Interview With Lena Einstain, Author of Childbirth Preparedness Handbook

Childbirth Preparedness Handbook is a promising eBook that is helping tons of women nowadays. This eBook is a tool that continuously eases the worries from the minds of pregnant women and helps couples deal with the roller-coaster ride of pregnancy. To further learn about this effective eBook, here’s an insightful interview from Lena Einstain, 34-year old mother of 4 and the creator of Childhood Preparedness Handbook.

Question: Give us a little background about yourself.

Answer: I’m a homemaker from Denver, Colorado. My family and I live in a small town called Niwot. My husband and I own a bookshop but he primarily manages it since I’m more focus helping our kids in their everyday lives. We have four children; our eldest Heather is 11, next is Brandon who’s almost nine, and then Brent who just turned six and our youngest is Hannah who’ll celebrate her 4th birthday in a month.

My day usually starts with helping the kids before they go to school. When everyone’s out of the house, I do my scheduled household chores and then work on my projects such as this eBook, Childbirth Preparedness Handbook. Sometimes, I go to the shop to help my husband deal with customers. And often times I go there to do my research.

Q: So why did you create this handbook? Out of all the topics that you can discuss in a book, why did you choose pregnancy?

A: I started creating this handbook when I was still pregnant with our youngest child, Hannah. Out of all the pregnancies I went through, the last one was the most complicated because during that time we were dealing with a lot of worries and stress because three of our loved ones passed away that year. So it was really a struggle and then my sugar level went up and it was really hurting my second trimester of pregnancy. That was also the same time when my husband’s sister got pregnant for the first time and she talked to me about her emotions, primarily her fears, about her pregnancy. So that sparked my desire to write an eBook that will help women who are dealing with their excitement and worries about their pregnancies.

Q: How much of the book is realistic?

A: Childbirth Preparedness Handbook is so into reality that everyone who reads it will have their own “Yes! That’s it!” moment. This is an eBook that talks about the realism of pregnancy, of tips and advices on how you and your partner can prepare yourselves to the birth of your child; and in essence, how you can prepare your child for his or her coming. Everything in this book is reality, from the described excitement to the lists of worries that go through the mind of every pregnant woman out there.

Q: What was one of the most surprising things that you learned when creating this handbook?

A: Surprisingly, I learned that the desire to be a good mother is something that is innate in every woman, even for those who haven’t planned the pregnancy. Because during my early years of motherhood, I thought that my desire to be a good mother comes from the love for my family and kids, which is pretty much an important deal. But as time goes by, I realized that the desire to be the best parent that you can be is really within us. The desire is there and will always be there. You just need to tap that need and you’ll do fine.

Q: What do you wish this handbook can accomplish?

A: When I started to write this handbook, my wish is for it to be a tool for women who are going through the hoops and turns of pregnancy. Now that I’ve finished the book and it’s now being sold in the market, that’s still my wish.

Get your copy of the Childbirth Preparation Handbook.

Safe Pregnancy Exercise - How to Warm Up and Cool Down

Safe pregnancy exercise of any kind - cardiovascular or strength training - requires extra circulation of blood throughout your body.

As you move, your muscles require more oxygen and nutrients to keep them going. Your blood carries these essentials throughout the entire body. As your muscles begin to work harder, your heart needs to pump faster to keep up.

If you jump right into a workout with out warming up, your heart is not pumping fast enough to the oxygen and nutrients around in an efficient manner. This is especially important for expectant mothers because you need blood not only for your hard working muscles, but for your baby as well.

A good warm up ensures that your body is prepared well enough for both in advance, keeping you and your baby safe during your exercise session.

So, before you do anything - even before you stretch - get a light sweat going with 5-10 minutes of light to moderate activity. Walking, jogging, rowing and biking are just a few examples of activities that will start you off on the right foot.

At the other end of the workout, cooling down is just as important as warming up.

Your body required extra circulation in order to keep up with the demands of your workout, so you'll want to give yourself some time to return to normal before going back to your daily routine.

Using the same light activities as your warm up, take 10 minutes after your workout to let your heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature drop before sitting in your car to head home, hopping in the shower, etc.

Complete your safe pregnancy exercise session with these simple tips - your body and your baby will thank you!

