Category: Pregnancy Tips

Personal Development tips for Surrogate Mothers

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Working on your personal development may be a tasking for a surrogate mother. The reason behind this is because the psyche has a number of elements which makes it even harder to pinpoint where exactly to start. This guide is created to direct you in the path that will enrich your personal development goals as a surrogate.

For starters, adopt a positive attitude. This will keep you targeted on the more important things in life. It will help you to let go of any negative feeling or experience that you can no longer change. Thinking positive helps you move forward, to not focus on what you may have lost, but look at what is to come in life.

It also helps to be with optimistic and contented people. As a surrogate mother, make friends with those who are positive-minded and provide happiness to your life. They’ll help you stay on track by being good role models and will help you balance out any negative emotion that you may get from people who aren’t as supportive of your self-improvement objectives.

Keeping a journal is another great tip to help with your personal development goals. As a surrogate mother going through many life changes, maintaining a journal is ideal to keep track of developments and experiences. Always have a notebook with you so that wherever you are, you will be able to write down ideas in detail and then go back to it at a later time when you feel like it.

When busy at work, know when to take breaks. Taking breaks may seem counterproductive, but will actually help you recharge your mind, so when you resume work, you’ll be able to get more done.

Learning how to be a leader is another great personal development tool. Leadership may have many meanings, but all stem from one common theme- influence. Look over your own past as a surrogate, or the things that have impacted your leadership potential. Which events had the most impact on the way you live your life? What transformations have occurred thanks to these events? How did your leadership skills come into action during these experiences? Thinking deeply about these experiences will help you become a better surrogate mother and a good influence to others.

Exercising is suggested not to just to lose weight, but also to improve on how you feel about yourself. There are known physiological benefits associated with exercise, particularly for surrogate mothers. Not only does it keep your body in good shape, but it also causes your body to produce chemicals that will enhance how happy and satisfied you feel.

Showing a little humility helps you to focus not just on yourself, but other people as well. When you realize the value of others, you are sure to strengthen your relationship with yourself and your loved ones.

Last but not the least, try to sit back and relax. Don’t sweat the small stuff and over complicate things that can no longer be changed. If you overreact you might be stressed for no reason and that is a big no-no for surrogate mothers. Looking at the bright side of life will most certainly help you on a personal level.

Tips for Gestational Carriers

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From enhancing your mood to decreasing your risk for various health concerns, choosing your food prudently has numerous benefits. Listed below are some pointers on how you can maximize your health by means of the food that you eat while being a gestational carrier.

As a gestational carrier, make sure to mix protein and carbohydrates when you sit down to eat. You’ll still get energy from the carbohydrates, but the protein will keep you full. Eating a mix of the two will keep your blood sugar consistent and your appetite in check.

When it comes to your nutrition, it is best to keep the intended parents included throughout the whole process. This will make them feel enthusiastic and bring about a feeling of value and importance. Bring them to the store with you and have them help you pick out foods that they like and that are healthy for you and the baby.

One of the ideal things you can do to ensure proper nutrition as a gestational carrier is to include a good multi-vitamin in your day-to-day regimen. A good multi-vitamin for a gestational carrier should be balanced and prescribed by your physician’s endorsements for you, not the RDA. These multivitamins supply your body with the essential levels of diverse minerals and vitamins that you might not be getting in your diet. This will act as a nutritional supplement and will also aid in the growth of the baby that you are carrying.

As a gestational carrier, you must pay attention to the labels at the back of the food that you purchase in the store. Take the time to review the nutritional values on the packages before you make your purchase. Doing so will enable you to make educated decisions on your food options.

When considering your nutrition as a gestational carrier, be certain to watch out for foods that may look like nutritious snacks but are actually quite the opposite. There can be a lot of fats and sodium in healthy looking treats. Smoothies for instance, may end up having a lot of calories from fats and sugar depending on the ingredients they used. You are, after all, eating for two so it is vital for you to be attentive with what you put in your body.

Improving on your eating habits are critical to a lasting plan for healthy nutrition not just for you as a gestational carrier, but also for the child that you are carrying. The overall effectiveness of a healthy diet, revolves around entirely on whether or not you can stick to it.

How to Tell Your Family You Are a Surrogate

How to Tell Your Family You Are a Surrogate

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When you want to become a surrogate mother, it is not an easy task. Along with the numerous responsibilities before, during, and after the surrogacy journey, you will be left with the dilemma of letting your family, children and friends know of your decision to become a surrogate mother for others. Getting all the moral support you can from your family, children, and friends is very important for your surrogacy journey. The moral support your family can give you will help you cope with all the emotions you might feel during pregnancy.

It is important to remember that any pregnancy usually affects those people who are near and dear to you. Your immediate family should be the first ones to find out about your decision to become a surrogate mother. Your husband, parents, and children should be well educated on the surrogacy process. The best time to tell your immediate family about your decision to become a surrogate mother is when you have firmly decided on being a surrogate. Letting your immediate family know the reasons why you decided on being a surrogate will greatly help them understand your purpose and goals. Being truthful with them will help them understand and accept your decision.

Letting your children understand your situation as a surrogate will take a bit of time and patience. Remember that the reaction of your children will depend mainly on what you have told them. Explaining this sort of thing to your children will always call for sensitivity, and most importantly, the truth. You should also consider introducing the concepts and ideas of surrogacy to your children over a period of time, rather than all at once. For example, as you arrange a meeting with the intended parents, you can take the opportunity to bring up these ideas with your children. You can begin talking about families and what makes a family between television shows or after social gatherings with other children so that they can get the importance of family.

