Exercise and fitness
by Heather Welford
While you may not feel like it, exercise can help you cope with all stages of pregnancy - from conception to recovering from the birth.
Fitness during pregnancy.
Exercise also helps with:
- constipation
- backache
- fatigue
- varicose veins
- circulation problems
- meeting other mums-to-be
Exercises to enjoy
Diet and health
What's safe to eat during pregnancy - and those things you should avoid.
You can find lots of good information from pre-conception through graduation!
However, there is one statement in this article with which I have to make public my disagreement. It states that one drink of alcohol is safe...
Well, in college (alcoholism/addiction studies) I was taught that there is a risk associated with any and all alcohol use! I would not take the chance! Please read:
One drink is too many
Babies harmed prior to birth by their pregnant mothers drinking alcohol start life slower than healthy infants do – and they never catch up.
Dr. Sutherland and his colleagues have found lifelong memory and learning deficits in rat pups, even when their drinking pregnant mother’s blood-alcohol levels remain well below the equivalent legal limit for impairment in people. Although he says it’s difficult to generalize this finding to humans, “what it implies is that there’s no safe level of alcohol that a woman can drink” while pregnant.
Vibraceous, ND
Like any syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS ) is a group of signs and symptoms that appear together and indicate a certain condition. In the case of FAS, the signs and symptoms are birth defects that result from a woman's use of alcohol during her pregnancy.
Among their symptoms, children with FAS may grow less quickly than other children, have facial abnormalities and have problems with their central nervous systems, including mental retardation.
In the United States, FAS is one of the leading causes of birth defects and is thought to be the most common cause of preventable mental retardation.
Each year between 5,000 and 12,000 American babies are born with the condition.
FAS is caused by a woman's use of alcohol during her pregnancy. The alcohol that a pregnant woman drinks travels through her bloodstream and across the placenta to her fetus, or developing baby.
A fetus's small body breaks down alcohol much more slowly than an adult's body does. So the alcohol level in the fetus's blood is higher than in the mother's blood, and the alcohol remains in the fetus's blood longer. This exposure of the fetus to alcohol causes FAS.
Women who drink frequently (four or five alcoholic beverages or more per day) greatly increase the chances that their babies will have FAS.
However, no amount of alcohol use during pregnancy has been proven safe. The effects of FAS may also be seen in children whose mothers drank moderately or lightly during pregnancy. An average of only one drink per day increases a baby's risk of FAS.
Pregnant women can prevent FAS by abstaining from alcohol throughout their pregnancies.
A woman who drinks alcohol only lightly and occasionally before she realizes she is pregnant might or might not harm her developing baby.
Because no amount of alcohol use during pregnancy has been proven safe, any woman who suspects that she might be pregnant should stop drinking immediately.
Women who are trying to get pregnant should also avoid alcohol. This applies to all types of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, wine coolers and liquor (such as whiskey, vodka, tequila, gin and rum).
You can read more at: http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/13/3608_279.htm?printing=true
Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite books, Folk Medicine, By D. C. Jarvis, MD:
"Food will have a pronounced effect in determininig acidity or alkalinity of urine reaction. The low protein high-carbohydrate daily food intake recommended by Nature organizes the body for peace and quiet, enabling the body to build up and store body reserves against time of need.
But when man rearranges Nature's plans to suit his own desires, placing food emphasis on protein instead of carbohydrates, he is organizing his body for fight and flight.
These are no sometime-rules. If human or animal parents live under conditions which arouse the emotions, and eat a high protein-low carbohydrate diet, the baby will be born into this world exhausted from combating an existence of fight and flight while it is within the mother's body, trying to build a body.
In other words, an otherwise excellent inheritance is spoiled by the parents' trying to rearrange Nature's plan.
This interrupted inheritance may, and certainly will, affect the brain, muscle system, digestive tract, nervous system, and the size of the newborn....Sickness comes to such a body. All in all it experiences difficulty in adjusting itself to its environment."
