Filed under: health, health and fitness, pregnancy | Tags: pelvic floor, pregnancy, pregnancy exercise
All women should perform pelvic floor exercises regularly, but it’s particularly important both during pregnancy and post pregnancy. Strong pelvic floor muscles can aid in childbirth, and also prevent or minimize embarrassing leaks when laughing, coughing, sneezing or lifting (stress incontinence is a billion dollar industry!). Pelvic floor exercises are also known as kegels, so if you’ve heard that name and wondered what it meant, now you know!
Your pelvic floor is made up of a sling of 3 muscles that connect the pubic bone at the front to the ’sitting bones’ at the side and the tailbone at the back. This serves as a support structure for the contents of the abdomen and pelvis, including the bowel, uterus, and bladder. The extra weight of your growing baby makes these muscles work even harder and keeping them strong can help prevent incontinence and prolapse, and also aid in the birthing process. For these reasons pelvic floor exercises should be started as early as possible in the pregnancy.
To continue reading this article and learn the best exercises click here
Mark
Filed under: health, health and fitness, pregnancy | Tags: childbed fever, childbirth, pregnancy
What is Childbed Fever?
I’d never heard of it, until I got a follow on Twitter today from Ben Palmer of Jessica’s Trust. http://twitter.com/jessicastrust
I didn’t think too much about it and I followed back, but later in the day I visited another website, that of a colleague, and I saw another link to Jessica’s Trust, so I’m intrigued and want to find out more.
Jessica Palmer
It’s now an hour later, and I’m sitting here with a heavy heart. I’ve spent that hour on Ben’s website reading about childbed fever and the unnecessary death of Jessica, a young mother of two beautiful children.
It’s absolutely tragic to think that 2 children had their mother taken away in the prime of her life. It’s tragic to think of the impact on Ben’s life and the rest of Jessica’s family. And it’s tragic to think that it could, and should have been avoided.
So what is it exactly?
Childbed fever is an infection of the womb in new mothers which can lead to septicaemia. If left untreated, infection will cause organ failure and death – even in young, fit mothers.
What is the aim of the trust:
Jessica’s Trust want every parent, doctor, and midwife to know that childbed fever is still a very real threat to a mother life.
So, can we help?
Yes we can. There are several ways to help raise awareness of Jessica’s Trust and Childbed Fever.You can,
Visit the website and learn about the Trust
Make a donation
Sign the petition
Add a banner or button to your website or facebook page
Tell everyone you know
Follow Ben on Twitter.com/jessicastrust and tweet about the Trust
All of the above 
I’m amazed that this kind of thing can still happen and we all need to make people aware of it, especially those of childbearing age. If we can stop this awful story happening to another family, then at least something good has come of it.
You can find all the symptoms at the website www.jessicastrust.org.uk
Mark
Filed under: health, health and fitness | Tags: postnatal, postpartum, pregnancy, sleep
Living with a new baby and adapting to a new routine can be challenging. A major part of that challenge is the broken sleep, or the inability to enjoy a deep and restful sleep.
Is this inevitable and something that you ‘have to live with’?
Maybe not. Karen Copeland, a top UK fitness professional and lecturer says there are several things you can do to help. You can read her article on sleep here.
Healthy Regards
Mark
Filed under: health, health and fitness | Tags: postnatal, postpartum, pregnancy, pregnancy exercise, pregnancy fitness
We all know (don’t we?) that by and large (pardon the pun) ladies who exercised during their pregnancies get back in shape that much quicker after the birth. However, with the economic climate the way it is, not everyone wants to be forking out for a gym membership.
Well that’s not a problem if you still have your birthball!
The Essential Exercise and Birthball Handbook for Pregnancy and Beyond’ tells you exactly how to tone your muscles up after baby.
It includes a ton of pictures and simple instructions of exercises you can do either with baby or without.
You also get a 20 minute DVD ‘A simple guide to Pelvic Floor and core exercises’ along with 8 super secrets for losing you baby weight fast.
And you get it all for just £9.99!
Just click on the image to find out more
Healthy Regards
Mark
As the western world seems to plunge deeper and deeper into obesity, diabetes is just one related problem. Today in the Guardian newspaper there is an article by Ian Sample all about soaring diabetes rates and the terrible effects it can have for a pregnant woman, including stillbirth, birth defects, and miscarriage.
Happily, much of this could be avoided with a little education on sensible eating combined with exercise. To read the article click here.
Healthy Regards
Mark Hibbitts
