Pregnant Women getting the flu shot

[tim-from-pa]

http://www.voanews.com/content/study-indicates-pregnant-women-should-get-flu-vaccine/1483039.html

Now, as we read the article, we see that pregnant women are "especially vulnerable" to the flu.

Yeah, just like when my mother carried me I literally sucked the calcium out of her. Carrying a baby takes lots of nutrients, so we can't expect mothers with today's processed foods to be healthy carrying babies, so let's just line them up and get a shot instead! They "were urged" to get the vaccination. Yeah, that will help!

I have a better solution. While it's yet summer, go to the beach and soak up some sun before it's declination sinks too far south. Many pregnant women look too pale to me anyway. Get that vitamin D, fresh air and good nutrition with lots of vitamins and minerals in it. Probably they won't be coughing and hacking like everyone else around them in the office then.

 

[one truth]

http://www.voanews.com/content/study-indicates-pregnant-women-should-get-flu-vaccine/1483039.html

Now, as we read the article, we see that pregnant women are "especially vulnerable" to the flu.

Yeah, just like when my mother carried me I literally sucked the calcium out of her. Carrying a baby takes lots of nutrients, so we can't expect mothers with today's processed foods to be healthy carrying babies, so let's just line them up and get a shot instead! They "were urged" to get the vaccination. Yeah, that will help!

I have a better solution. While it's yet summer, go to the beach and soak up some sun before it's declination sinks too far south. Many pregnant women look too pale to me anyway. Get that vitamin D, fresh air and good nutrition with lots of vitamins and minerals in it. Probably they won't be coughing and hacking like everyone else around them in the office then.

I didn't get the flu shot when I was pregnant. I don't see the point of a flu shot because it doesn't work for me. They try and stress you out and say that it's so dangerous to get the flu while pregnant. I did get the flu when I was pregnant, and I was quite sick, but my baby turned out healthy as can be. It depends on how healthy you are and how well your body can fight the flu.

You're also right about the Vitamin D. I take it daily and give it to my five month old.

 

[Lewis]

50 Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy



Trying for a baby? Being healthy before, during and after pregnancy involves so many different aspects of your life. So, I've compiled a quick list to help you stay on the healthy side.

1. See your practitioner before becoming pregnant.
2. Start changing your food habits to include a healthy variety of foods.
3. Exercise! Starting now will help you stay in shape during pregnancy, can lower your risk of miscarriage, and has been proven to help reduce labor complications and length.
4. Educate yourself!
5. Eat a new vegetable you've never tried.
6. Check out a book on pregnancy.
7. Figure out what to do about chemical birth control, like the birth control pill.
8. Stop smoking. There are many programs to help you.
9. Take a prenatal vitamin. They can be prescribed by your practitioner or you can buy them over the counter. Ensure it contains 0.4 mg of folic acid.
10. Ask your partner to join you on your new healthy habit changes.
11. Track your cycles. Learning what you can about your cycles will help determine when you ovulate and when you conceived. These make for more accurate due dates.
12. If you need a new practitioner, interview before you become pregnant.
13. Ask your friends about pregnancy and parenthood.
14. Avoid chemicals that could possibly harm your baby. You can find these at work, in your home, and just about anywhere, be environmentally sensitive.
15. See your dentist before you get pregnant and brush your teeth daily.
16. Tell any medical professional that you may be pregnant if you are trying to get pregnant. This can prevent exposure to harmful tests and chemicals if you are pregnant and don't know it yet.
17. Stop changing cat litter.
18. Remember, it can take up to a year to become pregnant. If you have been actively trying for a year or more than six months if you are over 35, see your practitioner.
19. Act pregnant. This includes not drinking alcohol, even while trying to conceive. There is no known safe level during pregnancy and alcohol can cause birth defects.
20. Announce your pregnancy when you are ready.
21. Talk to your parents, what do you want to take from their experiences? How do you want to be different?
22. Rest when you can. Nap!
23. Start a journal or a pregnancy blog.
24. Use non-medicinal remedies for problems like nausea, heartburn, and constipation.
25. Drink six - eight eight ounce glasses of water a day.
26. Read yet another book!
27. Join a prenatal yoga or exercise class.
28. Keep your prenatal appointments with your midwife or doctor. This will help ensure that if you have any problems that they are caught early and kept to a minimum.
29. Take an early pregnancy class.
30. Remember to add 300 - 500 calories a day while pregnant.
31. Tour your selection of birth facilities before making a choice if you are not having a home birth.
32. Review the signs of premature labor and warnings signs for when to call your practitioner.
33. Talk to local doulas and start interviewing. Doulas can help you have a shorter, safer and more satisfying birth.
34. Keep a food diary to ensure that you are keeping up with your daily requirements.
35. If you are decorating your house or a nursery remember to avoid fumes often associated with paint and wall paper. Perhaps have friends do the heavy work while you help make snacks for them. Keep the windows open!
36. Baby sit a friend's baby and learn a bit about caring for a newborn.
37. Take a childbirth class. Sign up early to ensure you get the class and dates that you want.
38. Swimming is great in late pregnancy. It can help relieve a lot of aches and pains and makes you feel weightless.
39. Take a breastfeeding class to help prepare you for the realities of breastfeeding.
40. Stretch before bed to help prevent leg cramps.
41. Continue to exercise, even if you have to slow down. This will help you recover more quickly.
42. Write a birth plan. Something to help you clarify what you want or need for your birth experience. Share this with your practitioners and those you have invited to your birth.
43. Have film and cameras ready!
44. Practice relaxation whenever you can. Try for at least once a day.
45. Do pelvic tilts to help with late pregnancy back pain. It will help relieve your pain and even encourage the baby to assume a good birth position.
46. Pack your bags if you are going to a birth center or hospital. Don't forget your insurance cards, pre-registration forms, camera, birth plan, etc.
47. Review the signs of labor and warning signs.
48. Take a picture of yourself before the baby comes!
49. Read birth stories.
50. Kiss the baby!