Michelle Ladd is a Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Expert Pre-Natal Personal Trainer. She is the Co-Author of The Fit and Healthy Pregnancy Guide. Visit www.FitandHealthyPregnancy.com for Free Special Reports on how to look and feel your best - before, during and after - AND have a healthy and happy baby.

Sexual Positions For Gender Selection

If you want to try to increase the chances of having a boy or a girl, sometimes it all comes down to how you do it – literally. While there is no 100% method that will guarantee that you can select the gender of your child, there are specific positions that you can try that will increase the likelihood of selecting the gender.

This works for a variety of different reasons, but is based in the fact that the two kinds of chromosomes that are responsible for gender selection are carried by sperm that are very different. The Y chromosome is responsible for conceiving a boy. The sperm that carry this chromosome are small, quick and able to cover the distance to the egg very rapidly. The downside is they don't live very long and if they have to swim too far, they won't be able to complete their journey successfully.

The X chromosome sperm are responsible for conceiving a girl. These sperm are much larger, and move quite a bit slower. However, they live a lot longer and have more endurance when it comes to reaching the egg.

Here's what you need to know when it comes to picking positions to pick gender.

How to Have a Boy

Because the Y sperm need a little extra help in reaching their destination before they expire, positions that allow deep penetration are essential. The goal is to have the man orgasm as closely as possible to the neck of the cervix. This reduces the amount of time that the sperm will need to spend getting to the egg.

Positions that allow for this to occur include woman dominant, or woman on top as well as its other variation, commonly called Reverse Cowgirl. In these positions, the woman is astride the man and can control how deeply he penetrates her. At the moment of orgasm, the woman should allow the man inside as deeply as possible.
There are a few other positions as well, but the important thing to remember is that the deeper the penetration at the moment of orgasm, the more likely you are to have a boy.

How to Have a Girl

If you would prefer to have a girl, the proper positions involve much shallower penetration. The X sperm are much more durable and need a little more time to reach the egg, allowing the Y sperm to die off before they get there. This means that the man should orgasm as far away from the neck of the cervix as possible.
Positions for shallow penetration include missionary, spooning and the lotus position where the couple wrap their legs around each other while sitting. The positions do not allow for deep penetration and the desired result of increasing the likelihood of having a girl can be achieved.

Don't Forget

There is one more thing to remember when choosing a position for choosing gender. If you do want to have a boy, it is important that the woman orgasm before the man. This changes the PH near the cervix, making it more hospitable to the Y sperm. The opposite is true if you want to have a girl.

Learn more by visiting www.PlanMyBaby.com

Dietary Choices May Impact the Gender of Your Child

While there are many different things that can decide the gender of your future child, the dietary choices you make may have a big impact. Natural gender selection relies on a few different techniques to help increase the odds of having either a boy or a girl. While these methods are not 100% reliable, most couples find that they do end up with the gender they wanted. At the end of the day, it is a 50/50 chance, but there are a few things you can do to swing the percentage in your favor.

The foods that you eat can affect the future gender of your child for a variety of different reasons. The main one is that your body's PH needs to be at a certain level for each type of gender. The sperm that carry the chromosomes that decide gender require a different PH for a successful trip towards fertilization.

Let's take a look at the differences in these sperm to gain a better understanding of why PH levels are so important. First, the sperm responsible for conceiving a boy carry the Y chromosome. They are small, agile and must reach their destination quickly before they expire. They need an alkaline environment to reach the egg properly.

The sperm responsible for conceiving a girl carry the X chromosome. They are much larger, more durable and though they may take longer to reach an egg, they have a greater chance of living long enough to do so. They prosper in an acidic environment.

Choosing the right foods to balance your PH levels appropriately may indeed have an impact on the gender of your child. Let's take a look at what foods are important to include in your diet for either sex.

Eating for a Boy

If you want to have a boy, foods that contain potassium and sodium are very important. They are non acidic by nature and will boost your alkalinity. The recommended foods include bananas, sweet corn, red meats, and even sausages. It is important however that you eat these foods in moderation and include a healthy and balanced diet for proper health. Having too much sodium is never recommended. Stay within proper dietary guidelines at all times.

Eating for a Girl

In order to have a girl, you need to focus on foods that will boost acidity in your body. They include foods that are rich in magnesium and calcium. Broccoli is the perfect example of a food that contains high levels of both. Other foods you can eat include grapefruit, apples, dairy products, some fish (farm raised to avoid high levels of mercury) and leafy green vegetables.

