Birth | Pregnancy | Blog

Nursing and back pain kind of go together, but they don’t have to. There are at least a few things you can do to help you avoid this common problem. I’ll give you a few tips which should not be kept secret. The first step is prevention, the next is preparation, and the third is alleviation.

Preventative measures:

The best things is to ensure you never have back pain in the first place. When you are pregnant and/or nursing, back pain is common, but if your back and stomach muscles are in shape beforehand, your chances of suffering may be greatly reduced.

• One very simple and light exercise to do is sometimes referred to as the “cat stretch.” It is where you get on your hands and knees with your back level. Arch your back up like a cat would, hold it for a count of 8 or 10. Then you can let it relax for a few seconds, gently flex the other way, and repeat the procedure again. All the while though, focus on your stomach muscles and holding them in tight, sucking in your gut and all the stomach muscles you possibly can. Start out with just a couple of reps, and work up until you are satisfied.
• Having a strong stomach helps you to have a strong back.
• Unless otherwise instructed by your physician, this exercise should be safe for you to do pre-pregnancy, prenatal, and postnatal. I will warn you though that just after you’ve had your baby will most likely hurt so you’ll probably want to take at least a few days off before resuming, and then work back into it slowly. Also seek your physician’s advice if you had a cesarean section.

Preparation:

Even perfectly fit people may suffer from nursing and back pain if they are ill-prepared so here is a suggestion to help you prepare: Pillows! Have several, anyway.
• I love my Boppy Pillow, and I’ve been able to use it for more than just breast feeding. I recommend getting covers for it too. When you use it a lot, it can get kind of grubby.
• Sometimes little throw pillows come in handy to stuff under one side of the Boppy (the side you are nursing on). The main idea here is to prop the baby up adequately so that you are not slouching to meet the baby. You may have to try a few combinations before you find what works best for you, but it will help save your back, so do it. I like to have my knees up a little too.

Alleviation:

• Always have adequate support for your back, even if you must stuff pillows behind you. Don’t be lazy and slouch, that will only make matters worse.
• Heat may be comforting to you, preferably from a heat pack and not an electric source. I like to use a rice bag (a cloth bag filled with rice and heated up in the microwave for a few minutes).
• Massage is almost always good. I can only think of one instance that it might not be, and that is if something is broken. Massage helps to release and relieve tension, it increases circulation which in turn promotes healing, and it just feels good.

Live well, feel well, and be well.
Sheilah

Popularity: 11% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: Nursing and back pain, pre-pregnancy, prenatal, postnatal, breast feeding

I picked up a brochure at the dentist’s office for you. I always figured dental health during pregnancy had to do with calcium. Calcium intake during pregnancy has long been considered important for maternal and fetal health because developing bones require calcium. However, there is more to dental health during pregnancy that just that:

Among other things, pregnancy hormone fluctuations can increase your risk of gum disease. This is why it is important to take very good care of your teeth during your pregnancy and have regular dental visits to ensure that your teeth are as strong and healthy as they can be.

Additionally, cravings to sugary things or morning sickness can also wreck havoc on otherwise healthy teeth and contribute to tooth decay.

You know that a good diet is important to you health as well as your baby’s, and now you know that the health of you teeth is as well. Remember that your body is carrying your baby, so it is best for both you and your baby that everything about your body is in tip-top shape, including your gums and teeth.

For a more extensive guide to oral hygiene for you and your baby, there are a number of sites. Regular dental care is always important, but even more so when you are expecting a baby. The Oral-B site has a downloadable free guide specifically related to pregnancy. Here is the link: Oral-B Pregnancy guide to oral health. That will help give you a good start to ensure healthy teeth and gums during your pregnancy.

Eat well, consider your dentist a necessary physician, smile lots, and have a beautiful baby.
-Sheilah

Popularity: 14% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: pregnancy, healthy teeth, oral hygiene, dental care, healthy teeth

I know it can be embarrassing, but it is a fact of life for many people and something that is quite common during pregnancy too. Constipation, you know, that awful feeling of needing to … poop, and not being able to for some reason. So what do you do about it?

What to do:

There are a few things to try.
• First off though, don’t get stressed out or worked up about it. That will only make things worse.
• Secondly, get to the root of the problem before treating the symptom. This is very important for any illness because you may only cause more problems if you aren’t treating the source of the problem.
  What have you eaten? What are you drinking? Are you stressed about something? Have your bathroom habits been regular or interrupted? Is there any pain associated? The answers to the questions can slowly help you rule out reasons for the problem.

Remedies:

Now it is time for the third step of what to do, remedy the source.
• Something that can only help is WATER, WATER, and more WATER. Perhaps you’ve only recently gotten pregnant or maybe you are close to you due date, either way, you may be tired of having to pee all the time, but TO BAD. For your own sake and your baby’s, water if a life line, and I don’t mean the flavored stuff either. The purest most natural water you can get. Your body needs to be well hydrated at any time, and even more so when you are pregnant.
• Next, I know I have said it before in relation to other things, examine your diet. A balanced diet is your best bet to a balanced body. If you are feeling bound up though, you might want to increase your intake of natural fiber by eating more fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, and bran.
• Lastly, I suggest to you to relax. Take some time someplace quiet, even if all you can get is two minutes on the toilet, take some time alone to close your eyes, breath deeply and slowly, and relax your entire body as much as you can. This is good practice for childbirth anyway.

Still?

