The pain of cracked and bleeding nipples is truly horrendous and if you’ve experienced it then you’ll know exactly how excruciating it can be. If you plan to breast feed there are a few things you can do to try to avoid sore nipples. Prevention is better than cure!

·         Give your breasts plenty of exposure to fresh air, this will keep them healthy.

·         Ensure your breasts are fully dry after showering, gently pat dry and rub in some oil to keep them supple.

·         Don’t wash them with soap as this will dry out your skin and remove the skin’s natural oils which can help prevent cracking.

·         When you start breast feeding allow a small amount of the milk to dry on the nipple as this will keep them supple.

Technique is also important when breast feeding.

·         Make sure your baby has the entire nipple in the mouth and not just the teat. Your mid-wife can watch you give a feed if you are unsure.

·         Try different positions, your mid wife can show you the various ways in which you can try feeding. 

 ·         Try feeding frequently so your baby is not so hungry that they are grabbing and pulling at them out of hunger.

Prevention is always better than cure but if you are suffering, try vitamin E and talk to your mid-wife who can give you professional advice and guidance.

Author: Phillip Dye  It’s quite important that you drink enough water during your pregnancy and postpartum period. This will help ensure that your pregnancy is a healthy one. Water does a few things for you.

·         It helps your kidney and liver functions (and those of your baby also),

·         It flushes waste from your system cells.

·         It helps with your body’s expansion.

·         During pregnancy your blood volume will increase quite a bit. Because of this, without enough water, you could experience pre-term labor, miscarriage, constipation, or an increase in fatigue.

·         Without enough water, milk production and flow will be hindered. 

Here are some important facts every pregnant woman should know.  

1. A pregnant woman needs between eight and twelve 8-ounce glasses of water a day. She should drink even more if the weather is hot or if she’s been exercising. 2. Don’t always use thirst as an indicator to drink In fact, a lot of times, we don’t experience thirst until dehydration has already begun. It’s better to dehydrate ahead of time.

3. Do not try to substitute sodas or other caffeinated beverages for water. These will actually cause your body to dehydrate faster. Therefore, they do not and should not be counted as part of your daily fluid intake. The less you drink of these while pregnant, the better.

4. Increasing your water consumption will actually help with your feelings of tiredness. So the next time you feel a bout of fatigue coming on, try drinking more water.

Stretch marks are generally associated with pregnancy, although they are often caused by rapid weight gain.  

They are the result of the skin stretching rapidly which causes the dermis to tear. They first appear as reddish or purple lines but with time will generally fade to empty silvery lines.  

Do creams or oils help? 

Other effective moisturisers containing delicious smelling ingredients could not be proven to prevent stretch marks or improve the appearance of them but did improve skin texture. Not good news really but a study did find that pregnant ladies who used creams containing centella asiatica extract, vitamin E  and collagen-elastin hydrolysates had fewer stretch marks than those who used no creams at all. 

So ladies plaster on that cream every morning and evening and just hope for the best. 

Should you find that you really can’t cope with your stretch marks there are plenty of treatments such as carboxy therapy, this involves injecting CO2 gas into your stretch marks. It’s said to have great results but can be more expensive than a pot of cream. 

If you do get a few, don’t worry, your body has just done an amazing job and has some marks to prove it!

If you are finding being a parent completely overwhelming and unable to lead a normal life you could be suffering from post natal depression.  Having post natal depression does not mean you are an unfit mother. Post natal depression is an illness and affects one in ten women. Sometimes it can be really hard to admit to what you are feeling inside. You may want to show everyone what a great mum you are while inside you feel that it is all too much.  

• Can’t sleep

• Can’t eat

• Feeling really weepy

• Really irritable

• Feeling completely hopeless

Theses are just a few of the ways you may be feeling, looking after yourself and the baby could leave you feeling like it’s just too much and you can’t cope.  Don’t suffer, you must talk to your health visitor or G.P who can help you. If you can’t go alone confide in your partner or friend about how you are feeling so they can go with you. 

Don’t struggle on a lone, no-one will make you feel like a failure, this illness affects so many women and it is an illness not a sign that you are not a good mother.

The first few weeks after giving birth can leave you feeling emotional.

You may be feeling happy one minute and then find yourself bursting into tears the next minute for no apparent reason. This is completely normal. 

·         Feeling over emotional

·         Totally irrational

·         Irritable

·         Anxious

·         Depressed 

These feelings are all completely normal, your hormones will be going through lots of changes after giving birth but usually settle down after a few days. 

You should start to feel better and find it easier to cope after a few days, most mums all feel completely stressed and exhausted at times but if it is affecting you leading a normal life then it could be a sign that you have post natal depression.