Women's Health and Issues

In this guest article, Marin mom and Pilates trainer Jennifer Raby shares her top five Pilates ab moves to help keep your New Year strong!

Looking to keep your fitness resolutions on track? Your core will thank you for adding these moves to your New Year's workout!  I love these Pilates ab exercises because they can be done anywhere… at home, the office, outside, wherever! No equipment needed, just a mat, and some space to move. Plan: 6 to 12 reps 3 to 4 days/week, choose healthy foods, include cardiovascular exercise, and start to see your 2013 core transform!

Tip: Keep the five basic principles of Pilates* in mind when doing these exercises, this will help give you an edge on doing each move with ease (see *BP key below).

1. Rolling like a ball
   Start position: sitting with spine flexed creating a "c" curve, knees and feet together, feet a few inches off floor, toes pointed. Hands on shins or under knees, shoulders down.
   

Both my children were born at Marin General Hospital. Overall, it was a great experience—their staff is awesome and they’re a great resource for new parents. Not only were we well taken care of, but we were also able to take advantage of the wide variety of classes offered by MGH to help smooth things along for new and expectant parents. These classes are offered to the public.

Some of the classes available at Marin General include prenatal and postnatal instruction classes for expectant parents, infant care, CPR, breastfeeding help, a father class, a free mom’s support group, and help for siblings adjusting to a new brother or sister.

They also offer a childbirth and infant-care “value package” for $170 per couple. This seven-class series covers pretty much everything you need to know about bringing home a new baby, and includes topics like breastfeeding, post partum expectations and realities, care of your newborn, and home and car safety. Classes are two hours each, and the first three classes can be taken as a single one-day childbirth class. Programs take place in MGH’s convenient location at 250 Bon Air Road in Greenbrae.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Melissa Lapides, Marin mom, licensed marriage and family therapist, and parent educator.

As a mother, it is sometimes hard to find peace in a busy day. I am not just talking about the kind of peace that you experience by the few valued moments that you actually get to sit down and relax, but about the inner peace that makes you feel connected to your purpose in being a mother.

Sometimes you can get so caught up in the daily routines and emotions that it is hard to connect to what you are really working towards as a parent. Raising children can feel busy and repetitive at times and sometimes you can loose sight of what you are really trying to accomplish. Are you working towards how many activities you can successfully get your children to participate in or are you working towards raising your children to be self-confident, self-reliant adults.

As a parent, you want to provide not only love and compassion, but also rules and guidelines to live by so that you can send your child out into the world with a sense of value and self regard. The main point in discipline is not to have children become good followers, but to have children develop a sense of self-discipline and worth.

When you can connect to your own sense of purpose as a parent, the role becomes so much more rewarding and the daily repetition can feel much more meaningful. If you are going about the day without a sense of being connected to your purpose as a parent, the child will internalize these feelings and have a harder time connecting to their own sense of worthiness.

Parents and parents-to-be in Marin have another valuable resource with the opening of Pomegranate Prenatal Yoga and Parent Center in San Anselmo. Located in the heart of downtown San Anselmo, Pomegranate is a sanctuary for expecting and new families in the area, offering prenatal yoga and other movement classes, birth and parenting education programs and workshops, community resources, a mama boutique and more.

Parents can drop in for a class at the center for $18, or become a Pomegranate member and enjoy unlimited yoga and childcare. Monthly memberships cost $89 and include unlimited yoga and movement classes, free childcare (offered Thursdays and Fridays), and discounts on classes, workshops, and purchases in the boutique.

Come check out Pomegranate at their grand opening celebration this Saturday, October 6, from 11 am to 2 pm. Enjoy live music, face and belly painting, family yoga, and mini spa treatments.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by skin care expert, fashion blogger, and local mom Stephanie Wong.

Did you know that 80% of aging is due to environmental factors? Only 20% of aging is due to genetics. You can take small steps today to prevent the signs of aging. Remember these eight tips to keep the wrinkles away!

