Here is an article for you from the ‘well, that just makes perfect sense’ department:

Exercise during pregnancy is good for you! What a revelation :)
The interesting part is that while we all know the exercise is good for you and your heart, a pilot study by the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences showed that your exercise may also be good for your baby and it’s heart!

Using non-invasive monitoring, the researchers hypothesised that maternal exercise during pregnancy can have a beneficial effect on fetal cardiac programming by reducing fetal heart rate and increasing heart rate variability.

During the study, they found there there were significantly lower heart rates among fetuses that had been exposed to maternal exercise. The heart rates among non-exposed fetuses were higher, regardless of the fetal activity or the gestational age.

Behind the medical jargon, this does make very good sense. We all know exercise at just about any life stage, pregnant or not, is good for you. Walking, Yoga and Pilates are all fantastic ways to keep fit and ’stretchy’ (you know what I mean…) during pregnancy. Just be careful once the relaxin hormone kicks in.  The joints, especially hip joints, do tend to turn to mush in the last trimester :)

Hi there all,

Well a beautiful baby girl blessed our family last Monday, 28 April at 325pm after a relatively routine kind of labour. I was thanking god for the pilates classes i took throughout my pregnancy while pushing. So much core and pelvic floor strength was a blessing and meant that instead of the routine hour or so of pushing our little angel was out in 25 minutes! It has also meant a faster and more comfortable post natal recovery for me.

Annabelle Claire is her name and at 8 pounds 11 ounces or 3.94kg she is a healthy and contented little treasure. So far she has been sleeping several hours at a time and even allowing us to get a half decent nights sleep for which we are eternally grateful.

Throughout the labour my husband was by my side. He never left me. This was key to my ability to focus and to continue on when i thought i really couldn’t. I don’t really know how many times I looked at him during the process, but knowing that he was holding my hand, rubbing my back or pushing the hair from my eyes was more comforting than any pain relief drugs ever could have been. His love and support is paramount to my success in every day life, but on this, one of the hardest days of my life it was exceptional. He was there for all of it, the contractions, my water breaking, the crying and despair of transition and the crowning and pushing out of our little princess. He held her against his chest moments after the placenta was delivered and the cord had been cut, their bare skin touching and she entwined her little fingers in his chest hair. It was incredible to see them together. It made me weak at the knees to see it.

A drug free delivery is hard. I won’t tell you that it was a breeze. But I knew that going in to this. It was empowering to know that I was being strong and doing what I believe was best for my baby and for me. I was clear and focussed and our baby came out alert and breathing strongly. Her colour was instant and she took to the breast in less than 30 minutes and didn’t leave for over an hour!!!

It was an amazing day and we are so thankful for the way it all went. The midwives at the Mercy Hospital for Women’s Family Birth centre were so incredible. Encouraging and knowledgeable when we needed them and respecting our privacy when they knew all was well. It was a beautiful and amazing experience - we can’t thank them enough.

After all the waiting and anticipation - it was everything we hoped for just as we focussed on and visualised throughout the pregnancy, and so much more. Life is turned upside down and we couldn’t be happier.

Getting a good night’s sleep halves a young child’s risk of being overweight and lowers the chances of later anxiety and depression, a Harvard Medical School study has shown.

In a study involving 915 children in Massachusetts, researchers found that those who slept less than 12 hours a day in the first two years of life were twice as likely to be overweight at age 3 than children who slept longer. Very young children need more sleep and those in this study slept an average of 12.3 hours per day.

Very Interesting! And you thought getting a good night’s sleep during your baby’s first few years was just good for your own sanity :)

Further, television tended to make matters worse, with children who watched two or more hours daily by age 2 more likely to be overweight at age 3, the researchers said.

“Getting enough sleep is becoming harder with televisions, computers and video games in kids’ bedrooms.”, one of the researches stated.

Closer to home, a study at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville, Australia found that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder commonly had sleep problems.Among 239 Australian children ages 5 to 18 years with ADHD in the study, 73 percent had sleep problems. Their most common problems were difficulty falling asleep, resisting going to bed and tiredness upon waking, Dr. Sung (lead researcher) said.

