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12 Tips for Coping With Stress During Pregnancy

featured — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:08:13 +0000

Stress may play a role in a child’s future, as passed from mother to baby during pregnancy. (View the video CNN) Here are 12 Tips for Coping With Stress During Pregnancy.

Gaining control of your life:

1. Take a close look at your lifestyle. Make yourself do this on paper. Look at your work activities, home and family responsibilities, other obligations (church, community activities, clubs and organizations to which you belong). Then look to see how “doable” it is. Make sure you include in your calculations time for yourself for such activities as exercise, down time, and socializing Once you have done this, be honest with yourself as you ask the following: Is this schedule achievable? Sustainable? Satisfying? If not, accept the reality that you have to change the schedule.
2. Accept the fact that even if you currently can thrive on your busy and demanding lifestyle, you likely will not be able to sustain it as pregnancy progresses and makes more physical demands on you. Therefore prepare yourself to cut back on what you’re doing and to allow yourself more time for rest and relaxation. You will need to sleep more. You will need to change the time you a lot for meals to make sure that you are able to eat a balanced diet. You will feel better if you allow time to engage in a reasonable exercise program. Finally you will need to allow yourself some “mental growth” time. This is time for reading, thinking, and planning for the new, incredibly important role of mother you will soon assume.
3. Be prepared to give up some control over the life-style you have worked so hard to attain. Many things about pregnancy are not in your control. You may experience severe morning sickness. You may have overwhelming fatigue. You may develop a pregnancy complication requiring hospitalization or home bed rest. For many women, especially those who have demanding jobs, the thought that biology might interfere with their responsibilities borders on the intolerable. But it happens. Be prepared to accept this.
4. Make up your mind that you, and not your husband or your mother or your boss or your friends, are going to determine how you feel about your pregnancy and how you cope with it. Other than your medical care providers, you are the best person to determine what your needs are, how hard you should work, how much you should rest, what you should eat, and all other aspects of your behavior during pregnancy. Certainly listen to the advice of both medical professionals and friends and family members that you trust. But don’t allow yourself to be made to feel bad by the well-intentioned but often incorrect comments and claims of others.
5. Keep lines of communication open with those you love, especially your spouse. Your spouse, parents, and friends–unless they are currently pregnant themselves–will not know exactly what you are experiencing and cannot anticipate what your wants and needs will be. Let them know. Tell them how you are feeling and how they can help. At the same time you must also be sensitive to the concerns and anxieties your spouse might have, especially if this is your first pregnancy.
6. Don’t be a hero. This is especially important if your work environment is in a traditionally “macho” field. Such professions as law, medicine, and corporate life often make demands that are simply impossible for a pregnant woman to fulfill if they are to remain in good health and reasonably sane. Discuss with your spouse and your boss what you can and cannot reasonably do and make adjustments accordingly. Your employer certainly wants you to work as long as you can into your pregnancy. By adjusting your work environment in minor ways you often will be able to contribute much more to your organization than by following your former rigid schedule.
7. Do your homework. Learn as much about pregnancy as you can. Read, talk to friends, attend classes, and talk to your doctor or midwife to learn as much as possible not only about the biology of pregnancy but about its emotional implications as well. In this way if you do begin to experience new and disturbing emotions you’ll at least not be surprised by them.
8. Give yourself permission to relax. This means making time specifically for relaxation and not doing so only when the odd spare moment occurs. Take time to do whatever makes you feel good. Read a book, see a movie, have a massage, sleep in late when you can. Each of us has his or her own means of personal “profit-taking”. Make sure you do some, do your best to enjoy it, and by no means allow yourself to feel guilty about it.
9. Teach yourself–or get taught–relaxation techniques. It has been shown by many researchers, notably Herbert Benson, M.D. and Alice Domar, PhD., that by learning to elicit a state of deep physical rest on command, both your body and your mind return to a calm, relaxed state. Heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormone levels, and muscle tension will drop. The mind experiences a marked diminution in tension and the perception of stress. This is called the Relaxation Response. Techniques for eliciting the response can be learned from health care providers or by reading the excellent description of it in Dr. Alice Domar, Self Nurture.
10. Talk to yourself–and write it down. The process of specifically identifying thoughts and feelings and putting them into written form is an excellent way both to come to grips with what you are experiencing and to help resolve any of these feelings that are troublesome. Doing so will give you better insight into yourself and will often relieve the pain of previously disturbing thoughts or feelings.
11. Test the origins of your emotions for validity. This process is called “cognitive restructuring”. All of us get feedback and messages from those with whom we deal in the world. Often we make negative assumptions about ourselves based on this feedback and thus feel badly about interactions we have had and about ourselves. This process of negative thinking occurs spontaneously and can often be overwhelming. But if you can begin to identify these repetitive negative thoughts and write them down to make sure you have a clear understanding of them, you can then begin the process of seeing what triggers them and determine whether your thought or the emotion it evokes is reasonable. Whenever you get one of these thoughts look to see what caused it. Ask yourself if what happened-a comment, a cool look, etc– deserves the negative response you have given it. By so doing you can start to break the cycle of automatic negative feelings sparked by common events in your life.
12. Finally, and not at all the least important, consider the possibility of obtaining professional help. The field of psychopharmacology has advanced so much over the last 15 years that seeing a therapist no longer automatically involves years of once a week visits to talk about your feelings. Although such “talk therapy” can be helpful, there are now many medications that are safe for pregnant women to take. These medicines have very few side effects yet can transform how you feel. Depressed moods are often caused by changes in the biochemistry of the brain. There are medicines that can safely adjust the levels of brain chemicals. These medicines, just like the insulin the diabetic takes, can correct abnormal biochemistry and make you feel better and happier. If you and your health are provider decide that such medications would be useful for you, by all means try them. They will not cause a miscarriage or harm your baby.

