A Few of my Favorite Things (For Preparing Yourself for Pregnancy and Childbirth) - Part II
Last week I wrote about my favorite books to read during pregnancy to prepare for child birth. Today we're going to talk about other media I love to educate yourself on pregnancy and child birth. This probably won't be an exhaustive list, but I'll try!
Podcasts-
1. The Birthful Podcast
- the Birthful podcast is my most favorite podcast for pregnancy. There are a lot of really informative episodes (in fact, if you go to the website, www.birthful.com, you can find a list entitled Early Pregnancy Playlist with the must-listens already chosen for you!) but there are also episodes when women tell their birth stories. Most are very empowering and I think its important for pregnant mamas to hear positive birth stories, as what we hear from friends and family is often anything but positive. If you're only going to listen to one podcast about pregnancy, make it this one.
2. Common Sense Pregnancy - Jeanne Faulkner is an nurse who wrote a book called Common Sense Pregnancy, and who also hosts a podcast, Common Sense Pregnancy, Parenting, and Politics. I haven't read the book (its probably good too!), but the podcast is informative and worth a listen.
Apps and Emails - Everybody loves getting those weekly app updates comparing your baby to a fruit and telling you what to expect that week. I used two different things during my pregnancy - an app, because I could compare my baby to funny toys instead of fruits, and a weekly email.
1. The Ovia Pregnancy App - I liked this app for lots of reasons - I could put in my baby's name, or the nickname we called her before we knew she was a girl (Nugget) - and the app referred to her as Nugget then. It made it feel more personal. There were videos to watch about big changes happening in pregnancy, and there were options for size comparison outside of the traditional fruits and veggies. I loved getting to see what animal my baby was the size of each week, or what toy (the week she was the size of a Batman action figure was my favorite). You can track weight gain and doctor appointments. I'm sure its even more useful than I give it credit for. Loved this app.
2. The Mama Natural weekly emails
- Last week, I included the Mama Natural book on my list of must-reads. Full confession - I've never read it. But I love love loved (!!!) the weekly emails from Genevieve throughout my pregnancy. She is completely holistically minded, and her information was exactly what I was looking for as a crunchy mom preparing for a home birth and wanting as natural of a pregnancy as possible. She even continues to send emails post-partum with great baby-led weaning information and other post-partum necessary information. Definitely subscribe to this weekly email!
Movie -
1. The Business of Being Born - This movie is a must see for any expectant parent. It gives an in-depth look at our current hospital birth culture, and suggests that there may be a better way. Film makers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein have made several other films too, which I haven't seen but which I'm planning to watch in the near future. Full disclosure - Kyle and I watched this movie together and when it was over we looked at each other and said "We are NOT having a baby in the hospital!" This movie was very influential in our decision to have a home birth.
That's all I've got for you today! I think in the next few weeks I'm going to be stepping away from the pregnancy information and doing some writing about the nutrigenomic testing that I do. But if you have questions or comments on this or any other post, please don't hesitate to reach out!