Compared to other children with ADHD but no sleep problems, these children were more likely to have poorer quality of life and daily functioning, as well as poorer school attendance.

Source : News Daily

There news circling the news sites (here, here) about Canada banning the sale of baby bottles containing the chemical “Bisphenol A” after concluding the chemical is toxic.

Now, this may not be news to you. After all, some sites have been saying this for quite some time. Just google for ‘Bisphenol A toxic’ to see for yourself.

I just wonder why it has taken so long for someone (a government) to take a stand on this. It is mentioned in the reports that some studies have found that even at low doses the chemical can increase breast and ovarian cancer cell growth, as well as some prostate cancer cells in animals. Further, Bisphenol A has been linked to fertility problems, diabetes, hyperactivity and early puberty in girls.

So, what is the answer ? Well, I think Glass Bottles could be a good start. I know they are a bit harder to find and need more care, but the benefits and health implications seem obvious. During the early stage, breastfeeding seems rather handy as well… No plastic there :)

What other areas of your baby’s care could you switch to non-plastic alternatives ?

It is interesting how we have refined the process of pregnancy to such a finite limitation - 40 weeks - not a day more and not a day less. The human body is nothing if not unpredictable and amazingly unique in every one of us. For the most part we all  have ten fingers and ten toes, two eyes a nose and a mouth. And yet each of us does things in a slightly different way.

Growing a baby is no exception. Each of us had our own perfect period of gestation inside our mothers and each of ours will do their thing inside of us. Impatience begins to set in at that 40 week mark though, and fears and concerns for our baby’s health also wander through. Perpetuated, unfortunately, by the medical world in which we live.  If only we could learn a little more often where a woman shows no sign of being at risk for complication, that maybe her baby is just not ready and we should leave well enough alone. Monitoring every week or even twice a week for safety is such a blessing for our over active modern minds - hearing a strong happy heartbeat puts our fears to rest for a while. Fear mongering a woman into induction, and in so many cases this leads to more serious interventions, is just irresponsible.

So I will continue to wait - as patiently as I can - we are so eager to meet this little one and know if it is a boy or a girl that the suspense is tangible - and know that my baby is safe and happy - and has obviously decorated so nicely in there that it is struggling to come to terms with leaving :)

Keep safe and we will let you know, xxx, anita

Here is a concerning little story: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has completed a two year study (2004-2005) that showed that unintentional overdoses were the third leading cause of non-fatal injuries among infants treated in hospital emergency department. For children aged 1 to 4 years, it was the sixth leading cause.

The study estimates that 158,520 patients aged 18 years and younger visited emergency departments for adverse reactions to prescription and non-prescription medications, vaccines, vitamins, dietary supplements, and complementary and alternative therapies during that two year period.

The important part to note was that children from 1 to 4 years old were nearly 10 times more likely than children of other ages to be hospitalised for adverse drug effects. Almost half (45 %) of the hospitalisations were unintentional overdoses, mostly from pain relief and respiratory medications.

It is just so important to remember that our baby’s body does not yet have the tolerances to foreign influences that you and I do. We’re all used to grabbing Aspirin or Paracetamol tablet when we have a headache, but we tend to forget that the dosage is made for a 80kg+ Adult, and not a 5-15kg child. Simply splitting a tablet is just not safe as the medication may not be perfectly evenly dispersed in the tablet. And really, who of us can successfully split a table into 4 or more chunks ? Even then, that quarter chunk is still enough for a 20kg person…

If you do need to give your child medication, please make sure you use the children’s version of the product if it is available, or switch to one.

Well it is Monday a week after Easter and I am 37 weeks along. This pregnancy has been going so well and I had been feeling so fantastic i was almost complacent about the whole thing. Then a few days before the long weekend I turned to reach for something and my back gave up on me. I have been limping ever since!! My right hip is not very happy. Chiropractic and acupunture have ensured that i remain mobile and not confined to bed or a chair which has been great.

