As many of you know if you’re following this blog, May is Pregnancy Awareness Month. The advisory team at P.A.M. promote the initiatives of education, nutrition, exercise, and wellness/nurture. All of these initiatives are things that I have devoted a lot of time to researching and implementing in my daily life throughout my first pregnancy and beyond. It’s reaffirming to find an organization that is committed to informing women about how to attain the best possible outcomes for their pregnancies and their lives of raising their children well. Too often we take for granted the wealth of wisdom available to us. In this information age, we as strong, independent, and intelligent expectant mothers need to take responsibility and control so that we can work towards the best outcome. Your doctor or midwife can’t MAKE you eat healthy and exercise. You have to ensure that you are getting a healthy well balanced diet, you have to get off your potentially growing gluteus maximus and exercise, you have to take your prenatal vitamins every day, you have to drink plenty of water every day, you have to ensure that you are eating enough protein. It’s up to you. No one can do it for you!
While studying education in college, to terms were used to describe to different groups of people. Those that view the world with an external locus of control and those that view the world with an internal locus of control. An external locus of control describes people that feel that the world is acting upon them. When things go wrong it’s the worlds fault. When things go well, it just luck. An internal locus of control describes people that take control of their lives. It’s not the world acting upon them but them acting upon the world. They can make good come out of bad situation and take the opinion that they can do better next time to achieve a better outcome. We need to be of the internal locus of control perspective because we can affect our pregnancies with the choices we make. If we ask questions and find the answers; if we strive to eat as healthy as we possibly can and exercise for not only our benefit but also our babies; if we cleanse ourselves of all the naysayers and take control, we can achieve healthy pregnancies, unmanaged labor and deliver, a healthy baby, and a speedy recovery.
It’s up to us. We can make a difference in our pregnancies. Get informed and commit to being healthy. It’s well worth the effort.