The pillars of your immunologic system
To increase the defenses of your organism and to conquer any pathology, you should reinforce your immunologic system. You can do this by following a balanced diet and a healthy life style that includes some exercise.
Your doctor will have recommended an appropriate diet for the period of gestation, follow it, it will surely include the vitamins and minerals needed to reinforce your defenses. We will now review some of them:
VITAMIN A: Increases the resistance to infections, it is a good antivirus, it maintains the humidity of the mucous and it is indispensable for the skin and teeth. It is available in carrots, spinaches, broccoli, beets, lettuce, parsley, peaches, apricots, egg yolk, butter, cheese, etc.
VITAMIN C: It has an excellent antivirus and germicide power, besides eliminating these germs; it prevents their increase working as a natural and very effective antibiotic for colds. You can find vitamin C in citric fruits, strawberries, kiwis, garlic, onion, watermelon, pepper, parsley, potatoes, green vegetables, etc.
VITAMIN B6: It fosters the action of the white globules to eliminate pathogen elements and helps to maintain the hormonal balance. It is available in yeast, eggs, vegetables, whole rice, green vegetables, potatoes, soy, oats, sunflower seeds, nuts, molasses, salmon, veal, etc.
MAGNESIUM: It protects the body against microorganisms. Water rich in magnesium contributes nearly 30% of the daily necessities of this mineral, but it is also available in fish, soy, dry nuts, green vegetables, avocados, dates, wheat germ, shellfish, etc.
CALCIUM: As all we know, it contributes to the maintenance of the bone system of your organism and the formation of the baby's bones. It also foster the destructive action against virus of the white globules and balances the muscular and nervous systems. Calcium is available in whole milk, milk by-products, almonds, eggs, fish, green vegetables, etc.
SELENIUM: It is an oligoelement that, associated to vitamin E, collaborates in the formation of antibodies. It is found mainly in vegetables and cereals, but their content of this substance depends much of the soil where they were grown.
MANGANESE: It is very effective against viruses and allergies, it also collaborates with calcium in the formation of bones and cartilages, and it balances the metabolism of the glucose. You can obtain this oligoelement in whole cereals, vegetables, green vegetables, wheat germ, dry nuts, the tea, etc.
IRON: It participates in the production of the white globules and in the synthesis of antibodies, besides being essential in the production of hemoglobin. During the pregnancy it is possible that the doctor prescribes supplements of this mineral, but you should ask about the convenience of stopping taking it for a few days when you suffer some infectious process, because a high level of iron can contribute to the proliferation of bacteria. You can find iron in vegetables, meat, whole integral cereals, eggs, dry nuts, mushrooms, etc.
ZINC: It collaborates in the action of the white globules alerting of the presence of pathogen substances. It helps in the formation of the brain and of the baby's nervous system and, as vitamin B6, it helps to combat nauseas. You can find zinc in white and blue fish, in bananas, meat, milk by products, whole cereals, dry nuts, vegetables, sunflower seeds, etc.
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If you suffer a viral process, such as a cold, you will find foods rich in vitamin C very useful, also infusions such as thyme that has an antiseptic power for its content in iron and vitamin C.
You can also use other natural allies with antibiotic power if you need them. Garlic is a germicide, antiseptic, antivirus and decongestant. Ginger has a great antivirus acting against fevers, cough and muscular pains, although it is not advisable if you suffer from hypertension.
Don't forget that the use of natural products should never substitute medical advice whenever your health requires it.
Eyesight
You should be attentive to your eyesight. From the moment of conception you have begun to segregate a hormone, chorionic gonadotropin, and the normal levels of estrogens and progesterone have been altered. These hormonal alterations produce many changes, among them, those that affect the cornea and the crystalline lens of your eyes. Many pregnant women can have ocular problems such as an alteration of the capacity of vision, dryness or burning. These are fleeting problems that usually disappear gradually after childbirth, but you should go to the eye doctor if you notice any symptoms.
If you use glasses or contact lens, it is also advisable to see the specialist to follow up on your case during the pregnancy.
Even if you don't notice any symptoms, follow the habitual advice of ocular hygiene, mainly in using appropriate lights (whenever possible natural) when you read, keep an appropriate distance when you work in the computer, a balanced diet, take care of your make-up brushes, etc.
The baby and you during this month
It is possible that throughout this month the nauseas and the exhaustion that you have felt from the beginning of the pregnancy disappear. In a parallel way your energy will increase, filling you with optimism and enthusiasm.
If you are worried about the risk of a spontaneous abortion, the possibilities starting from now are much smaller. It is also possible that concerns come up on the state of your baby's health, and the medical revisions are an excellent occasion to discuss any type of concern and to clarify the questions that you may have.
The baby is growing quickly. With 16 weeks of gestation he measures about 15 centimeters and every time is more receptive to the stimuli that he receives from outside of the uterus: he distinguishes sweet flavors from bitter ones, he reacts to tactile stimulation, to strong noises and intense light, he can be tranquilized with music of Mozart or Vivaldi and starts moving and kicking with musical rhythms such as rock. Due to his brain structure, he has the necessary neuronal circuit to exercise a rudimentary memory, he is also capable of conditioned learning and, apparently he develops intentional behaviors.
