of big exertion and to get that uterus to work the best way, then you really do need nourishment. So it's actually, it causes a lot of problems in those hospitals that they don't let you eat.  It's like on top of everything else you have to go through and you're gonna be starved. So, and there's also a principle in Islam, I don't know if you're aware of that, we have the right to refuse medical treatment. Even if the doctor or whoever or everyone in the world is telling you that you need this medical treatment, you can say, I refuse medical treatment. In the sight of Allah, you can do that and that's okay. There was a woman that she was suffering from epilepsy in the time of the Prophet SAW. She said, I suffer from epilepsy and during fits my body is exposed. So it makes up location to a law for me. He, so the law already said and replied, if you wish, you can endure it patiently and you will be rewarded with jannah or if you wish, I shall make supplication to allow to cure you. She said, I shall endure it. Then she added, but my body is exposed. So pray to Allah that it may not happen. He, so the law already said them, then sublocated for her. This is in Bukhari Muslim. So the jurists take from that that you are allowed to refuse medication. I'm, you know, life-saving medication. The problem is that it's very hard to make those decisions. And sometimes we have choices and they don't make it seem like we have choices. So I wanna tell you that you do have choices. And you have that right in the United States as well to have time to think about it.  But if they're sitting there asking you questions like, oh, we think it's a good idea for you to do this, that means it's not an emergency. That means you can think about it. Yeah, we're almost done. And the last topic is, which is the, I think the most important is like, how do you have a natural birth? What is the given to give you the best chances of having a natural birth? And it's pretty much proven that if you don't plan, like if you don't think deeply about that question, you probably won't have a natural birth, right? Most hospital births, and that's where most people in the United States have babies, they are not natural births. So having several, you know, like really thinking about your strategy going into it, choosing providers that are going to be supportive of natural births is super, super, super important.  It's gonna be a very different reality in terms of like what's going on. So when you're choosing a provider, you really want someone who specializes in natural birth, right? So if their specialty is not natural birth and they don't have very good statistics, so say you're going to a midwife that 30%, 30% of her clients are, they have caesareans, right? So then that means that you have a 30% chance of having caesarean, but if you go to a midwife or a doctor that has a 10% rate of caesareans, that means you going to them has a much lower rate. So it's not about them telling you, oh, I believe in natural birth and we're gonna do everything we can. It's more about their policies and how they enact, like how they make natural birth possible for their clients. And you're not gonna know that unless you look at their statistics.  Well, what's your policy on breaking women's waters or whatever? So I have a whole list of questions that will help you to make those decisions and just ideas of what to ask. So people that, so that's one thing and what are these people that help people have natural births? Definitely midwives and doctors. Some doctors are really, really good. Most doctors are more medically trained and medically minded. Most midwives are more into natural birth because their training is more geared towards that but you will have midwives that are not as good at doing natural birth. And then doulas are generally, there's different philosophies out there and you need to meet everyone. The doulas are an option and Montreuse is a midwife who will act as a doula so she'll come to a birth that's a hospital birth but she'll stay with the client in the home before they go to the hospital and she'll be able to actually check the woman's cervix to see how dilated she is to see if it's time to go to the hospital because that's one thing that's a very difficult decision to make is when to go to the hospital and it's a very important decision to make because the later you go to the hospital in your labor the more chances it is that you'll have a natural birth just because they won't need to do much. If you're coming in the door and you're like pushing they're just like gonna catch the baby, right? I mean, hopefully it's not that late that's kind of chaotic but to as close as you can get to that point it's going to make it a lot easier and I've been in like a hospital tour and I was like, the lady was like, well, you gotta come as late as possible because that's gonna be your best chance and I was like, okay, the hospital's telling me that. And getting really, really good education, childbirth education classes that are geared towards natural birth. Some of the hospital based childbirth education classes are not as maybe not as geared towards natural birth. So you gotta kind of shop around and see like what do you want. Not all of them, some of them are great. And never, never be reluctant to change providers even if it's very late in your pregnancy because you're not married to your provider. They're not your best friend that's gonna get mad at you if you decide to not be with them, right? You need them, you're paying them for a very specific purpose and if they are not the one you want to be there then you need to, then you have every right to think about changing and shouldn't feel bad if they're like, oh, why, you know?  