What to Remember

Everything in moderation is key as well as proper nutrition. While there are other methods of selecting your child's gender naturally, combining them with a proper diet will increase your chances for success. Ask your doctor if you have any questions about the foods that you should be eating.

Learn more by visiting www.PlanMyBaby.com

Ways to Get Pregnant

The decision to get pregnant and to expand your family is an exciting moment of your life. Once you have decided to have a child enter your life, the next steps are to make sure we do everything possible to get pregnant by natural means if possible. There are a variety of ways to get pregnant easily by changing your lifestyle today. To live a healthier life, you are more likely to enjoy these ways to get pregnant and have a healthy body for your baby’s future!

Look for changes in lifestyle that can help you get pregnant more easily in the future. If you have recently discovered that you are already pregnant, it is possible to adopt these changes and reap success. It is never too late to be healthy for your child! Most of these recommendations are based on traditional wisdom coupled with the statistics. Some mothers and babies do not follow all these tips of a great lifestyle, but it is always better to be safe when you are responsible for the life of another human being. Some of the best ways to get pregnant through a healthy lifestyle are the following:

What to Eat? Whatever goes into your body will go into the body of your child as well. This fact alone should make you rethink some of your choices. Prefer to eat "junk food" rather than a balanced diet? You need to reconsider some of your food choices every day so that your child is getting all the nutrients and vitamins that he or she needs now. There are a number of foods to avoid during pregnancy. Some of these foods are considered at risk even if you were not pregnant, but with the increased risk of carrying a child, some of these foods should be avoided at the risk of complications or problems. Some examples are fish high in mercury, soft cheeses and sushi.

Are you in shape? Carrying a baby takes a lot of work. It is logical therefore that the more normal your body weight and strength were prior to pregnancy, the better you will be while carrying your child. It takes a lot of strength to make your job easier. Furthermore, strong abdominal muscles and good fitness will help you throughout the nine months and when the work begins at last during childbirth. Try to maintain a level of physical activity throughout pregnancy if you have consistently worked out before you conceived. Never push yourself and always follow your doctors orders

Taking drugs, alcohol or smoking? You know that excessive drinking of alcohol is not healthy for you, so participating in these activities, while your baby is sharing your blood does not make much sense. Both legal and recreational drugs can also affect the growth of your child. Consult your doctor to ensure that medicines that are prescribed may not affect your baby. Avoid smoking and alcohol to give your child the best chance of being born healthy and strong.

Heard of folic acid? Even before pregnancy, doctors prescribe folic acid as one of the ways to get pregnant safely. Most doctors recommend folic acid supplements for pregnant women, because women do not get enough in their daily diet. Folic acid is important to take well before you actually get pregnant, so you should start taking at least a month before trying. What it does is help prevent certain neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida.

By following a smart and healthy lifestyle, you will be doing your best to contribute to a healthy conception and pregnancy. For much more comprehensive guidance to maximize the odds of getting pregnant, check out Personal Path to Pregnancy, the International best-selling fertility guide here

IVF - Price Should Not Hold Back Your Dream of Parenthood

If you and your partner have been struggling to conceive a child for a while, you may be feeling the need to press on by using ART techniques like IVF to get pregnant. In this day, this is becoming increasingly common since more and more couples are waiting until their thirties to get pregnant. In fact, infertility rates around the world have skyrocketed over the past several years. Rather than making you feel depressed, though, this fact should give you hope. With the increase in infertility came better infertility treatments, of which IVF remains the most popular. If, however, you can’t afford the typical IVF price, you still shouldn’t give up; there are plenty of tricks to saving money on IVF and other ART treatments.

Adding Alternative Therapies

When you first look at alternative therapies – such as acupuncture or massage – to add to your IVF treatment, you may think that they simply add to the overall cost of IVF. These treatments, however, may mean that you pay less in the long run by making IVF more successful in fewer rounds. Acupuncture, for example, has proven quite effective in raising a couple’s chances of becoming pregnant through IVF; one study showed that couples who used acupuncture with IVF were about 24% more likely to become pregnant, and a few studies have shown that couples who use acupuncture with IVF are less likely to have miscarriages. Because alternative therapies increase the success rates of IVF, they drop the potential overall cost.