GENERAL SPEAKING, HOW IS YOUR MOOD?______________________________________________
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What aspects influecen it in a negative or positive way?_________________________________
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During this month you will take advantage of all that emotional energy to improve your affective relationships, mainly with your couple and together, to calm down, and stimulate the baby and to tell him how much you love him.
Through the mind and the control of your body you can transmit states and sensations that stimulate the baby's positive development. Some authors call these techniques intrapsychologic stimulation, others, intra-uterine harmonization. The truly important thing is not the denomination but the fact of being able to communicate with the child you are expecting.
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The aim is to reach concentration states that link the mind and the body establishing a special state of conscience, in such a way that psychological attitudes and corporal vibrations occur that can be transferred to the intra-uterine world in an immediate way. The psychological attitudes make it possible that the maternity becomes a group of positive actions of affection and deep feelings towards the baby. On the other hand, the mental and corporal vibrations that you are able to transfer to the uterine universe become a communication flow.
By means of progressive relaxation that you have been practicing in the first three months, you have learned how to control your body. Little by little, you have been able to disconnect and to diminish the tension or tone of all the muscles of the body. |
Now you will start exploring suggestive techniques of mental visualization to take deep conscience of your pregnancy, of the reality that the baby is living, his state and circumstances. This way it will be possible to transfer pleasant experiences to stimulate him in an effective way.
Don't see your pregnancy, or the childbirth, as a painful task to achieve the objective of having your baby in arms. Live your pregnancy as a happy process of perfect symbiosis with the new life that is growing inside you. It increases every day your desire of happiness because your body is making possible your baby's growth and live every day as an experience of unique happiness.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FOURTH MONTH
RELAXATION AND HARMONIZATION
Every day, as in the previous months, being aware of your changing corporal reality.
MUSICAL SESSION
If you want to, experiment with musical selections different to those that you have listened up to now. If it changes your state of spirit, you can also change the type of music type that you prefer to listen.
Keep in mind the objective of the musical sessions. During the day there are moments in which it can be more positive to listen to melodies with tempo allegro that activate the cerebral beta waves (in charge of provoking a bigger state of alert). Because they are rapid rhythms, they allow to work, exercise or think with more energy. At other times, relaxing music helps you to eliminate the tension accumulated during the day.
Learn how to feel the music, reflect on the feelings that it provokes in you: if it changes your pulse, state of alert or the spirit that generate the different melodies.
While you listen to your favorite music close your eyes and imagine that the baby inside the uterus is also listening. Breathe slowly, with deep inspirations and long expirations. Feel the vibration in your body. Check how the music makes you feel well and imagine the same effects in the baby.
PORTION OF LOVE
Continue with the weekly statements for you and for your baby. If you want to insist on some aspect, you can repeat a statement that you have worked on previously, but always following the described steps.WRITING IN THE EMOTIONS NOTEBOOK
Continue to write every day on your thoughts, feelings, emotions and dreams.
TO FEEL BETTER
Place your hands on the hips and start massaging, making very soft circles, almost caresses, from the back to the front. When the two hands meet at in the center of the abdomen, go up to the breasts and lower them again. Cover the whole stomach with your hands rotating and pressing smoothly. While you are massaging, breathe rhythmically and relax the abdominal muscles. If you'd like uses oil so the hands will slide more smoothly, but make sure that it is vegetable, natural, and cold pressed. Almond oil is more appropriate for the winter and coconut oil is more suitable for the summer, but if you have any doubts on the composition, check with your doctor.
BREATHING EXERCISES
Besides continuing to do the breathing exercises that you already know, we invite you to carry out correct breathing exercises at any time during the day whenever a conflict comes up or you feel tension, edginess, etc.
LIGHT GYMNASTICS
The pelvic floor forms a kind of a seat between the front and back parts of the pelvis and they sustain the abdominal and pelvic organs (the bladder, the uterus and the intestine). There are some sphincters that surround the urethra, the vagina and the anus; they are like rings that regulate the opening and closing.
The muscles of the pelvic floor are among the most affected by the pregnancy influenced mainly by the action of the relaxing and the increase of the baby's weight that stretch and weaken them. For this same reason, the sphincters get wider and they find it difficult to endure the internal pressure.
For the childbirth, string muscles of the pelvic floor are necessary and they will facilitate the quick recovery in the postpartum. It is important to exercise this muscle before the baby's weight exerts a bigger pressure, instead of trying to recover them when they have already suffered the weakening and stretching.
You should carry out these exercises daily. Try to do them as many times as you can in any circumstance: talking on the phone, at work, while driving the car, watching television, listening to music, speaking with other people, etc.