Dr. Jarvis gives the following suggestions several pages later to help balance the body's pH and also to provide nutrients needed to help the child better adjust to its environment and in establishing excellent health:
"The human expectant mother should take the following throughout pregnancy:
- On rising in the morning, one teaspoonful of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water, taken while dressing.
- At one meal during the day, two teaspoonfuls of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoonfuls of honey in a glass of water, taken during the meal as one would take a cup of coffee or tea."
I recommend that the apple cider vinegar be organic, and that the honey be local and raw...Raw honey is always best! If you have a choice in varieties, choose wildflower...It has a wider range of medicinal use.
Putting Together a Herbal and Homeopathic Labour Kit
Vibraceous, ND
Here's a good article entitled, HERBS IN PREGNANCY. It was written by Rick Clofine, DO, who is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, specializing in Holistic Gynecology.
Dr. Clofine offers advice about which herbs to use, and which herbs to avoid, during this important and sensitive time.
Vibe
I have wondered if there has become a greedy "cut happy" society to promote Cosmetic Surgery, in the extra-ordinary number of Cesarian Sections, that give the "tummy tuck" look. Maybe they were just practicing for the future that has become a demand for the skills of Cosmetic Surgery?
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, for there are those medically needing such skills. But is sure has become mighty scurillous from the days of giving a lover's knot, during an Episiotomy procedure. Energy work is showing that even piercings can be detrimental. I think I'll keep to the ornamentaion of peircings though. I like my earrings, and the piercings my daughter has are quite cute for her youth group.
BTW, pregnancy and birth is soooooo amazing!
is going thru her first pregnancy..and how things have changed..the doctors and nurses give a list of herbs,foods,teas and coffee to stay away from as well as over the counter drugs..when I was preg.anything went
had we known then
Natural Childbirth
Experience childbirth without using medication
Natural childbirth generally refers to a mother's desire to experience childbirth without using any pain medication or having any unnecessary medical interventions. Those women who choose natural childbirth believe that birth is a natural, healthy process — a process that women's bodies are designed to accomplish.
Why natural childbirth?
Women who choose natural childbirth accept the potential for pain and discomfort as part of childbirth. The pain of childbirth which is normal and even healthy will give them the cues that they will need to work effectively with their bodies. This acceptance of pain and a desire to cope naturally with the challenges of labor and delivery can give the mother and the father or support person a sense of purpose, accomplishment and empowerment.
For many women, choosing natural childbirth is choosing to have more control over her own body and the events surrounding labor and delivery. The mother chooses how she wants to labor and uses positions and coping techniques to deal with the pain of labor.
Other women feel that a natural childbirth is best for the baby. When a mother births naturally her baby is in no danger of being adversely affected by pain medications. Also the mother can labor unencumbered without the medical interventions that are often associated with labor including IV's, confinement to bed, monitors etc. Doctors often tell us that these drugs and interventions in most cases do not adversely affect the baby, however, those who advocate natural childbirth do not want to take that chance.
Can you have a natural childbirth in a hospital setting?
A woman can have a natural childbirth at home or in a hospital with the cooperation of her doctor or midwife. If she chooses to deliver in a hospital, a supportive nursing staff is very important.
How do you prepare for a natural childbirth?
Once a woman decides to have a natural childbirth, she needs to begin to plan and prepare for it. It is very important first of all to find a supportive doctor or midwife, and to have a supportive labor partner or doula. A doula is a professional labor support person who can be invaluable if a mother is planning on having a natural childbirth. It is also very important that the mother educates herself about childbirth and the coping techniques for labor and delivery. Taking childbirth education classes with her support person helps to prepare the mother for the birth both physically and emotionally. The comfort measures and relaxation techniques learned in the classes can also be very helpful during labor. There are many types of childbirth classes offered including hospital based classes, Lamaze, Bradley and ICEA (International Childbirth Education Association).
Finally, the mother should make a birth plan-a written plan that outlines her desires about how she wants to labor and deliver. This plan is for her own use and for the use of her doctor or midwife and the nursing staff if she chooses to deliver in a hospital.
What happens if the mother changes her mind about a natural childbirth while she is in labor?
