Seven Ways To Have A More Glorious Pregnancy

Although pregnancy can be an uncomfortable or even painful experience, it's one of the most joyous times in a woman's life. While you may not be waited on hand on foot for nine months like Britain's Kate Middleton, you can still treat yourself like royalty. Here are seven important ways to have a more glorious pregnancy, and avoid some of the more unpleasant aspects of it.

1. Treat Morning Sickness

Despite being a common occurrence for pregnant women, you don't have to surrender to morning sickness. Try eating cold foods, as there is less scent associated with them, which may minimize nausea. Eating dry foods in small amounts works for some women, but you've got to discover your best method of eating for nine months. The important thing is to not just accept morning sickness, and be miserable with it!

Mom to mom tip: If you're like the Duchess of Cambridge and dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum (severe morning sickness), try ginger tea, kiwi and plain pasta. Also, worry less about calories and more about vital nutrition.

2. Talk To The Voice Of Experience

One of the most comforting things during pregnancy is listening to someone who has already been through it. Another woman, well versed in the woes and wonders of childbirth, will help calm your nerves when you think something might be amiss, and they will certainly have plenty of advice and remedies. Mostly, though, it's reassuring for a pregnant woman to have that voice of reason and experience when she needs it.

Mom to mom tip: Keeping a pregnancy journal helps you sort feelings, prioritize and remember all those questions you simply must have the answers to!

3. Meditate At Least Once A Day

While formal meditation is known to have many helpful repercussions, you don't have to build a replica of a Buddhist Temple in your living room and hire a monk to coach you. Just take a few minutes each day to unwind, mentally contemplate how things are going and how you might want to change them and give all of your mind and body a break. Even if you enjoy the luxury of staying home for the next nine months, there's still so much going on in your life that meditation is an almost necessity for calm, clarity and control.

Mom to mom tip: Since meditation incorporates breathing as a discipline, and disciplined breathing is a major component of delivering a baby, meditation will prove very useful to you.

4. Maintain Your Muscles

Despite the physical challenges, keeping up muscle strength will work well for you in more than one way. Light training helps you maintain weight and form, but it keeps your metabolism revved up, and that's particularly useful at a time when hormones are running rampant. Moderate, consistent exercise is also shown to reduce your chances of developing gestational diabetes too. Of course, all that muscle will come in very handy when you're handling your child: If it takes 20 minutes of coddling to get the baby to sleep, and they awake a few times or more a night, your arms are going to get quite the workout!

Mom to mom tip: With the consent of your medical team, try using a calculator to establish a sensible caloric intake at this time, to avoid binges that turn into bulges after the baby is born.

5. Avail Yourself To Different Choices

Despite conventional wisdom in obstetrics, and how it's evolved through the ages, women have many choices available to them when having a baby. From water births to C-sections and everything in between, barring any major medical complication, how things go down is up to you. Consider how midwives help reduce the need for epidurals and other scary hospital procedures, before opting for a physician-led pregnancy team. Midwives from sites like http://www.whallc.com are more inclined toward homeopathic comfort, and are highly qualified to monitor you and your fetus. If a prenatal massage might help you to avoid forceps during delivery, this is certainly worth further investigation on your part!

Mom to mom tip: C-sections are performed in two-thirds of pregnancies, but many in the medical community are warning that this is too many, and highly recommend second opinions.

6. Read For Two

At around 30 weeks, your baby can recognize the sound of your voice. While the words may not make sense, the rhythm and tone will become familiar long before birth, beginning the bonding process and quite possibly helping your baby's brain develop. Of course, the reading aloud is beneficial to you as well, whether you're catching up on the morning news or discovering the best cures for future issues with diaper rash.

Mom to mom tip: Use a portable fetal Doppler when you read or sing to your baby, and enjoy the feedback!

7. Take Natural "Medicines"

Although you may experience more aches and pains during pregnancy, medicines aren't good for your developing fetus. This is a good time to rely on remedies that have withstood the ages without the need for prescriptions. For example, natural lemon juice may relieve indigestion, a common problem for pregnant women. It also substitutes well for antiseptics, and can work wonders in a foot bath, something also very useful for women during these nine months.

Mom to mom tip: Pay more for organics now, to avoid potential dangers and the hassle of reading every list of ingredients.

With all the things you've got to take care of while you carry your baby, get ready for delivery and the major upcoming changes in life, it's easy to lose sight of the glory of the moment. Make a point of stopping to smell the roses now, though, because the magic between you and your baby has already begun, and you shouldn't miss a single second of it.