Women - info you need to know about pregancy, women's health and beauty

I am a mother of four lovely children as I recently given birth to my 4th boy. My worst pregnancy is my third child where I experienced the worst morning-night sickness and tiredness. Surprisingly, the 4th pregnancy is the most relaxing, however, I find that the food craving I had appeared the same when I'm carrying a boy.

Chinese believe after birth, the mother needs rest and nutrition food to nurse her body. Some engage confinement lady to help take care of the baby and mother and cooking confinement food for the mother which is full of ginger and wine to get rid of the body wind so that the mother will not have body ache when she grows old. Speaking of confinement lady, it is important to get experienced confinement lady who really knows how to cook and give advice to mother.

For first time mom-to-be, get yourself ready for the pregnancy and childbirth process by reading up information or joining a childbirth course to understand and equip yourself with knowledge on what to do or not to do during pregnancy and delivery. Decide if you need Epidural during delivery as the doctor cannot administer the injection at a last minute request when you realize you cannot bear the pain.

A great way to learn is by asking friends or relatives that have gone through the pregnancy-childbirth process to share their experience with you.

Common questions from first time mum-to-be can be:

• "Can I color my hair?
• "What pregnancy exercises is for me?"
• "About delivery and labour pain"
• "Getting back into shape after delivery"
• "About morning sickness"
• "Can I consume Chinese bird's nest/swallow nest during pregnancy and after childbirth and what are the benefits?"
• What is Thalassemia and how it can affect the baby

Childbirth education courses play a vital role in helping you prepare for the birth of your child, whether you plan a medicated or unmedicated birth. Research supports that higher levels of childbirth education directly impact how positively a woman perceives her birthing experience.

This is true even for mothers who have experienced complications during birth; they experience lower levels of anxiety and are better equipped to deal with complications because they understand the necessary procedures and interventions.

Online Childbirth Education

is a comprehensive natural child birth education program divided into 14 separate lessons. Also included are a Birthing Workbook with tips and activities for each lesson as well as a Vocabulary Pack to ensure you understand common pregnancy and childbirth terms. In this course, learn about the different stage of labor, relaxation techniques, natural pain relief, preparing for birth, best birth position, newborn procedures etc.
Click Here to know more about this course.

HOOKED ON JUNK: Eating during pregnancy

What you eat while you're pregnant may actually set the tone for your children's health habits. When researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in the U.K. fed pregnant rats the equivalent of rat junk food, their babies were born craving the bad stuff. They also ate twice as many calories as baby rats whose mothers weren't fed the junk food.

Many investigations of conditions from ADD to aggression to cognition problems and thinking have shown a connection to low levels of omega-3 fats. I think taking a high quality essential fatty acid supplement is one of the most important things a woman can do while she's pregnant. Your baby's brain is about 60% fat, most of it DHA one of the important omega-3 fats found in fish and supplements.

Moral of the story: when you're pregnant, you really are eating for two. If it's something you wouldn't feed to your baby, don't eat too much of it. What you eat- and don't eat- while pregnant matters a lot!

Posted by Dr. Jonny Bowden

For parents of young children, it is important to understand your Child's Development Pattern. By recognizing the developmental patterns of early childhood, parents can help provide guidance and activities suitable for their children and ease their transition from one stage to the next.


Baby cry for a number of reasons, click here for an article on the crying reasons.

A recent US study found that women who get drunk at least once a month are 6 times more likely to suffer a heart attack compared to women who don’t drink enough to get intoxicated.

Women, who have a lower alcohol tolerance compared to men should not consume more than 360ml of beer, 150ml of wine or 45ml of spirits a day. Excessive and prolonged alcohol consumption can damage heart muscles.

It is recommended to eat before and while drinking to slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream and women are advised to choose mocktails or mixers over hard liquor and to sip it slowly.

Do you know that heart disease and stroke is the world’s number one killer among women? The disease claims the lives of more women each year than any other disease.

A person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease increases with age. On average, 80 per cent of these who die of coronary heart disease are aged 65 and above. Do you know that heart disease and stroke is the world’s number one killer among women? The disease claims the lives of more women each year than any other disease.

A person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease increases with age. On average, 80 per cent of these who die of coronary heart disease are aged 65 and above.

The main risk factors contributing to heart disease are high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, smoking, stress and lack of exercise.

