Nutritional Protection for your Perineum

In my many years working with women in the birthing world, one of the main concerns that always comes up is protecting the perineum from tearing. As a new doula and childbirth educator, I would respond to these concerns with the usual “cookie cutter recipe” response of heat packs, oils, and perineum massage. This recipe had mixed results when actually put into practice.

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Raw Pregnancy: A Journey Through Disappointment to Peace

As many of you readers know, I have been following a raw food diet for almost 2 years. This has had tremendous positive results on my health in all areas: physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual. It is something that I love and am very passionate about. Read more

The Salt Myth

I’d bet that many of you reading this have been told by your doctor to limit your salt intake during pregnancy. My studies and experience have taught me that not only is this mostly false, but the average caregiver out there imparts so little information about nutrition to their clients that even good advice can be misinterpreted.

When you hear that salt is “bad” in pregnancy, it’s not a completely false statement. There are many kinds of salt- from iodized salt, to sodium bicarbonate to monosodium glutamate to completely unrefined, pure sea salt. All of these “salts” are not created equally, and what needs to be part of the salt/pregnancy discussion is what type of salt you are using.
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Great Smoothie Recipe for Pregnancy

I have been pregnant three times, and I know how I’m not the only one that felt like I was eating the same things, day in and day out. I see pregnant women on a regular basis, and I am always looking at their diets, trying to come up with suggestions to add even more healthful calories and protein to their diets. Instead of just suggesting more eggs or more greens, I have been compiling a “pregnancy cookbook”. Below is one of my favorite recipes.
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How to Eat to Avoid Morning Sickness

As many of you know already, or soon will find out when you open the barrage of books on pregnancy, there is a lot to learn about nutrition during this wonderful season of life. There is plenty of information out there about 3 servings of this or that, and which supplements to take to make sure you and your baby are healthy. But, before you get overwhelmed, let’s take a step back and talk about basic nutrition. After all, good nutrition during pregnancy is the most important factor in making sure that you have a successful, positive natural birthing experience.
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Why Nutrition is SOOOO Important

Nutrition is the most important factor in predicting how well a pregnancy will go, and how both you and your baby will fare. This may seem obvious, but I have lived the medical mainstream pregnancy and I can tell you (or maybe you can tell me!) that this is not common knowledge in that world.

Now, in much of the slightly alternative pregnancy/birthing world, that is not the case. In my first pregnancy (which was OB-hospital based) not one person, ever, who was caring for me, asked what I put in my mouth on a daily basis.
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