Through her lens, is a collection of life experiences from the perspective of a Traditional Chinese medicine masters practitioner, trained yogi and truster of nature

So you are pregnant, you may be early in the journey or well on your way to seeing how fantastic your body is. At this point in time it is powerful to understand and know your options in regards to pregnancy care and support. In Western countries the options may seem endless or minute.

Where to begin?
This is a list of what I recommend you focus on at this moment in time.

Your heart -
What is on your heart? A beautiful way to check in to this is to ask yourself through meditation or even with just closed eyes. What do we see for this pregnancy and this baby. Allow all to arise. No judgement, just let it all come, the joy, the fear, the control and ideas. All of it. Write them down and then see where you could place your energy in regards to it.

Your diet -
What you eat becomes part of you and as such part of your growing baby. Using the art of artful eating so you glow as you both grow. Identifying what your pregnancy dietary needs are, are dependent on you and what I like to call ‘intuition’ or your nose. When we follow our nose we eat what we need in that moment. In some regards this may mean we end up opting for a high calorie high fat burger that satisfies all senses, I encourage you to accept that as a one off necessity and trust your baby loved it too.
As always however, preparation like with most things, is key. When we live very over-extended lives the more prepared we can be the better. Eating good quality snacks and having meal options already set out can really support you to make better choices. I’ll delve more into what personally became my diet below.

Your physical activity -
Although I am not qualified to recommend what is right for you during your pregnancy journey. What I feel I can contribute is that if you are an avid trainer - reducing your training will not be a bad thing for your growing body and baby. If you are a bit of a couch potato - getting moving will keep the blood flowing around your body and support you and your baby. When it comes to what type of exercise to do during pregnancy, I can’t recommend connecting with practitioners focused on prenatal and postpartum. Places like Newlife Health club in Caringbah, where both Zo and Steph offer pregnancy focused PT/EP.

Your support team in pregnancy and birth -
Having a support team throughout your pregnancy is one of the most empowering ways to help yourself maintain health and wellness, both inside and out, and create strong ties to people who know you. This team will be made up of people that you feel are going to be there to support you throughout the whole process, including after your baby human arrives.
So in the early weeks and months I recommend considering what it is you hope this pregnancy looks like? Most of the time your tribe will show up when you need it and in ways that you want or ask for. Remember the power of your thoughts in creating your dreams.

Questions I recommend asking yourself when working out what sort of pregnancy experience you want to have -

What do I want for my pregnancy? to trust my body; to be held; to learn all the facts.
What sort of care can someone provide? Doula - loving care; Birthkeeper - space. holder; Midwife - medical risk based care with tools such as support and medication; Obstetrician - medical risk based support with tools such as medication and surgery.
Have I considered how I want my body and mind to feel through pregnancy? Do I want to focus on that?
Have I considered the epic-ness of birth of not just being a physical event? Does this feel important to me?
Have I considered what sort of postpartum I would like to experience? Do I want to be left alone? Do I want options? Do I trust my caregivers to give me what I need during this time? Do I trust myself to ask for what I need?

These questions will line you up with what you need for your journey, they will offer you insights into how you should proceed. You will feel good about your choices and if you find yourself choosing from fear, work on what is causing those fears and try again. Fear is never a great place to act from. Unless you are in fact running from a lion or bear or snake.

10 months of growing a baby -
Whilst being on a fertility journey for a longer time than one hoped, pregnancy itself can seem like quite a short period of time. In TCM each month of pregnancy correlates to the growth of the baby energetically in accordance to the organ system. When I treat a patient I am mindful of what might naturally be acting up as they move from month to month and support them accordingly. This goes much deeper into the expansion of your little one.
There are a lot of ways to connect more deeply to this sort of energy and at large many of the things we know about certain times in pregnancy I believe can be correlated. (I’m excited to be cooking something with much more depth, check in again soon).

Pregnancy pondering -
I often ponder a question when it comes to pregnancy - “Is it better to know?'“ This could be in regards to the sex of the baby, results from blood work, scans, etc. We can just about confirm that pregnancy and the overall health state of the mother during this time impacts the baby now and into their future. So this question for me often lands on is knowing the ‘answer’ going to make me feel more at ease or more anxious? Is the ‘answer’ going to serve me to find tranquility? Will I feel more empowered with knowing this ‘answer’?

Consider asking yourself - Is this anxiety/feeling about the what if’s of pregnancy going to be healed by an ‘answer’? and go from there. Wherever your intuition leads you is a fantastic place to put your trust.