behavior

What is Fetal Programming?

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What is fetal pro­gram­ming? Every per­son liv­ing on earth was first exposed to a uter­ine envi­ron­ment that helped deter­mine their life­time health and devel­op­ment. The term for this phe­nom­e­non is fetal pro­gram­ming. It is a hot top­ic and deserves atten­tion.

Accept­ing the impor­tance of fetal pro­gram­ming places respon­si­bil­i­ty on the moth­er-to-be to do all she can to insure her body pro­vides nutri­ents and oxy­gen to her grow­ing infant while avoid­ing pos­si­ble risks and tox­ins. At the same time, genet­ic and envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors con­tribute great­ly to the poten­tial for some dis­or­ders and prob­lems that arise. Thus, we must be care­ful in assign­ing guide­lines for accept­able behav­ior or blame for poor out­comes to preg­nant women.

On the one hand, we can all see the neg­a­tive con­se­quences of some­thing like fetal alco­hol syndrome…clearly the result of mater­nal behav­ior. Is a preg­nant woman whose baby has been dam­aged in this way guilty of abuse?

But, what if a moth­er is obese, eats poor­ly and ends up with an infant with a dis­turbed metab­o­lism. Is this abuse? What if the moth­er has an infec­tion that results in cere­bral pal­sy? Or what if she lives near a high­way and invol­un­tar­i­ly inhales fumes that neg­a­tive­ly affect the pla­cen­ta?

How do you get a healthy baby? Of course, there are no guar­an­tees. There remain many unknown fac­tors that can affect the course and out­come of a preg­nan­cy. Some fac­tors we are aware of, such as avoid­ing cer­tain fumes or chem­i­cals.  There are some behav­iors we know can max­i­mize the poten­tial for a good out­come, such as eat­ing ade­quate pro­tein, aer­o­bic con­di­tion­ing and strength train­ing. [Note for new readers…lots of these fac­tors have been cov­ered in our pre­vi­ous posts.]

But, what about all the things we don’t know about?

If these goats eat the wrong grass, will they go into labor?

Here is a cau­tion­ary tale:  There is a species of goat that, if they eat a cer­tain type of skunk grass on day 14 (and only day 14) of preg­nan­cy, will not go into labor. Why? Plant tox­ins in this grass inter­fere with the devel­op­ment of a small por­tion of fetal brain, the par­aven­tric­u­lar nucle­us. This nucle­us is involved in the sig­nal­ing cycle of labor. With­out it, the moth­er will not go into labor!

What are the take-home mes­sages here?

  • Prob­a­bly no one is ever a per­fect fetus…too many pos­si­ble threats.
  • There are some threats we can avoid…being lazy, over-eat­ing, smok­ing.
  • There are some threats we can­not avoid, so we do the best we can.

Do the best you can by your baby…aerobic fit­ness, good nour­ish­ment, sleep, good hygiene and de-stress­ing your life.

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Fitness Starts Early!

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Preg­nan­cy fit­ness is not only impor­tant for moms, but for the fetus as well. Evi­dence is clear that aer­o­bic fit­ness improves brain, heart, immune and meta­bol­ic function…at all ages, includ­ing in utero. If con­tin­ued ear­ly in life, healthy phys­i­cal adap­ta­tions that occur in the uterus become rein­forced behav­ior, prepar­ing a good foun­da­tion for a healthy lifestyle. Babies are acute observers of move­ment and activ­i­ty, and learn from each oth­er. A key com­po­nent of a good mom-baby pro­gram is the inter­ac­tion of the babies them­selves. A good teacher will facil­i­tate healthy activ­i­ty among our small­est class mem­bers!

