Tips For a Healthy Pregnancy
There are so many things out of our control when it comes to getting pregnant, having a healthy pregnancy and the health of our babies. Medical science and research don't have all the answers. Some women are told they can never get pregnant, then they do. These are miracles given to us by the divine and Angelic forces, who are always working with mothers and babies to support their health and development. Others, sadly, are unable to conceive and have no clear reason why. Fortunately, there's much women can do to support their health so that they can conceive, have a healthy pregnancy, and give birth to a healthy baby. In this article and the accompanying radio show I share with you some of the most important aspects of having a healthy conception and pregnancy.
What to Avoid When Pregnant
We are all aware of the the common things to avoid when pregnant, such as smoking and alcohol. But there are some other important things to keep in mind that may not be as obvious.
Pesticides
If you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, buy organic foods when you can. If you aren’t able to buy organic, I understand, that’s ok, just do what you can. If it comes down to buying some fruits and vegetables organic and others conventional, it’s best to buy foods with thick skins that can be removed for your conventional produce, like bananas, mangoes, melons, and avocados. When possible, try to get leafy greens, celery, cucumbers, apples, berries, and potatoes organic.
More importantly, however, is to avoid pesticides that are being sprayed in public places and even in your own home. At public parks and other places with big lawns like golf courses, trucks come on a regular basis to spray pesticides over all the grass and plants. Try to avoid exposure to these chemicals as much as possible when pregnant because these pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are not good for the baby’s development. They are also dangerous for young children and anyone who is around the sprays.
You can call the department that oversees the park and ask which days they spray, then avoid the park on those days. The same goes for any other big lawn you are visiting, like a golf course. Even if they say the lawn on the other side of the park is being sprayed that day, the wind can still carry the harmful chemicals to where you are. By calling ahead and avoiding the days that they spray, you will be protecting your baby’s health and your own health.
In your own home when you are pregnant or looking to conceive, avoid spraying pesticides at all costs. Even if there are bugs in your home, find another way to escort the bugs out of the house rather than automatically reaching for the spray. Try to avoid spraying outside of your home, as well, as this still puts your baby’s health at risk. If you live in a community like an apartment complex or condominium community, ask your landlord not to allow pesticides to be sprayed around your unit. People are typically open to accommodating pregnant women when it comes to protecting their baby’s health.
Chocolate
As a man, I’ve never been and never will be pregnant myself, but I understand that pregnancy food aversions are real and very challenging, especially in the first trimester. One thing I suggest avoiding, however, is chocolate in all forms, even the so-called healthy raw cacao. Cacao is too much of a stimulant for developing babies and it is not a health food when you are pregnant. While chocolate is not healthy, it can be a helpful tool in very specific circumstances, such as when overcoming a smoking addiction. You can learn more about that in my Addictions radio shows and blog posts. Chocolate is filled with alkaloids, which are toxic to the baby in the womb. That is why it’s helpful to keep all forms of chocolate out of the diet when you are pregnant or trying to conceive.
Sensitivities During Pregnancy
Although there are women who feel strong and healthy during pregnancy, it’s really a small fraction of women compared to the very large percentage of women who have pre-existing underlying health problems that show up or worsen when they are pregnant or after the birth of their baby. These women may have underlying conditions that aren’t yet causing too many symptoms, but then they get pregnant and suddenly they experience a lot of symptoms. For example, some conditions women deal with during pregnancy are preeclampsia, severe fatigue, gestational diabetes, eczema, depression, hair loss, aches and pains, anxiety, migraines, insomnia, thyroid problems, and more. In these cases, there was likely a low-grade viral issue that was already present and pregnancy triggered it into worsening.
What’s happening is the mother’s reserves go into the womb to protect the baby, leaving her more vulnerable to feeling existing health problems or sickness. This is very similar to why symptoms appear or worsen for women during menstruation. Eighty percent of a woman’s immune system is going into her reproductive cycle every month. And when you’re pregnant, you’re using that 80% almost all the time. My advice to is build up your immune system reserves before you get pregnant. Your immune system should be as strong as possible so that you can be in good health for your baby when you conceive. I realize it doesn’t always work this way and you may not have been expecting to become pregnant. If you are not able to work on your health before you conceive, you will still have every opportunity to support your health and your baby’s health during pregnancy and after delivery. You can do this by eating better and doing all the other things for your immunity that we talk about here and in my books. You can learn more about strengthening your immune system before getting pregnant in my radio show and blog post.