So but don't let that get in the way of you getting the care that you need. And obviously eating well during pregnancy is going to be like very crucial for your health, anything in your health, right? Our health is just like based on our nutrition. The problem I asked my son said that every disease starts in the stomach, so, right? So that has to be the first and foremost thing that we do. Insha'Allah. And especially, especially for first time mothers it's so important to have a good experience and whatever you can do to facilitate that is so important because it's like once you have a really successful birth, like all your following births are gonna be so much more easier, insha'Allah. And so you shouldn't assume that it's all gonna work out and they're gonna help me. You need to really ask those hard questions. You need to really be an advocate for yourself and really, really think it really seriously. Like this is probably gonna be your hardest, longest birth. You're gonna need more help than any other births. This is gonna be a very like life changing experience for you, you need to shop around, you need to learn. All of these things are gonna help you in that experience. So it's really a crucial lifetime and so really to take that seriously, insha'Allah. Yeah, I'm a very good question and that's like a lot of, I mean like so most insurances are not going to cover all of the expense. There are some cases where you can get insurance to cover an out-of-hospital birth. If you're paying out-of-pocket, the going rate in the Bay Area is $7,000. There are many midwives that you can find that have a sliding scale. So even though home birth is cheaper than in the hospital but because you're paying out-of-pocket, a lot of times that makes it difficult for families. And then there are at least one, I know Marin, in Marin there's a birth center that takes Medi-Cal and yeah, I'm not sure who else takes Medi-Cal but I would never give up. I would keep asking around because then there's also some midwives that maybe once a year they'll do like a free birth for someone who really needs it. So or you can maybe like have a barter or something with the midwife. So payment plans, yeah, exactly. Or even like most of them you need to finish by the time your baby's born but some of them will even let you have payment plans after. So there's options, inshallah, definitely. And by far, you can definitely look in terms of hospitals you can look up caesarean rates for hospital. The lowest caesarean rate in the whole of California is at Sutter Davis Hospital.  They have a 12% caesarean rate which is extremely good considering that the United States most hospitals are in the 30% and up to 70%. God almighty. Yeah, so that's what I would do. But I probably shouldn't say that. But anyways, yeah, I mean I would have a home birth but because the caesarean rate for home birth is 5%. But so she's saying Pacifica has a good, in Berkeley has a good success rate. They bill your insurance? Okay, so they can usually receive up to 50% of the fee. Yeah. Okay, yeah, they never can tell you until the insurance company actually sends the money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as far as I understand a lot of home birth midwives do have billers that they work with but it's due to the insurance company. So they're used to doing it. They give you some help potentially and so. But yeah, how about if the baby's in a breech position, what do you do? Yeah, so there's a lot of things you can do before you are full term to try to encourage the baby to turn naturally. So yeah, there's definitely different exercises you can do physically. There's the chiropractors, acupuncturists. I'm not sure what else. Modes of natural healing they do but they definitely can do things to help. If the baby will not turn in the hospital, they also will do like an external version. Try to turn it manually. Generally midwives don't do that. Maybe some of them do. I don't have much experience with that. And then there are hospitals that will do vaginal breech births for some women. So you have to ask about that. There are a couple of hospitals in this area that will do that. It's a natural, I mean, there is somewhat more risk to it but it is a, say like a variation of normal, right? It is a variation of normal breech birth before this recent time was something that they did all the time. Yeah, like they had vaginal breech births normally and practitioners were very skilled at doing them but now that they don't do them in very many locations, the practitioners actually don't know how to deal with them as well. So it becomes less safe because of the fact that they don't do it. It's less safe because of the fact that you don't have skilled practitioners dealing with the actual birth, yeah. But no, in the places that they'll do them, these are skilled practitioners that will attend to it. Yeah, yeah. There's a big question. Twins is a big question. We'll wrap it up, inshallah. O Allah, please help us and guide us to what is best for us and what is best for our families. O Allah, give us the best in this life in the next and reward us for our struggles and forgive us our sins and make us always our heart comforted by what's good and what's healthy. O Allah, please, we ask of you of the good of what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ asked of you and we seek refuge in you from the evil things that he ﷺ sought refuge in you from.  We send him with that.