1. Don’t sip through a straw. The pucker shape of your lips can increase the tiny lines around your lips. A sip from a straw now and then is ok, but drinking from a straw every day straw can lead to wrinkles.
2. Sleep on your back. By sleeping on your side for eight hours a night, every night causes the creases to become permanent wrinkles on your face. Prevent the face plant in your pillow and train yourself to sleep on your back.
3. Shade your eyes. With a pair of oversized sunglasses you’ll prevent UV rays from blasting the delicate skin around your eyes and hence, increase the effects of aging. Sunglasses also prevent squinting which cause, you guessed it—more wrinkles! That said, wear your shades even on cloudy days.

Looking for a yoga class for your little one? Check out Yoga for Kids at the Parents Place in San Rafael. Yoga for Children is for kids ages 2-1/2 to 5 years, and meets Fridays mornings from 11 to 11:45 am.

This four-week series runs from September 7 to 28 and includes a playful interpretation of classical yoga poses with songs, stories, movement, and quiet breath awareness practices. Parents are welcome to participate alongside their little yogis, if they like (parental supervision is required). This introduction to yoga is both fun and educational and helps build concentration and mindfulness in preschool-aged children.

The class is taught by Juliana Birnbaum Fox, MA, a certified doula, midwife assistant, and perinatal yoga instructor. Attendees should wear comfortable clothes that you can stretch in and bring a yoga mat.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Melissa Lapides, Marin mom, licensed marriage and family therapist, and parent educator.

Becoming a mother is a life-changing event for many people and usually women don’t know exactly what to expect. Many times you imagine your life as a mother based on stories you have heard from other women, media or your own relationship with your mother. You hear about the joys of motherhood, you hear about the changes in your relationships, you may even hear about how big of a transformation motherhood could be.

It is not always though that you hear the depths of how intense it is to devote yourself so deeply to another human being. Mothering is truly a deep practice of patience and compassion. Being able to nurture your children in such a way can be completely depleting at times. This is hard for most mothers to admit to one another.

Mothering is a practice of constant balancing and making sure not just the basic survival needs of the children are getting met, but also the physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Day in and day out of problem solving, nurturing and giving so much of yourself can be quite a task.

The Marin Alternative Mothers Group (MAMG) provides a community for like-minded parents interested in non-mainstream birthing and parenting. Find out more about the MAMG at their second annual Anniversary Picnic this Sunday, July 29 from 1–5 pm at Santa Margarita Valley Park in San Rafael.

Bring the family for face painting, a raffle, a silent auction, live music, and much, much more. Some of this year's fantastic silent auction prizes include a gift basket from Navitas Foods and gift certificates from Bella Boutique, Mama Massage, Mozart's Cleaning Team, Harbinger Cafe meal delivery, and Laura Kudritzki Photograpy. Bring your own picnic, blanket, and chairs, and come join in the fun.

MAMG was founded by Marin mom Ozzie Ozkay-Villa—whose son was born at home in 2010—after she wasn't able to find exactly what she was looking for through existing local mother's groups. She and her fellow MAMG moms have found that surrounding themselves with like-minded women who support their decisions about childbirth and parenting gives them a strong sense of empowerment and community. "When we get a new pregnant mom in MAMG I feel over-joyed because I know she will find the support that I didn't have," says Ozkay-Villa. "Every once in a while I have a mom email me and say something like "I found my people" and it just makes my day."

Marin Mommies presents a guest post by fashion stylist and mom Katie Rice Jones.

The last thing you want to be asked just after giving birth is, “When are you due?” No one who was just pregnant wants to still look pregnant. However for a short while during post, you still do. The key to limiting the annoying question above is to diminish what I call the “mommy pouch” (residual baby weight that collects around your waistline) with the right clothing and shape wear. Here’s what I recommend.

Camouflage the pouch with clothing…

• Sleeved wrap. This must-have piece can be fashioned over ten ways to disguise the belly. Plus it poses as an elegant breastfeeding drape. Find it at DKNY.com