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If I have this child? Why wasn’t it obvious to me that I already had a child, who was growing inside of me? Once you are pregnant, there is no if. That child, though tiny and in an early stage of development, already exists!
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Abby Johnson (Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line)
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When I’m asked today what someone might have said to get me to change my mind about having either abortion, I tell them it would be this: ‘What do you think would disappoint your parents most? To find out that you’d gotten pregnant, or to learn that you had taken the life of their grandchild?
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Abby Johnson (Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line)
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There is no right or wrong way to be pregnant, to become a mother, to make a family. There is only one way—your way, which will inevitably be filled with tears, mistakes, doubt, but also joy, relief, triumph, and love.
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Angela Garbes (Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy)
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The common perception is that when a woman is pregnant, she is most beautiful and radiates the perfection of her beauty and power.
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Reena Kumarasingham (The Magdalene Lineage: Past Life Journeys Into the Sacred Feminine Mysteries)
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The Dream of a Queer Fellow I write the words again and they appear doubly pregnant with meaning. It is a true and terrible phrase : true, because we are all queer fellows dreaming ; and we are queer just because we dream ; terrible, because of the vastness of the unknown which it carries within itself, because it sets loose the tremendous and awful question : What if we are only queer fellows dreaming ? What if behind the veil the truth is leering and jeering at our queerness and our dreams? What if the queer fellow of the story were right, before he dreamed ? What if it were really all the same?
What if it were all the same not once but a million times, life after life, world after world, the same pain, the same doubt, the same dreams? The queer fellow went but one day's journey along the eternal recurrence which threatens human minds and human destinies. When he returned he was queer. There was another man went the same journey. Friedrich Nietzsche dreamed this very dream in the mountains of the Engadine. When he returned he too was queer.
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John Middleton Murry (Fyodor Dostoevsky: a Critical Study)
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To overdose is almost like being betrayed by your lover, your greatest friend, your confidante. The substance is your idol, your ultimate satisfaction, the
thing that fuels you in life and keeps you going. If it is given a place in your life, it will fight relentlessly until it becomes the supreme substance of your life. An innocent puff, a momentary euphoria, will eventually become more valuable than every other thing. It starts off as a fling, but the one-night stand gets you pregnant, and in a moment, the course of your entire life is altered.
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Michael J Heil (Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose)
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Okay. He's not coming back.
Is he?
No.
I thought back to biking that first day in Oregon. Weston and I weaving back and forth, taking up the whole street, loving the August air and ocean breeze. I remember him calling me his "neighbor" every night as we'd lie in our hammocks. "Oh, how's the family, neighbor?" he'd ask.
"Oh, great."
We'd started with such fire and magic. With a shared destiny and destination. The beginning of a grand adventure is pregnant with a thousand futures. Every possible best thing. But the end is often a fizzle. For us, Weston left for a wedding. And didn't come back. And just like that, a chapter was done.
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Jedidiah Jenkins (To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret)
“
So black women were mixed with male prisoners and subsequently some became pregnant. It’s not clear whether their children’s fathers were other inmates or prison officials, but this detail was not important to legislators who, in 1848, passed a new law declaring that all children born in the penitentiary of African Americans serving life sentences would become property of the state. The women would raise the kids until the age of ten, at which point the penitentiary would place an ad in the newspaper. Thirty days later, they would be auctioned on the courthouse steps “cash on delivery.” The proceeds were used to fund schools for white children.
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Shane Bauer (American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment)
“
in truth there is as much adultery, as many teenage pregnancies, children born out of wedlock, and abortions, as in any other country. I have a woman friend who is a gynecologist and has specialized in looking after unmarried pregnant teenagers, and she assures me that unwanted pregnancies are much less common among university students. That happens more in low-income families, in which parents place more emphasis on educating and providing opportunities to their male children than to their daughters. These girls have no plans, they see a gray future, and they have limited education and little self-esteem; some become pregnant out of pure ignorance.
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Isabel Allende (My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile)
“
Trying to get pregnant is the most vulnerable thing in the world. You have to openly decide you are ready and then you have to put sperm in your vagina and elevate your legs like you are an upside-down coffee table. It’s all ridiculous and incredibly sci-fi. Everyone’s journey is different and I have nothing to say about how and when someone decides to become a mother. The legacy of my generation will be that we have truly expanded the idea of what “family” means. It is no longer unusual for people who choose surrogacy, gay adoption, IVF, international and domestic adoption, fostering, and childlessness to live side by side and quietly judge each other. We can all live in peace thinking our way is the best way and everything else is cuckoo.