Don’t let these things keep you in fear about getting pregnant or having babies. Rather, prepare and be mindful so you can do your best to prevent possible problems. For example, preeclampsia is caused by an underlying viral condition, a truth that is unknown to medical science and research. And rashes and fatigue occur after pregnancies because of viral conditions, as well. This is why focusing on strengthening your immune system and lowering your viral load would be helpful before conceiving.
Difficulty Getting Pregnant
Medical communities are now in the habit of blaming pregnancy issues on the thyroid, but we have to know and remember this truth: there is another underlying issue affecting the health of pregnant women, and it’s not their thyroid. As I share in my book, Life-Changing Foods, the Epstein-Barr virus is often what is keeping women from getting pregnant. I know many women who weren’t able to get pregnant but after working with the information I have shared to lower their Epstein-Barr viral load, they were soon able to become pregnant. There is so much misinformation around thyroid health today that is leading women to believe their thyroid can prevent them from becoming pregnant. This just isn’t true and this new trend isn’t helping women to truly understand their bodies or even their thyroid. You and your loved ones need to know the truth about what’s really happening with your thyroid, and that’s what I share in my book, Thyroid Healing.
Some women are unable to get pregnant and it’s a mystery because the reproductive system seems to be in working order with no obvious problems found by their doctor. The family’s doctor may do tests and conclude that everything should be normal for both the man and the woman. What could really be happening is that the woman has a viral issue that is preventing her from becoming pregnant. However, if it’s not a viral issue at all, it could simply be a matter of retraining the reproductive system.
Birth control, the pill, is not just a hormonal pill. It’s a mindset. It’s like a mantra that a woman who doesn’t want to get pregnant says over and over in her head, even if she doesn’t realize it. “I don’t want to get pregnant. God forbid if I ever get pregnant. I hope I’m not pregnant. It’s not a good time in my life right now to get pregnant.” These are just a few examples of the mantras that are common. There are endless possible mantras because of complicated relationships and situations. Someone could be in a relationship that they don’t feel is ready for a child to be brought into or they may feel they need to focus primarily on their career for a while longer before having a baby. Women who are not ready to have children have these mantras on repeat, even if it’s in the back of their minds nestled in there on autopilot. Their partner may also have it on repeat. This trains the reproductive system to be underactive, meaning it's running on low battery. Women are mentally telling their reproductive systems month after month and year after year to never get pregnant.
Then suddenly one day, a woman is ready to conceive but her reproductive system has been trained to be switched off for so long that it needs some time to charge up. A woman ready to conceive must now focus on firing her reproductive system back up and changing her program. You can create a new mantra to tell yourself such as, “It’s time to get pregnant.” Drinking plenty of raspberry leaf tea every single day, even six to eight cups a day, can also be extremely helpful for a woman who wants to get her reproductive system in the best shape possible for conception.
It’s also very helpful to take long walks and tell your reproductive system, “I’m sorry I told you not to get pregnant. But now it’s time and I need you. It’s time to get on board.” You need to reboot your ovaries and uterus; turn it all back on. You can even try this exercise: When you go to bed at night, pretend you’re plugging a wire into your reproductive system and charging it up, in the same way you charge your phone at night. Every night, put your hand on your reproductive system for half an hour and visualize light filling the area. Ask the Angel of Fertility out loud to put light into your womb. You can read more about this healing exercise in my book, Life-Changing Foods.
If you’ve been telling your body not to get pregnant over and over, even if it’s been for over a decade or more for many women, there’s hope to turn it around. You can tell your reproductive system to charge back up and get on board. You can tell it you’re ready now. I’ve watched women become pregnant from doing this exercise I shared with them countless times over the decades, especially when they also address any underlying health issues that may be contributing to difficulty conceiving, such as viral issues.
Foods That Improve Breast Milk
In order to understand the foods that aid in breast milk supply, we must first understand the makeup of breast milk itself. Breast milk is mostly sugar and on average it only has 1 to 1.5% protein. Some healthy women have breast milk that contains an even lower percentage of protein at 0.75% while others have up to 2.5% protein. Every woman’s body is different. It’s very low in fat and very high in carbohydrates. This is critical to understand because unfortunately women are often afraid of eating a piece of fruit because of what they’ve been told by well-meaning but misguided health professionals.