So if you are a smoker with high cholesterol levels working in a highly stressful environment, your risk of contracting the disease is reasonably multiplied.

Take time off, exercising at least twice a week, quitting smoking and restricting your diet to lean meat and vegetables will contribute to a healthier heart.

If you like to know more on Contraceptive, here's a great site to visit and read up www.contraceptivereviewer.com

Women’s Health Concern

There are few conditions that affect women. Although women live longer but also make more trips to the doctor and experience more pain and more chronic conditions.

Osteoporosis

The most significant degree of bone density loss occurs in the first 2 years after the menopause, so this is when it is absolutely critical that you maintain sufficient calcium levels. Take bone density test every few years after the age of fifty allow women to monitor how their bone density levels fluctuate. When bone loses density, they become porous and lacy and fracture more easily.

Daily requirement of calcium needed is 1,500mg level for postmenopausal women. Supplement should also include vitamin D which is necessary for the absorption of calcium. This vitamin has to be added to foods such as milk, orange juice and soy milk or acquired from sunshine. If you are lactose-intolerant, shop for lactose-free items or take lactase enzyme to help with digestion of daily products. If that’s still a problem, rely on a calcium supplement with vitamin D to meet your requirement.

The other strategy is to make sure you do regular weight-bearing exercise such as walking or working out with small weights. Weight-bearing exercise is all-round exercise for your heart and your weight management.

Breast Cancer

The key risk factors include having a mother or sister with breast cancer, early onset of menstruation or a late first pregnancy. But then it can also strike for no clear reason.

Recent research shown that being overweight can increase your chances of developing breast cancer. If you are postmenopausal and overweight, you are at a 30% greater risk, if your BMI is in the obesity range, your risk is twice what it is for people of normal weight. It also appears that saturated (bad) fats raise your risk, too. Excess alcohol consumption has also been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Between 5 and 10 percent of women will be diagnosed with PCOS sometime during their reproductive years. PCOS is a condition associated with insulin resistance, which leads to hyperinsulinaemia and often obesity. What this means is that the body’s ability to get the sugar out of the blood is defective; the cells are unusually “resistant” to insulin. The pancreas must then secrete more and more insulin to get the sugar out of the blood and into the cells. These high levels of insulin wreak havoc in the body, causing polycystic ovaries, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, increased risk of heart disease and by the age of 40, up to 40% increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes or lack of glucose tolerance.

To sum, women need:

Headache

Headache whether it is normal headache or migraine is caused by two main factors.

The first factor is related to the muscles. This happens when people over eat, especially if their daily food intake consists mainly of meat, which produces acid materials within the body systems. The acid materials will then cause muscle contraction, which lead to headache.

The second factor causes a type of headache known as vessel type headache. This type of headache is caused by over eating of white refined sugar. This causes our body to lack vitamin B, which disturbs the nervous system that controls the vessel. This type of headache is more common among women rather than men.

Constipation

When people are under lots of stress, this system will eventually present itself. People with constipation problems will show symptoms such as bloatiness, reduction of appetite, burning sensation of the stomach and gas in the stomach. They will also feel extremely thirsty, shoulder pains, headache, dizziness, fatigue and ill temper.

The method suggested in treating constipation is to correct their eating habits, for example eating natural food to increase bowel movement. People should build up the friendly bacteria in the bowels (which reduced tension in the intestine) and exercise regularly.

A Simple Way to Cure Constipation
(This recipe suggested is not effective to constipation that is due to high fever)

Black sesame seed 15g
Ginseng 10g

Grind black sesame seed into powder.
Decoct Ginseng in 200ml water for 15mins then discard residue.
Add black sesame seed power and some sugar to Ginseng solution.
Bring solution to a boil then off the heat.
The drink is ready to serve.

Eyes are the windows to our souls.

If you have puffy eyes due to late night, computer work or even reading, here's a few suggestion to reduce the puffiness:

• pour boiling water over two chamomile tea bags and allow the tea to cool and then chill the tea bag in fridge. When ready to use, squeeze out the excess water and place them over the eyes, lie down, relax for 15mins
• tapping our orbital bone around the eye sharply with our middle finger, moving along the bone to circle the eye, helps to drain the fluid from the area which causes puffiness
• stainless steel teaspoons which have been chilled in the freezer work effectively at reducing puffy eyelids. Lie down and relax and press the backs of the chilled spoons on the eyelids for a few mins.