be able to see us increase the capacity of our prescribers who are working in primary care and that's one of my primary goals and responsibilities to see about expanding that level of doctors we are faced in our community a handful of these prescribers are facing retirement and within the next 3 to 5 years we'll need to be bringing on more prescribers and at this point in time we've got a few folks who have expressed interest but there are communities down in the Mad River Valley where we don't have any prescribers and that's a challenge for us I'm going to take one more question and wrap up Hi, I'm Hunter I'll try to articulate this as best I can I'm familiar with Matt and with the recovery options in the Central Vermont area but I was wondering what initiatives given that the population that these people are largely working with have a negative connotation with law enforcement as well as DCF and other state agencies what potential initiatives are under way to address the need for case management services after the initial getting clean and moving on so people can file for unemployment get on health connect get on Medicaid and do the other things that are needed to live a productive life maybe fall to one of our other panelists too so there are partnerships that are being developed as we sit here tonight can you move the mic closer sorry I'm not used to having usually if the room is small enough there are partnerships being developed as we sit here directed just towards the areas of your concern of what happens after they're in a little broader manner but they will capture people with opioid addictions also and they're really directed at a central location for resource navigation to make sure that if you walk through the door there's a smiley friendly face of the community that's there to help you they may not be the actual individual to help you they may direct you to the turning point they may direct you to Washington County mental health they may direct you to Central Vermont substance abuse they may direct you to one of the housing agencies they may direct you to the food shelf or a thing that combines all of these which is a life skills classes a lot of folks take for granted going shopping on a budget a lot of us take for granted knowing how to cook dinner a lot of us take for granted so this is all coming together I think within the next 62 I'm going to go back I'm going to say 30 days maybe 45 I'm going to see some new things around that area with the whole concept of resource navigators and a really stronger team effort towards these we've shown it's worked in the past when we've done it short term for recovery after the floods and we're looking at doing something like that long term moving on to get through that without giving up any secrets all right thank you all of our panelists so as expected this has been informative and critical look at the opioid crisis here and I think we should all actually be proud of the fact that this evening we came out together to discuss this important issue and I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the panelists who agreed to come out and offer their insights tonight it's been very educational I knew it would be and I'm sure we can all agree on that hopefully this information is something that allows you to have a better understanding of what's going on in our community right now and I would urge you to please share what you've learned here this will be taped and rebroadcast on orca media and potentially other public access stations around the state and I'm sure orca media would be happy to make copies available to you as well and on behalf of the Times Argus I want to thank you for all of your support tonight and for your ongoing support of the work that we do each day in your community and I hope you all have a drive a safe drive home and I thank you again for coming out hold on hold on if anybody would like to be part of a project like I discussed at the end pull up the mic sure one shameless plug if anybody out there would like to be part of what we discussed with regards to a team effort in a central location shameless plug you can reach out for either Mary Molten Wade Mary Mary's been all in from day one or Debra Debra's been all in from day one or Bob where's Bob Bob raise your hand Bob Bob raise your hand or Bob he's been all in for day one and finally myself and we will put you on the list and we really would appreciate any and all help we can get thank you good night everybody


Hello and welcome to this session. This is Professor Farhad. In this session we would look at disposal of receivable and receivable turnovers. These topics are covered in an introductory financial accounting course as well as intermediate accounting. So if you feel I did not go in depth in this recording it's because this is an introductory financial accounting course. You can go to my intermediate accounting if you're interested in more detailed information. These topics are covered on the CPA exam. As always I would like to remind you to connect with me on LinkedIn if you haven't done so. YouTube is where you would need to subscribe. I have 1600 plus accounting, auditing, tax and finance lectures. This is a list of all my courses. If you like my lectures please click on the like button. It doesn't cost you any share them. Put them in playlists. If they benefit you it means they might benefit other people especially during the coronavirus. These lectures are very helpful to students who are home looking for supplemental resources and please connect with me on Instagram. On my website you will find additional resources if you'd like to supplement your accounting education or study for your CPA exam. The first topic we're going to look at today is disposal of receivable and this topic as I mentioned earlier it's covered much more in depth in intermediate accounting and this topic was a front story during the financial crisis of 2007-2008 because certain companies, not certain companies, companies like Cleveland as well as well as other financial institution they try to blur the line between the disposal of receivable, if they dispose of the receivable, if they sold it or if they pledged it. We're going to look at the difference in a moment and I will tell you the importance of this. It's beyond the scope of this course but it's very important to put things into perspective. Let's talk about the idea of pledging the receivable. Let's first take a look at the idea of disposal of receivable where you get root of your receivable. How do you get root of your receivable? One way to do it is you can do what's called factor. You can factor your receivable, the company that does this it's called a factor, the process is called factoring. So let's talk about the disposal of receivable. The disposal of receivable is when you get root of your receivable. There are two ways to get root of your receivable. One way to do it is to sell it. Selling receivable is called factoring. You sell the receivable and the process is called factoring and you sell it to a factor. A factor could be a bank, could be a financial institution, could be any individual that's willing to pay you for your receivable. So how does it work? Well simply put let's assume you have one million of receivable.  