Why Create a Birth Plan?

Why Create a Birth Plan?

A birth plan is a detailed document stating your wishes for your labor and the birth of your baby. Although it doesn't guarantee things will go as planned, it will help communicate your wishes to everyone involved in the birth. Here are some reasons to create one:

1. Writing your birth plan helps you decide ahead of time how you want the birth handled.

2. Creating your birth plan with your partner ensures that they understand your wishes and may help prepare them for the experience.

3. Going over your birth plan ahead of time with your care-provider helps the two of you communicate about details you may not have previously discussed.

QUICK TIP :While you're whiling away the time during early labor at home, bake some cookies to give to the labor and delivery nurses along with your birth plan, as a token of appreciation for assuring your plan is followed.

The Crucial First Hour

The Crucial First Hour
from babyfit.com

The moment you lay eyes on your new baby will be a moment you never forget. But there will probably be a lot going on around the two of you, and the commotion can easily distract you from bonding with the new love in your life.

Here's how to make the most of the first hour:
� Request at least one hour of uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact, and designate someone to enforce this. Sometimes well-intentioned hospital staffs are too eager to weigh and measure the baby, and in your vulnerable state you might agree to hand over your baby too soon. Cord cutting and suctioning, if needed, can all be performed with baby lying on your belly. Unless there is a medical emergency, everything else can wait.
� Dim the lights, if possible, so that the two of you can gaze eye-to-eye without the glare of florescent lights.
� If given the chance, many babies (especially babies born drug-free) will maneuver themselves to your nipple unassisted. Watch in amazement as they use their instincts to find comfort and food.
� Let your baby nurse as often and for as long as he or she desires. This is both soothing to baby and helpful for your body, as it helps to eject the placenta, promote bonding, and begins to return your uterus to its pre-pregnancy size.
� Talk to your baby. Babies recognize their mom's voice, as they've grown accustomed to it over the past nine months. Your voice is something familiar in this new, cold, dry world, and will bring comfort to your baby

Exercising For Two

Exercising For Two: How it Benefits Mom & Baby
By Becky Hand, Licensed and Registered Dietician

Exercise during pregnancy is important. It has many benefits for mom and baby.

Exercise can:

• Improve muscle tone and cardiovascular fitness
• Lead to a better appearance and posture
• Lessen some of the discomforts of pregnancy
• Strengthen the muscles needed for labor and delivery
• Make you feel good, too

The exercises you can do during pregnancy depend on your health and how active you were before you became pregnant. If you were not active before pregnancy, this is not the time to start an extremely strenuous exercise program. However, swimming, walking, or prenatal exercise classes are great places to get started. If you exercised before pregnancy, there is no reason you cannot continue, within reason.

Before you begin any exercise program, discuss it with your healthcare provider. The two of you together can plan an exercise program that is consistent with your current level of fitness and health conditions. If you experience any problems, such as bleeding, premature labor, dizziness, severe abdominal pain, or feeling unusually tired, contact your healthcare provider immediately.Once you get the okay to exercise, here are some tips to follow:

• Be sure to warm up before exercise and cool down afterwards
• Begin exercising gradually. Do not overdo it. You don't want to become breathless or exhausted. In the proper range, you should be able to carry on a conversation with someone next to you. If you can sing, you may not be exercising intensely enough, but if you are too winded to speak, then slow down. Discuss your exercise intensity and get a recommendation from you healthcare provider beforehand. (For a full explanation of the Perceived Exertion Scale, please see the BabyFit.com Fitness article Pace-Don't Race your Heart. )You should be able to talk easily while you exercise. If you are out of breath, you are working too hard.
• Exercise on a regular basis (3 – 5 times a week, 20-30 minutes a session)
• Be sure to wear clothing which provides comfort and adequate breast support. Comfortable shoes are also important.
• Exercise only to the point where you begin to get tired. Listen to your body; it will tell you when it is time to slow down.
• Avoid exercising in hot weather.
• Do not get overheated.
• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Avoid hot tubs and saunas.
• Your center of gravity changes while you are pregnant. This can affect your balance. Be careful getting up and lying down.
• After the fourth month of pregnancy (16 weeks), do not lie on your back while exercising. This decreases the blood flow to the uterus and placenta.
• When finished exercising, lie on your left side for 15 – 20 minutes.

Safe Exercises: swimming, brisk walking, prenatal exercise classes, and stationary bicycling, low-impact aerobics, tennis, golf, bowling (be careful of back strain later in pregnancy).Exercises to

AVOID: As your uterus grows and your abdomen gets larger, your sense of balance may be affected. This is also not the time for contact sports where you could fall, injure yourself, or be struck in the abdomen. Therefore, avoid these activities: scuba diving, water skiing, basketball, softball, baseball, horseback riding, and snow skiing.

Not this month

I am two days early and I have some light spotting. Looks like I am going to be going on that "Procreation vacation" after all.

Avoiding a C-Section

Avoiding a C-Section

From Babyfit.com

In certain situations, a c-section may be the best option for mother and baby. But many times they can be avoided, and mother and baby both benefit. Here are some measures that can help you avoid a c-section:

1. Stay healthy during pregnancy. Nourish your body and baby with healthy foods, exercise, and plenty of sleep. Labor is hard work, and you'll need your body to be in peak condition.

2. Find out whether your obstetrician's c-section rate is unusually high. The overall U.S. c-section rate is 20-25%. If it is above that, consider switching to another practitioner.

3. Use a midwife. They usually have lower c-section rates than OB's.

4. Hire a doula. Women supported by a doula during labor have been shown to have a 50% reduction in cesarean rate.

5. Be active during labor. Walking and standing let gravity do its job.

QUICK TIP :In 1970, only 7% of babies were born by c-section in the United States. Today's rate is climbing and expected to reach 30% before it plateaus.

PMS-ing

Well I am going to lay money down on this one. I am sure that we did not concieve this past cycle because I am having some pretty intense PMS symptoms right now. I am just going to look forward to the next cycle which should be starting here in a few days. Maybe I will schedule a "Procreation Vacation" for this month and see what we can get!

Procreation Vacation

This morning I checked my e mail and I got an interesting article from Babyfit.com on "Procreation Vacations". The article really focuses on the negative effect stress has on fertility. There are some names of resorts given that offer specific services to enhance the process. They have cozy rooms (the suites have fireplaces & Barry White CDs) and their spa features treatments that have long since believed to help fertility.

One I saw was called "Chaste Berry" which I remember my nutritionist writing down a year ago for me to look into. Chaste Berry you make into a tea and it is said to enhance the hormones. Its name is a little misnomer. in ancient Greece they believed that the berries stopped the libido so they would put these berries all around their houses during the time of Demeter. Other teas are red clover, and rasberry.

Other things to look into is sea moss & (get this) pumpkin soup! I was floored by the pumpkin soup but it has been a belief that eating a little pumpkin can get you that little pumpkin in no time.

I was so excited to see that there happens to be a resort specializing in these treatments right here in Maryland. It looks like this cute little bed n' breakfast which features a spa that has everything needed to promote fertility and relaxation.

I am going to go by the health food store and see if I can't find Chasteberry and I will keep you posted on whether we retreat or not.