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Amy Poehler (Yes Please)
“
One mother Mark and I met with, Bernadette MacArthur, had used the underground networks in conjunction with fleeing the country with her five precious children. Four of them reportedly had been horribly abused, and when the corrupt court system threatened to perpetuate it, Bernadette, pregnant, fled all the way to Turkey with them in 1988. Brilliantly maneuvering through Europe and Mexico, she slipped back into the US and Faye Yeager’s underground in 1989. Determined to surface and ‘normalize’ her children’s lives, Bernadette appeared on national TV and began speaking out. To further their safety, she then joined the Sheriff’s Department and worked her way up the chain of command achieving the rank of Major. This extraordinary mother went to extremes to protect her children and ensure their freedom! Additionally, Bernadette taught Sheriff’s Department personnel how to identify mind control survivors, satanic victims, and occult ritual sites. Her highly acclaimed accomplishments paved the way for others, while providing a backdoor into the undergrounds for those on the run. Unbeknownst to her, Bernadette saved the minds and lives of countless survivors while saving her own children.
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Cathy O'Brien (ACCESS DENIED For Reasons Of National Security: Documented Journey From CIA Mind Control Slave To U.S. Government Whistleblower)
“
Obama’s narrative culminates in his month-long journey to Africa, where he talks to various relatives about who his dad really was, and then weeps at the man’s grave. It’s powerful stuff. But at first glance it’s a little hard for the reader to understand Obama’s depth of allegiance. His dad was, after all, a complete jerk. He married Kezia in Kenya and had two children with her. Before the second child was born, he abandoned his family to come to America. There he met Obama’s mother Ann, got her pregnant, and then married her, but without telling her he was already married. When Obama was two, his father abandoned him and his mother to go to Harvard; there he moved in with a teacher, Ruth Nidesand. Eventually he took Nidesand back to Africa, married her, and had two children with her. But he also rejoined his African wife, Kezia, and had two more children with her. Later in life he took up with still another woman, Jael Otieno, and impregnated her. The two of them planned to get married after the child was born, but the marriage never took place. By the time he was done, Barack Sr. managed a grand total of three wives, one wife-to-be, and eight children. He was a terrible husband and a worse father; he neglected virtually all his offspring, and one of his sons has accused him of domestic violence. In the words of Mark Ndesandjo, who is the son of Obama Sr. and Nidesand, “I remember situations when I was growing up, and there would be a light coming from our living room, and I could hear thuds and screams, and my father’s voice and my mother shouting. I remember one night when she ran out into the street and she didn’t know where to go.”11
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Dinesh D'Souza (The Roots of Obama's Rage)
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The womb is one of the final stops on your journey to eternity.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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The womb is one of the final stops on eternity's journey.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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The womb is one of the final stops on your journey to eternity.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Due to this decree, Joseph and Mary were forced to go to Bethlehem, where Jesus was eventually born. This was a journey of approximately 75 miles, a distance that Mary – then heavily pregnant – would not have been able to walk.
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Charles River Editors (Bethlehem: The History and Legacy of the Birthplace of Jesus)
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Heck, I’ve journeyed to the Underworld with a sword and a big attitude. But Psyche made the journey with nothing but two rice cakes and a couple of drachmas. And she did it while she was seven months pregnant. Respect.
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Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes)
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She's in leggings, like the pregnant twenty-year-old in the tie-dyed vest next to her. Leggings. Bloody hell. Imagined by fatties everywhere to create a slimming effect, they make the average body look like a sack full of hammers.
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Pete McCarthy (McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland)
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Beyond that, God will sometimes take us down a different path or on a different journey than we could have conceived or imagined. The simple phrase we are asked to insert, “If the Lord wills,” is pregnant with meaning. It is a statement of surrender under the lordship and rule of God. It is an acknowledgment that our plans are not to be our own. Rather, they are God’s to make, and we are to follow.
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Tony Evans (Watch Your Mouth: Understanding the Power of the Tongue)
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We each live in a tiny pool of light, and around us lies the darkness of our un-seeing. We see what we look for and what we look at. (...) It is not possible to see the world we live in, only minute, shuttered portions of it where the beam of our attention falls. When I was a teenager, I noticed other teenagers. Pregnant, I suddenly saw all the pregnant women; then the babies; and then the world was full of small children and their exhausted parents; full of single mothers . . . No I see countless people who are frail and scared -- but that's only because I saw my father so frail and so scared.