Now you gave your customers 30 or 60 days or 90 days to pay. That's fine. If you made that promise you have to stick with it. However you need the money now so you cannot wait 30 or 60 days because you have payroll, you have to pay your loans, you have to pay your suppliers, you have to pay your vendors. So what do you do? You'll find a company that's willing to buy your receivable in a form of financing. Let's assume this is the factor, this is the company so you'll go to the factor and you will tell them I'm going to sell you my receivable and in return you'll give me some money. Well they might pay you for your receivable depending on the agreement, what they agreed upon. Maybe sometime they sell it with recourse, without recourse we're not going to go into that in this course and in my intermediate accounting we go into those details but let's assume for the sake of illustration they gave you for your million dollar 980 000. So simply put you sold your receivable and they gave you 980 dollars. Guess what? You lost 20 000 dollars. You did not really lose it. It's a cost of financing. If you want the money there's a cost for money. It's an expense. It's a cost of money. So this is basically the disposal of receivable. So simply put companies can convert the receivable to cash before they are due. So they sell it. So the journal entry would look something like this. You credit your receivable in my situation. You credit for example here they credited a million at 20 000 in my example. I credited a million. They debited cash 19 000, 19 200 in my example. I debited cash 980 and there's a factoring fee expense of 800 in this example and my example the fee is 20 000. It's just using two different numbers. So here what I did I sold my receivable. I sold my receivable and received cash. So that's one way to do it. Another way to raise cash is by pledging. Pledging your receivable. What do we mean by pledging? Maybe you are familiar with this concept. Maybe you are not. Well when you buy a home what you do is you pledged your home. You say well this is my home but I'm going to give you the title. I'm going to give the bank the title over the home and in return the bank will give me money or if you have a car and you want to borrow money you go to the bank. The bank will say okay hand me the title. Give me the right to the right to sell the car and I'll give you the money. So what you do is you pledge your car.  Now the bank is secured. Why?  If you can't pay your loan the bank will take your car. So this is the idea of pledging. So there is some security. So pledging is basically taken out a loan. So for example you go to the bank and you borrow money. You borrow 35 000. You debit cash credit receivable debit cash credit payable. And what you do behind the scene you will sign paperwork telling them if I don't pay back this 35 000 you have the right to collect that money from my customers. Now it's very important to differentiate between selling of a receivable between selling and pledging. Selling versus pledging. Although this is beyond the scope of the scores but during 2007-2008 financial crisis it made the difference whether you sold your receivable or you pledged it. A company like Clemen Brother what they did is that's before they went out of business again this is beyond the scope of the scores but it's good to kind of look at a realistic example is what they did they used to raise money they used to bring money by pledging by pledging certain security. So what they did they did not pledge a receivable they had securities they had assets they had financial assets specifically mortgage back securities but those mortgage back securities were really I'm going to use the word crappy okay they were not good. So they will pledge them they will pledge them and they will get money but what they did but what they did is they did not say they pledged them they acted as if they sold them and when you sell something remember when we sold the receivable notice what happened here when we sell the receivable we remove the asset we remove the asset from our books when we pledge something for a loan notice we did not remove the asset we still have the account receivable and what they did so why did they do so why did they say it's a it's a selling and not a pledge because when you pledge your asset for something else for money you still have that asset and the asset that Lehman had was as I said sorry for the language shitty asset so what they wanted to do they wanted to get rid of this asset from their balance sheet before year end so the auditors will not value that asset at a low price and record losses so they acted as if they sold the asset not pledged it once again just know that there's a difference between selling and pledging and in the real world there's there is consequences to whether you pledged or whatever use whether you sold this asset okay and that's enough for that I don't want to go any further because you don't need more than that um account receivable turnover is determines how well the company is managing the receivable how do you manage your receivable well you sell on credit you collect your money you sell on credit you collect your money so the point is how many times you are selling on credit and collecting your money how many times is it every 30 days is it every 45 days is it every 50 days how many times are you doing that throughout the year so one way to measure this is to compute a ratio okay this ratio provides useful information for evaluating how efficient management has been in granting credit so how well are you in granting credit because the way you are granting credit the way you are granting credit is a judge by how fast you are collecting your money how fast you are collecting your money okay so one to compute this you will take net sales net sales now in the real world in the real world in other words if you are dealing with a publicly traded company they don't give you the credit sales usually it's mostly the credit sales but you cannot have this information divided by the average receivable now go back to the real world when I was in the real world kind of when I was practicing I used to prepare financial statements for many companies we used to call them reviews we used to do reviews and part of the reviews is to compute the financial ratios so to determine if things make sense if things are in order and a counter-receivable turnover was one of those important ratios especially for retailers I used to do two retailer company because retailer sells on credit so every three month management wanted to know how well they are managing their credit so one way to do it is to compute their account receivable turnover account receivable turnover now let's take look at some numbers now I just want you to know I looked at these numbers earlier I just don't believe those numbers there's something missing something does not make any sense but it doesn't matter we don't have to determine the business sense of it we need to know the computation and the meaning of the numbers but if we look at visa versus mastercard visa is has an asset account receivable turnover of 16.9 for the current year the prior year was 16 so this year is better okay they improved their receivable turnover and two years ago it was better than year one but the current year is the best versus mastercard their account receivable turnover is 7.4 worse than the prior year and the prior year is worse than two years ago because it was 8.8 so you want this number to be high now you can take this number and convert it in two days let's go ahead and convert this number in two days so if we take 365 days in a year divided by 16.9 and if we take 365 days in a year divided by 7.4 so let's go ahead and compute those to find out how many days 16.9 it's taken visa 21.5 days let's make it 22 because it's 21.59 and for mastercard 365 divided by 7.4 it's taken them approximately 49 days so notice here again I'm not really sure why there's a huge difference I'm not expecting this and this is why ratios are important for example if I am if I am preparing my financial statements for a certain company and I notice so this actually this is a good learning opportunity and if I notice their account risk account turnover went from 22 to 49 let's assume it's the same company this will raise red flags will be like this does not make any sense it's either something wrong in my computation or something wrong for the company actually it's funny because I was in practice I was practicing 2007 2008 and those numbers did spike because customers were not paying their bill and as a result a count receivable turnover went up substantially but there's an explanation but I cannot explain the difference here between visa and mastercard why is it taken mastercard almost 50 days to collect their money versus visa there must be an explanation I don't have enough information nor I'm an expert in this industry but I find it interesting and I would say this is a red flag okay because they should be comparable because they're similar companies but again I'm not very familiar with their businesses but this is how we compute the account receivable turnover if you like this recording please click on the like button subscribe subscribe share it with others and if you are interested in learning more to supplement your accounting education especially if you're studying for your CPA exam I strongly suggest you visit my website for additional resources good luck and please stay safe during those coronavirus days


Good afternoon. My name is Deirdre Rhine and I'm from Mary Immaculate College and my colleague Geraldine Brosnan wasn't able to be with us today so I'll just take the helm and it's always hard to follow Mark because they are kind of really ahead of the game I think and what they're doing. So I suppose first of all just to say that I work in the Center for Teaching and Learning in Mary Immaculate College and over the last two years I've been working particularly within the blended learning units so I guess once you do that when you're designing blended and online courses you get to see all this data coming in from through the VLE and then I started to think and my colleague David Maloney what could we do with this data and just finding out more about learning analytics really and so I'm hoping if I press it goes so I like this quote from Slade and Prince Lou and it's that is education is primarily a moral practice not a causal one and therefore learning analytics should function primarily as a moral practice resulting in understanding rather than measuring and we've been having those discussions at the table today how you know measurement the student experience actually how do you measure that because in some ways what we're talking about a lot today is about engagement rather than actual learning. So I suppose Dr. Keith Hampson will talk about three different types of analytics you have your institutional I suppose tracking the learners over the course of their time in college then you have the engagement which we have been doing a bit of really in Mary I and only touching the surface of and also then I suppose if you think of it where we're really wanting to get to is how we measure actual learning and I think that's where we're all going to you know benefit from from talking to each other and so in terms of Mary I then as I said we were really only kind of scratching the surface in terms of engagement but we we used Moodle at a very simple level with activity completion and with badges and what we did was for 200 first year psychology students we had them take three week slots where they had to watch videos do some activities and then at the end of the three weeks they would get a badge worth 5% of the course so in doing that then we were able to actually track who was actually engaging and also try to promote self-regulation with them so they had to get this work done within the three weeks to get the badge and so it allowed us to see those who were doing everything those who suddenly and I think you mentioned this this morning in the idea that maybe somebody stopped suddenly doing their work why is that happening and also it's gone down a little bit those who aren't engaging at all and so are they just gone have our systems not just told us or they just you know have partied all through