The Five Phases of Prenatal Health

The health of your child is determined before you even conceive. We have within us the power to create an incredibly health child, and to experience and enjoy vibrant health during the process. We call pregnancy a five-trimester process, which includes: pre-conception, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimester and post-partum. Each phase is so crucial to the overall experience.

1) Preconception:

The quality of the egg and the sperm begin 90 days before the conception, so your habits, lifestyle and current state of health are all very important things to consider. We always suggest that the mother run a series of lab work in this phase, which includes, but is not limited to: running a complete hormone panel, including testing all four thyroid hormones, cortisol and DHEA (the stress hormones), doing blood work for heavy metals in the blood, checking for food sensitivities, candida/yeast, and any underlying viruses.

On your own:

TEST YOUR PH: Check and balance your pH, because the body must be in a balanced state to create an optimal environment for conception.

TEST YOUR THROID: Do a basal temperature test to check your thyroid. To do this, you put a thermometer under your arm upon waking and lie still for 10 minutes before checking it. If it is under 97.4 consistently, you will want to give you thyroid some support since it is the regulator of the body and a healthy thyroid allows for much quicker conception.

FIVE THINGS TO DECREASE:

Caffeine

Alcohol

Sugar

Soy

Gluten

FIVE THINGS TO INCREASE:

Greens

Raw Butter/Milk/Cream (see our blog)

Medicinal Bone Broth (see our blog)

Coconut Oil

Mineralized Water

A few other things to consider:

1: Strengthen the liver (Take a Greens Complex supplement, eat grass fed beef liver, or drink dandelion tea)

2: Engage proper food combining: do not combine fruit and carbohydrate/grains/beans/root vegetables

3: Prenatal Supplements: Prenatal Complete, (Mitocore for men), fish oil, Vitamin D/K, high-quality probiotic

2) First Trimester:

Nervous System and Brain

During pregnancy, you always want to make sure that you are nourished and taking time to eat, even if you are not hungry, because your baby will always take what they need, and if you aren’t nourished, that will create many nutrient deficiencies in mom. Your baby’s nervous system is forming in the first trimester and if you are not taking in enough calcium, your body will leach it from your bones in order to give it to your baby. You want to avoid this type of drain at all costs.

The four most important nutrients in the first trimester are:

Salt (trace minerals) – drink mineralized water, eat sea veggies, Himalayan and Celtic sea salt daily.

Calcium – leafy greens, raw nuts and seeds, especially sesame seeds.

Folic acid – 800mcgs in your prenatal and in asparagus, lentils, broccoli and citrus.

Protein – 70 grams/day.

3) Second Trimester:

Skin and Bones

Your baby’s skin and bones are forming in the second trimester, so he/she is requiring much more magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C and collagen than ever.

We recommend at this phase, switching your fish oil supplement for these three months to Green Pastures High Vitamin A Butter oil, adding in a food-based Vitamin C (Premier Research Labs makes a great one), drinking 2 cups of bone broth daily (assists in collagen production) and eating more foods that are high in magnesium like buckwheat, millet, nuts and seeds, and of course, raw chocolate. If you are getting muscle cramps, foot cramps, restless legs at night or headaches, then we suggest supplementing with a high quality magnesium oil (Health and Wisdom is our favorite brand). You do not ingest it; however, you do a 20-minute foot soak at night with 2oz magnesium oil to 64 ounces hot water.

4) Third Trimester:

Brain and Fat Layer Develop

Baby’s brain is growing quickly in the third trimester, and taste buds are continuing to develop. What you eat, your baby will develop a taste for. The lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory tree as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. Baby is first beginning to utilize their organs on their own. Baby begins to eliminate waste.

Foods that support lung function include lotus root and all antioxidants like turmeric, acai, cloves, apples and red, yellow and orange bell peppers.

The other food focus should be on pastured animal meats, high quality egg yolks, grass fed beef, wild fatty fish, lamb, turkey and the adding back of the fermented cod liver oil and butter oil blend.

5) Post-Partum:

Hormonal Balancing

Eat breakfast with protein and healthy fat within one hour of waking, make sleep a priority, avoid sugar at all costs.

Consider another hormone test and then balance hormones naturally working from the pituitary and the hypothalamus gland.

Take time for yourself. Include some stress reducing activates in your life like movement, yoga and or meditation.