 

[tim-from-pa]

I didn't get the flu shot when I was pregnant. I don't see the point of a flu shot because it doesn't work for me. They try and stress you out and say that it's so dangerous to get the flu while pregnant. I did get the flu when I was pregnant, and I was quite sick, but my baby turned out healthy as can be. It depends on how healthy you are and how well your body can fight the flu.

You're also right about the Vitamin D. I take it daily and give it to my five month old.

One year about 20 years ago I got the flu shot and I was "sicker than ever" with 5 bad colds, including pneumonia. I prided myself on taking vitamins and "never was on an antibiotic for 14 years" before then. As about 3 years progressed, I was less and less sickly each winter like the rest of the population and one could see I was gradually coming back to my old self again where I never had to run to the doctors--- the events were not due to statistical chance and by virtue of how my body reacted I could see it was something with the flu shot.

I used to listen to Irv Homer, the Libertarian talk show host out of Philadelphia, and he was one day saying on the radio that those who got the flu shot were sicker than the rest that year (he was into conspiracy type stuff), but it verified what I was indeed experiencing--- my father had the same type of reactions.

Now, there's those who scoff, "You can't get the flu from the flu shot! That's a dead virus!" Never said I got the flu. I have an interesting theory as to why the flu shot made me sicker, though. My body's immune system was so busy fighting off deadbeat viruses that when other similar viruses came along, my immune system "army" was occupied elsewhere and then did not fight real infections. I have a pretty good intuitive and common sense understanding how this universe works and how God made us and I'm certain that's what happened. Never again!

Besides, just what is the flu? "Well", they say, "you feel like you've been hit by a Mac Truck. You have a high fever and are very weak, perhaps can't stand up or pass out. You have a dry-hacking cough and ache all over, and miss a whole week of work." etc etc and yada yada.

Never been that way in my life! Instead, my problems were always colds and respiratory infections but never so weak or feverish I could not stand up and missed days and days of school or work. Never. So why do I need one? I'm starting to think there's two genetic strains of human beings: ones that don't get the flu and others that do. And the one's that do can't understand the likes of those that insist otherwise, and feel that just because they are sickly with the flu at the drop of a hat think that everyone else will be, too. (sort of like Microsoft insisting Macs and Linux need virus protection to put it in a short analogy )

 

[one truth]

50 Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy



Trying for a baby? Being healthy before, during and after pregnancy involves so many different aspects of your life. So, I've compiled a quick list to help you stay on the healthy side.

