Pregnancy Questions

When it comes to getting pregnant there are both the medical facts and a little common sense required in order to improve your ability to have the baby you have always wanted. Before trying to get pregnant it is always wise to consult with a medical professional to ensure that everything is ok and that the conditions are right so as to achieve your goal.

Once you have completed a preliminary check-up you need to put together an ovulation calendar. This will help you pinpoint when you are ovulating and the optimal time conceive.

Once that step is completed, it’s time for the woman to get to know her body a little better by making an ovulation calendar, i.e. finding out when, exactly, she ovulates. Because every woman’s body is different, this can vary slightly for each individual. The process of figuring out when a woman is fertile, however, is uniform.

The average menstrual period is twenty-eight days. The average ovulation period is two to four days. To get a general idea of when you begin ovulating, and assuming you have a twenty-eight day cycle, simply count forward fourteen days from the first day of your period. If your cycle is twenty-nine days, count fifteen days forward, and so and so forth. Remember to adjust accordingly to your individual cycle.

Simply taking your temperature every day is another way to chart ovulation. Your temperature will elevate slightly, a few tenths of a degree to be exact, while you are ovulating and remain elevating throughout your period. Using both a thermometer and an ovulation calendar will help you to pinpoint when your body is most fertile.

Once you have a good idea of when you are ovulating, it is time to enjoy some intimate time with your partner. It is important that you both enjoy this time and avoid letting the attempt to conceive turn intimacy into a stressful or obligatory activity. This is important not only for psychological reasons, but also because physically both people achieving orgasm has proven to help successful conception.

Post-coital activity is also an important part of getting pregnant. After intercourse it is important for the woman to prop her hips up to help the sperm get to the fertile egg. Since an egg stays fertile for about two days, frequent intercourse will help to increase the chances of getting pregnant.

The first step to getting pregnant quickly is getting to know your body. With just a little help and a few changes in your lifestyle, you could soon be welcoming a new family member to your life.

by Dr. Noel Swanson

We all are familiar with bad parents, those that are critical of their children, intolerant, and self-absorbed. But how can you be a good parent? What do you need to do to give your children the very best start to life that you possibly can?

In the 1960’s John Bowlby did a lot of work looking into the effects of parenting on children. In those days he coined the term “good-enough parenting”. His thesis was that provided you avoided the sins of “bad” parenting, you were doing okay, and your children, with their own natural resilience, would also do okay. So is that all there is to it? Or are there things that you, as a parent, can do to be more than just a “good enough” parent. Can you, indeed, be a “super parent”, even the “ultimate” parent? Or is that just a myth of the feminist movement?

Well, let’s get one thing straight once and for all: No one is perfect. Try as you might, you will never be a “perfect” parent. You will never get it right every moment of every day for every year of your children’s growing lives. Nor do you need to. […] Continue Reading…

by Dorthy Weatherbush

Everywhere you look, you’ll see the signs of an obesity epidemic in the United States. Adults struggling with their weight, levering themselves into and out of cars. Many so morbidly obese that they’ll circle a parking lot four or five times before parking rather than be forced to walk an extra hundred feet.

For some people, this is tied to genetics - there are several genetic triggers that, when we lived hand to mouth as a species, were survival traits. Being able to store fat in prosperous times was an insurance of survival in the winter. Also in that calculus lies the fact that we have, as a population, become more sedentary as technology has progressed.

We must not allow our children to become victims of an over active appetite. If you pay close attention to the dietary counselors, you’ll discover that a slightly overweight child soon becomes an overweight teen. As you may have already guessed, this teen now becomes an obese adult. Unfortunately, abnormal weight gain is the least of the problem. The major issues center around the many diseases associated with childhood obesity, including asthma, diabetes and some cancers.

Preteens, […] Continue Reading…

by Dr. Noel Swanson

Following are questions asked by parents of special needs children:

1. How do special needs children understand cause and effect and also rewards versus punishments? Do they understand the same as other children?

The fact is that this is not an issue. No matter what type of living being you are we akk have an interest in reward versus punishment to some level. Think about the bottom of the food chain such as a cockroach. Cockroaches despise the light and live to move around in the dark hours of the night. They associate good feelings with dark and bad feelings with light. They might not think about it, but rather just feel it based on experience and instinct.

If you flip on the lights you will see roaches hurrying towards darkness under a couch or a crack in the wall. They sense the light and know that a feeling of punishment is headed their way. They know that if they head towards darkness they are heading towards a reward. This repeat reward makes them always want to scramble to the darkness.

But roaches are not trainable. To be trainable, you […] Continue Reading…

by Daniel Morgan

Using an organic natural baby soap on your child is not only safe for them but also for the environment as well. Such products contain no kinds of artificial ingredients, which are likely to cause irritation to their sensitive skin.

As you will soon discover there are numerous different types of natural organic baby soaps that one can select from today. However, you may find that there are some that are better suited to your child than others. But along with these kinds of soaps being safe for use on young babies and children, these can also be ideal for other members of your family as well.

The problem with actually purchasing commercially made organic soaps is that they are more expensive than other ones that are not. So if you would like to use only natural products on your child’s skin and save yourself money as well you could always have a go at making your own soap instead. All you will need is a few pieces of equipment including a couple of saucepans, some gloves and goggles as well as the natural ingredients. Below we take you through the steps of […] Continue Reading…

by Daniel Morgan

More and more parents of newborn children prefer to purchase organic baby toys rather than the more traditional ones. Simply because not only are they much safer for their child to handle but they are also much kinder on the environment also. But what you will find is that even though the materials used are organic the toys will still provide a baby with hours of fun and enjoyment.

Along with more traditional wooden toys made using sustainable wood there are plenty of soft toys that one can get as well. Plus as we all know babies have a habit of actually putting everything in their mouths and buying toys, which are free of chemicals, are ideal for them.

When looking to buy any kinds of organic baby toys for your child there are certain requirements that need to be met for them to be classed as such. Below we take you through some of these requirements that should hopefully help you when it comes to finding out whether the toy you want to purchase is an organic one or not.

Should you be looking to buy wooden toys for your baby although the label may […] Continue Reading…