• In any position, standing, sitting or lying, with the feet apart, do some slow contractions of the area. Contract and raise the muscles that surround the anal sphincter and keep the tension for a few seconds. Then, contract the muscles that surround the urinary sphincter and you take this contraction up to the vagina. Keep the contraction for a few more seconds and then relax the area slowly. While you do this exercise, relax the rest of the body and breathe rhythmically.
• Standing, sitting or lying, with the feet apart. Contracts at the same time all the muscles of the pelvic floor without tightening the abdominal ones or the buttocks. Keep the contraction for a few seconds and relax it in a slow and controlled way.
• Standing, with the feet apart about 45 centimeters and the column straight, inhale through the nose and lower your body, little by little, expelling the air through the mouth, until you are squatting. With the elbows on the knees and the hands together, do 10 or 12 breathings. Stand slowly while you inhale through the nose and, when you return to the initial position, begin again.
• On the floor, with the knees flexed, the buttocks on the heels and the hands on the thighs. Inhale through the nose, elevating the body and contracting the buttocks and the pelvic floor, until you are kneeling. Return to the original position while you expel the air through the mouth.
MATERNAL EMOTIONS, AFFECTIONS AND FEELINGS.
Objective: to look inside of you, to generate a state of positive spirit and to learn how to communicate with the baby.
At least the first times, do this activity after having reached conscious relaxation, when your mind is empty of tensions and concerns and your body is receptive to emotional stimuli. If it does not distract you, you can listen to the musical session at the same time.
With this activity you will learn, little by little, to observe your interior state and to concentrate on it. When doing the exercise you should feel with intensity the new life that is inside you, integrating the emotions and feelings in your mind from where an enormous energy flow that will go through your body, will leave. Just at that moment the vibrations and intra-uterine communication become possible.
You will develop the activity following three steps:
First: Visualize in your mind a very pleasant green field; add all the details that make the image even more gratifying for you: sea or mountain, blue sky, flowers, a creek... Keep the image and make it as real as possible: feel the heat of the sun in your skin, the aroma of the grass and of the flowers...
Second: The image lives in your mind, be moved by it. Transforms that positive sensation in corporal vibrations and send them through the whole body, from head to toes.
Third: Visualize the interior of the uterus and your baby. Imagine that that environment is similar to the landscape that has moved you. Feel the vibrations and send them to the uterus as you have visualized it. Cover the baby with those positive vibrations, from head to toes, wrap him up with loving vibrations and communicate to him a message of love and serenity.
Objective: to use the song like means to communicate emotional positive states to the baby.
The same as to listen music, the activity of singing influences in the hormonal levels, in the arterial pressure and in the heart rhythm. Energy vibrations that circulate for the bony system also takes place and for the muscles and force a more complete breathing that the oxygen increases in the blood. Without a doubt, to sing improves the states of anxiety and it is an effective way of parking the concerns. As you see, a simple and amusing activity that he/she offers multiple benefits to the baby.
If you like to sing, alone or in company, do it. Sing while you drive, in the shower, with your couple, among friends, if, on the contrary, you don't like or it is an activity that you are not used to, here we give you some suggestions that Don Campbell provides in "The Mozart effect":
"Sit down comfortably, closes your eyes and, during 5 minutes, hum a note that is easy for you. While you hum, relax the jaws, place the palms of your hands on the cheeks and feel the vibration that takes place in the area. Feel the vibratory energy inside your body and how the stress decreases.
The next day, in the same position, make the sound "aaaaaa", it is the sound that comes out in a natural way when we yawn and it produces a relaxation reaction. Try to relax the jaw. You don't need to sing or use a high volume, just intone “aaaaaa" with the exit of air when breathing and observe how each time this exit of air is longer.
For the following day intones the sound "iiiiii." As the sound "a" is relaxing, the vibrations of the sound "iiiiii" in a sharp note are energizing and stimulating for the body and for the brain. Three or four minutes are enough when you are not able to concentrate or feel numb.
The fourth day intone the sound "oooooo." Place your hand on the head, on the chest or on the abdomen and feel the vibration. Some minutes of this sound change the cerebral waves, corporal temperature, heart rhythm, muscular tension and breathing."
When you have experimented with the previous sounds, use those that you find more positive in each circumstance, but practice daily during the entire pregnancy. Begins with a deep voice and go up little by little, try that the sounds come out effortlessly with the air of the expiration. Observe how the vibration massages the head, throat, chest and even the abdomen.
In this activity, as in almost the entire program, your couple can participate in an active way if he wants it. Both seated or in bed, placed so that his chest and abdomen are in contact with your back. The father begins to intone (vowels, notes or some song) while your feel the vibrations of the sounds traveling through your body. Mainly focus in the perception of the vibrations in the area of the uterus. Then both of you intone at the same time visualizing mentally how the vibrations transmit a message of love to the baby. At other times you can sing in another position in which your bodies, mainly the upper part, are in contact.
You can choose a lullaby that you like to sing together to the baby. Sing the same song often during the whole pregnancy. When the baby has been born and is restless for any reason, singing that same lullaby will be an effective balm
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