Every mother has an instinct that tells her what is good

Too much information is a bad servant. Hand on heart, how many of us follow all sorts of schools of thought, recommendations and advice and then end up with one big mess. In today’s article, which came about in cooperation with the postpartum doula Andrea Borková, we bring you a clear and simple guide to finding your way through your pregnancy and preparing yourself mentally and practically for the first days after the birth.

Every woman has to decide…

…whether she wants to be informed and therefore able to anticipate situations and respond to them better, or whether she prefers to deal with things as they come. At Powerlogy we prefer the path of preparation and we recommend choosing an expert in each area whom you will follow and trust.

In this article we decided to focus on what you can do during pregnancy so that the period before and after the birth is as unstressful as possible. We have divided the topic into several areas.

The physical side

What the postpartum doula Andrea emphasises to her clients above all is that women, mothers-to-be, should get to know their pelvic floor muscles. It helps not only during the birth, but also during the postpartum period. If you do not know how to go about it, we recommend finding a physiotherapist who specialises in it.

Diet

It is interesting, though probably also natural, how many women feel an urgent need to eat healthily precisely during pregnancy. At Powerlogy we are advocates of healthy nutrition, so of course this determination makes us very happy. But we would like to stress here that there is no need to overdo it. During pregnancy the important thing is not to introduce radical changes. If you have never thought about your diet until now, we recommend introducing changes gradually. It does not have to be a big change, it is enough to start with the important principles and gradually improve every meal of your day.

The first and most important step is to start thinking at all about the quality and composition of foods – better good quality and less of it than buying and eating poor quality day after day.

Health starts in the shop and in buying real, natural and functional foods. Functional means that the food gives you high nutritional value and energy and supports the complex functions of the body and the brain. So if we are talking about meat, we know that the quality of meat from an ordinary supermarket is very debatable. We recommend good-quality farm meat instead. If you cannot afford meat like that from a farm every day, that is completely fine. Rather plan your meat purchases and consumption and treat yourself to high-quality nutrients even if less often. The important thing is always to look into the origin and the composition.

Many mothers speak highly of Powerlogy Organic Ghee Butter 320 ml. They appreciate that we make it from the milk of Alpine cows grazing on grass. The greatest benefit, however, lies in the precise filtration, thanks to which our ghee contains no lactose and no casein.

There is always a healthier option. Look for it. Baking chips at home is something different from buying them in a fast-food outlet. Think ahead, and if you really are at the beginning of your journey towards better eating, we recommend consulting a nutritional therapist who will take your needs during pregnancy into account.

So far, however, there is no study proving that a woman who eats healthily during pregnancy is guaranteed to have a healthier child. The basis is probably the mind.

Mental wellbeing

You will need mental strength during pregnancy, at the birth, during the postpartum period and for the whole of the life that follows. There is no guaranteed recipe for keeping that strength. We are all individuals, but there are proven techniques, and one of them, according to Andrea Borková, is a postpartum plan. Most mothers-to-be know the birth plan, with requests such as an epidural or bonding, but what about a postpartum plan? Even after the baby is born you can have your wishes and ideas, and it is best to write them down on paper.

On the internet you can find a “template” for how to write such a plan, and it is fine to take inspiration from it. But each of us is different, so it is good to focus on how you want it to be, not on how other mothers do it.

In this postpartum plan you can include not only food and care for the baby, but also care for yourself, holistic matters and changes in the relationship with your partner.

The relationship

We are assuming the woman has a partner beside her. It is therefore enormously important to talk with your man during pregnancy about how you both imagine parenthood. They may often have a different family background, culture and traditions, and so “friction” can arise.

We therefore recommend going through the basics – what parenthood will look like, which direction the upbringing will take, whether, for example, the man sees himself as the one who provides the finances or whether the woman sees herself that way. Will the man be able to stay at home for some time after the birth, or will he have to be at work all the time? If the second option is the reality, help needs to be found for the woman, she cannot be completely alone after the birth. Will the newborn have their own room or their own cot? Many relationships leave the answers to these questions open and flexible, but if they are very different they will keep “popping up”, and it is important to get in tune before the child arrives.

It does not mean that what you write down or agree on with your partner will be right for you forever. Over time you may find that the arrangement needs to change. The important thing is to keep communicating about it. And not only with your partner, but also with your family. With family and wider relatives it is good to set boundaries right at the start, for example when they should come to visit for the first time and so on.

The more confident a woman feels, the better she copes with and experiences the birth and the first days after it. There is no need to spoil that by, for example, another family member arriving, taking the baby in their arms and being “better” at it.

Community

In closing, Andrea recommends seeking out pregnant women or mothers who think similarly. Not for the purpose of: “The baby kicked me here, or it has not kicked me all day, what should I do…”. Rather so that you can take inspiration, plan and not be alone in it all. The main thing is not to stay in fear, shut away at home, and also not to automatically take to heart advice from someone who is on a different wavelength, or has different experience or is a generation older. They may have good insights, and they may not. After all, our mothers have different experience. In the past formula milk was pushed to the fore, birth went differently, many things were simply different.

It is good to keep in mind that even though we experience things differently, we can share our experiences. You are never the only one with your problems. But you do not know that until you meet others, and so you can needlessly feel odd, which inevitably increases stress.

In closing

What is best for one mother may not work for another. And that is fine. There are many paths and there is no single right way for motherhood to look. Every mother has her own truth, instinct or intuition that tells her what is good, and that should be supported.

The article came about in cooperation with Andrea Borková. Andrea is a postpartum doula and works with women in the “600 weeks” period too. In the time when they most need support and reassurance in their own competence. For all mothers she creates the motherhood support groups MATKOVANIE, where they can share their feelings and opinions in a safe circle of women and inspire one another. She cares for women and it is her calling. You can find more info at 600nedelie.sk.