No matter how well prepared a woman is for childbirth, the possibility always exists that there will be road-blocks along the way. It is possible situations will arise that were not planned on and over which the mother has no control. It may be that labor is longer, more exhausting and more painful than anticipated and the mother changes her mind about medication or an epidural. Or a situation may arise where a cesarean is necessary for the well-being of the mother or the baby.
If things do not go as planned, a mother should not feel a sense of failure. The end result should always be a healthy mother and a healthy baby and if this occurs there was no failure.
I was 21 when I had my first baby, Scott.
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male, age 29
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Turtle Creek, PA, USA
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Isn't he cute? That baby boy spent 10 1/2 months in my womb! For real! He was due January 27th and didn't come until March 5th!
Then he turned over and all the way around in his hospital crib, when he was just a half hour old! (The real fun was about to begin!)
It was hard having a baby so young. I didn't have one single clue.
But I remember seeing his little face up in that hospital mirror first thing when he popped out, and right then in that instant, I knew what it was like to be a mother...no love was ever so pure!
I had a spinal tap that time. I wish I had gone natural with him. As a matter of fact, I wish I'd have had my babies at home with a midwife! If I had it to do over, I would!
The spinal tap was awful, though, and by the time I got it, the pain was practically done. They only give you those things in the last couple of minutes, and to me, that's not the part that's so bad...it was the hours and hours before that were hard! I might as well have just stuck it out.
And besides...it made my legs feel like ten tons of bricks! I didn't like that feeling at all!
Plus the risks...all for what? To not fully experience it all?
Then there was Ronny, ten years after that. Ronny was my miracle baby. The placenta was malformed all through the pregnancy, and the umbilical cord was just hanging there by a thread. The delivery (which was natural, but in a hospital) went into an emergency situation, and the doctor said I almost died.
As a matter of fact, the doctor said we both should have died long before. He said there was no medical explanation as to why either of us survived--that Ronny should have starved to death, nor should he have been able to get oxygen, and I should have hemorrhaged to death.
Ronny weighed 9 lbs. and 2 oz. when he was born! He was my biggest baby of all!
I almost lost Ronny, too, when the amnioscentisis went wrong. I had to be hospitalized, because I began to leak fluid after they did the test. I was only about four months along. (That's one of the reasons I don't always opt to take tests!)
My third baby was the easiest baby to have. Sarah! I had her in a birthing suite...My whole entire family was there!!!
I had her naturally, too, and I laughed all the way through! The nurses and everyone made so much fun of me, because I would scream...then laugh...then scream...then laugh...all the way through the whole thing! Hahaha!
I sure did gain a lot of weight with all of them, though...very much increasingly so! I gained 55 pounds with Scott, 69 with Ronny, and Sarah added 75! WOW! Did that ever scare me a lot!
I breastfed them all. Not as successfully with the first one, though...I really didn't know how, and the milk dried up so I quit. I wish I'd have been able to carry it on. They didn't teach it very much then. I hope they're teaching it now! http://laleche.com/
I loved being pregnant. I always felt like the most special person in the whole wide world doing the most special thing that had ever been done!
I had some miscarriages over the years. They were hard...Very hard. I had a tubal pregnancy, too, and it ruptured. Again, I almost died.
But I'm alive, and I have three wonderful beautiful children, who are one by one turning into wonderful and beautiful adults! (Baby Sarah is almost 15!)
All the heartburn and weight gain and pain of labor was worth it, hands down! I wish I was younger, then I'd have a whole dozen more!
Vibe
Linda Hamilton's real life identical twin was in my Lamaze class. We all kept looking at her, unable to identify why she looked so familiar. It was so funny! Poor woman! Even more interesting is that the 2 sister's were pregnant at the same time.
Linda Hamilton
Vibe
Morning sickness might have evolved to ensure pregnant women do not digest too much unhealthy food, say scientists.
They found evidence that nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is associated with high intake of sugar, alcohol, oils and meat:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5168882.stm
Yoga works great for pregnancy. That’s wonderful and TRUE. But do you know
how?
