This week I am dedicating to my pregnancy survival guide, a topic I've wanted to post about since we announced I was expecting baby #2 in February.
When I found out I was pregnant with my first son, Jackson in 2010 I went through a withdraw/angry period as I learned all the things I wasn't suppose to eat, do or use while pregnant. I knew I wasn't diseased, but yet it seemed like that's the way I had to act -- fragile.
I started doing some research on many of my lifestyle habits to determine what was fact, fiction and just being super cautious while pregnant. I also became fascinated by how dynamic and amazing the environment in the womb is for a baby. When you think about it, a baby is being knit together, DNA strand by DNA strand. Knowing what I know about nutrigenomics, I knew my lifestyle choices could and would impact my child's development.
With all that said, I also feel like a woman could make herself go crazy during pregnancy trying to protect her baby's development. I didn't want to do that so I tried to figure out a balanced approach to taking pregnancy seriously but also enjoying it and life in general.
This week I'd like to share some of the principles I came up with, based on my research and really my comfort level. I want to emphasize that decisions a mother makes during pregnancy are personal and you should only do things that are comfortable to you and your doctor. But I also found that many of the recommendations shared were outdated or were blanket suggestions for a population who isn't generally healthy. So keep that in mind.
A book I really enjoyed reading is called Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of our Lives by Annie Murphy Paul. The author is a journalist, not a scientist, which makes it easy to read. She talks about research that pertains to each month of pregnancy and how the current recommendations for pregnancy came to be.
The main topics I will cover this week are fitness, nutrition and skin care. Check back in this week and join the conversation. If you have something to share about your pregnancy survival, please share.
Don't forget about my coconut water giveaway that's going on now through Friday! Enter here.
Looking forward to reading your tips!!
Posted by: Ruthie Hart (@ruthiehart1) | 05/13/2013 at 09:31 AM