Pre-pregnancy Preparedness: Important Health Moves Before You Start Trying

If you're planning a pregnancy, you shouldn't wait until you're pregnant to start thinking about your health. Just because you don't have a fetus to worry about yet, it doesn't mean you can continue making unhealthy choices. Paying attention to your health when you're trying to have a baby can help you get pregnant. A healthier body can be better prepared to have a baby, so you might get pregnant quicker or have an easier pregnancy. There are also some health issues it's wise to address before getting pregnant, like vaccinations or checking if you're a carrier for common health conditions. These are some of the things you might want to do before you start trying for a baby.

Stop Smoking and Drinking

Smoking is bad for you and, if you get pregnant, bad for the baby too. If you smoke while you're pregnant, you can increase the risk of your baby having a low birth weight or breathing problems. It can also mean you have a higher chance of miscarriage or premature birth, as well an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). While you could stop smoking when you find out you're pregnant, it's better to try and do it before you start trying for a baby. Drinking during pregnancy can also cause problems, including fetal alcohol syndrome if you're a heavy drinker. You should cut out or at least limit your drinking while you're trying to get pregnant, especially as you could be pregnant for a while without realizing it.

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Maintain a Healthy Weight

Being overweight could make it more difficult for you to get pregnant, and if you need fertility treatments, they could be less likely to work. There's also a possibility of some problems during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, gestational diabetes and blood clots. Losing weight before you try for a baby could help you to get pregnant and avoid problems when you are pregnant. A balanced diet and moderate exercise can help you to lose weight and to maintain a healthy weight when you're pregnant. If you want to adjust your diet, it's a good idea to get into healthy habits before you get pregnant.

Vaccinations

There are some illnesses that are dangerous to have while you're pregnant, but you might not be able to get vaccinated for them during your pregnancy. For example, rubella (or German measles) can cause birth defects if you get it during the first half of your pregnancy. You should make sure you're vaccinated, along with measles and mumps, at least a month before you want to get pregnant (if you aren't already fully vaccinated). Other vaccinations you might consider include chicken pox and hepatitis B.

Sexual Health Check

Having a sexual health check before you try for a baby is a good idea, and often a routine part of health checks when you're pregnant. Many sexually transmitted diseases can cause harm to a baby, either during development or during labor. Others, such as chlamydia, can affect your fertility. If you want to get tested before you start trying for a baby, you can find pricing and locations for nearby testing clinics. Both you and your partner should get tested, even if you've been in a monogamous relationship for a long time. If nothing else, it will help to reassure you. Some of the important infections to test for include HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. STDs don't always present symptoms, so it's important not to assume you couldn't have one.

Managing a Long-term Health Condition

If you have a health condition you need to manage, whether it's physical or mental, it's important to take this into consideration before getting pregnant. Being pregnant could cause complications or in some cases might mean that taking your usual medication is unsafe. The best thing to do is to talk to your doctor about what getting pregnant might mean for you. You might need to be monitored carefully during your pregnancy and birth, just to make sure you and the baby are as healthy as possible. You also could benefit from taking your condition into account when making certain decisions, such as choosing a hospital to give birth or a doctor to manage your pregnancy.

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Screening Tests

There are some things you might want to screen for before you get pregnant, in case there is a chance you could pass something to your baby. These include conditions such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia, for which you could be a carrier, even if you don't have one of these illnesses yourself. These two blood disorders are particularly common in people from certain ethnic groups, such as those of African, Caribbean, Mediterranean or south and south-east Asian descent. If you're of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, your doctor may also recommend testing for a number of conditions.

Visit Your Dentist

It's a good idea to also go to your dentist before getting pregnant. Gum disease could increase the risk of having a preterm or low birthweight baby, according to some studies. So it's important to get a health checkup for your teeth and gums to see if you might have gum disease and treat it. Even if you don't have gum disease, which many people do without realizing, you should make sure to maintain good oral hygiene so you can prevent it.

Take Folic Acid

Finally, you've probably heard that it's a good idea to take folic acid during early pregnancy. It's also recommended if you're trying to get pregnant. Folic acid helps to prevent birth defects, and it's recommended that you take it for three months before getting pregnant, plus during your pregnancy. 0.4mg a day is the recommended amount to take, in addition to a balanced diet. You can take it as part of a multivitamin so that you get some of the other nutrients you need to stay healthy too.

Start your pregnancy off right by paying attention to your health before you start trying for a baby. You could have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby if you do.

Moms: Quick Ways To Enviable Tresses

When you’re a mom, you haven’t always got lots of time to get ready. However, this doesn’t mean you want to compromise on your looks! You should still feel great about yourself when you leave the house - you simply need to change your routine so you can look great in a shorter time frame. Here are a few quick ways to enviable tresses to help you:

Spray In Some Dry Shampoo

Dry shampoo is a god send, whether you have greasy hair or not. If your hair is the kind that gets greasy quickly, dry shampoo can offer you a day off from washing your hair the traditional way. If it’s not greasy, you can still use it to give our hair a root boost. Simply spray it at your roots wherever you want a boost and massage with your fingers. 

Buy A Comb For Backcombing

Backcombing the hair is an age old technique that can help to give you more lift at the roots of your hair. It’s perfect when you’re trying to achieve certain styles, such as a messy ponytail, high bun, or even a simple voluminous down style. The key is to really go for it at the very root of your hair, and then smooth over to hide the tangle. It’s crucial you brush these out at the end of the day though, or you risk damaging your hair! 

Invest In Plenty Of Pins

Pins are a great way to create a multitude of quick hairstyles. By tying your hair up, you can backcomb various pieces and pin them, creating many different messy bun looks that can work for day or night. You can even use them to simply pin your bangs away from your face, or create a half up half down style. 

