Giving birth and being born brings us into the essence of creation, where the human spirit is courageous and bold and the body, a miracle of wisdom.
– Harriette Hartigan
Pre-conception and pregnancy is a time in a woman’s life where they often go above and beyond to improve and optimise the health of themselves and their partners. All of a sudden, the responsibility of another little human provides motivation to improve all different aspects of their health that may not have seemed as important previously.
At Health Space we have a special interest in pre-conception care, pregnancy care and post-natal care. Extensive study and experience in these areas by our passionate practitioners ensures you are in the best hands possible to prepare, optimise and enjoy this wonderful experience. Whilst looking after your health during pregnancy is essential, the pre-conception period is just as important and often over looked or not understood as to its importance.
WHO considers pre-conceptive care (PCC) to comprise of “counselling and the provision of biomedical, behavioural and social health interventions to optimise the health of women and their partners prior to pregnancy and improve health related outcomes for themselves and their children.”
WHO states that pre-conceptive care can:
• reduce maternal and child mortality
• prevent unintended pregnancies
• prevent complications during pregnancy and delivery
• prevent stillbirths, preterm birth and low birth weight
• prevent birth defects
• prevent neonatal infections
• prevent underweight and stunting
• prevent vertical transmission of HIV/STIs
• lower the risk of some forms of childhood cancers
• lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life.
Just like anything in life, the more you are prepared the better. But sometimes pregnancies are unplanned and it’s never too late to improve your health and maximise health outcomes for your baby. Every little bit counts.
Pre-conception, pregnancy and post-natal journeys are exciting and rewarding but they can also be very over whelming and stressful for periods of time for some people. It’s essential you have the right support for this journey physically, biochemically and emotionally. Having people to love, care and listen to you is as essential as eating the right foods, taking the right vitamins and doing the right exercises. Each and every journey will be different and will need different strategies and supports.
My two pregnancies were completely different. My body responded differently, I couldn’t do the same things or even eat the same foods. Funnily enough my two children are also chalk and cheese. The parenting strategies that worked brilliantly for my first were nowhere near as effective with my second. I’m always learning, changing, tweaking, and trying. As I know better I do better. It’s essential as a parent that we don’t put too much pressure on ourselves and we have people surrounding us that will support and love us no matter what. Because guess what? You will make mistakes. You are human. When we learn from our mistakes, we grow and we also teach our kids how to do the same.
We are here for you through this journey. Please reach out to us as you begin to embark on your journey or at any stage throughout your journey. I had the most amazing pregnancies and I really believe that a big part of that was due to the amazing team I had supporting me. Besides my family and amazing husband I was having regular chiropractic, physiotherapy, acupuncture and massage. I was crawling 20 minutes per day to support my pelvic and sacral biomechanics (yes I know this sounds weird but it’s a game changer), wearing a pregnancy support belt as needed, wearing supportive footwear, taking vitamins specially tested for my body, did perineal massage from 32 weeks (yes that’s a real thing), used an epino from 36 weeks, ate dates, did acupressure, saw a pelvic floor physio (yes I saw them BEFORE I gave birth), drank raspberry leaf tea and the list goes on. If you don’t know about some of these things, then you need to have a practitioner or practitioners that do and can guide you safely and calmly to ensure your birth pro and plan is the best it can possibly be.
If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact your local Health Space clinic and they will direct you to the best practitioner/s for you needs, wants and goals.
