Wellness Practices

Looking above at relationships, the scope is hugely varied depending on who the relationship is with, a lover, partner, parents, siblings, our children, friends, colleagues. Every unique interaction has implicit or explicit rules or modes connected to possibilities and limitations. Relationships alter during pregnancy and parenting and even close relationships come under strain with the capacity for subsequent misunderstanding.

Pregnancy is a temporary, yet profound state encapsulated in progressive change. Generally, as women traverse pregnancy only the surface of their potential wellness and self-development towards parental preparation is discussed or addressed. Becoming a parent is an evolution, not attained by giving birth, but the journey from conception to really ‘becoming a mother’. At birth women’s real sense of motherhood hasn’t established, it grows with experience and effort, you know it when you ‘feel’ it.

Holistic preparation has a massive impact on this transition. The wellness forum introduces parts of the whole that will take you on a deep self-journey. Addressing health through the lens of integrated wellness from pre-conception to parenting offers each one of us the full potential to grow to be an individual and a mother. Wild Birth Wisdom does not offer generic counseling or coaching, its individualization meets you on your journey. The following wellness practices are introductions to what there is to discover and consider for you during your passage.

One of the greatest challenges in modern society is tranquility. In a world where we accolade high scholastic achievement and financial success, inner peace has more of an ethereal desire frequently prioritized during vacation periods or a conscious pilgrimage. There is no objection to inner peace being important, however, the sustainability of tranquility is accepted as temporary. Performance to purchase security and immerse ourselves in the fellowship of community is a normal part of life, and to attain that comes at cost. The more we want, the more pressure we put into it and the demand, if we agree to pursue this pathway, is likely to diminish tranquility. Resource equality does not exist, with disparity being a precursor to attain things we see as comfort and security in the complexity of societal life.

An associated perception is that tranquility begets boredom in the end, a unilateral misnomer that a life of tranquility is one without adventure, desire, interaction or progression. The perspective I write of here is that of reducing undesirable stress, to attain a greater level of function, higher output, and personal choice. To live according to your own self rather than external pressures founded in unknown rationale, coming to know yourself and follow your path. The passage to inner peace gives freedom to live and parent as you really would like to do. The common following of a societal pattern to have, to do, to be, is unlikely to offer internal tranquility.

A self-determined journey to tranquility can be done anywhere, it requires a shift in thinking that comes from the desire to live more joyously, to live according to one’s own way. The shift in thinking gives permission to step aside from certain practices or interactions that don’t feel good, to follow what does. The reason we fight is often in accordance with how we imagine significant others will perceive us should we allow ourselves to live as our authentic self.

Ironically, the sooner we honor our own pathway the quicker we find the life that gives us pleasure and that includes as a mother to a newborn and growing child. Rather than tranquility being a destination from a life of fast paced living it is the state of living happily along journey. Life’s ups and downs can be managed within our state of perspective, by applying mindful strategies.

People seek inner peace, and many pay a lot of money doing so, but it doesn’t have to be that way. That is not to say that practitioners of mindfulness and behavioral therapy are not beneficial in their work. They are, they are there to help us accept and embrace change. In the process of pregnancy to parenting there is no time more appropriate than to question where we are heading, how to do it with the least resistance and how to create a happy family.

Tranquility can be found in massage, regular meditation, mindfulness practices, gratitude diaries, yoga, time in natural environments, reviewing lifestyle and minimizing stressors. As one of the many pieces in the wellness pathway, tranquility deserves your attention.

There is so much information about nutritional wellbeing in day-to-day life, yet people are understandably confused by conflicting advice from experts. In pregnancy, a lot of emphasis is on what not to eat, rather than what is nutritionally beneficial for mother and fetus. Generally, each country has a national guideline of healthy eating in pregnancy accessible in pamphlet or online. The information is vague and questionable, superficial in it not meeting the depth of explanation essential to really gain understanding of how to achieve true wellness. Sources of essential minerals and vitamins are generally missing. With gestational diabetes in pregnancy, there is a lot to be questioned about proposing six portions of carbs daily, shown as bread, pasta and rice.

It’s outrageous that people are told not to start a healthy eating program without consulting their doctor. Where is the risk in nourishing your body? And more so, doctors are not nutritional experts, in fact, their nutritional learning is very minimal. People study nutrition as a separate and specific field of health and wellbeing. That said, I’d be astounded to hear a doctor say it’s a problem to principally eat fresh produce. In a nutshell it really is just that simple. The basis of eating healthily is to eat real food, the stuff that grows on the planet. There is a lot of valuable research that supports and clarifies that nutritional requirements of mother and fetus rely unquestionably on consumption of real food. There are great resources and wonderful people out there that have published books and media sites containing incredible information for states of challenge in pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes. When you know where to find them, your world will be opened to be informed, choice autonomously and have guidance.

The first place is to start where you are right now, by investigating the choices you make, to question why you eat what you do and work that towards strong nourishment that meets you and baby’s needs alongside your preferences of taste. Some people have this understanding as part of their own interest and passion, others will benefit from someone who has the knowledge and can guide them, particularly in pregnancy and during lactation as nutritional requirements differ and for some, their body’s response to digestion can be a challenge at different stages.

A body is not to be ignored at any stage of life. It is a gift that allows us to engage in full life, and it must be treated with absolute respect, especially during pregnancy. What you eat always influences your health. The extra requirement of the body in pregnancy, if left to chance, can lead to obstetric complications with problems that didn’t exist twenty-thirty years ago becoming increasingly common and accepted as normal for many pregnant women. They are not normal they are often preventable. Diet has a major influence on keeping blood sugars stable, blood pressure in the normal range, strengthening skin integrity and its healing capacity, maintaining hormonal balance and weight gain during pregnancy. What is more, healthy food tastes delicious when prepared in the ways you like and eating properly will reduce or omit sugar and other cravings. Feed your body and baby, don’t become a statistic of poor health. It isn’t true when women say, “this is my baby weight gain, pregnancy did this to me”. Pregnancy does not cause you to become uncontrollably overweight, your food choices do. You have sovereignty over your nutritional body choices. You can reduce harm to yourself and your baby, no one else can do this, but they can help you to make that decision and support you on the journey.

Culture may be something we don’t consider, although due to it meshing with the daily life practices we do without much consciousness, it is integral to wellness during pregnancy and throughout parenting. It defines our approach and expectation of pregnancy, the care provider we opt for, the type of birth and setting we plan and eventually attend. Culture is the characteristic and attitude of our social group, our family and community, the foundation behind they ways and manners in which we behave. All of our norms have been taught since the moment we were born and mostly we follow them without doubting their source, the benefits, and sense that this is the right or best way.

Culture as learned programming of how we live and behave in our society forges us to be the people we are. There are practices that we will happily keep forever, others we may exercise our choice to change. Life moves along, what works in one era is not necessarily best or right for the next. Change is inevitable, and to live the life we want, we must be the change we want to see. This is a huge challenge for people in families defined by tradition and national culture. We see Culture most clearly by observing another’s life, the differences are obvious and may not seem the best to us. It is natural, to question what we do by observing others and gaining reassurance in ourselves, or to create change accordingly. Otherwise, what we see amongst our society is so normal that for many years we may accept it wholeheartedly after all, we only know what we know. The entire journey of parenting is ensconced in self-evolution, through reflection and adjustment of lifestyle practices.

Cultural practices are designed to bind people together, create unity, strengthen family and community ties through structure and be ready to welcome new life when a baby comes into the fold. As we become parents, we will start to question the practices and ways we want to raise and care for our baby and children as they grow. Becoming a parent crosses a boundary, parents in the making are already responsible for the holistic wellbeing of a new baby from conception until its adult independence. The culture we introduce them to and reinforce has its origin in language, routine, clothing, how we educate, our healthcare practices, food culture, socialization, housing, its literally everywhere.

We choose for our family culture from pregnancy, by either agreeing to keep or to change practices were acclimated into thus, pregnancy is a vital time for conscious preparation, discussions and considerations. Leaving important child raising decisions unaddressed has the capacity to disrupt relationships in ways not expected. Culture is intrinsically connected to robust communication and eventually to agreement.

Culture has rules and boundaries that you will meet in parenting groups, friendships through the friends your children meet, early childhood centers, schools, churches, local public places, and every form of retail. Each of these influences our cultural ways daily. Being true to yourself and how you want to be, in yourself and as a mother, will determine what groups you participate in, what food or cooking style you have, how you dress. You are culture, exotic and unique.