For your friends and other relatives, it is highly advisable to not let them know about your situation as a surrogate immediately. The best approach would be to let the pregnancy come up naturally in conversation. The more natural, confident, and happy you are about it, the more accepting they will be to you being a surrogate. If you are nervous and scared of their reaction, they may question your decision. Just remember that they won’t all accept or agree with your decision to become a surrogate mother and this should not affect you.

You should not fool yourself into believing that your pregnancy will not affect the people who are closest to you. It is vital for your family to be well prepared and supportive, and this is a very important aspect for your pregnancy to be a success. They need to fully understand that the baby is not going to be a member of your family. If you have children, you need to make them realize that they are not getting another brother or sister. They need to understand that you are merely providing a service for some couple who were not able to have a baby on their own. Surrogacy can be a very educational and socially expanding experience, not only for yourself and your family, but also your community.

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Should Pregnant Surrogates Eat Organic Foods?

Should Pregnant Surrogates Eat Organic Foods?

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The goal shared by all intended parents and surrogate mothers is to produce a healthy baby. To ensure that the baby develops properly, it’s very important for the surrogate to eat healthily while she is pregnant. More and more, intended parents are going a step further by asking their surrogates to eat only organic foods. While some surrogates are reluctant to do this, others are entirely willing – after all, it may improve their own health.

As with any significant decision, though, there are pros and cons to be considered.

The downsides include that organic foods can be much more expensive than the same type of non-organically-produced foods. This is due to their higher cost of production. A surrogate may be more willing to eat organic foods if the intended parents offered to pay for the organic foods she eats.

A related issue to that is the fact that organic foods can also be harder to obtain; not every grocery store or supermarket has such a wide selection of organics. They’re a specialty item, after all, and surrogates with fewer options for food-shopping (in rural areas or small towns, for instance) may have trouble shopping for organic foods.

And of course, not every food is available organically. There’s a real possibility that a surrogate eating only organically may have to miss out on some of her favorite foods for the duration of her pregnancy.

There are convenience issues, too. Organics, due to their lack of preservatives, can spoil more easily – shorter shelf-lives, which require more regular shopping.

But there are a lot of good reasons that intended parents ask their surrogates to eat organic foods. Insecticides and additives are potentially harmful if they are passed though to the baby during pregnancy. Organic foods lack insecticides and additives – those things won’t be carried through into the baby.

Health concerns have, from time to time, been raised over genetically modified crops, or meat from animals that have been fed those crops. Organic food, by definition, is not genetically modified, which removes those concerns.

Research has shown, additionally, that organic foods contain more healthy vitamins and minerals, possibly due to the lack of preservatives involved.

And as a side-benefit, if you’re concerned about how animals are treated, organic food is a much better idea. Organic farming requires that animals be fed a natural diet, and are kept (unlike mass-produced ‘factory farm’ meat) in much more humane free-range conditions.

So while organic food can be inconvenient at times and more expensive, it also does provide a much healthier choice for the surrogate and the baby. It’s a big decision that should be weighed seriously from both sides, but there are solid reasons behind why a lot of intended parents do want their surrogate mothers to eat organically during their pregnancy.

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Important Things You Need to Know After IVF

Important Things You Need to Know After IVF

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After an embryo transfer, a lot of tension and anxiety can happen. For first-time surrogates and intended parents, questions begin to linger in their minds – “Should I be on bed rest for the first two or three days?”, “What foods should I eat?”, “How active can I be during the two-week wait, and “Will our surrogate get pregnant?”

These questions are all important to comprehend, and advice can vary from doctor to doctor. The really important thing to remember is that there’s no guarantee of pregnancy through IVF – there are a lot of factors involved in the process.

Some common suggestions recommended by doctors are:

1. No heavy lifting for the first 48 hours after IVF transfer.

2. No strenuous physical activities like running or aerobics.

3. No alcohol, drugs or smoking.

4. No intercourse until a fetal heartbeat is determined.

5. Bed rest for the first two days after the IVF transfer.

It’s very important to remember that these instructions do differ between doctors.

As intended parents, if you want to be more sure that these instructions are followed, it might be helpful to assist – or have someone assist – your surrogate during the first two days after the IVF transfer. Run the errands that the surrogate needs done, prepare meals for her and her family, help with laundry and so forth.
The surrogate is likely to really appreciate your help while she’s on bed-rest, while you yourself would have peace of mind that the surrogate is following her doctor’s instructions.

In most cases, the transfer’s success is known after ten days. On the tenth day after the transfer, the surrogate goes back to the IVF clinic to see if the embryo has implanted into the uterus.

On Day 12 after the embryo transfer, the fertility clinic checks to see if the HcG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) level has doubled – if it has, then the embryo is properly growing.

The In Vitro Fertilization procedure is not 100% successful; not every embryo transfer will result in a pregnancy. In the event that it doesn’t, it’s important not to make any rash decisions until the intended parents have had an opportunity to discuss the outcome with the doctor.

The doctor may have some insight about why the transfer was a failure – poor embryo quality, poor uterine lining or genetic problems are all possibilities.

Surrogacy is never a certain process, and the better you understand it, the better you’ll be able to plan your next steps. Proper medical advice will help the intended parents understand the best way to move forward.

There are a lot of important aspects of surrogacy that need to be properly understood. Knowing them will help intended parents better comprehend the process of surrogacy.

The issue of bed rest after an IVF transfer is still under debate; so far, nothing has been proven. Remember, it’s at the discretion of your doctor to give all the necessary instructions to your surrogate – first and foremost, pay attention to your doctor’s advice.

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