A new decade is just a few days away! In the spirit of a new decade, a new year and new connections, Sherry Anshara of QuantumPathic Center of Consciousness gives us a glimpse into the impact of connecting with our children from the very beginning…

The joy of pregnancy is deeper for mothers and fathers, when they allow themselves to still their minds and mindfully connect to their babies as the babies experience their nine month journey of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional evolution. Parents and babies have the extraordinary opportunity to know each other at the deepest levels of awareness from inception, to connect with each other at that pure cellular level of unconditional love. The new children, sometimes identified as Indigo and Crystal Children, bring to the Earth, a clearer awareness of who they are and their purpose.

Parents who are blessed with these children have unlimited opportunities to learn from them. Keep them chemical free, nurture them with healthy foods and love them unconditionally. Keep in mind that a healthy parent/child relationship begins from inception at the cellular level. Be open…while pregnant talk about yourselves to the baby, sing your favorite songs and play music for the baby. The baby will respond as you create healthy memories right from the womb. Through each stage of the baby’s nine month development, you have the opportunity to create a healthy conscious relationship with the baby right from the very beginning of his or her life.

Medical intuitive Sherry Anshara is founder of her Scottsdale, Arizona-based QuantumPathic^® Center of Consciousness, developer of the QuantumPathic Energy Method®, and teacher/developer of the Intuitive Powers/Practical Applications courses. In her private practice she teaches individuals, couples and families locally, nationally and internationally how to connect to their cellular memory by using their intuition to consciously create their lives. For more information visit Sherry’s web site at www.quantumpathic.com.

Follow Myryka as she teaches the sexiest moves for staying fit. Pregnant or not, these moves will deliver!

The term “Belly Dance” originated with Napoleon’s soldiers who were most likely the first Europeans to see the dance ritual. They labeled it “Danse du Ventre”, which is French for “Dance of the Stomach”.  Sacred dancing featured the abdomen, the source of the Goddesses’ fertility.  It is believed that belly dance was used to help pregnant women through the birth process. The mother-to-be was surrounded by concentric circles of women who danced with repeated abdominal movements while the woman gave birth. Sometimes the mother-to-be would dance with them as the movements relaxed her muscles and increased the flexibility of her hips and eased labor pains.

Belly Dancing reduces stress, increases energy and flexibility and improves strength, posture, muscle tone and coordination. It has been said that it heals and balances the body, mind and spirit all at once. Belly dancing can also burn as many calories as power-walking or riding a bike.  It’s a great way be creative and expressive.

This video provides advice on exercise and fitness. Amon Maternity encourages you to consult your physician prior to engaging in any of the activities or exercises presented on this website.

Myryka Nunya won the 2006 Bellydancer of the Universe People’s Choice & Congeniality Awards. She began her career as a showgirl at the age of 18 at Bally’s Jubilee, and quickly went on to work in shows at The Flamingo, Stratasphere, & Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  Myryka teaches pre-natal belly dance classes in Scottsdale, AZ.  More information can be found on her website www.myryka.com.

The experts say that sleep is very important during pregnancy.  Your body is creating another human being…you should be tired.  However, the aches, pains, and discomfort of pregnancy can rob you of that precious commodity.  There’s no sure fire way to be certain you will get 12 hours of beauty rest each night but here are three ways to make sleep come a little easier during your 40 weeks of baby-making.

1.  Be hydrated.  Pregnant women need to drink lots of water as they are prone to dehydration, especially if they are active that day.  They lose 2-3 quarts of water each day through perspiration and urination.  Also, during pregnancy there is about one quart of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby and your body completely replaces that fluid every two to three hours! So drink up! However, cut off liquids close to bedtime to minimize the number of time you will need to go to the bathroom during the night.

2.  Be supported.  Finding a comfortable position in bed is not easy when you’re pregnant.  Laying on your left side is what most experts recommend to allow for the best blood flow to the baby, your uterus, and kidneys.  Buying a good pregnancy pillow will help with this.  The Utterly Yours pregnancy pillow is a great option for sleep support for pregnant women.  It costs from $39.95 to $54.95 depending on size and can be bought on line.  (Author’s note:  After surrounding myself with all sorts of pillows for my first two pregnancies, I finally tried out a new pregnancy pillow from Utterly Yours.  I love it!  It supports both my back and my stomach and I wake up feeling more rested.  Why didn’t I have this before?  I highly recommend it for all pregnant moms.)

3.  Be comfortable.  Start a bedtime routine. (You will do this for your child soon enough so why not start with you?)  Make it consistent and soothing like a warm shower, a foot massage, or a cup of decaffeinated tea to help you relax and ease into sleep each night.  Having a supportive sleep bra or nightgown with shelf bra helps to avoid the breast soreness you may feel as your pregnancy progresses.  Comfortable panties is also a must.  A favorite is Amon Maternity’s “skivvies” boy shorts which can be bought on line.  They help relieve the lower back pain caused by a growing belly.  They are slimming under evening clothes and are great for working out too.  They are non-binding and supportive.  There’s nothing worse then trying to sleep with elastic digging into your legs and stomach.  Plus, it may sound unbelievable but they are actually pretty sexy, especially in black.

Article by Maria Smith, Atlanta Stay-at-Home Moms Examiner

You can apply firm pressure with the thumbs to stimulate the self adjusting and healing mechanisms of the body. There are different pressure points that can be used during labor for baby rotation or descent, to speed up stalled labor, against nausea etc.

The Inner Gate point can alleviate nausea during labor or also helps when you experience morning sickness during the pregnancy.

The point is located on the inside of the wrist, three finger widths below the wrist line on the hollow between the two bones of the forearm. Take your thumb and index or middle finger and press firmly on the points on both sides of the wrist when you feel nauseous.

You can also purchase or make your own wristband that applies pressure to the correct spot. They usually have a knob or flat button positioned over the acupressure point. You might feel relief as soon as you put it on, but after your body grows accustomed to the pressure, you’ll need to press down on the acupressure point for extra relief.

Greta Sprenkeling of AZ BirthConnection, LLC is a certified doula, prenatal massage therapist and pregnancy yoga instructor. Since 1995 she has supported over 300 families to have a healthy pregnancy, better birth and easy recovery. Learn more about Greta by visiting her website www.superdoula.com.

Water is the essence of life and is needed by every cell in the body. It is the main ingredient for all body fluids including the blood and lymph.

Knowing that, it makes sense to understand that water is required for circulation and the all important elimination of wastes from the body. Drinking enough water makes a huge impact on sluggish circulation and bowels with almost immediate effects, especially during pregnancy. Dehydration causes stress on the body, so sip water daily trying to get two liters every day. Recommended book: Your Body’s Many Cries for Water by Fereydoon Batmanghelidj.

Heidi Golden’s career began in 1994 and she prides herself in giving attention to each client’s individual needs, working with them to provide the most beneficial massage & home protocol recommendations at each visit. Heidi is currently working with Macrotherapy of Scottsdale, under which she is working with microcurrent therapy for post surgical massage & adhesions. Heidi’s hobbies include essential oils, mineral & crystal collecting & designing. She incorporates her hobbies into her massage practice.

Are you experiencing back pain? This week the Get Comfortable video takes us inside the Prenatal Yoga Center (oh yes! a yoga studio specifically devoted to pregnant women). Debra Flashenberg, Founder of Prenatal Yoga Studio in Manhattan teaches us simple moves to improve our health. Now we can all look and feel as fabulous as the expecting moms of NYC!

Whether your pregnant or not, take a peek and don’t be afraid to cat/cow. Instant back relief DELIVERED.

Watch

ALLEVIATING BACK PAIN WITH PRENATAL YOGA. The Prenatal Yoga is the first yoga center in New York City to focus on moms and moms-to-be. Over the past 7 years, over 6,000 women have come through their door to take classes and workshops. For more information or to contact The Prenatal Yoga Center please visit http://www.prenatalyogacenter.com.

Tasha Mulligan, a physical therapist and athletic trainer, often get the question from young moms -- some pregnant, some who have young babies or toddlers: “What is up with this pee thing? Why am I wetting my pants now when I cough, and when I have to run after my little one, there is no way I can hold it. What is going on with my body?”  The “pee thing” can be a bit alarming, but understanding why it’s all happening always helps.

Visualize our pelvic floor as a very thin, muscular tissue that has the responsibility of controlling the passage of solids, liquids, and air from our body, as well as holding up our bowel, bladder, and uterus. This can help us understand how this muscle can have some difficulty doing all it’s supposed to do as the weight and size of our uterus increases throughout pregnancy. Incontinence reaches its peak in the third trimester, when the uterus grows most rapidly. So this gives us insight into why we leak during pregnancy, but what about those of us who delivered months or years ago?  Why are we still leaking? The answer is that our pelvic floor muscles were stretched beyond their limit, damaging the muscle tissue. When this occurs, there is no guarantee that our muscles will just bounce back on their own and resume normal muscle firing and coordination. Just like after knee surgery, we have to do exercises to ensure that our quadricep muscle will fire again and resume normal strength, we should also exercise our pelvic floors after the trauma of pregnancy and delivery to get our pelvic floor to keep us continent and “supported.” Hopefully that answers the “why” and now I want to give you some direction toward a solution.

I am a mother of three and a physical therapist who feels there are a few missing links of information when it comes to dealing with symptoms of incontinence.  First of all, women need to know that they can rehabilitate and strengthen their pelvic floor because, most often, this is a muscular issue!  And second, women need to learn how to do it.  The bottom line is, you simply have to do more than Kegel exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor.

Did you know that our pelvic floor muscles not only tighten as if to stop the flow of urine, but they also elevate to give better support to our bowel, bladder, and uterus? It is this elevation of our pelvic floor that most women don’t get. In order to achieve optimal pelvic floor contraction, you have to perform both actions. Beyond these two actions of the pelvic floor, there are also several other muscles that enclose the front, back, and sides of our abdomen, what I refer to as our “abdominal basket”. These muscles work in a coordinated fashion with our pelvic floor muscles to enhance their contraction, so working your entire abdominal basket is the final key to regaining control of that “pee thing.”

Tasha Mulligan is an experienced physical therapist and athletic trainer as well as a mother of three. She has both personal and professional familiarity with the symptoms of a weakened pelvic floor, so she knows firsthand the embarrassment, confusion, fear, and frustration you may be facing. She found that good information is not easily accessible to people at large and therefore many women are willing to accept the changes occurring with their body and the restraints on their activity level. To learn more and purchase the DVD go to www.hab-it.com.

Dr. Cathleen Harris shares her expertise:

If you’re 35 or older and you’re thinking about having a baby or maybe you just found out that you’re pregnant, you may be excited, but a little nervous too.  Some women wonder—could I be too old for a healthy pregnancy?

The good news is that most women over 35 can have successful, healthy pregnancies.  We believe that a skilled prenatal care team along with your commitment can result in a healthy baby and a healthy you!

There are some important things to know about:

• Women can take longer to become pregnant, and their risk of miscarriage is somewhat higher.  It’s important to take folic acid prior to conceiving, and to seek early prenatal care to confirm a viable pregnancy.
• Due to natural hormonal influences or fertility treatments, the rate of multiple pregnancies is higher in this group, so it is especially important to determine the number of babies at your initial visit.
• A detailed fetal anatomy ultrasound is routinely done in the midtrimester to ensure that the fetus and placenta are developing properly.
• Women have a number of options for genetic screening or prenatal diagnosis, since the risk of chromosome abnormalities (such as Down Syndrome) is higher in this age group.  Speak with your doctor about the risks and benefits of the various available tests.
• We check women periodically for signs of gestational diabetes and for preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related high blood pressure disorder, and watch for signs of premature labor.   Cesarean delivery is more common as well; your doctor may advise you regarding situations in which cesarean is recommended.

With a few precautions, the outlook for healthy moms and babies is excellent, and we encourage you to speak with your health care provider about plans for a pregnancy to learn more.  So we say--NO, you’re not too old to have a baby!

Cathleen Harris is the co-founder of AMOMI Pregnancy Wellness ~ Spa and Scottsdale Perinatal Associates. Dr. Harris received her medical degree at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. Along with her expertise in managing high-risk pregnancies, Dr. Harris is also highly knowledgeable in the area of traveler’s health and public health issues affecting pregnant women. She has served as the Medical Director of the Women’s HIV Program at the University of Chicago and worked internationally in Lithuania, Latvia, Kosovo and Peru. Dr. Harris is the Director of Ultrasound and Prenatal Diagnosis for Scottsdale Perinatal Associates. For more information on AMOMI Pregnancy Wellness ~ Spa, please visit www.amomispa.com.

During pregnancy, could your thoughts and feelings be communicating with your baby? What types of connections are made before the baby is born? Sherry Anshara shares her “ipod” metaphor in the following video and article:

The joy of pregnancy is deeper for mothers and fathers, when they allow themselves to still their minds and mindfully connect to their babies as the babies experience their nine month journey of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional evolution. Parents and babies have the extraordinary opportunity to know each other at the deepest levels of awareness from inception, to connect with each other at that pure cellular level of unconditional love. The new children, sometimes identified as Indigo and Crystal Children, bring to the Earth, a clearer awareness of who they are and their purpose.

Parents who are blessed with these children have unlimited opportunities to learn from them. Keep them chemical free, nurture them with healthy foods and love them unconditionally. Keep in mind that a healthy parent/child relationship begins from inception at the cellular level. Be open…while pregnant talk about yourselves to the baby, sing your favorite songs and play music for the baby. The baby will respond as you create healthy memories right from the womb. Through each stage of the baby’s nine month development, you have the opportunity to create a healthy conscious relationship with the baby right from the very beginning of his or her life.

Medical intuitive Sherry Anshara is founder of her Scottsdale, Arizona-based QuantumPathic^® Center of Consciousness, developer of the QuantumPathic Energy Method®, and teacher/developer of the Intuitive Powers/Practical Applications courses. In her private practice she teaches individuals, couples and families locally, nationally and internationally how to connect to their cellular memory by using their intuition to consciously create their lives. For more information visit Sherry’s web site at www.quantumpathic.com.

What comes to mind when you hear a ” Bundle of Joy?” A precious little newborn perfectly wrapped in a cozy blanket? In an effort to help you and baby Get Comfortable, presented below is Swaddling. Learn why mothers for centuries have wrapped their babies as well as how to swaddle your baby from doula, Forrest Redford-Burke.

Swaddling is an incredible tool to help your baby sleep better and therefore help you sleep better. It can keep him from being disturbed by his own startle reflex and most importantly, it can help to calm your baby. It is thought that being tightly wrapped gives a feeling of security, similar to being in the womb.

Use a blanket that is large enough and with a little stretch. To swaddle your baby, lay the blanket on a flat surface and position him with his head across the corner. Wrap snugly from one corner side around and under the baby. Wrap the other side around and tuck. Swaddling can generally be used for the first six weeks of life but it depends on your baby.

Forrest Anee Redford-Burke is a Doula: a birth and postpartum assistant, educator, and companion. She made a choice to pursue her certification through both Doulas of North America and the Childbirth and Postpartum Association because she feels passionate about mother, babies, and families getting the optimum support during this very special time in their lives. She believes that it is her job to help families thrive and not just survive and has dedicated her life to this purpose. Every mother deserves the perfect support she needs to have her baby through and into loving empowerment. Start your new life with your precious newborn with all the loving support you deserve. For more information, visit www.motherdivinedoula.com.