WEEK 24 – PREGNANCY NUTRITION & CALMBIRTH

Weekly Baby News

Baby Size: 27cm Head to Toe

Bub is still growing gradually however filling out and it should be quite easy for other loved ones to feel bub kicking or moving around also, which is quite exciting. Bub is still thin however and fragile. The vernix is still thickening for more protection and lungs producing more surfactant. From this week if bub was to come early the chances of survival with specialised care, have dramatically increased, which is a reassuring milestone to get to.

Naturopath Advice

This week it is important to ensure that you are now getting increased amounts of baby-building good fats to support the health growth and size of bub. You may wish to read up a bit more on fats and just how beneficial they are not only for baby growth, but also your health, milk development and post-natal. Also reading up the latest about good and bad fats, saturated and unsaturated. For example, we don’t cook with olive oil, as it is unsaturated and combined with heat it becomes unstable.  Therefore we cook with coconut oil, ghee or grass-fed organic butter. Leave the olive oil to be put on your food after it has been cooked.

Let’s look at our food intake over the next few weeks, I’m going to give you some examples of foods to help obtain a balanced and achievable baby-growing diet, including all those needed good fats.

Baby Growing Nutrition – BREAKFAST

See below some breakfast suggestions that you might find helpful once your appetite is back and healthy:

• Scrambled eggs, avocado, mushrooms, tomatoes

• Coconut Chia Pudding Parfait: berries, yoghurt, nuts, hemp seeds, LSA

• Sourdough toast with almond butter + 1 x Orange

• Organic Oats: soaked overnight in water, add almond milk, nuts, seeds, grated apple and cinnamon

• Poached apple or pear, topped with ricotta and walnuts

• Zucchini Frittata with pan-wilted spinach leaves

• Green Protein Smoothie or Nut Smoothie

• Fruit salad, greek yoghurt, topped with nuts

• Boiled eggs x 2, grilled asparagus

• Acai Bowls

• Homemade muesli: nuts, seeds, oats, buckwheat mixed/coated with coconut oil and cinnamon, spread on a tray and roast on low heat in oven until starts to change colour, remove and cool. Add coconut, goji berries, hemp seeds. Store in a airtight glass jar. Can have with coconut yoghurt or plain yoghurt

My Journey

This week the biggest pregnancy symptom I dealt with was ‘baby brain’. I denied this for many weeks and felt previous to being pregnant it may have just been an excuse or something everyone grabbed onto while being pregnant. However I admit my brain definitely doesn’t function as well or as quickly as it use to. I have showed up to my acupuncture appointment only for it to be all closed up, and having absolutely no idea how I got this muddled up. I also waited patiently for a client to arrive in my clinic only to go back through emails and see that they rescheduled. Then I walked past a few people that would smile at me like they knew me only for me to have absolutely no idea who they were, apologies to anyone that I did this to.

In the past when things happen, I may call them my ‘blonde moments’ seeing as I can usually figure out how I made the mistake and got confused however lately I truly can’t put it together. I have to try and think whether I made it up or dreamt it, I even have started documenting who I’ve spoken too in the day as I seriously can’t remember. I now have lists happening everywhere as there is minimal confidence in myself that I will remember to do it unless it is on the list. A good tip that I highly recommend is if you think of something to speak to your partner about at the end of the day. Just send one or two words of the topic to him/her in a text message through the day as you think of it, then upon returning home you can check your messages and viola the list of thoughts you had through the day. Unless your super tired and then you can’t remember what the one or two words were meaning haha.

We had our last day of the Calmbirth course this week and it was very informative with the different stages of labour. This was very helpful as even though I had basic knowledge, it certainly is different when you’re learning about it is for my own pregnancy and it is more REAL that I’m actually going to experience birthing a child…. Crazy! Saying this it wasn’t in a scary way, it was empowering. I feel the way the information is delivered is certainly important. I’ve heard from friends that they have had the information given and resulted in a lot of fear. Whilst in our learning through Calmbirth has left us with minimal fear. Even just the simple things like understanding what is happening with the body during the different stages, for example rather than just focusing on the pain of labour, Tracey helped to explain the uterus and what is entailed in a contraction with the different muscles, opening of cervix and structurally what is happening. From this I feel it will be helpful as I can visualise and understand what is actually happening physically and naturally rather than getting lost in my head of just ‘pain’ thoughts.

This education was also beneficial for Sheeds, going into detail of what his role as birth support/partner involved. We were able to talk further about his role and what he can do to support and how hands on he can be. By acknowledging these tools and actions has made me decrease stress around the birth also. Knowing that Sheeds will have little tasks to perform will stop me worrying about what he is doing or having to tell him what to do. Plus I feel it is important and special to have him playing an important role of the birth of his child. Things such as massage, pressure points, how to support me in positions of active birth, keeping up fluids and food when required, heat/ pack, helping remind me of visualisations or breathing techniques and standing up for our birth wishes. It has made me realise how blessed I am to have such an amazing husband that is happy to be so hands on for our birth, also that his presence is so calming, plus the love we share will help release more oxytocin and endorphins for me, which are hormones that assist labour (I’ll detail these different hormones in my 3rd Trimster). From here I will continue to focus on my active birth techniques, piece together our birth wishes and focus on our birth visualisations and affirmations. Thanks Tracey for the empowering Calmbirth course. Click here for link to Tracey’s Calmbirth information.

Yours in Health

Talita Sheedy