Week 20: Time to think about strengthening your pelvic floor.

BirthWatch Tips
  • The top of your uterus is at the level of your belly button. Visible Embryo
  • Now is the perfect time to try prenatal yoga to condition your body for childbirth as well as increase comfort with your changing body. BabyCenter.com
  • When the baby moves, try contracting all the muscles in your bottom and pelvic floor for 10 seconds. Work your way up to 40 seconds.
  • Watching birth videos can help desensitize you to the sights and sounds of what childbirth is really like. Lamaze International
  • Lamaze International, together with InJoy videos, have produced the best, smartest birth videos out there and published them in their website's video library at lamaze.org. Watch these six, short videos to find out what you can do to have the most normal, safest, fastest and natural birth possible. Lamaze Video Library
  • Learning how to relax is a great skill for keeping you mentally balanced now, increase your comfort during labor and to help you cope with postpartum and parenting frustrations. Relaxing is simple to learn but takes practice to master: You'll need: 1) A quiet environment, 2) A mental device (word, prayer, chant, sound or a fixed gaze at an object) 3) A passive attitude (don't worry about how you're performing), and 4) A comfortable position. Take 10 minutes to breathe slowly and deeply while you focus your attention on a sound or object while emptying your mind of all thoughts. By the end of 10 minutes, you'll feel relaxed and even a little sleepy.
  • Work to increase your confidence that you will birth your baby naturally and normally by only listening to positive birth stories. Talk to friends who enjoyed the physical effort of labor and found joy and pleasure in birthing their children.
  • Your inner wisdom and knowledge will guide you during the process of birth. You already posses everything you need to birth Your baby.

Tips for Week 19

Tips for Week 21

BirthWatch Recommends:

What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

This book is facinating and if you're going to read a book on baby's brain development, do it now. There will never be time for it after baby is born! Just a facinating look at infant and early childhood brain development by a neuroscientist and mother of three. You will be a better parent (or at least a better informed parent) after reading this book.

See All Reading Recommendations For the Second Trimester