There is grow­ing evi­dence that at all ages, aer­o­bic fit­ness pro­duces the great­est num­ber of ben­e­fits. Recent­ly, researchers deter­mined that aer­o­bic fit­ness in 9 and 10 year olds pro­duced ben­e­fits in the devel­op­ment of two impor­tant brain regions — the basal gan­glia and the hip­pocam­pus — that are sig­nif­i­cant fac­tors in prob­lem-solv­ing intel­li­gence. This is just one of the lat­est reports that tells us the capac­i­ty to absorb and use oxy­gen (which improves with aer­o­bic fit­ness) is a key to health, qual­i­ty and length of life…beginning in the womb!

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CDC Fitness Guidelines Include Pregnancy

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Recent CDC Guide­lines on Exer­cise for the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion include preg­nant and post­par­tum women. Spe­cif­ic infor­ma­tion for preg­nant women is includ­ed at this URL:

http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/pregnancy.html

James Pivarnik, PhD, pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Col­lege of Sports Med­i­cine has released a Med­scape video for health care providers encour­ag­ing them to be aware of the fact that the CDC con­sid­ers a min­i­mum of 150 min­utes per week of mod­er­ate activ­i­ty (or 75 min­utes of vig­or­ous activ­i­ty for ath­let­ic women, or a com­bi­na­tion of inten­si­ty for fit women) to be impor­tant for preg­nant women, along with the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion.

DTP’s Total Preg­nan­cy Fit­ness instruc­tors learn how to com­bine activ­i­ties so that women receive an ade­quate amount of exer­cise each week dur­ing their preg­nan­cy. To find out about becom­ing a teacher, click on Become a Teacher above.

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Fetal Programming

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What is fetal pro­gram­ming? Every per­son liv­ing on earth was first exposed to a uter­ine envi­ron­ment that helped deter­mine their life­time health and devel­op­ment. The term for this phe­nom­e­non is fetal pro­gram­ming. It is a hot top­ic and deserves atten­tion.

Accept­ing the impor­tance of fetal pro­gram­ming places respon­si­bil­i­ty on the moth­er-to-be to do all she can to insure her body pro­vides nutri­ents and oxy­gen to her grow­ing infant while avoid­ing pos­si­ble risks and tox­ins. At the same time, genet­ic and envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors con­tribute great­ly to the poten­tial for some dis­or­ders and prob­lems that arise. Thus, we must be care­ful in assign­ing guide­lines for accept­able behav­ior or blame for poor out­comes to preg­nant women.

On the one hand, we can all see the neg­a­tive con­se­quences of some­thing like fetal alco­hol syndrome…clearly the result of mater­nal behav­ior. Is a preg­nant woman whose baby has been dam­aged in this way guilty of abuse?

But, what if a moth­er is obese, eats poor­ly and ends up with an infant with a dis­turbed metab­o­lism. Is this abuse? What if the moth­er has an infec­tion that results in cere­bral pal­sy? Or what if she lives near a high­way and invol­un­tar­i­ly inhales fumes that neg­a­tive­ly affect the pla­cen­ta?

How do you get a healthy baby? Of course, there are no guar­an­tees. There remain many unknown fac­tors that can affect the course and out­come of a preg­nan­cy. Some fac­tors we are aware of, such as avoid­ing cer­tain fumes or chem­i­cals.  There are some behav­iors we know can max­i­mize the poten­tial for a good out­come, such as eat­ing ade­quate pro­tein, aer­o­bic con­di­tion­ing and strength train­ing. [Note for new readers…lots of these fac­tors have been cov­ered in our pre­vi­ous posts.]

But, what about all the things we don’t know about?

If these goats eat the wrong grass, will they go into labor?

Here is a cau­tion­ary tale:  There is a species of goat that, if they eat a cer­tain type of skunk grass on day 14 (and only day 14) of preg­nan­cy, will not go into labor. Why? Plant tox­ins in this grass inter­fere with the devel­op­ment of a small por­tion of fetal brain, the par­aven­tric­u­lar nucle­us. This nucle­us is involved in the sig­nal­ing cycle of labor. With­out it, the moth­er will not go into labor!

What are the take-home mes­sages here?

