Every New Beginning Counts

We’re starting the New Year just like everyone — with goals and resolutions to make ourselves, this year and Every Mother Counts better than ever.

That’s why, this month, we’re focusing on new beginnings, goals and commitments. We’re grabbing hold of the excitement and renewed dedication that surrounds all of us at the start of something good and we think 2013 is going to be great.

Whether you’re a “resolution person” or not, most of us start the year with a few personal goals in mind. The biggies on almost everyone’s list are:

• Eat Healthier
• Get more exercise
• Spend more quality time with friends and family
• Learn Something New
• Quit habits that aren’t serving our higher selves such as smoking, excessive drinking, or other unkind or abusive relationships we have with ourselves
• Provide more service to others like volunteering our time
• Reduce stress
• Improve money management- organizational skills

As we head into 2013, let’s open our arms and hearts toward ourselves and others as we explore how our health, relationships, attitudes and activities and actions impact not only our personal wellbeing, but also the health and wellbeing of the greater world. Get ready for a month of articles that we hope you will find useful and inspirational including:

• How to set a goal, stick a goal and achieve a goal. We’ll talk to journalist, author and life coach Amy Logan (author of Seven Perfumes of Sacrifice, a novel about the lost origins of honor killings in the Middle East) about what people should do to turn their resolutions and goals into reality.
• How excess weight is associated with a host of pregnancy complications, especially in America and other developed countries experiencing an obesity epidemic. We’ll also talk about how extreme weight loss and poor nutrition impact fertility and pregnancy.
• How physical fitness is one of the most powerful tools we can use to improve both our mental and physical health, how making a commitment to fitness and training for a fitness goal can help us achieve huge goals in other parts of our lives.
• Exercise during pregnancy is essential for a host of physical and mental health benefits. While exercise is just a part of normal life in many parts of the world, in others, getting enough exercise during pregnancy requires extra commitment and effort. Lack of exercise during pregnancy can lead to excess weight gain, blood pressure and other circulatory problems and diabetes.
• How one yoga expert (Sean Corne) turned her mat into a platform for social change and how yoga became pivotal for Christy’s focus on service.
• How our friends and family impact our health. When we enjoy healthy relationships with people who support us and are mutually committed to healthy life habits (eating well, exercising, avoiding excesses and respecting each others goals and personal needs) our personal health is improved and our ability to thrive is empowered. When our friends and family live unhealthy lifestyles, however, we’re more likely to do the same. This is a big factor in a mother’s health during pregnancy.
• How our relationships affect us. We’ll also explore how isolation, loneliness and lack of personal relationships lead to depression, anxiety, poor health and disintegration of social structure. When people are empowered to become stronger, healthier and make close personal connections, their families, communities and economies are healthier too. We’ll discuss the shift many women experience once they become mothers from being involved in many relationships at work and in the community to limited relationships while raising children at home. This can lead to feelings of isolation and depression (especially post partum depression) in addition to causing identity crises.
• Are you ready to learn something new or boost your education? We’re rolling out lots of new information about maternal health challenges and solutions around the world. We’ll be writing about current events, obstetric practices here and abroad and about the people working to improve women’s health and well being.
• If you’re still looking for a reason to quit smoking, we’ll talk to leading obstetricians about how cigarettes affect fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding and how second hand smoke affects children. Christy used yoga to help her kick the habit nearly twenty years ago. Maybe it can help you too.
• Ready to volunteer? Every article we write will have ideas for how to get involved in a meaningful way. We’ll also write about how a growing body of research indicates that volunteering provides individual health benefits in addition to social benefits. Those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. And what does volunteerism do to reduce maternal mortality? Raising awareness and funds and educating women about their health options are all excellent ways to make a direct impact on mothers all over the world.
• Meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness practices are gaining universal acceptance as powerful tools for reducing stress, increasing health and wellbeing and reducing individual and social strife. We’ll talk to meditation experts about how to start a practice and how to tap into universal meditation resources working to reduce civil unrest and increase world peace and compassion. We’ll also write about how prenatal yoga and meditation benefit mothers everywhere, both during pregnancy and throughout their parenting years.
• Saving money, reducing debt and developing better money management skills are key ingredients to personal, family and community success. For women all over the world, learning to handle, earn and manage finances takes them from being powerless to being powerful. We’ll write about how micro-savings and loans, employment training and money management benefit women before, during and after they become mothers.
• We’ll also cover important current events that impact global maternal health. For example, Hillary Clinton, who has increasingly been a champion for maternal health issues, was recently hospitalized with a blood clot. While Secretary Clinton’s prognosis is excellent, blood clots and embolisms that occur during pregnancy can be deadly. We’ll break down the differences between blood clots, strokes, and embolisms and how they impact maternal health and mortality.

Check back throughout the month as we add stories, blogs and links to help you kick the New Year off right. Together, we can make Every New Beginning Count!