According to recent statistics, over 70% of American women start breastfeeding their baby at birth but only 16% are still nursing when their baby is a year old. Following these tips will make a big difference.

Build a Support Network

Even though mom and baby are the ones breastfeeding, building a network of supportive people is key. This would include taking steps like: making sure your baby’s father strongly supports breastfeeding; educating family members close to you about breastfeeding; finding health care practitioners who are breastfeeding advocates and also knowledgeable; and making friends with other nursing moms who can be a source of information and support.

Nurse Early and Often

“Nurse early and often” is a tip that La Leche League, considered the world’s foremost authority on breastfeeding, has long advocated. Why? Breastfeeding soon after birth and frequently thereafter helps establish milk supply and helps mom’s uterus contract, reducing postpartum bleeding and other complications.

Babies are typically born ready to nurse within about 20 minutes of birth and the experience of many has shown that this is an ideal time to introduce the breast. Not limiting baby’s time at the breast, but rather nursing when he indicates the desire means mom will develop a healthy milk supply and avoid issues with plugged ducts or mastitis.

Avoid Artificial Nipples

While pacifiers have some benefits, they are best avoided in the early weeks when baby and mom are getting used to nursing. The same is especially true of supplemental bottles. These can disrupt the balance of supply and demand that makes breastfeeding work and lead to insufficient milk supply as well as confusion in the baby.

Despite what some Pediatricians or Doctors say, the experience of many mothers and breastfeeding experts over the years has shown that some babies do indeed have much trouble switching from breast to bottle. Wait until the baby is several weeks old to introduce bottles.

Give It Six Weeks

For some nursing couples (remember that it takes two to make breastfeeding work, and one of you may have more trouble than the other in learning the ropes!), nursing is smooth sailing. For others, it’s one challenge after another, but even for these nursing dyads, most of the time breastfeeding gets easy after the 6 week mark.

Take it one day at a time, but don’t give up too quickly. It’s surprising how often things just magically improve once baby matures a bit. Get help from a Lactation Consultant, La Leche League leader or another breastfeeding mom if you need it. Breastfeeding should not hurt!

Kidsurplus.com

BabyCatalog.com

There are some preconception planning  you want to do prior to getting pregnant.  You want to give your baby the best start in life by getting yourself healthy before you get pregnant.

Before pregnancy and having a baby you want to consider some preconception planning, the things you need to do to prepare for all the pregnancy stages.

Some things like chart your menstrual cycle, reading your cervical mucus and pinpointing ovulation. Other things like learning about pregnancy test, how to use it, how accurate the tests are and when to test and even dealing with fertility problems if any.

Here are a few preconception tips for a healthy conception:

• Preconception care visit with your doctor.. you can’t have a healthy pregnancy if you are not healthy yourself.
• Start taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid… think about what medications you should stop taking in the preconception stage.
• Get to your ideal body weight and keep it with a healthy diet… Eating healthy before you get pregnant will make a big difference in the health of your baby.
• Quite Smoking, quite alcohol and drugs…. do I need to even go here.  Do you know what these bad habits will do to your baby?
• Genetic History… getting a genetic screening may determine any genetic diseases.
• Minimize or eliminate exposure to toxins and infection… some toxins and infections may take awhile to get out of your system.
• Check your Immunizations… are you up to date on your shots.  You don’t want to get them while you are pregnancy because they could cause birth defects.
• Chart Your Cycles… it helps to keep up with what you need to do.
• Talk with your husband and get financially prepared.

As you can see preconception planning can go a long way.  You do not want to have to worry about these things after you are pregnant.

There are a lot of pregnancy signs and symptoms you want to know about as well. Pregnancy symptoms are different from woman to woman but understanding the signs and symptoms is important because the symptom you having could be related to something that is not pregnancy related.

Some of the symptoms to look far:

• Missed menstrual period.
• Morning sickness
• Fatigue
• Tender breasts
• Constipation
• Fainting
• Dizziness
• Weight Gain
• Swollen Feet/Ankles
• Frequent Urination
• Nausea
• Tired
• Vomiting
• Weakness
• Lightheadedness

Other things you will want to know about are the pregnancy types because there are many types of pregnancies and not all of them are normal and could cause some serious pregnancy complications.

You may want to consider cord blood banking .  The blood in your babies umbilical cord  is rich in stem cells which are used in the treatment of several life threatening diseases. Your baby may need them later.

Now that your head is spinning, you need to think about what you want to do after pregnancy ,like are you considering breastfeeding?

While nothing can guarantee a perfectly healthy pregnancy, following some simple advice can give both you and your baby the best chance possible just by some preconception planning.