Working With My Pregnant Body

 I have always been a huge proponent of working with your body. Our bodies are amazing, miraculous, and beautiful! Our most advanced computers can't match the power of our brains, there have chemicals that run through our body that we can't replicate, and it is the most amazing machine that has ever been created. There is so much our bodies do for us on a daily basis to take care of us without us even realizing it. Our body is made to get us through life, and I believe that if we do the best we can to listen to it and give it what it needs then it will be able to function to its full potential and show us its miraculous power. (Disclaimer: I am not saying that we do not need modern medicine and that our bodies functions perfectly, there are definitely times when we need the help of doctors and modern medicine and we are very blessed to have it in our day)

Being pregnant has been the most interesting and incredible experience I've ever had with my body. It is obvious to me that my body knows what it's doing way better than I do, even doctors still scratch their heads at some of the miracles we see during pregnancy and birth. I feel that I am learning from my body as I go through this journey, and its really beautiful and enlightening. 

Whether or not we like it, our body is in charge and taking the lead during pregnancy, we cannot control very much of what happens nor do I think we should. What we can do, rather than just sitting back and lazily watching our body go into overdrive, is support our body in every way it needs to give it the best chance of success and easy of work. So throughout my pregnancy I have researched my little heart out and testing things as the opportunities present to find things that I can to do support my body through this pregnancy. 

My hope is to compile them all for you in this post so that others might have a guide to help pregnancy be smoother and to hopefully help other see the miracle that is happening inside us. I'll try and chronologically go through the things I've learned or experienced throughout pregnancy and update things as I go or as I learn new things. Keep in mind that everyone's pregnancy is different, so you may not experience the same things as I did or at the same time as me, and your pregnancy may be harder or easier than mine. I will also try and list all the sources I can for where I learned things!

Listen to Your Body

I think that the most important thing you can do from the time you see those two lines (and even before that if you get the chance) is learn to listen to your body!!! This is such a great skill for really anyone to have and use throughout their life, but especially during pregnancy. 

Learning to listen to and understand what you body is trying to tell you can help you in so many ways throughout pregnancy. It can help you know what your body needs, whether that's rest, food, water, movement, or other assistance. It can also help you know what your body doesn't want, foods you shouldn't be eating for example (those who are lactose intolerant know what I'm talking about). 

Hopefully you know how to identify if you are hungry, tired, or thirsty, but other signals might not be so obvious to us. One way our body communicates with us (that is all too common in pregnancy) is pain. Pain is always a result of something, and it can help us understand what is going on in our body. If we can learn to see pain as a signal from our body to help us to know to change something in our lifestyle. If our stomach is tight, painful, and bloated, we can try and eat foods that are better for digestion. If our head hurts maybe we need more sleep, more water, or to stop clenching our teeth (guilty). Pain might be a way of your body telling you that you need to change your sleeping position if you wake feeling achy. If you often feel stiff and sore maybe you need to move and stretch more. 

I have found that sometimes it can be hard to determine whether a certain pain means we need to move more or move less, and the best answer I can give at this point is do some research and careful try each out. An example from my own pregnancy is near the beginning of my second trimester when my belly started growing I started experiencing extreme round ligament pain. The side of my belly ached so badly! I did some research and learned what it was, and read about some of the ways to treat it. 

Many of the articles I read said that staying stagnant could make it worse. If you think about it, your ligaments are like rubber bands holding things together, this rubber band had never been stretched before so it was super tight! As my belly grew it pulled on that tight rubber band causing me pain. So I found some gentle stretches and yoga poses to help me carefully stretch and loosen up those ligaments. My extreme pain only lasted about 3 days, and since then I only feel it on occasion because I was able to listen to what my body needed. 

As another example, as my belly has grown it has put a lot of strain on my back muscles that have to hold it up. These muscles were tired and overworked from not being used to holding up so much weight. One day my back hurt so bad I couldn't move. You can't really stretch muscles to make them feel better when they're just overworked, resting was the best option for me. I took a whole day to rest, and used heat and gentle message to help relax the muscles. I also looked at what might be making the strain on my back worse. As I paid attention to what made my back hurt more and what felt better, I noticed that the way I sit had a huge impact! If I slouched for even 5 minutes I would be in pain the rest of the day. The way I was sleeping was also affecting it! turns out you need back support while you sleep when you're pregnant, who knew?! After a few changes my back bothered me very little as long as I was mindful of those things that bothered it. 