  • Prob­a­bly no one is ever a per­fect fetus…too many pos­si­ble threats.
  • There are some threats we can avoid…being lazy, over-eat­ing, smok­ing.
  • There are some threats we can­not avoid, so we do the best we can.

Do the best you can by your baby…aerobic fit­ness, good nour­ish­ment, sleep, good hygiene and de-stress­ing your life.

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Pregnancy Pathway, Pregnancy — Nutrition

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Fresh fruit = vitamins & minerals!!

Fresh fruit = vit­a­mins & min­er­als!!

Ques­tion:

How many extra calo­ries do you need in each trimester to off­set the meta­bol­ic cost of preg­nan­cy?

Answer:

First trimester — 0; Sec­ond trimester — 300; Third trimester — 500 (source: Insti­tute of Med­i­cine).

Keep in mind that you may also need calo­ries for any fit­ness pro­gram you are doing. If you are con­tin­u­ing a pro­gram, the only change is due to the preg­nan­cy.

If you begin or increase your activ­i­ty, you need to take that into account. One yoga class = 100 — 150 calo­ries. One aer­o­bics class = 200–400 calo­ries. Walk one mile = 100 calo­ries.

1 slice whole grain bread = 50-100 calories

1 slice whole grain bread = 50–100 calo­ries

Be sure you read food labels so that you can bal­ance your food intake and your calo­rie out­put. A small woman (under 5′3″ & 130 lbs.) prob­a­bly needs about 1200 calo­ries per day as a base. A medi­um sized woman needs about 1400, and a large woman (over 5′9″ & 160 lbs.) prob­a­bly needs 1600 to 1800 calo­ries. Add your activ­i­ty and preg­nan­cy needs to your base amount.

Ques­tion:

What foods are nec­es­sary for a healthy preg­nan­cy?

Answer, part A:

PROTEIN. Lean pro­teins like turkey and those with omega 3 fats like ocean fish and eggs.…yes! EGGS!

Turkey is a good protein

Turkey is a good pro­tein

Ocean fish 1 or 2 times/wk = good protein & omega 3 fat

Ocean fish 1 or 2 times/wk = good pro­tein & omega 3 fat

Eggs are a perfect pregnancy food!

Eggs are a per­fect preg­nan­cy food!

70–90 grams of pro­tein are nec­es­sary each day, along with  ade­quate water.  These are need­ed to make an extra 40% blood vol­ume required to sup­port the pla­cen­ta.

Answer, part B:

WATER. Two (2) quarts of water…more if you are very active…are need­ed to make extra blood and to pre­vent dehy­dra­tion.

Ques­tion: What else?

Fresh vegetables also provide fiber

Fresh veg­eta­bles also pro­vide fiber

Answer: CARBS. Fresh, col­or­ful fruits & veg­gies pro­vide nec­es­sary vit­a­mins and min­er­als, as well as fiber. Eat 5 serv­ings a day from all the col­ors:  yel­low, orange, red, pur­ple and green, and you will get live vit­a­mins all day long that help your baby devel­op prop­er­ly! Fruits, veg­eta­bles and whole grains are low glycemic index car­bo­hy­drates — the good ones!

Dairy provides calcium

Dairy pro­vides cal­ci­um

Ques­tion:

Do I need dairy prod­ucts and red meat? Can I get the need­ed min­er­als in oth­er ways?

Answer:

Cal­ci­um is need­ed in ade­quate amounts for bones and teeth. It is most eas­i­ly obtained by drink­ing milk or eat­ing cheese, yogurt or cot­tage cheese. Soy, dark green leafy veg­eta­bles and cal­ci­um for­ti­fied juice are alter­na­tives.

Iron is nec­es­sary for red blood cells to take up oxy­gen. It is found in high amounts in beef,  and less­er amounts in raisins, spinach, and prune juice. Pre­na­tal vit­a­mins are your insur­ance against defi­cien­cies of these essen­tial min­er­als.

Ques­tion:

Any­thing else that’s essen­tial?

