Announcing the Arrival of your Baby - Birth Announcements

Babies are fun to have but the anticipation of their arrival and preparing for the baby can be just as exciting! And once your bundle of joy arrives, the joy and excitement is at such a level that you obviously want to announce it to the world. You want to share it at least with your friends and loved ones.

There are number of ways of sending birth announcements. Giving out a notice in newspapers is passé and too impersonal. The other two are sending hand written or customized birth announcements and sending e mails. One thing with e mails is that there is a chance that all may not have Internet access. Moreover, e mails too appear impersonal and designing one yourself to personalize it may require a fair amount of expertise in software that you may not be conversant with.

The age old custom is to buy cards at a card store and fill out information and post them. There are myriads of designs in birth announcement cards available in stores. Choose a card design and an envelope that appeals you the most. Refer to your Christmas card list and add any new names that you feel you should send birth announcements to. Put on your creative cap to add a personal touch to the birth announcement, which may otherwise appear mundane. For example, write a small poem that expresses your love for the baby to convey your feelings to recipients.

Howsoever excited you may be it would be a bit of a bother to arrange for all these immediately after the baby is born. You can of course order or buy in advance but that may require you to compromise on certain features that are determinable only after the baby is born.

However, in the present day scenario of fast communication, the Internet can help you in birth announcements just as it may have helped you in preparing for the baby: buying maternity clothes and loads of stuff that a baby needs immediately after birth. There are quite a few websites and online maternity stores that offer facilities for sending birth announcements, such as www.miraclemunchkins.com. They even offer choices for holiday birth announcements, and the darling driver’s license birth announcements!

Make sure that you choose two designs: one if it is a boy and second if it is a girl. The traditional way is to use a blue theme for a baby boy and pink for a baby girl but you may find some unisex themes also. Make sure to get envelopes delivered in advance. Keep envelopes ready: complete with addresses and stamp them if you are not using a courier service.

After the birth of the baby, click as many pictures of the baby as you possibly can with a digital camera. Choose the best of the lot and upload to send it to the chosen facility by e mail along with relevant information: date and time of birth and birth weight. You may also want to add the names of those present at the time of birth.

Once the photo cards are delivered, which is usually a couple of days after you send the details. You may also choose to give the names of your friends and relatives for printing each name inside just to show them that you care!

Welcoming a New Baby

Introducing baby Mark, my sweetest and best project of the year:

July 17, 2011

12:27 a.m.

9 pounds, 20 inches

We're all in love. He is so sweet, wonderful about sleeping and eating, and just the cuddliest little guy.

Obesity, Overweight, Fat pregnancy Risks Low IQ Baby

Despite the headlines health and nutrition consultant and fertility expert from Foods for Life, Yvonne Bishop-Weston in Harley Street London said today "It's fine for mothers to eat for two if they eat whole food rather than half food. If mother's focus on a diet rich in low GL plant foods such as vegetables, beans, fuit, berries, nuts and seeds, it's much harder to overeat and much easier to get a full complement of the fibre, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, omega 3 essential fatty acids and anti oxidants to ensure the optimum health of mother and baby. There's no maternal nutritional need in a coffee and a doughnut, your body will likely crave another in half an hour, not because "baby wants one" but because your body's requirements for nutrients are still unfulfilled"

From Daily Telegraph

Research, published in international journal Obesity Reviews, examined findings from across across the world on the impact of maternal weight on child development.

One study found that every increased unit in the pregnant woman's Body Mass Index (BMI) - calculated as her weight in kilograms divided by the square of her height in metres - was associated with a "significantly" reduced IQ in the child.

Overall, the average IQ of children of obese mothers was five points lower than those born to mothers of healthy weight, according to the study, one of 12 examined by researchers in psychiatry and behavioural neuroscience from McMaster University, in Ontario Canada.

Research from Sweden found children born of overweight mothers were more likely to suffer from attention deficit problems, while findings from Japan found every extra BMI point added in early pregnancy increased the offspring's chance of developing schizophrenia in adulthood by 24 per cent.

A study of Australian teenagers suggested their chance of having an eating disorder increased by 11 per cent for every extra BMI point gained by their mothers during the pregnancy.

Research has found that one in six women in this country are obese by the time they are three months into pregnancy - a proportion which has more than doubled in two decades, amid an obesity epidemic.

A study, led by Teeside University, found massive variations in levels of obesity among expectant mothers cross the country. In London, 13 per cent of mothers-to-be were obese, while in the West Midlands, the figure was 22 per cent. The study suggested more than 100,000 babies a year were at risk of dying or suffering serious problems because of the risks from obesity, which puts a woman's body under extra strain, when it is working to nurture new life.

Obesity in pregnancy increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clots, miscarriages and still-births, while layers of fat can mean serious defects can be missed in scans.

Earlier this year, a study found that rates of foetal and infant death are twice as high among those born to obese mothers.The study found that 16 in 1,000 babies suffered fetal or infant death if their mothers had a BMI greater than 30 in early pregnancy, compared with 9 deaths per 1,000 babies among those with a healthy BMI.

Big babies - those weighing more than 10 lbs - are around twice as likely as other babies to end up obese as adults.

Separate studies have found increased dangers of developmental problems like spina bifida and neural tube defects in infants of obese mothers.

Jane Munro, from the Royal College of Midwives, said more research was needed to establish whether the apparent risks highlighted in the latest study were a direct result of maternal obesity.She said: "There are some clear risks from obesity that we already know about- hypertension, pre-eclampsia, larger babies, an increased risk of having a baby born by Caesarean section, and that the child is more likely to become obese. "

Nutritionist London Yvonne Bishop-Weston said "Most of the headlines are focused on too many calories, the dangers of eating for two. Whats more important is eating whole food rather than half food. It's far easier to overeat on food that has vital nutrients refined, processed and bred out of it for the sake of a longer shelf life. So much of the food that is ubiquitously available has little or no positive nutritional benefit to offer us. Mothers and babies in particular need omega 3 essential fats not highly processed vegetable and saturated animal fats. Eating processed fats, saturated animal fats and too much omega 6 found in meat and products with sunflower oil will make it much harder for the mother to process essential omega 3 fats into the DHA fats needed to build baby's brain, heart, eyes and other vital organs."