Women's Beauty Care

Our lips do not have sweat or oil secreting glands and thus tend to dry out very quickly. Using saliva to moisture the lips merely contributing to the drying effect.

Trying applying lip balm made of wax-based or better still homemade lip balm which does not contain any petroleum-based ingredient.

Using a fork, mash 1/4 ripe papaya flesh into a juicy paste. Lie down on a towel and apply a generous amount of papaya pulp to the lips and skin round the lips. Leave on for 15 mins and rinse off with warm water.

Papaya contains skin-smoothing enzymes which can boost the appearance of the skin around the lips which is prone to fine lines and wrinkles.

Make your own lip balm by using 30ml of sesame oil, 20g of grated beeswax, 1 tsp of honey and 5 drops of peppermint essential oil. Melt the sesame oil, grated beeswax and honey over gentle heat in a double boiler. When melted, add the peppermint oil and remove from the heat. Stir until thickened and pour into small, sterile container and allow to cool.

Add 10 drops of beetroot juice to the mixture if you want tinted lip gloss.

Hands and Nails

Our hands and nails always suffer most from harsh weather and heavy work such as cleaning or gardening. There are quite a few good all-natural hand creams on the market but you can also create DIY hand cream at home which is inexpensive and pure.

Apart from hand treatment, eating for healthier nails are equally important. A common cause of brittle nails is thought to be iron deficiency. Too little Vitamin A and calcuim also cause nail dryness and brittleness while a lack of Vitamin B result in excessive dryness and nail fragility.

Tiny white spots that move up the nail as it grows out can signal zinc deficiency. Take sufficient essential fatty acids (EFAs) such as omega-3 and omega-6 such as flax seeds, linseed and oily fish are high in EFAs and they helps to lubricate from the inside. Consume beneficial fats and minimize harmful fats.

Discolored nails - Clean them with lemon juice and scrub them in whie wine vinegar.

Mix 1 tsp of honey with 2 tsp of almond or olive oil and massage into hands after washing and drying. Put on a pair of cotton gloves and sleep in the treatment. Wash your hands in the morning.

To harden your nails, soak your nails daily in warm almond or olive oil (which can be used over and over again) and then wipe the hands clean or you may massage the oil left on the skin until it sinks in. Good thing is that you can store the leftover oil for reuse time and again).

If you wear nail polish, you must use polish remover but most are very drying. You can add a few drops of almond oil to the bottle of polish remover which helps to put back some of the oil that the polish-stripper takes out (remember to shake well before each use). Always choose polish remover that is acetone-free.

Remember to wear protective gloves to protect your hands from harsh chemical during cleaning like washing dishes, floors, windows, cleaning the bath or gardening.

DIY Lemon Hand Cream

Squeezed out juice of one lemon into a measuring jug and add the equal amount of almond oil. Melt 1 tsp beeswax in a overproof bowl over a pan of hot water. The almond oil will be floating on top of the lemon juice; scoop of some of the oil and add to the beeswa, stiring until the wax has melted. Add the rest of the contents in the measuring jug; heat and stir until blended. Stir until cool with a wooden spoon and add 5 drops of lemon oil, drop by drop. Transfer the cool mixture to a clean jar and shake the mixture occasionally until the lemon hand cream is cold.

DIY Cuticle Softener

Mix the egg yolk with pineapple juice and add the lemon juice and lemon oil. Soak nails in the mixture for 15 mins and push the cuticles back gentle with a rubber hoof stick. Winter Hand Saver

During winter our hands gets drier than usual. Try mixing 1 tbsp organic granulated sugar, 2 tbsp olive oil and 3 drops of your favorite essential oils and combine them in a small bowl and dip your fingers into the oil. Massage gently into rough, red skin, calluses, cuticles and knuckles, all the way up beyond the wrist joint. Sit and let the mixture sink in for as long as you like before removing with a towel soaked in hot water. You may do this treatment while in the bath.

Natural Deodorants

Our bodies have two types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. The eccrine glands act as the body's thermostat and their sweat has no smell. Odour comes from the apocrine glands (under the arms, around the nipples and in the genital area). Made up mainly of water and salt, the sweat is fairly benign until it comes into contact with the skin's bacteria which feed on sweat and break it down causing the body odour.

DIY Natural Deodorant