Preparing for a Natural Birth

I am 16 weeks and 1 day today! My baby is still tiny only about 4 or 5 inches long, I still can't feel it moving although I'm sure it's taking advantage of all of it's space right now, stretching and listening to all of Mommy's crazy music! It's skin is thin and mostly see-through, and it's body should be starting to accumulate some fat. The baby's eyes are finally positioned in the front of it's face and although the eyelids are still sealed it's eyes can start to move side to side and maybe begin to pick up some light. 


I had planned to blog more about pregnancy and exercise however today I'd rather talk about something else that I've been learning a lot about. I've known for a while that I wanted to deliver my baby naturally, to just let my body go through the delivery process the way it was designed to do, as every other woman's body is designed to do. This should be an easy decision for any woman to make but I feel like growing up we're brain washed to believe that giving birth is a scary, painful thing to do instead of something natural. What I'm learning is that it can be difficult to find a Doctor who is willing to work with a woman who wants a natural birth with absolutely no medical interventions. Why? Because OB Doctors work in hospitals and hospitals are driven to do things a certain way, for example if a woman's labor isn't progressing fast enough give her Pitocin, Pitocin makes contractions stronger making it impossible for a woman to relax, if the woman can't relax her labor can't progress, the woman's in pain and finally decides it's time for an Epidural, this makes it harder to push the baby out, this could then lead to an unwanted C-Section. One intervention leads to another. Obviously this isn't how it always happens but I have heard stories similar to this from multiple friends. So what am I doing to prevent this from happening to me? LOTS OF RESEARCH!!! It's important to understand how these drugs affect your body and your baby's body, otherwise why would you feel the need to avoid them. Personally the biggest problem I have with these drugs is that they would do to me is take away my ability to fully experience and appreciate the birth process. This is something that is very important to me.
It also helps to be physically fit and healthy because labor is hard work. 
Michael and I are reading a book together called "Natural Birth the Bradley Way" by Susan McCutcheon. I've found this book to be very helpful and informative. After I read the chapter that explains how labor works, I was even more relaxed and confident in my plans to go natural. The book also teaches you lots of methods to help you relax through a contraction, it explains that relaxing through contractions allows your body to do what it's trying to do (dilate the cervix) whereas tensing can slow the process down.
Michael and I have also toured the hospitals we had to choose from for delivery and we have chosen the one that is more natural birth friendly. Believe me after our tours its was painfully obvious which hospital felt like a machine versus the one that would give me the best chance of achieving a natural birth. We are also looking into switching from my OB Doctor to the midwives, we met with one of them yesterday just to ask questions, and we definitely liked her more than my Doctor. I would love to deliver in a Birth Center or even do a home birth however with the way our insurance works it's way more expensive to do it that way than to deliver in the hospital, plus since this is my first pregnancy we would probably be more comfortable being in the hospital  just in case there are complications during the delivery. 
So that's my natural birth soapbox, I tried to keep it toned down as I do feel strongly about this and can get pretty intense when I talk about it. Plus there is a lot more information and detail that I could go into about why I feel so strongly, but I also don't want to overwhelm you with information. 
The possibility that complications could occur is always there in any pregnancy, I can't control that but what I can do is prepare myself as much as possible for the natural birth and then like I said before let God handle the rest. I guess this pregnancy is teaching me a lot about patience and trusting God. 

Prenatal Yoga

Destination Maternity offers free prenatal yoga classes pretty much every day of the week! They're good classes too, the instructor is very caring and knowledgeable. I took yoga today, it's work but it's very relaxing. I still have pretty good muscle tone on my stomach, my arms get tired the fastest especially when holding the plank poses! 

Last weekend Michael and I took partner yoga, that is only offered once or twice a month and only on Saturdays. We both enjoyed that, there was only one other couple in there so it was like a private session! Partner yoga is different because we work together and help each other balance through the poses. 

How does the body adapt to pregnancy? What about Exercise?

Alright here is the blog entry you've all been waiting for! This whole time I've been talking about exercising while pregnant and telling you that it's good but isn't it time for me to start to prove it? I think so! Now this may take a few entries but I'm going to get started. The bulk of my information comes from a book called "Exercising Through Your Pregnancy" by James F. Clapp. Clapp has run many studies on pregnant women who continued weight bearing exercise throughout their pregnancies and compared them to women who did not. This book has a lot of great, detailed, scientific information and I would recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested! 

Let's start by looking at the heart and circulatory system's adaptations to pregnancy. During pregnancy the circulatory system must change to support the mother's body but also that of the developing baby. When the fertilized egg implants in the uterus the outer rim of cells that will form the placenta release a hormone that causes a the woman's blood vessels to relax. This means that the elasticity and volume of the entire circulatory system (heart, arteries, veins) increases. This is what we refer to as "underfill" because now there is not enough blood in the circulation to fill it up, and thus blood pressure falls. This is the cause of a lot of early pregnancy symptoms such as feeling light headed, nausea, and fatigue. The body responds to this underfill by releasing hormones that cause the kidneys to retain more salt and water, thus the volume of plasma expands correcting the underfill problem. Finally blood volume, stroke volume, and cardiac output increases, which as I said before was necessary so that the mother's body can now support not just herself but also the developing baby. 
Now for the adaptations to exercise, quoting directly from Clapp's book, "Many classic studies... have clearly demonstrated that regular, vigorous exercise training increases blood volume, the size of the heart chambers, the volume of blood pumped with each beat, and the maximum cardiac output that can be achieved."  It also increases the bodies ability to dissipate heat, thereby helping to prevent overheating, and it also helps the body become more efficient at delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues. Hmmm I'm seeing a pattern here, some of these adaptions to exercise are similar to the adaptations that a woman's body goes through when she becomes pregnant! "Therefore as you  might have already guessed, the changes produced by regular weight-bearing exercise actually complement those induced by pregnancy. Indeed the circulatory status of a normal pregnant woman at rest has many similarities with that of a trained nonpregnant woman during exercise." So, when a fit woman maintains her regular exercise routine during pregnancy, I be those cardiovascular adaptations to pregnancy are combined with their preexisting adaptations to training! That's the part that makes me the most excited! It makes me think that maybe if I keep up my exercise routine during pregnancy that I should be even stronger after I have the baby! Pregnancy could actually help me be a better athlete! That's exciting! I'm not planning on breaking my 5k record (23 min 45 sec) during my pregnancy but what about after! I'm not gonna lie, going running now is way more work than it ever has been, my heart rate stays real high even though I'm only running like an 11 minute/mile pace and some days I'm just totally out of breath and can't seem to find a rhythm. But I think this is normal simply because of how hard my body is having to work just to keep me alive. Even if I don't come back a stronger athlete than I was prior to being pregnant, exercising will still have been worth it because not only is it benefiting me but it's also good for my baby! I'll save that discussion for another blog entry!

14 weeks and 2 days

The biggest milestone this week for my baby is that now it can hear! I think that's pretty exciting, not as exciting as being able to feel it would be but it's exciting to think about my baby reaching that major development milestone! It's arms and legs are lone enough for it to extend now and it's neck is still lengthening. The baby practices breathing movements and swallowing. Can't wait for me next ultrasound!!!