My iVillage column this week has at its heart, the hope that I will somehow inspire even one pregnant woman to get on the path of self care during pregnancy. Once baby comes around, all the attention goes off the mama's health and gets directed at the baby. I always felt this paradigm was flawed at it's core. If the mama is the primary caregiver, then the oxygen mask on first analogy should prevail. Happy mom. Happy baby.
I know how hard it is to care for a new born. Some babies are harder than others. If I hadn't had the physical strength I did when my daughter was born, I wouldn't have been as engaged with her as I was. I wouldn't have been able to milk the beautiful moments the way I so often could (not a perfect record on this front of course!).
I really had NO idea how intense having a new born was going to be. The one thing we do have in our control if we have a normal pregnancy, is to make ourselves as robust as possible for all the unpredictability and chaos those little tiny beings bring into our lives.
So go check out my most recent column to get a bit of inspiration and maybe even a bit of a kick in the pants you need to get moving mama!
Here's a bit of an excerpt as a teaser...
James Clapp M.D. (unrelated to moi), is the world’s leading prenatal exercise researcher and author of “Exercising Through Your Pregnancy”. He conducted a 1990 study that concluded that women who exercised regularly during their pregnancy had shorter labors, fewer C-sections, less uses of forceps and their babies had higher APGAR scores. APGAR is an acronym for activity, pulse, grimace, appearance, and respiration and is the test given to a newborn immediately after birth.
Read full article
Stay posted on my soon to arrive column, "First trimester home workout"
If you've got a baby bump right now, hope you're happy and well!
Jane
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