Yoga has 5 vital tools for pregnancy. When followed together, they work wonders on your health and your capability to have a smooth pregnancy.
Smooth pregnancy and a natural childbirth are just some of the benefits of yoga. But more importantly, yoga does wonders on the physical and mental development of the foetus.
Ensuring a healthy baby is every woman’s dream and yoga helps you do just that.
Select from the list below to choose article topics, then select a article to read.
- Birth Stories (3)
- Breastfeeding (33)
- Care Providers (2)
- Cesarean / VBAC (15)
- Complications - Post-Birth (24)
- Complications - Pre-Birth (48)
- Doulas (3)
- Exercise (4)
- Herbal Remedies (29)
- History (1)
- Homebirth (6)
- Inspirational Thoughts (22)
- Instructor Tips (5)
- Interventions (33)
- Labor / Birth (64)
- Loss (8)
- Midwifery Tips (57)
- Newborn Care (20)
- Nutrition (11)
- Pregnancy (10)
- Relaxation (3)
- Reproductive Health (3)
- Risk Factors (32)
Vibraceous, ND
Dr. Weston Price was a dentist who traveled around the world in the 1930’s studying the diet’s of primitive peoples isolated from the modern world who did not consume any modern foods. One of the isolated groups of people Dr. Priced studied was the Australia Aborigines.
“Wherever the primitive Aborigines have been placed in reservations and fed on the white man's foods of commerce dental caries has become rampant. This destroys their beauty, prevents mastication, and provides infection for seriously injuring their bodies.”
The disparity of the near perfect teeth from the Aborigines eating their natural fair, and the severely decay teeth from Aborigines eating the white man’s food is due largely to a deficiency in nutrients.
Dr. Price found that primitive people’s on average enjoyed 4-10 times more nutrients in their foods than what the United States government recommends its citizens to eat. In eating sub-standard foods, a vast majority of the American population is far below the inferior US recommended daily allowance (RDA) for nutrients.
Not only did eating “white man’s foods” decay the teeth of indigenous people’s, it also over time made them infertile, made giving birth severely long and painful, created birth defects, and led to many people suffering a wide variety of diseases, which when eating their primitive diet, they where immune to.
Dr. Price also noted that “It should be a matter not only of concern but deep alarm that human beings can degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition..”
http://www.realmilk.com/price.html
A perfectly normal pregnant woman carrying a normal fetus could be diagnosed as a cystic fibrosis carrier and carrying a fetus with a genetic disease like cystic fibrosis. More likely the couple was diagnosed by the doctor as having deep financial pockets. Had she never been examined she would have had a normal baby with a normal natural childbirth rather than a premature caeserian section and operation on the baby at birth to clear the meconium plug and take the pancreas along with it, "requiring" a lifetime of treatment and enzyme supplementation for the "genetic illness", all for a perfectly normal healthy human being.
Consult authorities on forms of natural childbirth like water birth, or indigneous style standing childbirth in the woods.
Research links cot death and caffeine
![image: [ Pregnant women may be risking the health of their baby by drinking too much coffee, researchers say ]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/50000/images/_50899_baby300.jpg)
Doctors in New Zealand say research suggests that pregnant women who drink too much coffee or tea could increase the chance of their baby suffering cot death.
But the new research has provoked a storm of protest from coffee manufacturers who said the public had not been given the full facts about the risk.
The researchers, led by Dr. Rodney Ford of the Community Paediatric Unit in Christchurch, New Zealand, revealed that drinks containing caffeine, including tea and colas, presented a risk if drunk in excessive quantities.
![[ image: Coffee manufacturers say the link between caffeine and cot death has been exaggerated]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/50000/images/_50899_coffee.jpg)
But they said more work was needed to confirm the findings before any change in the health advice given to pregnant women.
Writing in the journal 'Archives of Disease in Childhood', they said the results showed that exposing a baby in the womb to high levels of caffeine "significantly increased" the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS ).
"The importance of this finding is that drinking coffee, tea and cola is a common and easily modifiable behaviour," said the researchers."
