Many stressors typically accompany the nine-month journey of pregnancy, and I want to help uncover the frustration of eating healthy when you’re expecting. Other factors that play into this include the food aversions that many women experience during this time, the time consuming grocery shopping when you’re drained of energy, the dreadful meal prepping, and then countless hours in the kitchen cooking. If this sounds like the feelings you are experiencing, then read on. It’s my hope to help healthy eating not feel like a chore to you, but rather something that can be done rather quickly and you don’t dread doing.

The description of Paige LoPinto's private Facebook Group begins, "If April the giraffe can do it, so can I. ☺"  She goes on to state that her motivation for live streaming her home birth on Facebook is her love of birth, and a desire to educate, empower, inspire and connect with other like minded women.  She has achieved this goal- in the early morning hours of August 25th of this year, she gave birth to her beautiful daughter at home as hundreds of viewers from around the world looked on via her Facebook group "Paige's Home Birth".  The video has since been viewed almost 17 THOUSAND times.  

So today, I went for my fourth "run" since I gave birth to my second daughter, who is almost eight weeks old.  Since my Mother-in-law offered to take my toddler for the day, I got to get outside and bring my littlest along in the jogging stroller... and it was awesome.  I put "run" in quotations only because well, there was a fair amount of walking.  But it was a beautiful day, my baby was sleeping for most of it, and even though I have a ways to go to get back to my pre-baby fitness level, I felt great.  While I was out there, I got to thinking about the process of getting back to exercise after baby, and I wanted to share a couple of tips I think may help other moms in the same boat.

We welcomed our second daughter 12 days ago, and I wanted to get my thoughts down about our experience while they are still fresh.  I share our story because I enjoy reading the stories of others, whether they are similar or very different than my own.  I find birth stories of all kinds magical and fascinating.  There is no right way to birth or to mother, each person's experience is unique, and we each have our own journey.  Here is just a little snapshot of mine this time around.

I am beyond delighted to be able to share this Q&A with Shannon Gyles, Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist at New Moon Wellness.  Known as a go-to person to see during pregnancy in Madison, Shannon is one of the few alternative health care practitioners in the area that specialize in women's health.  As her website states, "Shannon has found her true calling in working with fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum, helping facilitate healthy babies, healthy mamas, and healthy families.  She personally understands the joy and difficulty with the changing demands on the body during pregnancy, postpartum, and caring for a newborn.  In conjunction, she is honored to be able to work with women to prep the body and baby for labor and finds great joy in helping facilitate initiating labor when needed."  Read on to learn more from Shannon about acupuncture during the childbearing year.

You may have heard that writing a birth plan, or summary of your birth preferences can help you to have a more positive birth experience.  I couldn’t agree more; however, in my opinion that’s not the first, only, or even most important part of preparing for your birth.  Here are my 5 top tips for planning for a positive birth experience.

I reached out to Beth a few months ago, after Googling birth photographers in Madison, and was immediately captivated by the images I found on her website.  To say Beth is talented at capturing the raw emotion and true essence of birth (and everything she photographs) is truly an understatement.  Since then, I've had the pleasure of witnessing her in action during a client's birth (see those photos on my website), and was so excited that she was willing to do this Q&A to provide more info about birth photography.  Read on to learn a little more about what's behind her magic.

You may have heard of something called the “birth plan curse”, or something along those lines.   The basic idea being that the more detailed a birth plan, the more likely a woman is to end up with a c-section.  I’ve heard this idea tossed around, encountered it in online labor and delivery nurse forums, and I’ve even had a client once report that a nurse told her after her Cesarean birth that it was essentially her detailed plan that caused it.  Today I’d like to call this ideology out for what I believe it is.  Complete and utter BS.

I was blown away when I heard back from Celebrity Doula Lori Bregman (within about 20 minutes!) after emailing to ask her if she would do this Q&A.  Not only do I love her book The Mindful Mom-to-Be, but I truly admire the work she does as a doula, life coach, and healer with over 15 years experience, and a client list that includes Molly Sims, Kristen Bell & Dax Shepherd, Jillian Michaels & Heidi Rhoades, Kelly Rowland, Jessica Biel, Heidi Klum, and many more.  I'll be giving away a copy of her book to one lucky winner who signs up for my Prenatal Yoga and Birth Prep Mini Class series, but I urge every expectant mom out there to check it out!  It is a relatively quick read, yet filled with helpful month-to-month information about your growing body and baby, nutritional advice, natural remedies including yoga poses to help with pregnancy-related discomforts, techniques for labor, and even spiritual and emotional exercises to help you prepare for motherhood.  Read on for the Q&A with Lori discussing The Mindful Mom-to-Be.