Taking care of yourself

Pregnancy is an interesting time in a woman's life. At no other time do so many people, strangers included, seem to feel they have a right to dictate what you do with your body.

Take care of yourself. That is the mantra. But we seem to have the wrong idea - when else in your life is "taking care" defined as putting your feet up, limiting physical activity, and eating whatever you please? Sounds like a recipe for disaster (or extreme weight gain) for healthy women in their 20's and 30's to me. Women "take care of themselves" and gain 50, 60, even 80 pounds and think it is just pregnancy and baby weight. Then kill themselves to lose it when the baby is born (many try to lose it in 3-4 months modeling after celebrities). Some find it too difficult to lose so they decide to try after baby #2, or baby #3...meanwhile the 30 extra pounds they need to shed is multiplied by 2 or 3. Why do we insist on this cycle? The celebrities that lose baby weight so quickly have one thing in common...they do not gain extra weight. This extra weight gained in pregnancy is not going to be any easier to shed post baby than any weight....and as women, we know how stubborn pounds can be! What we don't know - is how your body, if treated right, will gain just the amount needed for a baby in 9 months and then will shed those pounds (and possibly more) with ease in 9 months if you do what nature and your body intended for you to do when pregnant and for the first year of your baby's life. Why don't we do it? We've lost the information somehow. Why don't women from other cultures get fatter and fatter with each baby? Why didn't women of our grandparent's generation get fatter? This is a new phenomenon - and you have the power to change it in your life.