YOUR Positive Pregnancy P L AY B O O K
Pregnancy is full of ups and downs! There is plenty of fun, excitement, curiosity and sometimes worry, stress, and uncertainty. The great news is that you can enjoy your pregnancy. It s up to you to decide what this special time in your life will bring. With four easy activities, you can bring peace and calming into your pregnancy every day. 1. Create your Fantasy Birth Team 2. Turn off the television 3. Remind yourself how great you feel! 4. Treat your body right: you deserve it (and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter )
Step One: Create Your Fantasy Birth Team When you re pregnant, everyone has an opinion. And they can t wait to tell you about it! From the grandmother at the grocery store to the man at the bus stop, strangers can t resist offering their thoughts and helpful advice. It s tough enough to tune out the Negative Nellies you know casually, but when it s friends or family, it can get ugly. These are people you care for! But they may or may not have the same ideas of pregnancy and birth that you do. Now is a great time to figure out who is 100% in your corner. Ask yourself, who is on board with the pregnancy, birth, and parenting choices I m preparing for? Your partner? Your healthcare provider? Your best friend? To stay relaxed and positive during pregnancy, you ll want to surround yourself with those people who are fully supportive. Your Fantasy Birth Team lineup consists of the people who believe in you. They trust you to make the best decisions for you and your baby.
No need to gear up for a confrontation! Share important details of your pregnancy and birth with those important people you trust. Their positivity will only strengthen your confidence. And what about those Negative Nellies? You might come up with a standard response: I m great, baby s great. Or it might be easier to just say, Shhhhh.my baby is listening and walk away.
My Fantasy Birth Team Use this worksheet to create your fantasy birth team line up. With your name in the middle, fill in the bubbles with the names of the people that trust and believe in you. You re building your support team to help you through a great pregnancy and a peaceful transition into parenting.
Step Two: Turn Off the Television (and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ) You there! You know who you are the one reading birth stories on The Bump, watching YouTube birth videos, Googling pregnancy ailments, and watching 16 and Pregnant. You gotta quit. Just turn it off and walk away Ok, maybe not quit. But all of this is influencing your thoughts about birth and parenting. When you re checking out a screen like a computer, television or phone, your mind is taking in everything. What messages are you sending it? Just as it s important to surround yourself with positive people, it s important to give yourself lots of positive messages while you re preparing to meet baby. There s a lot of negativity in most media portrayals of birth. There s yelling, rushing around, emergencies, more yelling if that s not the kind of birth you re preparing for, don t watch it! 3 Questions to Ask When Reading About Birth or Watching Birth Scenes In what ways does this look like the birth I want for myself and my baby? How do I feel when I read or watch this? What is the author s or producer s purpose in sharing? (Is it entertainment or education?)
Step Three: Remind Yourself How Great You Feel! It s easy to get caught up in the stresses of pregnancy. Some women experience discomforts very new to them and do not welcome the changes pregnancy brings. But you know the old saying: if you can t say something nice The same goes for how you talk to yourself! If you wouldn t say it to your best friend, don t say it to yourself. Celebrate the good that this time in your life brings with lots of positive messages to yourself. What can you do to give yourself positive messages all day long? You can use affirmations. Begin by choosing positive words and phrases to affirm to yourself that you are having a truly wonderful pregnancy and birth. Once you ve chosen comforting or encouraging phrases, make signs with the affirmations to leave around your house or car. You might also record the affirmations on your phone and listen to them when you need some encouragement. Pretty soon you ll hear or see an affirmation and think, Yes! I am amazing! or Yes! I do love my pregnant body! It s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen. ~Muhammad Ali
Create Your Own Affirmations Take a minute to look through the word bank below. Which words do you like? Which words are meaningful to you? Circle five of your favorites Calm Safe Loved Confident Healthy Strong Relaxed Peaceful Trust Surrender Instinct Powerful Knowledge Believe Control Faithful Happy Capable Supported Joyful From your own five words, create affirmations that encourage you by filling in the blanks. I feel and. I am and my baby is. I deserve a birth. Using these phrases and your own, create affirmations to remind you of a positive pregnancy and wonderful birth every day.
Step Four: Treat Yourself Right Here s the best part: You re growing a human being and you deserve some You Time. What does You Time look like for you? How can you treat yourself right? Focus on the food you eat. Unprocessed, high-protein foods are great foods for you and baby. You ll feel better, and baby will grow healthy and strong! Some studies show that moms who exercise regularly have fewer complications during birth and report feeling less tired. Try a daily walk, prenatal yoga, aqua aerobics, or other low-impact exercises, and see how fantastic you feel. It s easy to get caught up with new baby preparations and parenting and work demands. But it s also really easy to eat well and exercise. It just takes some planning. Use the calendar on the next page to start that planning. Write in your favorite exercises and healthy meals. Aim for a good workout 3-5 times a week and nutritious meals nearly every day. Self care means doing the fun stuff, too. Write in a prenatal massage, a pedicure, a date with your partner and enjoy!
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