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Buy A Hair Donut 

A hair donut is perfect for those who don’t have much in the way of volume. You can simply place it at the base of your ponytail and pin your hair around it, creating a gorgeous bun. 

Find Some High Quality Hair Extensions 

If you need extra length, volume, or both, quality hair extensions are the perfect way to go. Tape in hair extensions look natural and are great if you’re looking to completely hide the fact you’re wearing extensions. However, you’ll need to research the different types out there to find the right set for you. Make sure you carefully color match your hair to avoid any embarrassing faux pas. 

Invest In Your Hair Health 

Something else you need to do if you want enviable tresses is to play the long game by investing in your hair health. This means sleeping on a silk pillowcase, eating nutritious food, exercising, and taking the right vitamins. When you’re consistent with these things you’ll find that the look of your hair improves and it becomes more manageable. 

Hopefully, these tips for enviable tresses have been useful to you. Do you have any tips for enviable tresses? Leave them below!

Stylish And Practical: Building The Perfect Kitchen

You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to appreciate a beautiful kitchen; something that sparkles in the light, radiates style, and is still practical enough to accommodate a family. Whenever you dream about giving your kitchen a makeover, you eliminate a lot of ideas from catalogs and magazines because they don’t seem functional enough to merit the expense. Fortunately, here are some easy and cost-effective makeover ideas to prove once and for all that practicality and style are perfect partners. 

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You Only Have One Body, so Keep It Clean!

We humans have, as of yet, failed to create synthetic bodies for ourselves. We have, thus far, failed to create robots for us to be able to put our brains into when we die. Despite it being 2017, these things are still yet to happen. And because these types of things have not yet happened, we humans still have only one body to call our own for a lifetime. And because we have only one body, we have to do all we can to protect it. And to protect our bodies, we must keep them as cleansed as can be. For advice on how to do so, make sure to read on.

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Don't Be Egotistic, Be Eco-Tastic

Just thinking about yourself and doing things to only better your own life will only get you so far. Thinking about others, on the other hand, will open up a whole host of opportunities. And thinking about the environment and trying to make an active difference in regards to climate change will open up even more opportunities, for both the rest of the world and yourself. Yes, by going green you could end up helping yourself, your fellow earth inhabitants and earth itself. Read on to see just how you can do it.

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Using Natural Light To Style Your Home

Every home benefits from careful lighting choices. You might use several table lamps or even candles to illuminate your living room. Fairy lights and chandeliers also offer a delicate ambiance that adds to the cozy effect you’re looking for. But are you using the natural light in the room to full effect as well? 

Natural light streams through any windows during daylight hours. This can be manipulated to offer different qualities of light, shadows, and even a gentle glow as you need it. Different times of day also offer different effects. The morning sun can be quite bright and yellow. At noon, you might notice the color change to a whiter, cooler quality. And as the sun goes down, everything warms up again with ‘Golden Hour’ before the moodiness of dusk comes into play.

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Using this light for the different rooms in your home can create styled effects you’ll love. The first thing to consider is the window itself. The larger the aperture, the more light might come in. Of course, the direction of the window will also make a difference. If it is facing away from the sun, the light will be cooler, whiter and not as strong. The room facing the sun will be bright, warm, yellow and perhaps difficult to manage.

Home Is Where The Health Is… Or At Least It Should Be!

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No one likes the idea of living in a home which impacts their health in a negative way. Of all the places in the world, this is the one place where you should be able to guarantee safety, security, and comfort. This goal can be hard to achieve if you don’t know what to look for, though. So, to help you out, this post will be going through some of the ways you can work to make your home a healthier place. Now, it’s just a matter of putting some time into it.

The air your breath is something you should be very conscious of, especially in areas with a lot of air pollution. Air filters can be purchased for your home, enabling you to clean the air before you suck it in. Along with this, though, it can also help to look into any other factors contaminating your air. A company like https://www.crawlspacecharlotte.com/mold-remediation/ can help you to identify and eliminate mold in your home. Mold releases spores which can have a negative impact on breathing, especially in young children and the elderly. Cleaning this sort of issue is very important, and will often require professional help.

With the air in your home sorted, you can start to think about the water you use and drink. Being made almost completely out of the stuff, people need to have a good, healthy source of water in their home. In some places, the normal water you get from the tap is drinkable. But, for a boost to the liquids you consume, you could consider a deionizer for your home. This sort of tool takes out a lot of the negative minerals from your water while filling it with ones you need. People often report that devices like this even make their water taste better.

Now, it’s time to look into an area which people don’t often consider when they’re raising their children; temperature. When forced to live in a house which is too cold, illnesses will be hard to get rid of, and discomfort will be very evident. Likewise, having a hot home can cause your kids to miss out on sleep. To regulate the way your home feels, smart meters can be used to control heat and cold in your home with ease and accuracy. In some places, these sorts of tools are going to be a legal requirement in the near future.

Finally, as the last area you should be considering, emotions are incredibly important in a healthy household. Whether you live alone or with a family, it’s critical to consider this part of life, or you may find the negative impact is hard to deal with. Healthy emotions can be hard to maintain in busy life. Of course, though, with the help of a professional group like https://www.aamft.org/iMIS15/AAMFT/, it’s easy to get the support you need. Some people will find this area to be a lot easier than others will.

Hopefully, this post will give you a good idea of what can be done when you’re looking for ways to improve the health in your home. A lot of people fail to consider these parts of life, instead choosing to keep things the way they are. Instead, though, a little bit of work can go a long way.