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 :)

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

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