Minimal Stimulation IVF

Traditional IVF was created to help women with blocked tubes become pregnant, and the whole process usually involves injecting a woman with some pretty heavy drugs to help her ovulate. The goal during standard IVF is to harvest as many eggs as possible, and usually more than one egg is implanted, which gives couple’s a higher chance of pregnancy but also a higher chance of a risky pregnancy with twins or triplets.

This new MS IVF procedure, which is really only new in the United States since it’s been practiced in Europe and Japan for several years now, refrains from the heavy injected drugs, which cuts down the cost significantly. Instead, women undergoing MS IVF will be given an oral drug that only slightly stimulates ovulation, and the physician will only harvest one to two eggs. The rest of the process is the same as IVF, and its success rates are fairly close to those of traditional IVF.

Because the injected drugs make up a huge chunk of standard IVF costs, MS IVF is a whole lot cheaper. The average cost of a single round of IVF is about $12,000, but the average cost for a round of MS IVF is about $4,500. Both procedures usually take more than one round to show results, but even if couples must undergo several rounds of MS IVF, the total cost is probably cheaper, and women are much less negatively affected by the less potent MS IVF drugs.

Medical Tourism

When it comes right down to it, most medical treatment is simply more expensive in the United States than it is in other countries. This is why many couples are turning to medical tourism to lessen the costs of IVF. While this may seem strange and far-fetched to you, if can actually save you a ton of money. Remember that $12,000 price tag on a round of IVF? Well, that cost drops dramatically, and one round of IVF in someplace like South Africa can drop to about $5,000. In fact, most couples even save money after buying plane tickets and hotel rooms and such, and they get to go somewhere new, which can be a fun way to relieve some of the infertility-related stress.

What You can Do

Before deciding to forego your dreams of having a child simply due to the cost, be sure that you look at all of your options. You can also find infertility insurance or buy an IVF package from a clinic. At any rate, there is no reason to let cost deter you from having a baby if you do all the research first.

This article is based on the book "The Full Embrace™ IVF Success Program" by Diana Farrell, M.A. Diana’s books on enhancing IVF success have been sold all over the world, and she has helped many couples overcome their infertility with IVF and realize their dream of parenthood.

Find out more by visiting her website: www.IVRSuccessProgram.com

Pregnancy Diet Plan - Discover Lacto-Fermented Foods

A pregnancy diet plan must include a regular intake of lacto-fermented foods. These are foods preserved the old fashioned way (before refrigerators or freezers). Eating these foods provides a natural food form of a probiotic.

Lacto-fermented foods to include in a pregnancy diet plan are:

• Live sauerkraut, pickles, salsa and chutneys (fruit or vegetable)
• kimichi
• Yogurt
• Kefir
• Grass-fed cheese
• Crème fraiche

*Live means they are not shelf stable and must be refrigerated. This is because they were not heated (pasteurized) or made with vinegar, but with whey and/or salt.

There are many health reasons why these foods are an important part of a pregnancy diet plan.

1. Help reduce constipation
2. They are a great natural vitamin C source
3. Increase B vitamins
4. Increase intestinal good bacteria
5. Help neutralize anti-nutrients (those substances in food that make it hard on your body to absorb the good stuff).
6. Strengthen the immune system
7. Post-baby benefits-encourages lactation and helps baby build their good gut bacteria

They should be used as a condiment in a pregnancy diet plan. When looking for pre-made lacto-fermented foods-remember they have to be refrigerated (cannot be stored on the shelf), made with whey and/or salt (not vinegar). You also have the option of making your own which is worth the time to reap their benefits.

Below is a recipe for a lacto-fermented food to get you started on your way to having a healthy pregnancy diet.

Pickled cucumbers
4-5 pickling cucumbers 1 Tbsp mustard seeds
2 Tbsp fresh dill, snipped 2 Tbsp Celtic sea salt
1c filtered water

Wash cucumbers well and place in a quart-sized wide mouth mason jar. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover the cucumbers. The top of the liquid should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to the refrigerator.
(Note: recipe from Nourishing Traditions)

Laura Flynn, Registered Dietician, is Co-Author of The Fit and Healthy Pregnancy Guide - your source for holistic coaching on pregnancy nutrition and exercise. Visit www.FitandHealthyPregnancy.com for Free Special Reports and articles.