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Just remember to breathe…Pregnancy Week 33

Posted on by Posted in health, holistic, motivational, pregnancy, relaxation, week by week pregnancy tips Leave a comment

Breathing is both a voluntary and involuntary action.

We can control our heart rate, our blood pressure and our pain thresholds. Practice the art of breathing in and up, out and down. You’ll be amazed at how much that simple action allows you to focus and listen to your body, and your baby.

A quick revisit on the Reverse Pattern Breathing we discussed in Week 13 (link back to post)

Sit up straight for the moment, so you can really feel your body following the movements. The mantra, or phrasing you want to hold in your mind, is “In and up, out and down.” You’re going to breathe in, pulling your navel into your spine. And up, allowing your lungs to expand and fill with air.

  1. Breathing out, reverse it. Allow your lungs to collapse and your belly to round.
  2. Slow and steady. Repeat it at least three times to start and work yourself up to using it as part of your relaxation sessions. That’s all there is to it! Yoga and Qi Gong will teach you alternate patterns to focus your attention as well. I find this one works for me no matter where I am. If I focus my attention on breathing in this manner, I can control my blood pressure at the doctor’s office or even calm myself before stepping in front of a large group of people to give a lecture.

Insert video example?

Whatever birthing class you’re taking or have taken, remember the simple art of breathing can make your body relax, your heart rate even out, lower your blood pressure, and help to keep the baby relaxed too.

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Your Baby’s Optimal Position for Birth

Posted on by Posted in fitness, health, holistic, pregnancy 2 Comments

From the 34th week of pregnancy and onward,  your own postural awareness and habits can potentially encourage your baby to lie with his or her back to your left front/side (occipital anterior) so that the baby’s head engages in the pelvic brim in this position.  This will increase the potential for a normal and straightforward birth.

A baby who is already lying the other way, with spine against your spine and facing forward (occipital posterior  or “sunny side up”) can be encouraged to rotate to the anterior position in late pregnancy or during early established labor.

A few babies will remain posterior and this may not be a problem. However, because of the extra rotation needed, it can mean a longer labor and complications do sometimes occur with posterior births (i.e., prolonged latent phase (early labor), slow progress in active labor, prolonged second stage.)  It is worth doing your best to encourage your baby into the optimal position.

How to help your baby into an anterior position:

Use upright, forward leaning postures regularly. This allows more available space in the abdomen for your baby to rotate spine to the front. Be on your hands and knees now and then, swinging your hips (pelvic rock exercise.) You can do 100 pelvic rocks on hands and knees, several times a day (100 pelvic rocks takes about 1 ½ minutes). Pelvic rocks are a quick rocking motion of the pelvis, without much arching or movement of the back.

 You can encourage your baby to take up an anterior position by making sure that your knees are always lower than your hips with your back vertical. Do this by using 2 or 3 cushions to sit on and another one in the small of your back, if necessary. Sit like this to read on a dining chair, with your elbows resting on the table, knees apart, leaning slightly forward.  Sitting on a birthing ball is another idea.

  • Sit on a cushion in your car to lift your bottom up and to prevent the pelvis tipping backwards.
  • Check that your favorite chair doesn’t make your bottom go down and your knees come up
  • Kneel on the floor leaning over a large beanbag, birth ball or floor cushion to watch TV.
  • Assume a knee-chest position (knees, head and chest on the bed, with buttocks up in the air) for 20 minutes, three times a day.
  • Sit your partner in a chair, kneel on the floor knees apart, and lean on his thighs
  • Hang onto something with arms well above waist height (e.g., your partner’s shoulders) and let your body sag from time to time, turning your knees outward.
  • Swim with abdomen forward (avoid breaststroke- the kick can potentially strain the softened pelvic ligaments).
  • Scrub all your floors and skirting boards! – Our grandmas used to say that washing the kitchen floor was a good way of preparing for labor. When you are on all fours, the back of your baby’s head swings to the front of your abdomen.
  • Take regular breaks and move around if your job involves a lot of sitting.
  • Lay the majority of the time on your left side, with a pillow or two supporting the top knee to rest or sleep (roll over almost on the stomach, left arm behind back, right leg bent and proper on a pillow, left leg straight). However, you do need to turn onto your right side sometimes too.
  • It is ideal to use forward leaning postures when having Braxton Hicks contractions as this increases their effectiveness with regard to helping the baby to maneuver into the optimal position.

