Super Baby

Super Baby: Naturally Nurturing A Happier, Healthier Baby Throughout Your Pregnancy

Something happened to Kate on the day she knew for certain she was pregnant. “It just clicked,” she remembers standing in her kitchen, “What could be more important than the health of my baby?” From that moment, Kate took complete responsibility over her pregnancy. She says her goal was “to feel like I had done everything in my power to give my child the chance for health.”

She headed straight for the computer, where she says she “googled every possible combination of the words: pregnancy, natural, childbirth, nutrition, morning sickness, fitness, health, and baby.” Eventually she added searches for “pitocin, epidural, cleaning agents, and cell phone use.” As Kate dug past the first few layers, some of what she found scared her. But everything she found motivated her to change for better.

Kate, who has a communications degree from the University of Miami, says she never studied so diligently.

Kate wanted a natural birth, but already had three friends who delivered with drugs or C-section. “There were so many problems,” says Kate, referring to those difficult births. “One was jaundiced, another had trouble breastfeeding, and one ‘just kept crying and crying for days’ she said. Never did find out what the problem was. Each one was so happy, of course, to be a mom. But there was this disappointment too. One even had post-partum depression. I couldn’t help being a bit scared.”

“That’s when she became Sherlock Holmes,” says her husband, Steve. Kate began visiting the pregnancy section at Barnes and Nobles after work. Her enthusiasm was hard to curb. She remembers being so engrossed one day that “The manager came over and asked me to leave. He was polite, of course, but that’s when I realized I had completely ignored the closing announcements.”

That was the day she found a book called Exercising through Your Pregnancy. Kate had no idea that exercising during pregnancy could help her baby become more intelligent as well as fitter; even more surprising was to learn that the effects carried throughout the life of the child. Chapter 7-Butterfly: How Exercise Reduces Baby’s Complications and Chapter 8-Breaking the Slippery Slope of C-Section

Her exploration led her to more books on natural childbirth and breathing. She found out she was using the wrong muscles in breathing and that it was likely to get worse as her baby grew. A little daily practice improved her breathing, which helped negate the harmful effects of stress hormones on her child. Chapter 1-Breathing Moves Nutrients and Wastes, Chapter 2-How to Breathe Diaphragmatically, Chapter 3-Breathing Improves Development of Baby

Stress, Kate learned, was one of the most detrimental factors for a growing baby. Its ambiguity was not to be mistaken for lack of consequence. Chapter 40-Stress Affects Mom and Baby and Chapter 43-A Mother’s Emotions Affect Her Unborn Child

Kate was now about 10 weeks pregnant and the world of research opened to her. She found herself turning to the endnotes of each book; each reference was her guide to the next. She tells, “I finally started using the library, which was much easier than I thought. I would order my books in advance, sometimes having to leave them for next week because I was over the limit.” That limit is 30.

“My husband called me crazy, but I know he was really proud, too. He realized what an opportunity it was to maximize the health of our child,” says Kate. He even started helping me cook and clean.

The couple planned their schedule to include several evenings each week for food shopping and preparation.

Chapter 29-Little Things that Affect Your Little One

•Stressed, Hormones, and Drugged Animals

•Grass-fed versus Grain Fed

•Fish: Wild versus Farmed

•Genetically Modified Foods

•Pasteurization

•Homogenization

•Irradiation

•Microwave Oven

•Organic versus Pesticides

•Raw versus Cooked

•Sugar

•Gluten

•Artificial Sweeteners

•Natural and Artificial Flavors, Colors, Preservatives, and Additives

They stopped looking at the amount of fat, carbs, and protein, and lowered their sites to the list of ingredients instead. “Steve’s and my diet changed a lot in that six or seven months before I delivered,” says Kate. We even switched to natural deodorants and soaps.” Chapter 36-Household Toxins Can Impair Baby’s Development and Chapter 37-Choosing Natural Ingredients for Baby She includes, “I threw out all those fake air fresheners! Who would have known?”

Kate says she wasn’t tired or uncomfortable, like many of her pregnant friends complained. On the contrary, she says both she and her husband, “literally had more energy as my pregnancy went on.” When asked if the changes were difficult, Kate says some were but others were quite easy. She had a simple system for making changes: “I always did the easy ones first. After that, I knew that practice and consistency would form new habits. I tried not to put too much pressure on me or Steve.”

By the seventh month of pregnancy, Kate was on a roll. She expressed feelings like “excitement,” “hopeful,” and “confident,” words not often expressed as the due date approaches. During her investigations, Kate discovered the importance of her own emotions.

She describes driving home one day, “Some jerk cut me off, and my first reaction was, ‘You son of a %$&@!, like don’t you know I’m pregnant?’ But then, almost at the same time, I remember, ‘wait, stop, breathe, relax. Ahhhhh. That feels much better.’ Chapter 2-How to Breathe Diaphragmatically I did it for my baby.” She’s referring to the research linking negative emotions to complications, stress, and the potentially harmful effects to one’s unborn child. Chapter 42-Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Baby’s Life

Kate says her search also found some interesting things about the methods and limitations in many of today’s childbirths. She was determined not to become another statistic, Chapter 47-Choosing Your Birth Place and Chapter 48-Childbirth Drug Effects on Baby

“I wanted to make the best choices for my baby, and for that I had to educate myself.”

Kate now stands on a pinnacle attained by so few pregnant moms: she understands her choices in pregnancy and childbirth.

Her baby girl, Ashley, was born naturally on April 7, 2004. She was perfectly healthy.

Her second child, Emma, was born October 7, 2006, and little Ethan was her holiday gift to end the decade on Dec. 31, 2009. All were born naturally. All are vibrant and healthy. Looking back on her first pregnancy, the couple agrees that whatever possessed her that morning was the best thing that could have happened for their family.

Kate and Steve still prepare meals together nearly every night, and Ashley seems to be an aspiring chef. Daily fitness remains important; they even hold little Ethan in some of their exercises “because Emma’s getting too big for Steve,” Kate says, laughing.

Even between pregnancies, the family continued their journey in health. “We came to realize that we’ll continue making changes probably for the rest of our lives,” says Steve, “Every few months, we look back and say something like, ‘We used to eat that?’” Kate adds, “It definitely doesn’t happen overnight. We just kept swapping old habits for healthier ones; it was mostly a matter of knowing our choices.”

This book, “Super Baby,” is about those choices.

Discover Breathing For Your Unborn Baby