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Nicci Gerrard (The Last Ocean: A Journey through Memory and Forgetting)
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The belugas spent the winter in the Bering Sea, between Russia and Alaska, where Arctic pack ice could not trap them. Now it's almost spring. The ice is melting, splitting, retreating toward the pole. The whales' migration route is opening up. The older females lead the way, north and east, teaching younger belugas how to find Canada's Beaufort Sea.
At more than 2500 km (1550 mi.), the belugas' journey takes months to complete. It's worth it. When the whales reach the Mackenzie River Delta, they'll rub against the ocean floor, shedding itchy layers of yellowed skin until they're glowing white again. Pregnant mothers will also give birth. The shallow coastal waters will protect the newborns from hungry orcas. While the babies play, their mothers will feast on krill and codfish, regaining their strength. Their rich milk will fatten the calves all summer, before the journey south begins.
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L.E. Carmichael (Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth)
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Marion Woodman. The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation. Inner City: Toronto, 1997,
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Stephen Cope (The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling)
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The turning point in our 200-year present is pregnant with enormous potential to constructively impact affect the fundamental well-being of the human community. However, contrary to the range of scientific and political projections, this turn in humanity's journey does not rotate on which specific forms of governing political, economic, or social structures we devise.
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John Paul Lederach (The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace)
“
Maybe it was my condition, but I was even more sensitive about cruelty to wildlife. When we journeyed to New Zealand to protest whale hunts, we viewed a documentary about whales attacking the whaling ships, trying to defend the females and their young. Whales are like elephants of the sea. They have family structures, mannerisms, and habits that are similar to our own.
In the midst of this very emotional work in Wellington, I felt the baby move for the first time. Soon the baby was dancing around inside me both day and night. All my checkups came back favorable, and the doctor said Steve was more than welcome to glove up and help deliver the baby when the time came.
Until then, though, there was stacks of filming to be done. We filmed sharks just off the Queensland coast, near where Steve’s parents had retired. Some of the crew were typical Aussie blokes. As soon as I got on board and they saw that I was very obviously pregnant, they decided to embark on “Project Spew.” To attract sharks, they mixed up a large container of chum--a gory stew made of fish oil, blood, fish skeletons, and offal. The crew would pass it right underneath my nose in an effort to make me sick. I countered them by sitting down and eating lunch right next to the putrid-smelling chum container. I knew they couldn’t break me!
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Terri Irwin (Steve & Me)
“
My eyes about popped from their sockets; I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I immediately lost all of my professionalism as Bea and I both exclaimed simultaneously, 'HOLY #@*!' The metal vaginal speculum fell from my hands and clanked onto the tile floor.
The top of an infant’s head was clearly visible with a nice crop of dark hair on the scalp..... I then had to inform her of the reality that, not only was she pregnant, she was about ready to deliver a baby and the birth would probably occur within the next few minutes." (Page 223)
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David B. Crawley (Steep Turn: A Physician's Journey from Clinic to Cockpit)
“
The birthing journey requires us as women to get back to a sense of life basics where our connection to intuition and instinct are normal, rather than a forgotten means of expression, when implemented in pregnancy and labour, the birth dance enables a woman to connect to her feminine source without fear or shame.
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Maha Al Musa (Dance of the Womb - The Essential Guide to Belly Dance for Pregnancy and Birth)
“
Everyone is tempted by his own desires as they lure him away and trap him. Then desire becomes pregnant and gives birth to sin. When sin grows up, it gives birth to death.
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Dianne Neal Matthews (Designed for Devotion: A 365-Day Journey from Genesis to Revelation)
“
The Himalaya (hɪmalɶyɶ) does not make Rishis, the Rishis make the Himalaya (hɪmalɶyɶ) to be what it is. A Rishi is a beacon of light that expands and clarifies the stretches of vision of all those that connect with her/him here and now. It is like taking a candle into a dark room, and everything in the room is visible. As a natural and spontaneous consequence, the door leading to the open light filled outdoors becomes visible to you. You can now naturally and spontaneously step out of the room that you were trapped in due to the darkness of ignorance, and let your consciousness expand into infinity. Stay in the present moment, in the here and now, my brother. Immerse yourself into the present entirely. Then you will see these Rishis in yourSelf, here and now, and always. The infinitely spaced vast reaches of the picturesque multiple dimensions of the present moment, pregnant with all futures, right here right now, becomes your vision.”