Which i guess you could say brings me somewhat to my point :)  Chiropractic changed my life when I was a 17 yo migraine sufferer. I went from daily tears and packet after packet of pain killers to a well adjusted kid who was finally able to study again. From spinal xrays my chiro was able to tell me that my issues began most likely during childbirth, my birth that is. The plates in a newborns skull are not fused together like those of an adult, purposley to allow it to fold in on itself during its journey through the birth canal. In some cases, this closing in of the bones does not fully release. In my case when the bones had fused later in life they were not quite right and were causing me serious tension in my head - one of the factors in the nasty headaches. The other was that my neck had an abnormal curveature placing added stress. Also on the xrays wecould see that my lower back had a scoliosis - a fairly common occurence in girls - especially girls as tall as me. This curve had in turn pulled up my pelvis on one side, making one leg slightly shorter than the other and was possible the reason for my irregular cycle.

These were revelations to myself and my family and we all became lifetime chiropractic patients. 14 Years later i continue to be adjusted on a regular basis. Throughout pregnancy women are told to be cautious of many things. At a time in which your body is under such intense pressure to perform and keep it all together, surely we would want to do all we could to make that job easier?  Unfortunately there appears to be a lot of mystery in the greater community about chiropractic and its safety. Chiropractic is a scietifiaclly researched and completely natural method of realigning the spine, to decrease nerve interference in the body so that the messages from the brain to the rest of the body can travel freely through the nerves and allow the body to heal itself. Chiropractic facilitates healing in the body. It does not claim to do the healing, but to free  the pathways your body uses to heal itself. And so it does.

For me, as my body begins to prepare for imminent labour and birth the cocktail of hormones relaxing every ligament i have, anything can only help to a degree. Throughout the last 38 weeks, however, chiropractic has ensured that my nervous system has been firing well and that all the messages from my brain have arrived safely and clearly at their destination. A relief considering a good deal of those messages were going to the parts of my body that were busily growing another human being inside of me!!

When we got married the concern that I may have trouble falling pregnant, which had always been in the back of my mind, came to the fore. Would I be able? Could we? How would this all work? It is a nerve wracking time. It was something we had both wanted for so long. What if it wasn’t to be? I had seen so many people I know struggling to fall, miscarrying or finding out they had little to no hope. I was scared. I took a step back one day and remembered that I needed to stay positive and that life would only be what it was meant to be. 2 months after we were married, I came out of the bathroom with a little white stick, a blank expression and just kept saying, ‘there are 2 blue lines, 2 blue lines…’ very slowly, i must have been white as a ghost. We were overjoyed.

I truly credit years of chiropractic care along with acupuncture, a healthy diet, exercise and a good vitamin regime, with this amazing result. The number of times my pelvis has been dragged out of position by that curve in my spine and needed to be re aligined is incredible.  Who is to say that my reproductive organs would have understood what to do if the messages from my brain had continued to be interupted by the irritation of my mis aligned spine? All of the information that goes to our reproductive organs goes through our lower back, if there is not adequate joint movement and function to allow the information the pass through the nerves uninterupted, how can they possibly do their job?

I only wish that my mum had been told about chiropractic earlier. That all those pain killers had been unneccesary… however it is as it was meant to be. Armed with this knowlege and the strong mothering instinct all women have towards their own, I will always have my kids adjusted (not cracked and not treated - adjusted) by a chiropractor. Kids chiropractic is more gentle than you can imagine. Newborns require only the lightest pressure with a fingertip most of the time. I have seen babies fall asleep or remain asleep during an adjustment. It certainly helps them sleep afterwards :) It relaxes their bodies and removes excess nervous energy and the sleep is bliss.