If you are still having problems after a few days, everything that I have heard or read says you should consult your physician.
Avoid taking laxatives unless you and your physician agree together that it would be best. Reliance on laxatives can sometimes actually cause constipation.
As gruesome as it may be, it’s important to tell your physician all the details associated with the problem, so don’t hold back. They don’t know your body as well as you do so they are relying on what you tell them to help you the best they can.

Now go kick that constipation, in the butt!
-Sheilah

Popularity: 64% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: pregnancy, Constipation, Remedies:

First off, I’d like to give a warm welcome to Isabelle and a heart felt congratulations to her mom Kendra. I’m so thrilled that you are so happy with your VBAC Kendra. That is wonderful and I’m sure you will be an inspiration to many other women facing the same challenges that you were.

I know, my last post was quite awhile from the one before it, and I apoligize. Since having my latest baby, who turned two months old the same day her older sister turned two a few weeks ago, I’ve been working on a surprise for the world so to speak. My surprise is slow going, so I have no clue when I’ll have it ready, but you folks here will be the first to know when it’s getting close.

Also, I’ve decided to go back to school. I need to get “in” if I’m going to fix any of the things I want to fix and help out with. From the “outside,” I don’t have the leverage I need to make that much difference. What I know and who I know doesn’t make much difference without a position of higher “authority,” so that’s what I’m aiming for now. It shouldn’t take me much longer than 18 months I don’t think, but with my other work and family obligations (I care for and teach my children), well, we shall see how it works out. As I progress, I’m sure I’ll share with you now and then things I’m learning in my classes.

So here on my homefront, that’s what’s happening for now, well the short of it. I’m full of surprises, aren’t I?

In the mean time, check out Kendra’s VBAC story which made my eyes water with joy. Kendra’s style of writing really hits home that her story has a happy ending which made her feel good. I don’t know if I would have done everything the same way she did, but it worked for her and that’s what is most important. We are all different and so is each labor.

Sheilah

Popularity: 34% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: VBAC story, labor

Needs for antibiotics may make it so you should not breastfeed your baby, regardless of whether or not you had planned to. If the benefits of antibiotics out-weigh the cons, then obviously you need to do what you need to do. However, if you minimize the risk of you needing antibiotics in the first place, that would be optimal, for you and your baby.

This abstract from Green Journal titled “Use of Intrapartum Antibiotics and the Incidence of Postnatal Maternal and Neonatal Yeast Infections” says:

Neonatal thrush and maternal breast candidiasis are common early postnatal complications. The higher rates of thrush and breast candidiasis in antibiotic-exposed mother–infant pairs merits further study.

Another called “Antibiotic Use in Pregnancy and Lactation” points out:

…there is the concern of possible teratogenic and toxic effects on the developing fetus and newborn.

and encourages it health care providers to:

consider the teratogenic and toxic risk profiles of antibiotics to assist in making prescribing decisions for pregnant and lactating women.

However, this article, which reviews 11 broad spectrum antibiotics, does go on to say that most of the antibiotics reviewed are considered “compatible with breastfeeding.” I would say the uncertainty is still there though because what you take into your body, your baby also gets some of. Why risk it if you can take care of the problem a safer way?

During pregnancy and while breast feeding, I like to remedy anything that may come up as naturally as possible. I have had to take an antibiotic for a UTI (urinary tract infection) before because it was bad enough that I couldn’t remedy it naturally (I had never had one before and didn’t recognize the signs soon enough). The more natural way, which proves very effective for me now because I know the signs and signals of a UTI, would be something like cranberry juice (or capsules if you don’t like the juice) and/or uva-ursi. My favorite cranberry juice (although I don’t really like cranberry juice) is the Lakewood Organic Pure Concentrate because a lot goes a long way and since it’s unsweetened, it tends to works better. Amazon has it in six packs. Other unsweetened brands may work just as well.

Uva-ursi is an herb, and some herbs are very beneficial for pregnant and lactating women while others are not. So be sure to discuss it with a knowledgeble care provider before taking anything you are uncertain about in any way.

For after childbirth, I like to put 10 drops of tea tree oil in my peri-bottle. That way my area is cleaned every time I use it, and I’m not ingesting anything that might affect my baby’s milk.

A good guide for more natural remedies is: Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year. This book is great for homeopathic and natural remedies.

Sheilah

Popularity: 100% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: antibiotics, breastfeed your baby

Besides growing up on a dairy farm and learning all the great benefits to milk and mother’s milk, I have also seen the benefits in my own children and I have found studies supporting my own findings. Mother’s milk is a natural meal for baby, whatever kind of mammal mother and baby are.

One study conducted on breast feeding found:

promoting prolonged breast feeding may help decrease the prevalence of obesity in childhood.

The conclusion also goes on to say:

Since obese children have a high risk of becoming obese adults, such preventive measures may eventually result in a reduction in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and other diseases related to obesity.

Now I don’t know about the entire world, but in the United States, obesity is a growing problem. Diets are filled with convenience foods and/or stuff loaded with various forms of MSG, and days filled with sitting in front of computers or wanting to sit down from the tiring stress caused by growing bodies. It seems to me that breastfeeding our babies, is a simple enough task since it offers them early preventative protection against future obesity and all that entails.

Breastfeeding benefits babies, so why wouldn’t we want that? If you can do it, I strongly urge you to, for your baby’s future health.

Sheilah

Popularity: 27% [?]

Share This

Technorati Tags: mother’s milk, baby, Breastfeeding