Krishna, ‘A Iyer in Jose’s Well
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Sheshadharananda (Toward Avinasha (A Iyer in Jose's Well, A Yogi's Journey, #2))
“
Al was referring to the time during the Cuban missile crisis that he left his five-months-pregnant wife home alone with no food or access to money and in desperation she had to call her mother and sister for help. “Oh!
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Jon Ronson (The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry)
“
But Psyche made the journey with nothing but two rice cakes and a couple of drachmas. And she did it while she was seven months pregnant. Respect. As she was climbing down the narrow ledges inside the volcanic fissure, she happened to pass a lame ass-driver. (Don’t look at me funny. That’s exactly what the old stories called him: a lame ass-driver. The dude was lame, like crippled. He was leading an ass, like a donkey. What did you think I meant?) Anyway, Psyche thought it was weird to see a crippled dude in a volcanic vent, just hanging out with his ass. (I’m not going to laugh. Nope. Not even a little.)
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Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes)
“
Most of them are mothers, and the vast majority have experienced violence. Many still suffer the effects. Many are imprisoned in facilities that don’t support their hygiene and health. As you read this, there are women being shackled while they’re pregnant. In some states, they
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Ruby Shamir (The Truths We Hold: An American Journey)
“
That sacrificiality was what Takver had spoken of recognizing in herself when she was pregnant, and she had spoken with a degree of horror, of self-disgust, because she too was an Odonian, and the separation of means and ends was, to her too, false. For her as for him, there was no end. There was process: process was all. You could go in a promising direction or you could go wrong, but you did not set out with the expectation of ever stopping anywhere. All responsibilities, all commitments thus understood took on substance and duration.
So his mutual commitment to Takver, their relationship, had remained thoroughly alive during their four years’ separation. They had both suffered from it, and suffered a good deal, but it had not occurred to either of them to escape the suffering by denying the commitment.
For after all, he thought now, lying in the warmth of Takver’s sleep, it was joy they were both after – the completeness of being. If you evade the suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.
Takver sighed softly in her sleep, as if agreeing with him, and turned over, pursuing some quiet dream.
Fulfillment, Shevek thought, is a function of time. The search for pleasure is circular, repetitive, atemporal. The variety seeking of the spectator, the thrill hunter, the sexually promiscuous, always ends in the same place. It has an end. It comes to the end and has to start over. It is not a journey and return, but a closed cycle, a locked room, a cell.
Outside the locked room is the landscape of time, in which the spirit may, with luck and courage, construct the fragile, makeshift, improbable roads and cities of fidelity: a landscape inhabitable by human beings.
It is not until an act occurs within the landscape of the past and the future that it is a human act. Loyalty, which asserts the continuity of past and future, binding time into a whole, is the root of human strength; there is no good to be done without it.
So, looking back on the last four years, Shevek saw them not as wasted, but as part of the edifice that he and Takver were building with their lives. The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.
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Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia)
“
The San Fernando massacre is a landmark in the Mexican Drug War. It surely woke up anyone who still doubted the existence of a serious armed conflict south of the Rio Grande. But for those following the mass attacks on migrants, it was a tragedy waiting to happen.
San Fernando began just like all the rest of the mass kidnappings. Zetas gunmen stopped the victims at a checkpoint and abducted them, in this case from two buses. The group featured many of the usual Central Americans, but was atypical in that it also had large numbers of Brazilians and Ecuadorians. The Zetas marched the prisoners to the San Fernando ranch, which is in Tamaulipas state, just a hundred miles from the U.S. border. After a long, hard journey, the migrants were closer than ever to their destination. Then something went wrong, and the Zetas decided to murder everybody.
The pure scale of death shocked the world. The seventy-two corpses were piled haphazardly around the edge of the breeze-block barn, arms and legs twisted over one another, waists and backs contorted. There were teenagers, middle-aged men, young girls, even a pregnant woman. This horror could not be ignored.
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Ioan Grillo (El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency)
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Jonathan Layne, a resilient figure embodying the power of transformation. At the helm of Providence House and Endeavor Sober Living, he's crafting opportunities for recovery in Minot, North Dakota. His passion lies in helping those who seek a path away from addiction, and he's succeeding through his dedication. With a heart for pregnant women and parenting mothers, he's opening doors to a new facility that promises a brighter future. Jonathan's journey from the oilfield to sobriety advocate is an inspiration that echoes through the community.