"Reduction of heavy caffeine consumption during pregnancy could be another way to decrease the risk of SIDS, with nearly a sixth of infants so exposed."
But coffee producers have moved to reassure mothers-to-be, saying the risks had been exaggerated.
The Coffee News Information Service, a manufacturers' umbrella body, said that more than 400 milligrammes of caffeine - the amount claimed to pose a risk - was the same as six cups of coffee rather than four.
![[ image: More research is needed into whether caffeine harms babies in the womb]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/50000/images/_50899_baby2.jpg)
A spokeswoman said: "Pregnant women or nursing mothers need have no cause for alarm.
"Doctors recommend that pregnant women and nursing mothers limit their consumption of caffeinated beverages to four or five cups per day and the coffee industry agrees with this advice."
The Health Visitors' Association attacked the way the findings had been publicised, claiming insufficient sensitivity had been shown to the risk of creating an unnecessary health scare.
The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, which investigates the causes of cot death, called for further research.
I'm pregnant with my 5th and luckily I have had an aversion to any alcohol since the start. Not that I'm a big drinker anyway, but I do enjoy red wine when I'm not incubating 
I don't have time to look for a source but I've heard that there may be a relation between vaccinatinions and SIDS. Parents, it's up to us to get informed and make decisions for our kids based on good judgement and intuition!
I wish I had a yoga instructor here... I think I'd love it! Thanks for this thread, Vibe! 
Fact:
When pregnant and nursing women and children eat organic food, they can almost totally avoid the pesticides most likely to cause developmental problems like ADHD and autism.
Want more? Look here.
Vibraceous, ND
At a recent Torhavn, Faroe Islands, conference attended by 200
biologists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, nutrition researchers and
pediatricians, an international group of scientists issued a powerful
statement. They called for the need to shift the focus of toxicology
and chemical regulation from the centuries-old paradigm—"the dose makes
the poison"—to "the timing of exposures makes the poison."
The Faroes Statement highlights the extraordinary vulnerability of the fetus, and the many ways that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals can alter normal developmental pathways, sometimes with lifelong consequences.
This statement reflects a growing sense of urgency within the scientific community regarding the need for much stronger, preventive-based actions to minimize exposures to a range of chemicals that now routinely are present in food and drinking water.
As addressed in several Organic Center reports, organic farming is the most cost-effective way to dramatically reduce pesticide exposures—and for the next generation, this is clearly a major step in the right direction.
Click here to learn more.
HEY EVERYBODY! GUESS WHAT?!?!?
MY BABY'S HAVING A BABY!!!
<---SCOTT Scott Massie
Turtle Creek, PA, USA
marriedKimee Cat
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
married
GrandMommy, ND
And BRING SOME ANGELS for SURE!!!
Hugs,
Vibe
Use 9 drops of each in one ounce of good carrier oil.
For more information on how to use best essential oils, see the thread on
Aromatherapy Makes Really Good Scents!Click Here for a good source of essential oils and carrier oils.
Vibraceous, ND
NATURE'S PRENATAL, MULTIPLE VITAMINS AND MINERALS (USA)NATURE'S PRENATAL VITAMIN (Europe)
Formulated for pregnant and lactating women with 800 mcg of folic acid, Nature's Prenatal provides a balanced combination of vitamins and minerals to support the nutritional needs of both mother and baby. It also contains ginger root to help soothe the stomach. It's free of artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, sweeteners, sugar, yeast, gluten, lactose, milk, soy or wheat.
Each tablet contains:
% DV
Vitamin A
(beta-carotene) 5,000 IU 60
Vitamin C
(ascorbic acid) 70 mg 120
Vitamin D
(fish oil) 400 IU 100
Vitamin E (d-alpha
tocopherol) 30 IU 100
Vitamin B1
(thiamine
mononitrate) 3 mg 180
Vitamin B2
(riboflavin) 3 mg 150
Niacin
(niacinamide) 17 mg 85
Vitamin B6
(pyridoxine
hydrochloride) 3 mg 120
Folic acid
(folacin) 800 mcg 100
Vitamin B12
(cyanocobalamin) 5 mcg 60
Biotin 30 mcg 10
Pantothenic acid
(d-calcium
pantothenate) 5 mg 50
Iron (ferrous
fumarate) 27 mg 150
Iodine (potassium
iodide) 75 mcg 50
Magnesium (oxide) 75 mg 20
Zinc (gluconate) 7 mg 50
Copper (gluconate) 1 mg 50
Take 1 tablet daily with a meal.