the semester and so we need to know and that's where our retention and our looking after our students and finding out what's going on with them and it's only a simple system but it can help with that on a modular level we're doing it at the moment we'd like to go forward and use it I suppose at you know course levels as well and so then in terms of these are just a few graphs but the graph that's interesting is this one which was the badge completion so we're what we were after was self-regulation and getting them to complete the work maybe over the course of the three weeks rather than as you can see in the beginning 155 of them decided to wait till the last week and then they were going to do all the work and probably realistically they did in about two or three days that you know so over the time we were hoping to see more engagement over weeks one and two now we started to see it in the second section then we got to the third section there was a massive drop but what we call St. Patrick's week as opposed to St. Patrick's day happens so you get this idea of what's happening and then they started to engage more so we got a little bit more self-regulation they began to realize some of the students that if they did it earlier it was done and they didn't have to worry about it the other graphs are just to show that this was a two-week intensive module that some of our first-year students take for psychology the very peak at the beginning is the orientation session we would have given them it's very very important that they understand why are they on the VLE how do I use it properly otherwise the analytics really I suppose you don't you know it doesn't make sense to them so you can see that they worked kind of consistently the dip in the middle would have been the weekend they had to have the work in on Friday again you're promoting self-regulation and down here was just the regular 12-week module where they had MCQs and you can see they're very strategic and what they do is obviously the peaks are when the MCQ is on so that just gives you an idea of I suppose how you know we we have on a small level looked at engagement but what I'm really interested in is the learning analytics and I suppose this is a real exciting start to be here today and hopefully get to talk to people


Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Mr. Jayan Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Amul India. Today, through our 95 dairy plants almost across the country. So since my friends from Jagran are here, this is more than the combined circulation of Jagran, Bhaskar, times of India, Hindustan times, Malayalam, Manorama, Gujarat, Samachar are put together. Then we do close to 250 tons of cattle feed and we have more than 50 products, 1,000 SKUs and a million retail outlets sell these products. And this is what is the ranking of the top eight dairy companies of the world. And we should be in the top five in the next couple of years based on our current growth rate. Mind you, most of the companies on the top are multinationals or operating in larger geographies. We only operate in Gujarat, which is one of the 28 provinces of India. So this is what is the opportunity lying ahead of us. As per this research, we are picked up from the shelf about 6 billion times. But the actual number of packs we do in a year is more than 16 billion packs. So this is the number of transactions. The number one brand in the world as per this research is Coca-Cola. We are actually double the number of transactions we do in a year as compared to Coca-Cola. And 13th largest as far as the business is concerned, among the top dairy brands are the strongest dairy brands in the world as per some different researches. But this is essentially the journey we want to discuss today. And this is how Amul over the last 76 years, which started in 1946, a year before India's independence. And then how the journey progressed of starting on the marketing campaign, setting up a distribution network, focusing on milk marketing, focusing on Amul parlors and other business, focus on fresh products. And we'll talk about the next 25 years also later. Brands have an origin story. But every brand has some identification of how that brand was created and how that brand became successful over the period of time. Amul is a very unique case in which this brand made country something proud of. So this is the story which I want to narrate of how a milk cooperative made India the largest producer of milk in the world. Typically, it is the countries which make brands. If America is strong, their brands are stronger. Japan is strong, their brands become stronger. In India, the story of milk is very, very unique and very different because India's dairy industry did not exist. Though we had a huge mythological evidence of India being a land of milk and honey and milk is an integral part of what we have been doing over centuries. But during independence or just before independence, Indian dairy industry was in a very, very bad shape. And it was said that the gutter water of London was bacteriologically superior than the milk available in the city of Bombay. Farmers were exploited as Anuragji said, and this is where the vision of leaders like Dr. Vallabhai Patel, he inspired the farmers to come together, form a cooperative to prevent exploitation at the hands of the private dairies. And that's how Amul came into being, where the farmers actually had control on all the three aspects of the business, which is milk procurement, processing and marketing. If you have a farmer owned vertically owned structure and the form of a cooperative, which was actually not known in those days. Today, the government has realized the importance of cooperatives and the government actually set up a ministry of cooperation just earlier this year. So you can imagine for 76 years back when this experiment started, how difficult it would have been for the farmers to actually put together an organization. But Amul started with 247 liters of milk in 1946. Today, we are collecting more than 270 lakh liters of milk per day. And it was the combination of two major factors. The key ingredient of success of Amul is that there is a dedicated selfless leadership and competence of technical manpower. So this is where it's a combination of Sri Kibondas Patel and Dr. Kurian as you see in this picture. These are the two gentlemen who actually steered this moment, both with their visionary approach and a selfless leadership. And that led to creation of brand Amul and the Amul girl that we all know very much. We are all students of marketing and this is what has been taught to all of us. We all studied Kotler and the four piece of marketing, which first came up in 1960. Kotler's first edition came up in 1967 and we all swear by all this. Okay, we can add couple of more piece like the purpose which we just discussed and the passion and other things also. But this is the logo of Amul. So you look at it closely, there are four hands. And though as a cooperative which is owned by the farmers is supposed to be farmer centric, the purpose of the entire organization was spelt out in the logo way back in 1946, which says that each of the four hands are representing the four key elements of what makes the organization, what makes the brand, what makes the entire business supposed to be relevant to the society. So first hand is of the farmer, of course he's the owner. Second is of the professional. Third is of the market year and fourth is of the customer. Now these are the four hands built in the logo of the brand, which actually signifies how Amul as a cooperative started its journey and did everything which is possible to be relevant to all four, keep all four of them as a center of their activities. And in the next few slides, I'll just talk about some of the things related to what are critically done and important to the way in which we function. This is what the actual ad in the 1990s we used to do. Some of you would have seen in the reader gizest and several other magazines. So we had to clarify and inform the consumers that India's largest daily complex is not owned by a multinational. It's not owned by a large company, private company, but it is a farmer's organization. And this is what is the Amul model which I talked about. The milk producer is the heart of the entire thing. All the villages of all the milk producers in a particular village form a village cooperative society. Each of the village in a district forms a district milk processing union. And each of the districts in a state form state marketing federation and we directly reach out to customers. So this is a model which directly connects the producers with the customers with all the three aspects of the business, which is procurement, processing and marketing in the hands of the farmers supported with professional management. And that is what actually replicated across the country under the operation flood program in 1965 when the National Daily Development Board was formed. And that the three phases of operation flood 1970 to 1996 resulted into India becoming the largest producer of milk in the world. And today we are producing twice the quantity of milk which United States is producing in a year. So Amul on the left hand side is as I mentioned 3.6 million farmers, 18,600 villages, 18 district unions. And we are the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation is the marketing organization. The same model replicated across India by the NDDB. So there are more than 17.6 million farmer families affiliated to cooperatives in about 200,000 cooperatives, 225 district unions, and every state of India as a state marketing federation. So some of you who are from Karnataka would know of Nandini. And same is case of Avin, Milma, Verca, Vijaya, Parag, and so on so forth. Every state has its own brand which is owned by the farmers of that particular state. And this is how this cooperative model evolved across the country giving great benefits to the producers as well as the consumers. And all this resulted also into one fun fact which is that milk is the largest agricultural crop of India today. The value of output of milk is more than wheat, paddy, oil seeds put together. And we all know India is among the top producers of all these three agricultural commodities. So this is what the power of collectives, of small producers coming together and making India the largest producer of milk in the world. And most important part of this entire piece is that if you spend 100 rupees on any dairy product, 80% of that goes back to the farmer. Now this is the highest ratio anywhere in the world for a simple reason that here, because of the cooperatives, the connect is very, very strong. And that's why farmers get the largest share of the consumer's rupee. It's not happening in any other agriculture product and not happening in dairy in any part of the world. In US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, producers typically get only one-third share of the consumer's rupee. One-third is by the processor and one-third is taken by the retailer. But this is what makes the Amul model very unique. And also, very important point of the development model is that it's also a model of women empowerment. All the work of rearing a cow, procuring, or I mean, collecting the milk, supplying the milk to the village society, and in our case, running the village cooperative societies largely is done by the women. And the money is also transferred to the bank account of the women members. So this is where the social benefit of this organization is also coming loud and clear. And this is what is also becoming a model about it. The next is about the dairy professional. And you need professionals to collect and process all the milk that we have. So in one slide, if I have to mention what is the dairy industry and where Amul stands today, if the world milk production is more than 900 million metric tons, India is about 20 to 23% of the total milk produced in the world. And organized sector is about 1 fourth, fifth of that. And Amul is about 1 fourth of the organized sector. So roughly 5% of the total milk in India is produced by Amul. And 1% of the total milk in India is handled by Amul. So we are actually now, look, if you think very differently, a startup of 3.6 million farmers. Because the journey is still begun, though we are claiming to be 75, 76 years old. This is, in our minds, still a beginning. And if these startups continue to work the way they have been doing, the journey will be very, very interesting in the years to come ahead. But over the last 75 years, we have 95 dairy plants handling with a capacity of 410 lakh liters per day. Average procurement last year was 270 lakh liters per day, peak goes up to 310, 315 lakh liters per day. We do 1100 tons of milk powder every day. And almost close to 10,000 tons of cattle feed is manufactured and supplied to the farmers. And all this milk is not sold as milk, but it's also converted into a variety of products. And as the brand has to evolve over a period of