Listening to your body can help you feel you best and allow your body to get what it needs to support your growing baby and body. If you don't learn to listen, you may spend a lot of your pregnancy in constant anxiety. Its really hard not being in control or knowing what's going on, especially when your child is involved, but if we can learn to understand the signals our body is giving us we can know when things are happening how they're supposed to and when there is actually something to worry about. 

Research

I'm sure you've heard the term "knowledge is power". The more you know about what is going on the better you will feel. Learning and doing research can help to calm anxiety, let you know how to approach a problem, as well as help you prepare for the future. 

As we saw from my examples above, research helped me know what was going on with me which helped me not be worried and know what to do to make it better. As I already mentioned, pregnancy can be really scary and cause a lot of anxiety because we aren't in control, we don't know what's going on, and our baby's life is on the line. One of the best things you can do combat that fear is learn and understand what's going on. It eliminates the guessing game of "what could it possibly be" and keeps you jumping to the worst case scenario.

Without knowledge of what is going on in your body, you could lay there in pain for days with no relief, or be stuck popping pills all the time which is not ideal. Researching your symptoms and understanding common pregnancy ailments can help you know how to relieve them. Sometimes there is relief, you aren't just stuck with your suffering. 

Doing research can also help you prepare for things to come. During pregnancy things are changing literally every day. If we can stay ahead of the game by knowing what might be coming we can anticipate and plan better which will relieve a lot of the stress on our mind and body, as well as produce better outcomes. A lot of women use the knowledge of postpartum recover to prepare things that will make that time easier for them. Knowing what's coming can also help prepare you mentally so if something happens you aren't caught off guard. 

Research can make your life a lot easier, and there is so much available to us! With Google, Pinterest, and YouTube to help us we can get all the information we need to help us get through this pregnancy. Though, it is important when you are doing research to check many places and sources and take the average of the information you get. This will help you have the most accurate and reliable information available to you. 

Limit Stress

I'm sure you'll hear this all over the place, and you'll probably be thinking "easier said than done". I honestly think that stress and fear is one of our biggest enemies. They cause our body to panic and keeps it from doing things it should be. It can wreak havoc on our bodies in so many ways. If we can avoid it especially during pregnancy especially we will save ourselves a lot of body and heartache. 

Of course we can only do our best to avoid stress, but here are some things that might help. Exercising is known to reduce stress and promote a positive mood. I love doing yoga because it also helps you to learn to meditate and clear your mind of thoughts that are plaguing you. If you can learn to control your thoughts then you can keep negative and worrying thoughts away. If there's a certain idea or thought that keeps worrying you then positive affirmations might help you to work through it. Getting enough rest is another important one. One that I think is often overlooked is having a good support system and spending time with people. We need people, even introverts. Spending time with people is so good for our mental state. So try to get together with people as much as you can and find a good support group. Its a good idea also to have something meaningful to keep you busy. Maybe you're still working, but if you find your stuck at home a lot with nothing to do then find a hobby, somewhere to volunteer, or something to do to help you feel purposeful. Do something you love. 

As I mentioned in the last section researching and learning can help reduce some of the stress and anxiety of not knowing what's going on. A lot of our stress comes from worrying about things we can't control. If we learn about what's going on we can feel less stressed. If you're experiencing a symptom that is worrying you research it or contact your doctor. If they tell you not to worry and it's not a problem, the do your best to let it go. Its easy to worry about things that could happen to your baby. I recently felt very overwhelmed and worried that in my anatomy scan we would find something wrong with the baby. Then a thought occurred to me, there are so many people we interact with on a daily basis, think about how many of them have birth defects. The likelihood of something happening is so small. Of course it isn't impossible and unfortunately it does still happen to people, but there is really no use worrying about it with how unlikely your chances are and the fact that you can't do anything about it. 

If you find you're having a lot of stress and anxiety and the things I mentioned above aren't helping then consider seeing a therapist. You don't need to have a chemical or chronic illness to see a therapist, they can help you work through your thoughts and give you tools to help you feel better. 