I have seen children not mastering crawling - get adjusted a couple of times and it is like they took a course in it. Stomach problems, sleeping issues, reflux, colic and a host of other ‘normal’ infant issues may also be relieved by chiropractic. There is no time to early to begin chiropractic care. A chiro’s kids are likely to have been adjusted within an hour of birth. For ours it was within a week, as soon as i could get my self together to go to appointments! And so begins a beautiful journey. Chiropractic is gentle and does not ‘wear out the joints’ or ‘crack the bones and cause arthritis’ or so many other negative things i have heard. Chiropractors are well educated and trained - most constantly strive for improvement and more knowlege in their field. They tend to be advocates for natural alternatives and healthy natural lifestyle choices.  In Australia, Chiropractic is a five year degree and all areas of anatomy and physiology are studied. In fact clost to the only things studied by doctors and not by chiro’s are some aspects of pharmacology and surgery. Go to someone you have heard good things about. Your health and the health of your family deserves the best.

Another note - Chiropractic is great for back pain and headaces. It is also, and i say this with much personal experience, excellent for lethargy, colds and flus (don’t call to cancel if you have a cold, get in there and get your nervous system working so it can fight harder!!!) digestion issues, stress and a lot of other, more organic type conditions in the body. It may not work as quick as a little white pill that you can get from a doctor ar pharmacist, but when was a quick fix ever the right thing in the long run? for your health or the planet? We need to become more aware of what those pills are doing to our bodies and the fragile growing bodies of our little monkey’s. They are the future, and they are precious. Look after yourself and them.

So with any luck another adjustment or 2 and i will be in working order again - in time for labour and delivery. With my nice in line pelvis, hopefully it will be quick and complication free :)

With Love, anita

I just read a very interesting article on Dr Mercola’s Blog Site and also adapted from here:

The mix of bacteria in a baby’s gut may predict whether that infant will become obese later in life. Babies with a high amount of bifidobacteria and a low amount of Staphylococcus aureus may be protected from excess weight gain.

This may help explain why breast-fed babies are at lower risk for later obesity; bifidobacteria are prevalent in the guts of breast-fed babies.

Many studies have found that breast feeding is associated with a reduced risk of childhood obesity.

As in so many cases, it seems that the natural things in life are the best. There have become so many ways in modern society to ’substitute’ the tried and true products of nature. An example would be artificial sweeteners.

It is so sad that natures most perfect food, breastmilk, would be substituted for any reason except a serious maternal health issue that meant breastfeeding could not go ahead. This article is interesting in that it shows that medical research is catching up with what some have always known. When looking at the long term health of your children, thereis nothing better than what you have readily available to give to them. The natural proven methods of caring for them and feeding them will always be most beneficial.

Today I wanted to share with you something we found invaluable. So much fear and anxiety surrounds the experience and process of childbirth and many women are unaware of the best way to empower themselves to deal with the ‘big day’

Having a birth plan which outlines your specific desires and beliefs is a great way to focus your mind prior to the day, align your thoughts with your partner and any other people who you are having present at the birth of your child and to alert staff at the birth centre or hospital that you have chosen. If you are having a homebirth, your midwives who will attend you will be well armed to get you through this experience the way you always thought it should be.

People always say you won’t get it if you don’t ask for it. The same is true with the birthing experience. A little meditation and forethought on the topic to ascertain your ideal outcomes is important. Putting it onto paper – knowing it and sharing it are the only ways to ensure that, barring serious complications of course, you get what is important to you. Whatever that may be. Make room for ‘in the event of’ so that your wishes are known in all events, and also to acknowledge that things don’t always go as planned, as much as we would like them too, open your mind to all possibilities to avoid serious disappointment later.

Here you can find more information and a sample of a birth plan. Make your whatever it needs to be to make you and your partner feel safe and content. This is the object of the activity. Share with all your carers and support team. You won’t regret it.

xx, Anita

Hi Everyone.

Anita here. Welcome to the official blog of the ‘My Little Cuddle Monkey‘ website. This is my first entry into this little journal, the first of many. In this blog, we hope to share with you our hints, tips, opinions and articles on pretty much anything that concerns your baby.

We are big advocates of healthy, natural living and wil do our best to keep you informed on what is happening in the world of natural and planet-friendly baby news.