The reason breast milk is so high in sugar is for the baby’s development and growth. Surprised? Yes, baby’s development and growth. The glucose needs to be very high in order to develop the brain of the baby. The baby needs more carbohydrates than anything else in order to grow and develop properly.
The reason I’m so passionate about sharing this information is that mothers are sadly given the wrong information every day. Women are told to eat more protein and more fat, but too much protein and fat will actually decrease your supply of breast milk. High protein, low carb diets are actually bad for breast milk production and bad for babies. I can’t tell you how many mothers I have worked with who had a very low breast milk supply and they got their milk back by eating potatoes. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates while pregnant, the baby won't be getting what the baby truly needs.
It is essential to focus on the good carbohydrates while pregnant and breastfeeding. Focus on potatoes, especially non-sweet potatoes, like russet and yukon gold. If you are going to eat grains, enjoy the highest quality grains like millet and quinoa. If you’re going to eat animal protein, don’t let it completely dominate the diet. Try to make room for other healthy options, such as important healthy carbohydrates. Don’t let it stop you from eating lots of fruit and potatoes. Some women are very lucky and don’t have problems with their breast milk supply even if they eat a very unhealthy diet that’s low in carbohydrates. This is because they already have a strong storage of glucose in their liver, but this is becoming less and less common.
Try not to be afraid of fruit. I highly recommend reading the chapter in my book, Medical Medium, titled Fruit Fear if you’re concerned about the sugar in fruit. It’s important to know that gestational diabetes does not occur from eating fruit or potatoes. It occurs from putting cheese on that potato or from eating ice cream, which is a bad fat and bad sugar combined. I also explain how the combination of too much sugar and fat in one meal or snack can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes in my book, Medical Medium.
The True Cause of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Medical science and research are unaware that the true cause of PCOS is an Epstein-Barr virus infection. This is something I talk about in great detail in my book, Thyroid Healing. Women with PCOS are usually told to eat lots of eggs. While this advice is given by all medical communities these days regarding PCOS, unfortunately it is the worst advice possible for someone who has PCOS. As I explain in Thyroid Healing, eggs feed EBV, which in turn worsens the PCOS. For women with PCOs, it’s critical to focus on healing the EBV infection with the foods and supplements I share in Thyroid Healing.
Supplements
All women are recommended to take prenatal vitamins during pregnancy. However, I do not think it is necessary because most of the vitamins sold in stores are not high quality or effective. My suggestion is to take Hawaiian spirulina and Barley Grass Juice Extract powder. Take about one teaspoon of each every day. These healing foods do more for a woman and her baby than any prenatal vitamins do or can offer extra support while you’re on a recommended prenatal.
If you are going to take a prenatal supplement, try to find one made of whole food ingredients which is as close to the original food source as possible. This is what will be most helpful for the baby.
Also, taking one drop of nascent iodine daily, even if you don’t think you have a thyroid condition, can be very helpful. Just one drop a day supports a healthy pregnancy and protects the mom and the baby. In addition, take one milligram of methylfolate daily or every other day when you’re pregnant.
(Note from Kay: I would also recommend taking good quality cold pressed Omega 3 Oils)
Herbs
During pregnancy it’s best to stay away from taking any supplemental herbs, unless you are working with a trusted and knowledgeable practitioner that has you using herbs for a very specific reason. But for the most part, keep the herbs out of your routine or to an absolute minimum. A little bit of peppermint tea, nettle leaf tea, or lemon balm tea is generally fine. It’s more important to focus on high quality foods as your source of nutrition than too many supplements while pregnant.
Moving Forward
If this is the first time you are hearing this information about eating enough carbohydrates while pregnant or that you can retrain your reproductive system in order to conceive, it’s because medical science and research and medical and alternative health communities are not yet aware of this information, nor how critical it is for the health of mothers and their babies. I have worked with countless mothers and their babies over the decades and the truths I have shared here are vitally important for this sacred stage of life. If you have already had one or more babies and you didn’t eat a high carbohydrate diet during your pregnancies or know to charge up your reproductive system, you can still consider incorporating this information into your next pregnancy. As I said, it means you already had sufficient glucose in your liver and your reproductive system was charged up enough to conceive and birth your babies. This article is here to provide helpful information for any woman who wishes to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy going forward. There is so much misinformation out there and I want to be there with you to help walk you through this special time of life with as much health and ease as possible.