Stress is such an underrated difficulty that plagues all of us. Most of our stress comes from our thoughts so if we can learn to manage our thoughts that will help a lot, the things I mentioned above can help us physically and mentally to overcome our stress. Just try not to let fears and worries get to you. If something is worrying you do you best to work through it, either through debunking it or removing it from your mind. 

Be Active

Between feeling tired, sick, sore, and all the other things we deal with during pregnancy being active may be the last thing on our list. Doing some form of exercise is very strongly recommended by doctors especially during pregnancy. Pregnancy can be hard on our bodies, and birth is even harder. Exercising can strengthen and prepare our bodies for the stress pregnancy puts on it. I've heard labor and delivery likened to running a marathon with how hard it is on your body. Just like you prepare for a marathon you need to prepare for birth. 

Doctors advise not to pick up a strenuous exercise regiment when you get pregnancy because it can put strain on your body, but if you were exercising before you got pregnant you can keep up the same routine you had before. If you didn't exercise before pregnancy, it is still a good idea to start, just start with something gentle and mild, like beginner yoga or walking. 

I've been following a yoga routine by Harlows Earth on YouTube, and its awesome because it follows your pregnancy week by week, giving you a new routine every week that accommodates your growing belly and the symptoms you might be experiencing. I've never been very active, but this routine has helped me become strong and feel good as my body changes. It has helped limit my stress, make me happy, and is helping me to prepare for labor through certain positions and stretches. It starts you out gentle with breathing exercised which as super important all throughout pregnancy and especially during labor.

Feed Your Body Right

You body is supplying your baby with the nutrients it needs, so make sure you're providing your body with sufficient nourishment. A good prenatal vitamin is important. Try to avoid gummy vitamins, they aren't as good as a capsule would be. If you can get one with choline, Ritual has a prenatal with choline it in, or you can just take it separate in a liver supplement. Its super good for your baby's brain and there are studies that show that can impact how intelligent your child will be. It can be found naturally in liver and eggs. The Hey Mami podcast has an episode all about choline and choosing a prenatal vitamin.

Watching your sugar intake is also a good idea during pregnancy (well, its good all the time). You're more at risk for gestational diabetes so the amount of sugar you used to consume might be too much for you now. Plus, sugar can aggravate some of the symptoms you are experiencing like fatigue and headaches. I watched an amazing TED Talk that talked about the affects of sugar on our body, it honestly changed my life. In pregnancy especially breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we haven't eaten in hours and our bodies need the nutrients then most of all. If you think about the average American breakfast its full of sugar and simple carbs (sugar), even things we consider to be healthy like granola, yogurt, and oatmeal are usually full of sugar. So I've started eating eggs every day for breakfast. Making scrambled eggs is just as fast and easy as making oatmeal or pouring a bowl of cereal, but you stay full longer and they are a super food because they're so full of nutrients.  

I think that it's also a good idea to listen to your cravings! A lot of the time what you crave is your body telling you it needs something. A lot of women crave meat or milk because of the nutrients. Just be careful you aren't following a craving for something you shouldn't have. For example for women crave laundry soap or things like that, it may be that your body is in need of something found in it, so if you can figure out what is in it that you might craving then find something eatable that contains it. Please don't ever eat anything toxic! Also, if you're craving sugar try drinking some water or eating something with protein instead, it might just be your body telling you its hungry or thirsty. 

Lastly, drink plenty of water! You should be drinking at least 64oz of water daily. 

Watch Your Posture

How you sit, stand, and sleep can have a huge affect on your wellbeing. As I mentioned earlier having good posture has helped me manage my back pain. If you feel you need extra support there are products that can help, such as pregnancy pillows and back support for office chairs. 

Another reason your posture is important is that leaning back and slouching too much can lead to "back labor" when you deliver the baby. Back labor when the baby's spine is up against your spine so you feel a lot of the pain of labor in your back, which is said to be more painful. If you have good posture and try to spend time leaning forward gravity will keep your baby near the front of your belly rather than the back. So during times when you're sitting or resting try to either have really good straight posture or lean forward over a pillow or on a yoga ball. 

I'll come back and update this as I learn more so stay tuned! Let me know if you have any tips I should try or add to the list!