1. See your practitioner before becoming pregnant.
2. Start changing your food habits to include a healthy variety of foods.
3. Exercise! Starting now will help you stay in shape during pregnancy, can lower your risk of miscarriage, and has been proven to help reduce labor complications and length.
4. Educate yourself!
5. Eat a new vegetable you've never tried.
6. Check out a book on pregnancy.
7. Figure out what to do about chemical birth control, like the birth control pill.
8. Stop smoking. There are many programs to help you.
9. Take a prenatal vitamin. They can be prescribed by your practitioner or you can buy them over the counter. Ensure it contains 0.4 mg of folic acid.
10. Ask your partner to join you on your new healthy habit changes.
11. Track your cycles. Learning what you can about your cycles will help determine when you ovulate and when you conceived. These make for more accurate due dates.
12. If you need a new practitioner, interview before you become pregnant.
13. Ask your friends about pregnancy and parenthood.
14. Avoid chemicals that could possibly harm your baby. You can find these at work, in your home, and just about anywhere, be environmentally sensitive.
15. See your dentist before you get pregnant and brush your teeth daily.
16. Tell any medical professional that you may be pregnant if you are trying to get pregnant. This can prevent exposure to harmful tests and chemicals if you are pregnant and don't know it yet.
17. Stop changing cat litter.
18. Remember, it can take up to a year to become pregnant. If you have been actively trying for a year or more than six months if you are over 35, see your practitioner.
19. Act pregnant. This includes not drinking alcohol, even while trying to conceive. There is no known safe level during pregnancy and alcohol can cause birth defects.
20. Announce your pregnancy when you are ready.
21. Talk to your parents, what do you want to take from their experiences? How do you want to be different?
22. Rest when you can. Nap!
23. Start a journal or a pregnancy blog.
24. Use non-medicinal remedies for problems like nausea, heartburn, and constipation.
25. Drink six - eight eight ounce glasses of water a day.
26. Read yet another book!
27. Join a prenatal yoga or exercise class.
28. Keep your prenatal appointments with your midwife or doctor. This will help ensure that if you have any problems that they are caught early and kept to a minimum.
29. Take an early pregnancy class.
30. Remember to add 300 - 500 calories a day while pregnant.
31. Tour your selection of birth facilities before making a choice if you are not having a home birth.
32. Review the signs of premature labor and warnings signs for when to call your practitioner.
33. Talk to local doulas and start interviewing. Doulas can help you have a shorter, safer and more satisfying birth.
34. Keep a food diary to ensure that you are keeping up with your daily requirements.
35. If you are decorating your house or a nursery remember to avoid fumes often associated with paint and wall paper. Perhaps have friends do the heavy work while you help make snacks for them. Keep the windows open!
36. Baby sit a friend's baby and learn a bit about caring for a newborn.
37. Take a childbirth class. Sign up early to ensure you get the class and dates that you want.
38. Swimming is great in late pregnancy. It can help relieve a lot of aches and pains and makes you feel weightless.
39. Take a breastfeeding class to help prepare you for the realities of breastfeeding.
40. Stretch before bed to help prevent leg cramps.
41. Continue to exercise, even if you have to slow down. This will help you recover more quickly.
42. Write a birth plan. Something to help you clarify what you want or need for your birth experience. Share this with your practitioners and those you have invited to your birth.
43. Have film and cameras ready!
44. Practice relaxation whenever you can. Try for at least once a day.
45. Do pelvic tilts to help with late pregnancy back pain. It will help relieve your pain and even encourage the baby to assume a good birth position.
46. Pack your bags if you are going to a birth center or hospital. Don't forget your insurance cards, pre-registration forms, camera, birth plan, etc.
47. Review the signs of labor and warning signs.
48. Take a picture of yourself before the baby comes!
49. Read birth stories.
50. Kiss the baby!

Thanks for that Lewis!
I think I did a pretty good job during the pregnancy part of things. I ate mostly organic and excersized the entire time. My baby is 5 months and I'm still eating healthy and staying active. My little one is very healthy as well, and I've received many compliments on her being the happiest baby they've ever seen! A true testament to eating right and taking care of yourself!