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Jonathan Layne Minot North Dakota
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Best Tips for a Stress-Free Pregnancy – Motherhood Chaitanya Hospital
Bringing a new life into the world is an extraordinary journey, one filled with anticipation and joy.
Yet, the path to motherhood can also be fraught with stress and anxiety. The good news is that there
are ways to navigate this period with greater ease. From seeking support through childbirth and
parenting classes in Chandigarh to embracing the serenity of Pre-Natal Yoga Classes for Pregnant
Mothers in Chandigarh, let’s explore some of the best tips for a stress-free pregnancy.
Understand Your Body
Pregnancy is a unique and transformative experience, but it also brings a host of physical changes.
Understanding these changes can alleviate anxiety. Remember, your body is doing something
miraculous. It’s nurturing and growing a new life. Embrace the journey with wonder and gratitude.
Stay Active with Pre-Natal Yoga
Pre-Natal Yoga Classes in Chandigarh provide an exceptional avenue to connect with your body and
your baby. Yoga helps maintain flexibility, ease discomfort, and reduce stress. The gentle stretches
and mindful breathing techniques impart a sense of calm and inner peace.
Educate Yourself
Knowledge is power, and when it comes to pregnancy, it’s empowering. Enroll in childbirth and
parenting classes in Chandigarh to gain insight into what to expect during labor, delivery, and early
parenthood. Knowing what lies ahead can significantly reduce apprehension.
Nurture Emotional Well-being
Pregnancy is not just about physical health; emotional well-being is equally vital. Seek emotional
support from your partner, friends, or a counselor if needed. Express your feelings and allow
yourself to experience a range of emotions without judgment.
Eat Mindfully
Nutrition is crucial for both you and your baby. Consume a balanced diet rich in essential nutrients.
Remember, you’re not eating for two adults; you’re providing the building blocks for a new life.
Consult with a healthcare professional for dietary guidance.
Stay Hydrated
Hydration is key to a healthy pregnancy. It helps prevent common issues like constipation and
urinary tract infections. Aim for at least eight glasses of water a day, and adjust your intake as
needed to accommodate your changing body.
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Dr. Poonam Kumar
“
They know when another dolphin—or a human being—is pregnant or sick or injured.
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Susan Casey (Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins)
“
Please, stop saying that you had “trouble getting pregnant with your third child” or that you “miscarried in between kids three and four.” It’s not the same, and it’s a dagger in the heart when you try to sell it like it is. I had to suffer through child-bearing advice from a GOMO who had the luxury of planning when she was going to have her next baby. After vacation? After Brian’s wedding in Mexico? I always wanted a summer baby, so maybe I will wait until the fall. They just didn’t get it. It’s the emptiness that hurts. The thought that you may never be able to look down at a baby who is your own. That’s the hard part.
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Brett Russo (The Underwear in My Shoe: My Journey Through IVF, Unfiltered)
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(Mothers) They lose their children's love. Reunited, they end up in conflict homes. Too often, the boys seek out gangs to try to find the love they thought they would find with their mothers. Too often, the girls get pregnant and form their own families. In many ways, these separations are devastating Latino families. People are losing what they value the most.
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Sonia Nazario (Enrique's Journey)
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The legislature insisted the penitentiary be racially segregated, but the lessees had resisted, saying it was impractical and would reduce productivity. So black women were mixed with male prisoners and subsequently some became pregnant. It’s not clear whether their children’s fathers were other inmates or prison officials, but this detail was not important to legislators who, in 1848, passed a new law declaring that all children born in the penitentiary of African Americans serving life sentences would become property of the state. The women would raise the kids until the age of ten, at which point the penitentiary would place an ad in the newspaper. Thirty days later, they would be auctioned on the courthouse steps “cash on delivery.” The proceeds were used to fund schools for white children.
No recorded details remain about what it was like to raise a child in the prison or to have her taken away forever. We don’t know what became of the children or their mothers. The only prison documents left are sparse penitentiary logs showing the particulars of the sales. Sometimes the mother herself isn’t even noted. What was the mixture of the feeling of devastation over losing one’s child along with the twisted hope that life as a slave might be an improvement over life in a prison?