Vibraceous, ND
Scott
Exposure
to industrial chemicals in the womb or early in life can impair brain
development but only a handful are controlled to protect children,
researchers said on Wednesday.
Exposure to toxic chemicals during fetal development can be linked to autism, attention deficit disorder, cerebral palsy and developmental delays, say the study's authors.
There is also a lack of research and testing to identify which chemicals cause the most harm or how they should be regulated, they added.
"Only a few substances, such as lead and mercury, are controlled with the purpose of protecting children," said Philippe Grandjean of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts and the University of Southern Denmark.
"The 200 other chemicals that are known to be toxic to the human brain are not regulated to prevent adverse effects on the fetus or a small child," he added.
In a review published online by The Lancet medical journal, Grandjean and Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York identified 202 industrial chemicals known to be toxic to the human brain.
101 Reasons Not To Have Your Baby in Hospital
The book which took four years to werite has finally been completed. Make sure you read the "Quotes"Section
Did you know that . . .
75 percent of European women use midwives as their principal birth attendants?
Only 3 percent of U.S. women use midwives as their principal birth attendants?
The United States ranks 28th poorest in the world in infant mortality . . . just below Cuba and a good bit above Slovakia?
The United States far exceeds the first 27 countries in per-capita maternity and newborn care spending?
The United States could save at least $20 billion annually by demedicalizing childbirth . . . while saving lives in the process?
by the medical industry?
Why does the hospital institution want
to "parent" our babies?
Whose babies are they, anyway?
If I had it to do all over again, I would have had all of my babies at home.
I have a number of friends who took this approach, and it sounds so wonderful the way they describe it!
I did, however, have my children through natural childbirth. Well, the last two I did, anyway. The first one I had a "spinal." I think those have basically evolved into epidurals, but I really wish I hadn't even bothered with that. It didn't give me any relief until the very end, so all those hours in labor were on my own anyway. After I had the next two natural, I realized I could have done the whole thing the first time around. I hated the way it made my legs feel sooooo heavy, like they were nailed to the bed...and of course I didn't like having a needle stuck into my back. I remember wondering how I would lie still, and knowing I could have permanent damage if I did not, while they were putting the needle into my back.
How much nicer to have a baby at home in the recliner chair. That's what my one girlfriend did! She said it worked perfect! I have had friends who have been midwives, as well, and they have the most wonderful stories to tell!
But...I'm done with all that! It's up to my kids to decide how they want to have their children now!
Hugs, Vibe
SPONTANEOUS
CREATION
This post was modified from its original form on 08 Sep, 11:54
Paxil Birth DefectsRecent studies suggest an increased risk of Paxil birth defects for pregnant women during their first trimester. According to early results of two studies, women who were taking Paxil during the first three months of pregnancy were one and a half to two times more likely to have a baby with heart malformations than women on other antidepressants or women in the general population. Learn more about Paxil and birth defects.>
Vibraceous
Smoking Mothers Lead to Fat Children - Study 
Brian
Children whose mothers smoke even in the early stages of pregnancy are nearly three times more likely to struggle with obesity later in life, according to a Japanese study.
Vibraceous New research in primates suggests that infants and children who carry a certain gene variant may be more vulnerable to the ill effects of fetal alcohol exposure.
Groovy!
Warning: The U.S. Congress is about to pass the Mother's Act -- a Big Pharma effort to drug expectant mothers with dangerous psych drugs. Two days ago, Ron Paul introduced the Parental Consent Act to counter the Big Brother "screening" program that would be mandated by the Mother's Act. Read the full text of it here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/026187.html
You can also follow the news on the Mother's Act from CCHR's Twitter feed:
