Tips for a Natural Birth

Are you into the idea of a natural birth? How you choose to have your baby is a very personal decision. Everyone delivers a baby differently and natural childbirth is not for everybody mainly because it can hurt! However proponents of natural childbirth believe that it helps you have a healthier child.
One thing you might want to do is take prenatal yoga classes. These help you with the pain management and physical strength. The yoga also keeps you healthy, calm and strong.
You should also practice the vaginal strengthening exercises called Kegels. These will help you gain more positive awareness of the body and help prepare the birth canal for natural childbirth.
You can also write a birth plan. Many templates for this are available online. It helps your doctor and delivery team assess what you want and what your needs are.
You should also talk to your doctor ahead of time and get knowledge of all of the pain medications that you will be offered. These options need to be discussed with your doula and your partner before you arrive at the hospital.
Take childbirth classes. Many midwives and doulas offer these classes. It will help you visualize your labour and prepare for it in the best way possible.
It can also help you to get a prenatal massage. This helps keep your body and muscles loose and your mind and soul in a positive frame of mind.
Use aromatherapy oils such as lavender rose and yang yang to calm yourself down and oils such as grapefruit, spearmint and orange to keep yourself energized. You can buy a small fabric pouch and keep yourself stocked with the oils you need to keep yourself in a good mood. Simply sniffing a bit of ginger oil can help balance you and take away any feelings of stress caused natal nausea.
It also helps to discuss your labor with someone else in your family like your sister or your mother. This si because people who are related tend to have experiences that are in common when giving birth. This can help prepare you both emotionally and physically for what could happen.
You should familiarize yourself with how contractions work. One of the benefits of natural childbirth is the experience of sensations that you will never feel again during any other experience in your life. Even though contractions are painful your body will release pain relieving endorphins to counteract those effects. Another benefit is supposed to be that the length of labor can be shortened if you do not use pain relieving or labor inducing drugs.
Natural childbirth is not for everyone. It certainly was not for me. Listen to your body and your gut instincts. If you do not think you can handle the pain then do not go for the option of having natural labor!

10 Things to Do Before Conceiving

So you have decided to have another baby. That's great. Here are ten things you need to consider.
1. Get a Preconception Health Check Up. Ten years ago this was unheard of but nowadays it is usual to get check up to make sure you are healthy enough to have a baby. Not only you should have a check up but so should your guy.
2. Get a Pap Test. You are probably not thrilled about this but make sure you don't have cancer before you get pregnant.
3. Talk About Threats. Your doctor should check for things like Chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhoea. This may seem unreasonable but it is good to check for these diseases as they can seriously impact the health of a pregnancy. Your doctor should also talk to you about any hazards that you might face while you are in your work place as they can have a negative impact on your pregnancy as well.
4. Get Your Shots. Nobody likes needles but it is crucial that you make sure you have your immunity to such things like chine pox and Rubella (also known as German measles.) Most women are immune to these diseases but you might be among the minor percentage in the population who are not.
5. Know Your Family Tree. Before you move into the action phase of baby making you might want to check to see if certain types of birth defects or fatal disease are genetic in origin and if it is possible that you and your partner may be carriers for certain types of diseases.
6. Make Over Your Lifestyle. If you want to have a child it means that certain things need told be addressed about your lifestyle. You need to be in shape physically before you can chase little kids around so make sure you strengthen your heart and lungs with exercise. You will also do better psychologically if you exercise when it comes to weathering the emotional highs and lows of pregnancy.
7. Lose weight. It is not good for you to carry a few extra pounds if you are planning to have a baby as those pounds will increase your risk of having pregnancy complications. It can also increase your risk of experiencing certain types of fertility problems. Make sure whatever diet you embark on is a healthy one.
8. Learn how to eat well. When you are pregnant the fetus needs all kinds of different nutrients in order to grow and develop. Doctors advise stockpiling these nutrients by eating as many as possible before pregnancy. A very important nutrient to make sure you are getting is folic acid which helps you prevent birth defects such as spine bifida and anecephaly.
9. Kick your bad habits. You do not have to turn into a total prude but it is a really good idea to get rid of your smoking habit and drink less alcohol.
10. Stop taking prescription medications. Prescription medications can affect fatal development so stop taking as many as possible. You should also stop taking birth control so you can have that baby in the first place!