Conclusion:

Life is complex and often hard. Stress will not be going away anytime soon. There are, however, ways that you as a pregnant woman can go about evaluating the stress you are under and make changes in your life to better be able to deal with it. By so doing, you’ll have a healthier pregnancy and be a happier person.

Henry Lerner, M.D., OB/GYN is the author of “Miscarriage: Why It Happens And How Best To Reduce Your Risks” (Published by Perseus Publishing; ISBN: 0738206342; US$16; paperback)

iPhone Apps for Mom and Dad

featured — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:15:00 +0000

The cheaper and faster iPhone 3G comes out today and geeks everywhere have begun exploring the cool new applications, which are now available on iTunes. Here are a few iPhone and iPod Touch applications arising that are targeting parents or soon to be parents.

Baby Tracker: Nursing — this application keeps track of a baby’s feeds, whether it is right side or left and for how long. I guess you could integrate the data with Trixie Tracker and you would be all set. (There is also a version of this that is 10 times cheaper called BBuddy but I couldn’t work out how to link to it).
Bishop’s Score Calc: this one calculates the probability of an impending ability as well as various possible complications.
Pregnancy Kick Counter: you can use this application to count how often your baby is kicking as if (a) you can’t tell and (b) you need yet another thing to worry about.
OB Counter: That said, if you are trying to time deliveries and plan ahead, this free app will calculate you due date. Of course, this thing has been around online forever but I guess if you are out and about and want to make sure you are not busy in 38 weeks time so as to assess risks, the iPhone app is for you.
Food Additives: If you are managing the stuff going into your child, this application is for you. Enter the food you are thinking of feeding your child and it tells you just how bad it is. In our preservative-free house, I won’t be able to sneak stuff in even when we are out and about.
The Wheel: The Wheel is a gestational age calculator (or pregnancy wheel) like the ones doctors and pregnant women use everyday. It determines your due date based on the first day of your last menstrual period. It also simplifies the precise calculation of the gestational age of a fetus at any stage of the pregnancy.
Birth Buddy: The Birth Buddy application is a tool to track labor contractions (because every woman in labor wants to hold up her electronic device to watch her contractions, right?!). If you opt for the download it will send an email to your care provider and curious family members.
Life Record: Life Record allows you to store your family’s medical record in your iPod or iPhone. You can maintain, view and organize your records and instantly share them with your doctor. Sounds like a cute way to share the 3D ultrasound!
Ambiance: This one is purely for the mom and dad who may need to escape for a little while from the hustle and bustle. It puts a number of those nice white-noise sounds in continuous loop so you can plug yourself in, and fade away for a while – whether it’s on the commute, or in the bedroom while the kids are blowing up the Death Star downstairs. The loops are high quality, and range from rain to a couple different varieties of colored noise. (Image Source) Getty

Getting Ready for Baby Checklist

featured — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:36:04 +0000

Like any new parents, you’ll need to have some basic items on hand to get ready for baby. Here is a list that will be sure to help you out with your new parenting journey.