Answer:

Yes! Healthy FAT!!

Avocado is an excellent source of omega 6 fat

Avo­ca­do is an excel­lent source of omega 6 fat

In addi­tion to omega 3 fats found in fish, wal­nuts and flax seeds, you need also need omega 6 fats, which are found in avo­ca­dos, olive oil and oth­er veg­etable oils. Healthy fats help bal­ance car­dio­vas­cu­lar con­stric­tion and dila­tion, reduc­ing the risk for hyper­ten­sion.

Last Ques­tion:

What is a healthy weight gain?

Answer:

In 2009, the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences revised its rec­om­men­da­tions. It now bases desir­able weight gain on pre-preg­nan­cy BMI (Body Mass Index…google this!).

BMI less than 18.5 (low) — 28 to 40 lbs.; BMI between 18.5–24.9 (nor­mal) — 25 to 35 lbs.; BMI 25.0 to 29.9 (high) — 15 to 25 lbs.; obese women (BMI over 30.0) — 11 to 20 lbs.

Com­ing Next: Avoid­ing Risks.

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Pregnancy Pathway — Exercise cont’d

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MORE?!! You did­n’t think that was it? Only a few com­ments on evi­dence as to WHY mov­ing around, burn­ing calo­ries, being strong and learn­ing to relax while preg­nant is ben­e­fi­cial? No, of course not. You know there is more to it, like WHAT move­ment is safe and effec­tive dur­ing preg­nan­cy?

So, what is safe? Well, first, unless you have a very few con­di­tions that your health care provider con­sid­ers unsafe, every woman — fit, cur­rent­ly seden­tary, young or a lit­tle old­er — can exer­cise safe­ly in preg­nan­cy. How much of what kind depends on your fit­ness lev­el and exer­cise his­to­ry. Get med­ical screen­ing first.

If you are fit, you can do vigorous exercise

If you are fit, you can do vig­or­ous exer­cise

If you are fit, you just need to learn how to mod­i­fy some move­ments to accom­mo­date your bio­me­chan­ics. As your body changes, stress on the joints and tis­sues means a lit­tle less jump­ing or bal­lis­tic motion will be more com­fort­able and safer. If you are fit, you can con­tin­ue with vig­or­ous exer­cise and it will be of ben­e­fit to you and your baby.

If you are not so fit or are seden­tary, find a cer­ti­fied pre/postnatal instruc­tor and join a group where you will have fun, get some guid­ance and be mon­i­tored for safe­ty. How do you find such a per­son? Try our Find A Class or Train­er page.

What is effec­tive? Don’t spend your time on things that may be nice to do but don’t help you focus and pre­pare for birth, relieve dis­com­forts or have the sta­mi­na for birth and par­ent­ing. There is sub­stan­tial sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence and infor­ma­tion from large sur­veys that these things are help­ful.

Car­dio­vas­cu­lar or aer­o­bic activ­i­ty is the most impor­tant activ­i­ty you can do. Already fit? Keep work­ing out; join a class if you want sup­port or new friends. If you are seden­tary or some­what active, you can improve your fit­ness by doing at least 20 — 30 min­utes of aer­o­bic activ­i­ty 3 times a week. Work at a mod­er­ate pace — some­what hard to hard — so that you can talk, but not sing an aria! If you are more than 26 weeks and have not been doing car­dio, you can walk at a com­fort­able pace. Aer­o­bics is key because it gives you endurance to tol­er­ate labor and pro­motes recov­ery.

Strength and flex­i­bil­i­ty exer­cis­es that do not hurt and are done cor­rect­ly are also safe. There are some spe­cial preg­nan­cy exer­cis­es that actu­al­ly help you pre­pare for birth. Essen­tial exer­cis­es that aid your com­fort, align­ment and birth prepa­ra­tion include:

• Kegels (squeez­ing and relax­ing pelvic floor mus­cles) — squeez­ing strength­ens them and thus sup­ports the con­tents of the abdomen, and learn­ing to release these mus­cles is nec­es­sary for push­ing and birth.

• Abdom­i­nal hiss/compress and C‑Curve® - con­tract­ing the trans­verse abdom­i­nal mus­cles reduces low back dis­com­fort and strength­ens the mus­cle used to push and lat­er to recov­er abdom­i­nal integri­ty after birth.

Squatting

Squat­ting

• Squat­ting — get­ting into this posi­tion strength­ens the entire leg in a deeply flexed posi­tion; start seat­ed and use arms for sup­port, sta­bil­i­ty and safe­ty. Leg strength improves mobil­i­ty and com­fort in preg­nan­cy and post­par­tum; plus, deep flex­ion is a com­po­nent of push­ing in almost all posi­tions.

• Strength­en­ing for bio­me­chan­i­cal safe­ty — strength­en­ing some parts of the body helps pre­vent injury to bone sur­faces, nerves and blood ves­sels with­in joints re-aligned in preg­nan­cy. This can be done using resis­tance rep­e­ti­tions (weights, bands, cal­is­then­tics or pilates) or iso­met­rics (yoga or bal­let). A respon­si­ble class will focus on upper back (row­ing), push-ups, abdom­i­nals, gluteals, ham­strings, and mus­cles of the low­er leg.

• Stretch­ing of areas that tend to get tight — reliev­ing some dis­com­forts through flex­i­bil­i­ty helps you main­tain a full range of motion. Sta­t­ic stretch­es, used in com­bi­na­tion with strength exer­cis­es or fol­low­ing aer­o­bics, is most effec­tive. Stretch­ing pri­or to exer­cise tends to pro­duce more injuries than not stretch­ing. Areas need­ing stretch­ing include the chest, low back, ham­strings and hip flex­ors (psoas).

Mind/Body skills are very impor­tant. There are two activ­i­ties that exer­cis­ers con­stant­ly tell us are a big help in preg­nan­cy, birth and par­ent­ing.

• Cen­ter­ing employs a bal­anced or neu­tral pos­ture, deep breath­ing and mind­ful­ness to help you work in a relaxed way. Ath­letes and dancers call this “the zone.” Start­ing your work­out in asso­ci­a­tion with your body estab­lish­es econ­o­my of motion, some­thing very use­ful in birth and par­ent­ing, and reduces risk of injury.

• Relax­ation is anoth­er key activ­i­ty; it relieves stress, pro­motes labor in the ear­ly stages and helps you enter the zone!

Remem­ber: Birth is a Motor Skill™

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Pregnancy Pathway — Exercise

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How lucky is this? Just a few days ago, yet anoth­er study was released and has been cir­cu­lat­ing on Med­scape and oth­er med­ical sites that indi­cates exer­cise is ben­e­fi­cial in preg­nan­cy, whether the moth­er is a pre­vi­ous exer­cis­er or not. Just in time for this entry!

Behavior Affects Pregnancy Outcome

Behav­ior Affects Preg­nan­cy Out­come

Phys­i­cal exer­tion (we call it “exer­cise” nowa­days) is a nor­mal state for healthy humans. Only in the last cen­tu­ry has the desire to rest or the need to store extra calo­ries as fat become more pos­si­ble to achieve than our need to move about to sur­vive.

Preg­nan­cy is a state in which both of these fac­tors (rest­ing and stor­ing calo­ries) are enhanced through organ­ic changes in body chem­istry, adap­ta­tions that favor fetal sur­vival. The cur­rent seden­tary lifestyle exag­ger­ates these meta­bol­ic changes and results in syn­dromes that increase the risk for a num­ber of meta­bol­ic, car­dio­vas­cu­lar and immuno­log­i­cal dis­or­ders of preg­nan­cy.

When con­front­ed by the idea that it is coun­ter­in­tu­itive to think exer­cise in preg­nan­cy might be safe (let alone ben­e­fi­cial) I am dumb­found­ed. To me, it is coun­ter­in­tu­itive to think that a seden­tary lifestyle in preg­nan­cy might be safe!

Burning Calories in Pregnancy Improves Outcomes!

Burn­ing Calo­ries in Preg­nan­cy Improves Out­comes!

What is the evi­dence that exer­cise in preg­nan­cy is ben­e­fi­cial? Keep in mind that some stud­ies have been exe­cut­ed more expert­ly than oth­ers. But, what is com­pelling is that numer­ous well-respect­ed researchers have sought to test the hypoth­e­sis that exer­cise is not safe, but come away with results that indi­cate the oppo­site!

Here are some of the major find­ings:

• The pla­cen­ta is larg­er and has more trans­port sur­face in exer­cis­ers than seden­tary women

• The fetus­es of (aer­o­bic) exer­cis­ing moth­ers make ben­e­fi­cial car­dio­vas­cu­lar adap­ta­tions

• Women who do aer­o­bic exer­cise are less like­ly to devel­op severe preeclamp­sia or ges­ta­tion­al dia­betes, and the long term health prob­lems that accom­pa­ny these dis­or­ders

• Women who are aer­o­bi­cal­ly fit recov­er from birth 10 times faster than seden­tary women (as mea­sured by time need­ed to metab­o­lize free rad­i­cals pro­duced in labor)

• Women who exer­cise in preg­nan­cy are more like­ly to be phys­i­cal­ly fit in midlife

• Babies of aer­o­bi­cal­ly fit women are at reduced risk for pre­ma­tu­ri­ty and low birth weight
DTP_mover2
So, we have arrived at the take-home mes­sage: MOVE!! Preg­nan­cy works best when you move and burn calo­ries in a mod­er­ate to vig­or­ous fash­ion. But, alter­nate this activ­i­ty with rest and good nutri­tion, and be sure to stay well hydrat­ed.
If you want more specifics and resources on this top­ic, try these:
“Women and Exer­cise” in Var­ney’s Mid­wifery.
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Rant: Health Care Reform/Pregnancy

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Since Health Care Reform is a hot top­ic, let’s look at it from the per­spec­tive of preg­nan­cy and birth.

What revi­sions would most ben­e­fit preg­nant women, their off­spring, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties?

1. Reward healthy behav­iors. A sys­tem that pro­vides reduced pre­mi­ums for health care for women who exer­cise, eat well, do not smoke and are in a nor­mal weight range is evi­dence-based.

Yes! We could pro­vide finan­cial incen­tives for being healthy dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Why? Healthy moms have healthy babies; healthy babies cost the pay­er less mon­ey.

2. Review best prac­tices. Is a 40 or 50% cesare­an rate the best prac­tice?  Accom­pa­ny­ing the rise in cesare­an births is grow­ing infor­ma­tion that babies born by cesare­an are at increased risk for a num­ber of immune dis­or­ders. But the busi­ness mod­el of med­i­cine rewards cesare­an because it both pays the provider more and is defen­sive med­ical prac­tice.

Fetal mon­i­tor­ing to deter­mine if a cesare­an may be nec­es­sary, is wrong 3/4 of the time. In an effort to change this, guide­lines are chang­ing for the use of mon­i­tors dur­ing labor. What is the evi­dence that this change of prac­tice is ben­e­fi­cial? Will it lead to more or less mon­i­tor­ing, which may itself be an inter­ven­tion that can dis­rupt nor­mal labor?

3. Change the busi­ness mod­el for health care. When we make finan­cial incen­tives for care providers, base them on best prac­tice, not on enrich­ing the mid­dle man. Cur­rent­ly the pay­ers (insur­ance com­pa­nies) are mid­dle men, mak­ing mon­ey (i.e., con­duct­ing busi­ness) by charg­ing fees. They ration pay­ments for ser­vices in order to pay their own salaries and over­head. They do not actu­al­ly do any­thing pro­duc­tive. This is why sin­gle pay­er, gov­ern­ment, and health care coop options have been pro­posed. They elim­i­nate most of the cum­ber­some mid­dle lay­er.

