Considering Pregnancy? Optimize Your Health First

A healthy pregnancy encompasses both body and mind to ensure your child’s best chance of healthy development and childbirth success. As a woman in our current paradigm, you probably haven’t viewed your monthly menses as a gift let alone the ability to become pregnant as miraculous. As the mother of four children, I can confidently say that giving birth is one the greatest gifts of life. Knowing this, I try to inspire a sense of gratitude for our ability to bring life into the world. Women who have been raised in nurturing homes have an innate ability to nurture their children with love, compassion, and patience that goes far beyond what any other species can provide.

Being fortunate enough to have this amazing life-bearing experience also comes with responsibility – to those we give life and to ourselves. So, if you’re pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant and want your baby to have the best start in life possible, you’re in the right place.

The fact is, the health of your body and mind determines how the baby develops in the womb in an incredibly complicated and miraculous process! The ability of the cells to differentiate and divide will determine how the infant will be able to react to the world they enter into both physically and psychologically.

A Healthy Pregnancy Includes the Father’s Health

Both parents provide a gamete (haploid cells) that provides half of the genetic information (23 chromosomes) that will become the baby. The mother’s gamete is called the egg (ova or ovum) and the father’s gamete is called the sperm. After the sperm penetrates and fertilizes the egg, a complete (diploid) cell called a zygote is formed. The zygote contains a full set of genes (46 chromosomes) containing all of the DNA necessary to make a new human being.

After the sperm penetrates the egg in the fallopian tube, the fertilized egg journeys to the uterus. By the time it has reached the uterus, the cells have divided multiple times forming a blastocyst that attaches to the uterine lining. This becomes the fetus’ first home as it begins the amazing process of becoming a baby over the next 280 days. Since the father’s sperm provides half of the genetic blueprint (DNA), the father’s health is as important as yours, so be sure to get him onboard with this information.

The mother’s body will provide all of the nutrients needed for a healthy pregnancy and child development in her uterus. The baby’s brain, heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver, GI tract, etc. are all developing from two cells (the gametes) that have to differentiate and create all of the tissues and organs that create a human being. For this reason, it is s essential that the mother take the necessary precautions to provide everything needed to avoid interruption of each intricate stage of development. A diet high in organic vegetables, high-quality organically sourced protein, plentiful fiber and pure water and low in sugars, processed foods and harmful fats is essential to maintaining health of mother and fetus. Please take the time to watch our nourishment webinars to learn more.

It is imperative that the parents avoid environmental toxins long before they are trying to conceive, throughout pregnancy and throughout childhood! The home care and personal care product industries are not regulated and products contain chemicals that adversely affect your baby’s and your own health.

Unfortunately, over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released into our environment in the United States each year. These chemicals have NOT been tested for human safety, let alone the reactions that occur with chemical combinations. The burden of proof rests on our children and us even though it is known that toxins can have lifelong health effects. Toxins include lead in paint in older homes; mercury in certain kinds of fish; pesticides and herbicides in our homes, food, and drinking water (such as glyphosate, commercially known as Round-Up); and endocrine (hormone) disruptors, such as phthalates and BPA, in our personal care products and plastics.

Ways to Reduce Toxin Exposure:

• Take off your shoes at your front door, to keep toxins out of your house
• Stop smoking if you do and avoid second hand smoke and fumes of any kind
• Use natural, organic non-bleached feminine napkins and tampons without a plastic applicator
• Avoiding drinking water from plastic bottles
• Test your drinking water if it comes from a well
• Drink only filtered drinking water
• Make your own personal care products with organic ingredients
• Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
• Avoid fragrances
• Wash new clothes and bedding before wearing or using them and shower after trying on new clothes
• Replace carpet with hardwood or tile flooring
• Avoid processed and canned food
• Avoid plastics of all kinds.
• Avoid common chemical exposure from chemical tick and flea collars or dips for pets and cancel your service for lawn fertilizer, herbicide and insecticide application

The list can go on forever and provides only a small glimpse of the chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis.

If you want to know more, check out our sister non-profit website at www.choosevibrantliving.com. Remember, the majority of toxins are stored in our bodies, so it is never too early to start detoxifying and cleaning up your body and environment.

– Dr. Cheryl Hamilton