Changing

On the Go

Bedroom

Nursing

Baby Clothes

Cleaning & Toiletries

Beds and Linens

2 waffle-weave receiving blankets
cradle or bassinet with 3 cotton blankets
sheets
crib and crib mattress
set of crib bumpers
2-6 fitted sheets
2 crib blankets
2 mattress pads
1-2 waterproof liners (one for bassinet and one for crib)
Mobile for over crib

Having a Baby? Do it Naturally.

featured — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:46:22 +0000

Pregnancy is an exciting time for a woman but all of the physical and emotional changes can become overwhelming. To help women experience birth as a pleasurable, one-of-a-kind event, Peggy O’Mara, the editor and publisher of Mothering magazine, has created a book, “Having a Baby, Naturally,” that addresses common concerns and questions of pregnancy from conception through the first months of parenting. I highly recommend this practical, information-packed book to any woman who is pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant.

As technology advances, women are faced with many choices during pregnancy, such as where and how to give birth and what types of prenatal testing she will have done. “Having a Baby, Naturally” discusses these wide-ranging topics, as well as the best theories and safest practices used in natural childbirth, in a straightforward, nonjudgmental manner that allows the reader to make her own informed decisions.

Topics covered include:

Nutrition, diet and exercise
Emotional self-awareness during and after pregnancy
A trimester-by-trimester guide to what is happening in your body and your child’s
Birth choices–offering suggestions, not “rules”
Pain medication alternatives
Birth locations, from hospitals to home birth
Relieving morning sickness with natural remedies
Prenatal testing
Breastfeeding
Prematurity and multiple births
Balancing work and family
The father’s role during pregnancy and beyond
Difficult subjects, such as birth defects, miscarriages and postpartum depression
Throughout the book, O’Mara, a leading expert on pregnancy and childbirth, explains why natural childbirth can be much more satisfying and safer for women. “Having a Baby, Naturally” can help you to decide how your birth experience will be and keep you from having an impersonal or overly medicated birth. The book also includes natural remedies, spiritual exercises and research on topics like midwives, Doulas, cesareans and diet.

The importance of breastfeeding, which is one of the most important things you can do for your newborn, is also discussed, along with how to do it and overcome any difficulties.

“Having a Baby, Naturally” is an excellent resource for first-time moms and those who have already had children but would like to gain a more natural perspective to childbirth. The book offers an easy-to-read, objective style that can ease the mind of any pregnant woman and ensure her that she is making the best possible choices to protect the health of her new baby.

(Having a Baby, Naturally)

Time Outdoors Good for Kids Eyes

featured — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:39:37 +0000

Researchers have found evidence that children who spent the most time outdoors were the least likely to suffer from myopia, also called nearsightedness or shortsightedness. Myopia has become increasingly common in recent decades, with more than 80 percent of people in some groups being nearsighted.
Researchers looked at more than 4,000 children in two age groups. They found that among 12-year-olds, those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic. In contrast, children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted.

SOURCE: Ophthalmology, August 2008.

Be Glad You’re Not An Elephant

featured — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:36:39 +0000

Before you spend another day complaining about your raging heartburn or frequent bathroom breaks, check out how other animals make it through pregnancy and child rearing.

You hear about women being months along before knowing they’re pregnant. This could never happen to a pigeon is only pregnant for 10-18 days!

Spousal aggression? Check! In many spider species, the female kills the male shortly after he deposits his sperm.

Our ancestral equivalent to the stay at home dad-the seahorse. The male receives eggs into his pouch from the female. She thins out while he gets chubby. The mom-to-be visits the gestating male every morning for a courtship dance. His contractions start at night and he’ll give birth before morning when he is ready for the next egg deposit.

Forget health education, domesticated dogs can reach sexual maturity as young as 6 months of age!

Rabbit’s ovulation is induced by the sex act itself. Therefore, they can produce many litters each year. Unfortunately they are often inattentive mothers, nursing only minutes each day and weaning after a month.

Whales are delivered tail first and stick by their young for 7-10 years after birth.

The one animal who truly deserves an award-the elephant who is pregnant for 22 months and births calves who weigh an average of 250 pounds. No wonder they say an elephant never forgets.

Foods You Dont Have to Buy Organic

featured — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:08:09 +0000

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies that protect global and individual health, produces the Shoppers’ Guide to Pesticides in Produce. It is based on the results of nearly 43,000 pesticide tests. Here are the 12 Foods You Don’t Have to Buy Organic:

Broccoli, Eggplant, Cabbage, Banana, Kiwi, Asparagus, Sweet peas (frozen), Mango, Pineapple, Sweet corn (frozen), Avocado and Onion.

7 Top Workouts for Pregnant Women

featured — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:09:29 +0000

Exercise does wonders during pregnancy. It boosts mood, improves sleep, and reduces pregnancy aches and pains. It also prepares you for childbirth by strengthening muscles and building endurance, and makes it much easier to get back in shape after your baby’s born. Read more.