time, trying to meet the changing requirements of the customers, you also have to develop products. And this is how we created a portfolio of products over a period of time, all under the single brand Amul. And this is what resulted into Amul becoming the taste of India. Innovation is very, very important because the taste and preferences of the customers are changing. So to keep pace with the changing times also, we do a lot of research, talk to the customers, listen to the conversations, and based on that, we've been able to create a wide portfolio of products. But the pace of new product development is quite frantic. We've launched about 250 products in the last five years. About two new products every month is the rate at which we continue to grow and evolve. Then comes the most important job of marketing of these products. And this is the logo of Amul. You look at any Fortune 500 company, the word marketing is never there in any of their names. We are lucky and fortunate that in the name of our organization, the word marketing has come in. So Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. And this is our logo. It looks like a flower. But if you look at it closely, there are six people joining hands. So Amul started in 1946. We were formed in the year 1973 when this cooperative model got replicated in six districts of Gujarat. Kaira, Masana, Sabar, Banas, Maroda, Surat. The farmers set up these cooperatives and started working together. But then when they went to the market to sell their products, they were again at the mercy of the traders who used to make them complete with each other and dictate the prices. So Dr. Kurian came up with this idea of setting up a marketing federation whose single job will be to market the products which are manufactured by these cooperatives. And that's how we came into being. And today we are 18 district unions who are members of the state federation, who are owners of the state federation, and owners of the brand Amul with a turnover of more than $8 billion. And ever since then, we have been a focus of a strong brand, focus on the consumer, focus on consumer packs, and affordable pricing. Now these are the very, very strong, simple words which are using here. But they are very strong pillars on which the entire organization is built. We don't sell any milk in loose form. So all milk has to be essentially packaged. No milk sold in tankers or bulk quantities to anyone. So this is where the milk volume goes increasing. But still we say if you have a strong brand and focus on the consumer with small packs and affordable pricing, we'll be able to build the market to any level that we want to. This is what is the core difference between this. Anybody who buys a toothpaste in a month or twice a month or soap or something is called FMCG. We are very, very fast-moving goods. Because you buy milk every day as a customer. We as sellers of milk sell it twice a day. So this is where it's there, and it's a huge market worth 7 to 8 lakh crore rupees. This is another thing which they never teach at Harvard Business School, OK? A private company will buy the raw material at the lowest price, sell the finished food at the highest possible price, and keeps the maximum profit for its owners or the shareholders. We do exactly the opposite. We buy the raw material which is milk at the highest possible price because we are buying it from our owners, the farmers. And Amul as a brand is a value for money brand. We give the best quality products, but not at the highest price. So we have to work with very low margins, very low costs, very low overheads, very low expenses to see that we are able to keep both sides of the business happy, the producer on one side and consumer on the other side. We have a mandate to grow the market because unless the market grows, the producer will not be able to create a market for all the products that he makes. And we know that for a fact in India, that even after so many years of selling butter, only 15 to 20% of Indians consume butter, 80% of the market is left unexplored. Package milk also is bought by hardly 50% to 60% of the total consumers of the country. So the market opportunity is very large. And to grow that, we have to see that we are able to keep both sides of the spectrum happy, the producer and the consumer. And that can happen only when the consumer blindly trusts your product. And he or she will trust your product only if you don't compromise on the quality. Don't change the recipe. Don't change the formulation.  But give the purest quality product to the customer, and that would win his or her trust and confidence in the brand. So this is what we call our supply chain. We call it a distribution highway at frozen minus 20 degrees C, chilled at 0 to 4, ambient at room temperature, and fresh product with just 40 at our shelf life, products moving from milk moving from 3.6 lakh farmers, 18,000 villages, 95 dairy plants to our 80 branch offices, 10,000 distributors and a million retail outlets. No company in India or anywhere in the world has such a complicated supply chain, but working efficiently to see that we operate with very, very low costs, very low margins, and is still able to build the brands and the portfolio products that we are able to sell. And one of the key things to make Amul products available across the country with such a wide range is an Amul parlors, and we have more than 10,000 such parlors and growing. And during COVID, when no other businesses were working, it was Amul parlors and Amul retail and distribution, which actually stood the test of time, the challenge of the situation, and was able to serve the customers around the clock for more than two and a half years consistently. We also India's largest exporter of dairy products and the future growth is also going to come from this particular business model. So this is a vertically integrated farmers cooperative, right from cow to customer, fully integrated with IT and ability. So each member of the supply chain works with only two objectives, either to reduce cost or increase the volumes. And that's how you are able to do billions of transactions with multiple channel partners, all recorded on digitally and digital as well as the technical back end. And we are able to understand what the producer has produced to what the consumer is wanting. And that's how through millions of transactions and a big data, right from database of every single cow that is in the system to every single customer who is transacting with us and multiple tools available.