Hi Everyone! I hope you’re all having a wonderful day! I have a special guest blogger with a very interesting topic doing a guest post for me today. Katie blogs over at Moore from Katie where she discusses the topics of motherhood, children, fitness, health and all other things Mommy. She enjoys writing, blogging, and meeting new people.
Natural Ways to Have a Healthy Pregnancy
Whether you are pregnant for the first time or giving birth yet again, you want to have a healthy baby. Right now, your baby relies on you and your body to provide the best environment possible for healthy growth. Women have been giving birth to healthy babies for thousands of years. Clearly, Mother Nature knows how to make this happen. Since everything in your environment while you are pregnant will affect your unborn child, consider turning toward nature to make healthy changes for both you and your baby.
Natural Nutrition
During pregnancy, you are actively nourishing your baby with every bite you take. If you are deficient in essential vitamins and other nutrients, your baby will be as well, so it is important to get a healthy, well-balanced diet. Consuming a lot of processed foods and refined sugar actually leaches important nutrients away from your body and your baby.
In order to get everything your body needs, be sure to eat a wide variety of foods. One good indicator that you are getting the nutrients that both you and your baby need is the colors on your plate. I like to start with a colorful salad including nutrient-rich beets and some carrots. Add a little spinach next. At dinnertime, feel free to pile your plate with delicious red-skinned potatoes, steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus and some fresh, raw veggies such as bell peppers in a variety of colors. If you are a meat eater, select a well-cooked cut of chicken or turkey raised without antibiotics or growth hormones.
Nature provides a wealth of wonderful raw foods. Fruits like pomegranates, pineapples, apples, berries, melons and oranges offer a rainbow of healthy nutrients to you and your baby. These fresh, raw vegetables make great snacks anytime. Raw almonds are also a powerhouse of nutrients that you can easily keep in your purse or desk drawer for anytime the munchies strike. Raw foods provide nutrients that your body can easily access and that are often missing from cooked or processed foods.
Natural Environment
Many products in your environment are less than healthy for you and your baby. A lot of the things we use to keep our homes clean can cause threats to little ones. While you know that you need to be careful to keep things like bleach, laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaners out of reach of little fingers once your baby is born, did you also realize that as many as 30 percent of the ingredients used to create cleaning products with a fragrance can be toxic to you?
The good news is that there are many effective and inexpensive alternatives to dangerous cleaning products. To start, get rid of any cleaning product you can smell, except for vinegar. Replace heavily fragranced laundry detergent and fabric softeners with fragrance-free alternatives. Use natural products such as vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice to replace other all-purpose cleaners. If you wish to purchase natural cleaners, look for specifics on labels. European standards for eco-friendly cleaners are much more stringent than U.S. standards, so you can better trust products that meet European standards.
Remember that “natural” is not the same as “non-toxic.” If you have any questions about the safety of any product, you can check with your doctor or do some research yourself. Be particularly careful to avoid any cleaning product or chemical that includes diethanolamine (DEA) or triethanolamine (TEA) as they can react with nitrates to form carcinogens that easily penetrate the skin. Even if you find some great natural products to use, be sure that by the time your baby arrives you have properly stored these items away from little hands and mouths.
As you prepare to bring a new life into the world, many things are vying for your attention. The amount of information available on what you should & should not do is overwhelming as well. I always turned to my doctor with my questions; from cloth diapers to cord blood banking, you should understand all of your options as a mother. When you focus on having a natural pregnancy, you are giving Mother Nature a chance to accomplish the beautiful miracles of life in the healthiest means possible. When the food you eat and the air you breathe are full of nature’s goodness, you and your baby will certainly feel the positive results.
Katie Moore has written and submitted this article. Katie is an active blogger who discusses the topics of, motherhood, children, fitness, health and all other things Mommy. She enjoys writing, blogging, and meeting new people! To connect with Katie contact her via her blog, Moore From Katieor her twitter, @moorekm26
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