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Shane Bauer (American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment)
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According to pre-Columbian legend, the Cihuateteos . . . were the spirits of pregnant women who died in childbirth. They immediately became warriors because they had died in battle--the struggle in life to produce "a new life for the empire." This deified the women's souls, since their spiritual role complemented that of the male warrior, who assisted the sun in its journey across the sky. The spirits of these females supposedly carried the sun from its midday zenith to the west, it's place of descent. The spirits of male warriors carried the sun from daybreak to its zenith. The grieving husbands were expected to safeguard the bodies of their deceased wives, becaise young warriors would mutilate and steal the middle finger from the left hand of a Cihueteteo as a talisman. These feared women were associated with bodies of water, the transformative element of the journey of death, and crossroads. They were believed to return to earth on five special days each year to torment children. Thus the legend ofmthe Llorona, the weeping woman, emerged from this ancient myth.
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Santa Barraza (Santa Barraza: Artist of the Borderlands)
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In Exodus 1:8, a new king who does not “know” Joseph ascends the throne of Egypt. Egypt was the most powerful nation in the world, and its king received the best education in the land. Therefore, it is unlikely the king was ignorant of Joseph’s story in Egypt’s history, especially given Joseph’s role in preserving and enriching Egypt during the great famine (Gn 41). Something else must be meant by the king’s failure to “know.” Indeed, yada (the Hebrew word for “know”) has a sense of covenantal relationship. Thus, when Adam “knew” Eve, she became pregnant (Gn 4:1). In addition, ancient covenant treaties used “know” when speaking of diplomatic recognition. Thus, when Egypt’s new Pharaoh refuses to “know” Joseph, it is not a forgotten history lesson, but
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Tim Gray (Walking With God: A Journey through the Bible)
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Some people seem to have a map of life: they know where they are going and they plot their route. I have just floated in a chartless sea, my journey governed by the winds and currents. I’ve reacted. First I fled from Motherdarling. I would not have been a student were it not for Gilles. I have spent all my life since then at the Sorbonne, until I had to leave. I married when my girl got pregnant; she gave birth and raised my son; if she had not left me I’d still be with them both. I wedded for the second time as the result of being wooed, not wooing. Life’s been done to me and now I don’t know where to go.
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Dave Appleby (Motherdarling)
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A small woman came with a child on her hip. She was pregnant again. And then I saw that she was herself hardly more than a child, twelve or thirteen, but excited at the idea of already being adult enough to experience important needs. Everyone was acting (though the man with the djinn, after his flash of vanity, seemed a little too far away); everyone knew his role. But was it acting when the whole world, or the world you knew, was in the play?
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V.S. Naipaul (Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (Picador Collection))
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People look at me weird, or they say something, and I just can’t deal.” How many pregnant women have hidden out in their homes, fearing judgment from others who can’t handle them making decisions about their own bodies?
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Angela Garbes (Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy)
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What do you think would disappoint your parents most? To find out that you’d gotten pregnant, or to learn that you had taken the life of their grandchild?
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Abby Johnson (Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line)
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Of the eight clients and three guides in my group, five of us, including myself, never made it to the top. Of the six who summited, four were later killed in the storm. They included our thirty-five-year-old expedition leader, Rob Hall, a gentle and humorous New Zealander of mythic mountaineering prowess. Before he froze to death in a snow hole near the top of Everest, Rob would radio a heartbreaking farewell to his pregnant wife, Jan Arnold, at their home in Christchurch. Another sad fatality was diminutive Yasuko Namba, forty-seven, whose final human contact was with me, the two of us huddled together through that awful night, lost and freezing in the blizzard on the South Col, just a quarter mile from the warmth and safety of camp. Four other climbers also perished in the storm, making May 10, 1996, the deadliest day on Everest in the seventy-five years since the intrepid British schoolmaster, George Leigh Mallory, first attempted to climb the mountain.
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Beck Weathers (Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest)
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Silence is a collective abbreviation for a whole array of musical absences: the absence of sound, sounds never made, the absence of those who should have made them, sounds too quiet to be heard, sounds delayed or postponed indefinitely. Silence is the opposite of music, but it is also its lifeblood -- the breaths between the phrases, the drama, the anticipation, and the quality of the breathless hush between final note and applause. Music embraces calm silences, pregnant silences, animated or aggressive silences. Musical silence can be temporal, gestural, or spatial. In some cases, such as John Cage's famously curated silence, '4 Minutes 33 Seconds,' silence even -becomes- music. Without sound there cannot be silence, and vice versa.
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Kate Kennedy (Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound)