- Early pregnancy nutrition classes often teach women to follow a high protein diet, avoiding processed foods and simple carbs, for optimal weight gain and to prevent toxemia and gestational diabetes.
- Getting exercise each day can help prevent medical emergencies, by keeping your body strong and fit. According to exercise physiologist Robert A. Robergs, swimming is the best whole-body workout, and walking during pregnancy is also popular.
- Hiring a midwife instead of an obstetrician can reduce your exposure to "routine" interventions like pain medications, episiotomies, drugs to speed up labor and constant fetal monitoring. Obstetricians are trained to handle pregnancy emergencies and, as a result, tend to have more of them. Midwives are trained to handle normal pregnancies, and to refer patients with higher risk levels to a specialist.
- According to the World Health Organization's 2005 World health Report, U.S. moms and babies are more likely than their European or Australian counterparts to die during labor and delivery. Natural pregnancy and birth advocates blame this on the over-use of medical intervention during pregnancy and birth. Learning how other countries handle things like breech birth and prolonged labor can give you tools to use in your own labor, to prevent unnecessary intervention.
- In "The Natural Pregnancy Book" by Ina May Gaskin, prenatal yoga is recommended both for the low-impact stretching and physical fitness that it offers as well as for the quiet, meditative time spent focusing on the growing baby and appreciating the changes that pregnancy brings.
Prenatal Nutrition
Exercise
Avoiding Unnecessary Procedures
Look to Other Countries
Prenatal Yoga
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