Why does insur­ance pay for cesare­ans? Well, they will do it once. After all, the care providers have to prac­tice defen­sive med­i­cine. But, once you have a cesare­an, you become a risk for the insur­ance com­pa­ny (they know what the research says about cesare­ans and off­spring health prob­lems) and may be denied insur­ance. They can no longer afford you.

Because care providers are paid fee for ser­vice and must prac­tice defen­sive med­i­cine, preg­nan­cy and birth have become increas­ing­ly bur­dened with inter­ven­ing pro­ce­dures that do not nec­es­sar­i­ly pro­mote a healthy preg­nan­cy or birth process. How is this play­ing out? Increas­ing­ly, we see women giv­ing birth in what they per­ceive as a more sup­port­ive and health-induc­ing set­ting:  their own homes. Think of it this way:  many women now believe that it is safer to stay home than go to a hos­pi­tal to give birth.

Unless health care becomes about best prac­tices and healthy out­comes — not price, size, and get­ting paid for pass­ing mon­ey back and forth — the U.S. will con­tin­ue to have some of the worst maternal/infant out­comes in the devel­oped world.

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Pregnancy Pathway, Pregnancy

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Time for an entre: Preg­nan­cy!!

Up for dis­cus­sion…

Health Influences in Pregnancy

Health Influ­ences in Preg­nan­cy

Let’s start at the begin­ning…in the first trimester you feel sick and tired, right? Three things:

1) your immune sys­tem is pro-inflam­ma­to­ry (caus­ing nau­sea and fatigue), 2) your body is pro­tect­ing your fetus from some tox­ins (if you eat some­thing not so great for the fetus, you throw up), and 3) you have extreme swings in blood sug­ar lev­els so that after you eat, the lev­el soars and you feel sick.

Num­ber 3 can be fixed with behav­ior, but you may have to wait out 1 & 2. To fix num­ber 3 eat very small meals fre­quent­ly (6 or 8 times a day) and be sure to eat pro­tein, that is, eggs, meat, fish, fowl, cheese, nuts, rice & beans, soy, etc. with each small meal. This sta­bi­lizes blood sug­ar and pre­vents dra­mat­ic ele­va­tions that can cause nau­sea.

In most healthy preg­nan­cies, the immune sys­tem will rebound in the sec­ond trimester so that you feel good; it is pro­tect­ing you again!  But, those wicked tox­ins and infec­tions are still out there in the envi­ron­ment, so the mes­sage is beware bad air (smog, smok­ing, indus­tri­al air pol­lu­tion), high­ly processed foods (lunch­meats, things with names you can’t pro­nounce), any drugs or meds not pre­scribed or okayed by your ob or mid­wife, alco­hol, and dan­ger­ous bac­te­ria, virus­es and oth­er microbes!

Exer­cise wisely…no sky-div­ing or scu­ba div­ing! Eat healthy food and get enough sleep. De-stress through relax­ation and med­i­ta­tive tech­niques. Don’t take risks with your health, but do stay active and start to pre­pare for birth and bring­ing home a baby (or two?).

Third trimester & the immune sys­tem goes on the fritz again — can’t keep this baby in here for­ev­er; must expel! You may feel sick and tired again. BUT, keep your pre­na­tal care appoint­ments, keep mov­ing, get good nutri­tion, rest and stay focused. Before you know it the real work begins, not to men­tion the 18 years of sleep depri­va­tion.

Get­ting from here…

Being Fully Present in Your Pregnancy...

Being Ful­ly Present in Your Preg­nan­cy…

…to here..

Being Fully Present as Mom

Being Ful­ly Present as Mom.

…is a jour­ney like no oth­er. The adap­ta­tions of your body to the demands of preg­nan­cy are amaz­ing. If you pay atten­tion, you will learn more about the mean­ing of exis­tence from this than from any­thing else.

BE HERE NOW!!

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