Studies are showing that obesity is the #1 threat for creating a healthy pregnancy!  When I read the article below, I must admit, I wasn’t surprised.  I am saddened at the way we are taking care of ourselves.  I believe part of this has to do with our lack of self love and inability to discipline ourselves because of the ease of our upbringing.  Whatever the reasons,  obesity is something that CAN be changed.  I know because I’ve lived it myself.

I believe health and nutrition during our childbearing years is VITAL to the health of our future children.  Our children are literally created from what we are made of.  Eating HIGHLY nutritive foods along with daily exercise is the ONLY way to have physical health and well being.  There is NO other way.

Through personal experience I have found the DEEP importance of taking good care of myself through nutrition and exercise during pregnancy to prevent MANY pregnancy induced complications.  In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I believe the majority of pregnancy induced complications (especially gestational diabetes) can be COMPLETELY thwarted with proper diet and exercise.  We can most DEFINITELY get rid of infant obesity by taking care of ourselves physically.
25 weeks pregnant with Mabel, our 5th child

I recently purchased and watched a movie called…“Simply Raw-Reversing Diabetes in 30 days.”  They took 7 people, who has moderate to severe diabetes and had been on insulin for years, to a raw food retreat in Arizona where each person ate only a 100% raw foods diet for 30 days.  Within 2 weeks, all but 1 person is COMPLETELY off their insulin.  Within a month, the 1 person that never fully got off his insulin, had lowered the amount he was using by more than half.  This really is a MUST SEE movie.  

I believe that pregnant women can create the SAME health changes as above.  I have worked with clients who show signs of the beginnings of preeclampsia.  By working with their diets within 1 week,  almost all of the symptoms disappear.  My clients are always surprised how quickly this works.  Its truly a gift from Mother Earth for healing.  I see it as nothing else.

My weight gain really started after my 1st son was born.  Here are a couple of pictures several months after his birth when I struggled, because of my hypothyroidism, to lose weight.  Back then I really thought I was trying to lose the weight but looking back I realize I wasn’t educating myself enough to really know what I was doing.  

(I apologize for the quality of the pictures in this post.  I am VERY technologically slow and couldn’t figure out how to make these look better after I scanned them.  So sorry!)
I’m in the brown jacket with the short hair.  I’m about 15 lbs. overweight here.

This is after I had 2 kids.  Notice I’ve put on more weight
In my pregnancy with my 1st son, I gained 50 lbs.  I ate whatever I wanted!  Chris and I would go out to eat regularly in those days and I would usually order an appetizer, my main meal, and a dessert.  It was no holds barred with my food intake and once I got pregnant, it really started to take its toll on my body.  I didn’t feel good and I definitely didn’t like the way I looked.  I carried large amounts of water retention which made life even that more miserable.

The day before I delivered out 1st son, Dean
Now, when Chris and I first met I was thin.  I weighed about 125 lbs.  I had done nothing up to that point, to take care of myself in any way.  I ate whatever I wanted with no problem keeping my weight down.  It wasn’t until I had my first son that I realized how much damage I had done by eating whatever I wanted before, during and after my pregnancy.  

Chris and I on our wedding day


About 6 months after Dean was born, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.  I had a golf ball size goiter protruding externally from my neck.  The Hasimoto’s caused hypothyroidism.  I was put on medication and told I would need to take it for the rest of my life.  (I did go on to cure my Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis with a raw foods diet.  I have been medication free for 10 years.  I was on the medication for 7 years.)

With my second son, I actually gained 60 lbs and ended up having preeclampsia or toxemia.  Because of the stress and intensity of my birth, I was determined to make the necessary changes to be able to have a healthy pregnancy with my next baby.  I read a few things which did help to avoid the preeclampsia with my 3rd pregnancy but I still gained 45 lbs. and didn’t feel as good as I would of liked throughout it.  

Just barely pregnant with our 2nd. The edema isn’t so severe yet.
Notice the swollen ankles and feet. Ouch!

Just a month or so before delivery. Notice the swollen neck and face
Not sure why I had such a BAD haircut!
It was after my 3rd child was born that I started taking educating myself somewhat on health and nutrition in pregnancy.  When she was 4 months old I ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks with a bowel torsion.  My hospital experience was traumatic enough for me to realize it was time to make some DRASTIC  life style changes for my health and the health of my future children.

A few month before getting pregnant with our 3rd daughter, Millie
Millie’s Blessing Day-a month after delivery

This is when I entered the School of Natural Healing and really started incorporating what I see as a VERY healthy vegan diet.  I started feeling MUCH better and looking better too.  I did start losing some weight because I was doing quite a few juice cleanses.  It really wasn’t until I incorporated an all raw diet that my weight totally fell off and I started feeling and looking like myself again.

Now none of my babies have been HUGE at birth.  My first son was almost 9 lbs.  But I believe had I stayed the course I was on, sure enough, I’d have larger and larger babies who would be unhealthy and really only go on to stay obese for the rest of their lives.

I do believe our babies eating patterns are set at birth.  Our limbic brain defines our food choices through what our mother ate during pregnancy BEFORE our birth.  If, as pregnant women, our diet consists of hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, diet coke…etc., these will be the foods our children crave throughout life.  

My 2 youngest, Pratt and Mabel, helping to make our morning juice

I have seen it in my own kids.  My 2 oldest kids have the WORST diets out of all my children.  They crave what I ate during pregnancy.   My last 2 children will ask me for green drinks, fruit, veggies and salads!  They will eat almost ANYTHING I put in front of them.  My other children tend to complain and request unhealthy foods.  Its actually quite interesting to watch.

It was finally when I was pregnant with my daughter, 4 years ago, that I learned how AMAZING pregnancy can be.  With my 4th son, I had a pretty WONDERFUL pregnancy and birth but my last daughter’s pregnancy really went above and beyond anything I was even expecting.  I was 34 years old during this pregnancy and felt and looked better than my 1st pregnancy when I was 21 years old. 

2 weeks before delivery with our 5th child, Mabel

I was eating a raw foods diet before, during and after my pregnancy….along with daily exercise.  (I also did a TON of emotional clearings on fear and such but that’s not the physical side of things so I won’t go into detail about that here)  I was SHOCKED at how great I felt. 


I still got my usual morning sickness but it wasn’t near as bad as it had been with my other kids.  It was over sooner than with my other children.  Plus, I was able to still exercise some during that time where in my last pregnancy, I usually took the first 3 months off from exercising because I feel so gross.

I gotta be honest here, it was A LOT of work when I was feeling sick to keep eating healthy.  I did crave a TON of garbage.  I was grateful for my years of diligence in the raw foods because it helped me to find the discipline to stay eating healthy.   But once I started feeling better and the morning sickness was gone….it really was easy!  I was actually surprised how easy it was.  

1 week before delivery of our 5th child, Mabel
I went on to have a GLORIOUS birth with her!  I did my own prenatal care and delivered her myself, catching her as she came out of me.  One of the MOST empowering moments of my life.  I took FULL responsibility for my pregnancy and birth experience.  I decided what I wanted and went for it. 

Beginnings of Active Labor with Mabel
An hour before delivery of Mabel

In relation to the article below, I believe its ridiculous to medicate women who don’t need medication.  It should ALWAYS be a concern what the long term effects of the medication will be on the unborn fetus.  I don’t believe there has been enough studies over years time to know how this medication will go on to effect the health of the children throughout his/her life.

I’m wondering what might happen if we took all the money being spend on medication for these women and spent that money on a personal trainer and a food coach.  Imagine….I can just see it now….pregnant fitness centers going up EVERYWHERE!  They walk in with their doctors orders for exercise and fresh fruits and veggies.  I LOVE IT!

The truth of the matter is that we can thwart infant obesity all through what we’re putting in our mouths.  And the funny thing is….we have a TON of information circulating the internet right now about how to eat that is TRULY healthy!  Back when I started my health quest 12 years ago, there was a decent amount of information but not like we have today.

There are dozens of free health related movies on Netflix, along with the 100’s of blog posts and studies online about health, nutrition, diet and exercise.  There really are NO excuses as to why women aren’t taking the necessary steps FOR THEIR BABIES to take care of themselves.

Please know, I don’t mean to sound harsh here.  I just have a POWERFUL belief that women are STRONG!  That women are able to make any changes that will benefit them and their babies life long health and well being.  That when women choose to find the JOY and BLISS that pregnancy offers, they will do ANYTHING to get it.

We’ve come to terms with what we think pregnancy is.  We share our stories about how awful our pregnancies and birth was and then we BELIEVE these stories enough to create the same in our own lives. We’ve become complacent in it by not moving forward through exercise and diet to be healthy and happy.  I say its time to change that!  Its time to let ourselves feel our own POWER to make change.  I promise you, you won’t regret it!  And neither will your baby!

In Peace,

Rachel

 

Unborn Babies Treated for Obesity in Womb

By Lisa Collier Cool
Apr 02, 2012

Day in Health

In a controversial world first, babies are being medicated in the womb in an effort to prevent them from being born obese. Dangerously overweight moms-to-be in four British cities have started taking a diabetes drug during pregnancy to trim their risk for giving birth to an overweight child, the Daily Mail Online reports.
While the researchers argue that they’re trying to protect the future health of children, the trial—the first of its kind in the world—has sparked unease about resorting to drugs during pregnancy for a problem that could be safely treated with diet and exercise. What’s more, if this strategy succeeds, detractors worry the treatment could become widespread within five years and cause tens of thousands of overweight, but otherwise healthy, moms-to-be around the world to want the treatment.

Soaring Rates of “Sumo Babies”

The trial is part of a hotly debated National Health Service trial, launched in an attempt to curb the obesity epidemic, after a 50 percent rise in births of so-called “sumo babies” (newborns weighing more than 11 pounds) during the past four years in the UK. These large babies have double the risk of becoming overweight as adults.
There’s also a growing trend of big babies in the U.S., with a spate of such births recently making headlines. A California newborn tipped the scales at nearly 14 pounds last month and a Texas woman delivered a 16-pound boy in July, CBS News reports. While those babies entered the world by C-section, an astonishingly stoic Iowa woman gave birth to 13-pound, 13-ounce boy in January without surgery or painkillers.

Preventing Large Babies by Reducing Blood Sugar

In the trial, researchers from the University of Edinburgh will give 400 obese expectant moms the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage). The idea is to cut blood sugar levels because obese women are often insulin-resistant, a prediabetic condition in which the body becomes insensitive to the insulin produced by the pancreas. If untreated, this may lead to a rise in blood sugar and ultimately to type 2 diabetes.
Overweight and obese women are at higher risk for developing gestational diabetes, which can result in jumbo babies because the main nutrient that fuels a baby’s growth in the womb is sugar. If untreated, this temporary form of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy can have lasting effects on the baby, as kids born to women with the blood disorder have double the risk for obesity.

Read about the history of type 2 diabetes.

The #1 Pregnancy Danger

As I reported last year, a recent study shows that obesity—not the mom’s age—is the leading threat to a healthy pregnancy. A British study recently reported that maternal obesity has doubled during the past 20 years, with one in six pregnant women in the UK facing extra health hazards, including heart disease and increased risk for birth defects and stillbirths.

In the U.S., where one in three women is obese, there are now medical centers specializing in caring for morbidly obese pregnant women, with such equipment as larger, sturdier operating tables. These patients are more likely to require a C-section, often due to large babies, who can face a wide range of health risks, including nerve damage, broken bones, or even brain damage during a difficult vaginal birth.

Is Diabetes Medication Risky for Obese Moms-to-Be?

“Metformin is a drug already taken by women during pregnancy if they have diabetes, so we know that it is safe,” said Dr. Fiona Denison, of the Queen’s Medical Research Institute in Edinburgh. One of the most commonly prescribed diabetes drugs in the world, it’s approved in both the U.S. and U.K., and falls into the FDA’s pregnancy category B (not expected to be harmful to an unborn baby).
However, in rare cases, the drug can cause a serious or even fatal condition called lactic acidosis, in which lactic acid builds up in the bloodstream. It is more likely to strike people who have liver or kidney disease, congestive heart failure, dehydration or a severe infection. Less serious metformin side effects include headache, muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, and belly pain.

What’s the Safest Way to Prevent Obesity in Babies?

While it may be tempting for women who are already overweight to turn couch potato as their baby bump starts expanding, a recent study shows that regular, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise during pregnancy can modestly reduce the birth weight of a baby—without medication.
In the study, researches randomly placed 84 first-time expectant mothers in one of two groups. One group worked out five times a week in 40-minute sessions on a stationary bike; the other group did not exercise at all. The babies of the women who exercised were on average 5 ounces lighter. “Given that large birth size is associated with an increased risk of obesity, a modest reduction in birth weight may have long-term health benefits for offspring by lowering this risk in later life,” said the study’s authors.
Pumping up fiber intake also helps reduce risk for gestational diabetes, according to a study published in Diabetes Care. This pregnancy complication was rarest among women who ate an average of 26 grams of fiber daily. That’s because high-fiber foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are absorbed slowly, helping keep blood sugar on an even keel during pregnancy.

 Link to the article above is…HERE!