 Positions to AVOID:

  • Avoid ALL RECLINING POSITIONS, which encourage the baby to flop onto its back. These tip the pelvis back with knees higher than the hips so that gravity will encourage the baby’s spine posterior. Instead, relax in forward leaning positions.
  • Do not take long trips in cars with bucket seats (these tip the pelvis back). If you must, use wedge cushion to prevent the pelvis from tipping backwards.

Angel J. Miller, MSN, CNM

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Alternative Medicine Help for Seasonal Allergies

Posted on by Posted in holistic 5 Comments

 

presented by Angel J. Miller, MSN, CNM
 
Already the impending doom of scratchy throats, runny itchy noses, water eyes and chronic congestion are slowly setting in amongst many of us. Have no fear though, I have put together a basic plan to help avoid if not reduce the use of allergy medicines that tend to leave us feeling drowsy and groggy.
Having an alternative medicine plan in store before allergy season sets in full force will save you time, medication, and misery in the long run.
First I will be discussing how to get your body in optimal conditioning to cope with allergy season, and then I will discuss specific natural medicines that will help support your immune system to reduce the overall severity of seasonal allergies. If you always tend to be “sick” the months of March, April, May and September you more likely have seasonal allergies than a bad cold.
Now is a great time to do a SPRING CLEANING. Having a healthy liver aids the detoxification of histamine, that nasty molecule that gives us the irritating symptoms of allergies.
Seventy percent of our immune system smartly surrounds our gut and is formally known as GALT “Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue”. If the immune system is already stressed from reacting improperly to foods it will affect the body’s ability to cope with the added burden of seasonal allergies.
The take home message is to just cut back on wheat and dairy during allergy season as they are the typical “worst offenders” for most. Citrus, peanuts, corn, soy, tomatoes, red meat, sugar and processed foods seem to also cause trouble for those with seasonal allergies. Before allergy season starts is a great time to do an ALLERGY ELIMINATION DIET, or simply reduce those foods that you already are aware make you more congested or symptomatic during this time.
Foods as medicine: Increase onions and garlic for quercetin and sulfur levels. Eat Alaskan Wild salmon as often as possible( accept during pregnancy, must liimit salmon to monthly because of mercury content) for the anti-inflammatory benefits of the Omega 3’s and increase green leafy vegetables as much as possible to aid the livers role in the detoxification of histamine. Switch to a Whole Foods Diet.
According to Chinese Medicine Theory people have allergies because they are “living too far away from the earth”. Now I doubt they mean that you are living on Jupiter, I am most certain they are referring to a diet high in preservatives and white flours, over-processed refined foods and artificial sweeteners and other chemicals.
Quercetin: Stabilizes the “Mast Cells” of our immune system and prevents their cell membranes from degranulating and releasing histamine in to the system. Histamine is what makes us cough, sneeze, itch and have watery eyes. Typically two 500mg capsules twice daily is a sufficient dose.
Severe allergy sufferers also run quercetin in their Neti Pot to reduce the inflammation of the nasal membranes. Quercetin is a relatively benign substance that can be used in higher doses if need be, just check with your Naturopathic Physician before doing so.

Vitamin C: Supports the immune system and the functioning of quercetin. Typical dose is 500mg three times daily. You can also take it to bowel tolerance when sick or excessively symptomatic.

Freeze Dried Nettles Leaf: Has been shown to be extremely helpful during allergy season. Typical dose is two 500 mg capsules twice daily. Nettles are a nutritive “food” that will build the body up. Using foods as medicines is always optimal to prescribing antihistamines. If need be you can take up to 4 grams of nettles which is equivalent to eight 500mg capsules! I am not recommending taking that many capsules; I am simply trying to demonstrate how safe nettles are as an herbal medicine.

Research has also shown nettles to be helpful for osteoarthritis, myalgia, detoxification and eczema. If you choose to make a tea from the fresh plant, be sure to wear gloves when harvesting so as not to get stung! The leaves are the medicine in this case; the root of this plant is used for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Nettle is not to be used by those on anti-coagulant “blood thinning” drugs.

Neti Pot: Doing a couple solid Neti Pot sessions a day is one of the best, cheapest remedies for seasonal allergy sufferers that tend to frequently develop sinus infections. The gentle saline flush of the nasal passages has a three fold benefit. First we are tonifying the mucous membranes that line the passages, second we are washing out residual phlegm (aka-snot- aka the breeding ground for bacteria and viruses that cause sinus infections).

As an added bonus during allergy season you are flushing out the pollens formally known as “antigens” that are causing our immune systems to over react and produce sneezing, itching and watery eyes. Plan to do two Neti pots a day so that you will at least remember to do one. Be sure to check with your doctor before treating yourself with home remedies especially if you are taking medications or suffer from a health condition.

Household: You may want to consider investing in a HEPA air filter to reduce the total level of allergens you are exposed to in your home. Also, when returning home for the day be sure to take off your shoes so you don’t track the pollen throughout your house. Shower and change your clothes after going outside, if that is not an option, at least try to rinse off your hands and face to remove as much pollen as possible.

So there you have the basics to get started. Stay tuned seasonal allergy sufferers spring has hit and I will be walking everyone through how to naturally cope with allergies and their concomitant annoying friends “acute and chronic sinusitis”. Feel free to leave your allergy season questions in the comments and I will briefly answer them or post a formal answer in an upcoming blog article!

~Dr. Nicole

Author: Dr. Nicole Sundene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One of the Most Valuable Skills: Self Hypnosis/Relaxation

Posted on by Posted in holistic, hypnosis, relaxation Leave a comment

You’re going to be a mom soon, or you already are. One of the most valuable skills I think Mother’s should work on is the art of relaxation. You’ll hear it called by many names: relaxation, meditation, hypnosis. Whatever YOU choose to call it, it is a skill that will serve you well.

While I help my clients with any issues they’d like to tackle, I find I have the most success using my voice for my own sessions. And honestly, I think others have more success using THEIR voices for themselves as well. But, not many are comfortable or even know where to start. Since it can be a unique challenge, I thought it would be good to give a quick process to help you on your journey of making your OWN self hypnosis recording. This week, we’ll focus on Step 1.

Step 1: Learn to Relax

For hypnosis to work, really work, you need to learn to relax yourself down without falling asleep. While I believe you still receive benefits from listening to suggestions in sleep, I find they sink in much faster if you’re able to get yourself to a heightened state of awareness – aware, but completely happy with everything and everyone.

I have found, for most people, a simple technique of walking your body down to relaxation works the best. This simply means starting with your head, moving down your body and naming each body part and asking it to relax. An example of this:

Continuing lower now, it begins to touch your forehead, and as it does, I want you to feel all the little frown lines, all the little worry lines in your forehead, just seem to disappear. The forehead smoothes out, feels so relaxed, and you feel this relaxing light coming around your eyes. Now, your eyelids seem to become very, very, heavy, so heavy they don’t even seem to want to open. They may flutter a little bit, but that’s ok, just feel how heavy they are – and as the relaxation comes down around the facial muscles now, all the little muscles in the face just begin to relax.

Relaxation comes further down around the mouth now, and all the hundreds of little muscles around the mouth just start to relax…so much so, that the lower jaw becomes heavy and the teeth part.

You proceed this way all the way down your body.

Learning this technique without falling asleep can take you several weeks to learn. If you find yourself falling asleep, try it sitting up in a chair.

Give a shout if you’d like help in creating your own relaxation script, or if you have more questions. I always love to help!

Stacia

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Optimal Fetal Positioning for Birth

Posted on by Posted in fitness, holistic, pregnancy 14 Comments

presented by Angel J. Miller, MSN, CNM

 

From the 34th week of pregnancy and onward,  your own postural awareness and habits can potentially encourage your baby to lie with his or her back to your left front/side (occipital anterior) so that the baby’s head engages in the pelvic brim in this position.  This will increase the potential for a normal and straightforward birth.

 

A baby who is already lying the other way, with spine against your spine and facing forward (occipital posterior  or “sunny side up”) can be encouraged to rotate to the anterior position in late pregnancy or during early established labor.

 

A few babies will remain posterior and this may not be a problem. However, because of the extra rotation needed, it can mean a longer labor and complications do sometimes occur with posterior births (i.e., prolonged latent phase (early labor), slow progress in active labor, prolonged second stage.)  It is worth doing your best to encourage your baby into the optimal position.

 

How to help your baby into an anterior position:

Use upright, forward leaning postures regularly. This allows more available space in the abdomen for your baby to rotate spine to the front. Be on your hands and knees now and then, swinging your hips (pelvic rock exercise.) You can do 100 pelvic rocks on hands and knees, several times a day (100 pelvic rocks takes about 1 ½ minutes). Pelvic rocks are a quick rocking motion of the pelvis, without much arching or movement of the back.

 

 

You can encourage your baby to take up an anterior position by making sure that your knees are always lower than your hips with your back vertical. Do this by using 2 or 3 cushions to sit on and another one in the small of your back, if necessary. Sit like this to read on a dining chair, with your elbows resting on the table, knees apart, leaning slightly forward.  Sitting on a birthing ball is another idea.

 

  • Sit on a cushion in your car to lift your bottom up and to prevent the pelvis tipping backwards.
  • Check that your favorite chair doesn’t make your bottom go down and your knees come up
  • Kneel on the floor leaning over a large beanbag, birth ball or floor cushion to watch TV.
  • Assume a knee-chest position (knees, head and chest on the bed, with buttocks up in the air) for 20 minutes, three times a day.
  • Sit your partner in a chair, kneel on the floor knees apart, and lean on his thighs
  • Hang onto something with arms well above waist height (e.g., your partner’s shoulders) and let your body sag from time to time, turning your knees outward.
  • Swim with abdomen forward (avoid breaststroke- the kick can potentially strain the softened pelvic ligaments).
  • Scrub all your floors and skirting boards! – Our grandmas used to say that washing the kitchen floor was a good way of preparing for labor. When you are on all fours, the back of your baby’s head swings to the front of your abdomen.
  • Take regular breaks and move around if your job involves a lot of sitting.
  • Lay the majority of the time on your left side, with a pillow or two supporting the top knee to rest or sleep (roll over almost on the stomach, left arm behind back, right leg bent and proper on a pillow, left leg straight). However, you do need to turn onto your right side sometimes too.
  • It is ideal to use forward leaning postures when having Braxton Hicks contractions as this increases their effectiveness with regard to helping the baby to maneuver into the optimal position.

 

Positions to AVOID:

  • Avoid ALL RECLINING POSITIONS, which encourage the baby to flop onto its back. These tip the pelvis back with knees higher than the hips so that gravity will encourage the baby’s spine posterior. Instead, relax in forward leaning positions.
  • Do not take long trips in cars with bucket seats (these tip the pelvis back). If you must, use wedge cushion to prevent the pelvis from tipping backwards.pelvic-rock-position

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pelvic-rock-positions1