hi i'm Anja! I'm a hypnobirthing antenatal practitioner
and welcome to today's video all about pregnancy stretch mark prevention.
If you're new to my channel don't forget to hit the subscribe button because I
upload new videos every single week to help you through your pregnancy, labour and birth.
Through subscribing you're also helping my videos reach more pregnant
women worldwide so thank you! My first tip to avoid
stretch marks during pregnancy is to stay hydrated. Keeping hydrated
will help your skin to stay supple and elasticated and it's actually
recommended that you drink between 1.2 and 1.6 litres per day during pregnancy.
It's best if you drink pure water but if you're not keen on water and you want to
add a little bit of flavour to it then you could try drinking fruit ,
cordials, fruit juice mixed with water-just to add
a little bit of flavour to your water so it doesn't taste so boring ;)
Now I know if you're suffering from morning sickness like I did in pregnancy,
it can be hard to drink 1.6 litres of water per day
but the best thing that i found was to sip little and often
throughout the day rather than drinking big glasses of water all in one go
and that stopped me from being sick so much and it also
ensured that my hydration levels were kept steady and stable.
My second top tip is to eat well and avoid overeating.
You're not eating for two- yes you're growing a baby but you only need to be
consuming an extra 200 calories per day in pregnancy. T
There are certain types of foods which can help to prevent stretch marks in
pregnancy and ones that include omega-3 fatty
acids are really good. You can find those in cooked salmon,
walnuts, chia seeds and soya beans. I also
recommend that you eat zinc-rich foods like chicken, turkey, red
meat, spinach and nuts. Foods containing high
levels of antioxidants are also great for pregnancy stretch mark prevention
and you can find antioxidants in berries, kidney beans, sweet potatoes, broccoli
and dark chocolate. My third top tip is to do some form of moderate daily
exercise in pregnancy and avoid gaining too much weight. So
stretch marks are caused by your body growing and expanding
at a rate that your skin can't keep up with and what happens is your skin
begins to stretch beyond its elasticity levels.
Whilst it's normal to gain weight in pregnancy and the average weight gain is
between 25 and 35 pounds that's about 11 to 16 kilos
but it can be more if you're pregnant with multiples. It's best not to gain
too much weight you don't really want to be gaining like 50 or 60 pounds in
pregnancy because that's just going to cause your body to expand
too much and it's going to increase the amount of stretch marks that your body
could get. By managing your weight gain in
pregnancy, by factoring in some daily exercise and not overeating,
you're going to be able to control the formation of stretch marks on your skin!
My fourth top tip is to get some vitamin D. Stretch marks
can increase if you're low in vitamin D so the best
thing that you can do is get outside in the fresh air and get
some sunshine on your skin. If it's not very sunny where you live
and it can be difficult to get some vitamin D outside,
other things that you can do are to eat fortified cereals, fortified dairy
products and tofu because they all have high levels of
vitamin D in them. My fifth top tip is to massage natural
organic oils into your tummy and your hips from
around 20 weeks of pregnancy and to do this every single day. Please
AVOID using synthetic oils, creams and other
pregnancy massage oils that contain loads of ingredients that you have no
idea what they are with long complicated
chemical names- because that means that they're full of
nasties and toxins which aren't good for you
or your baby. Instead, I recommend that you use coconut oil,
olive oil, sunflower oil or almond oil- organic if you can get it, but it's not
completely necessary. You can also use aloe vera gel in its
purest form: so not aloe vera gel that you'll find in
a bottle mixed with other preservatives and chemicals,
you can buy an aloe vera plant and all you do is you break off an aloe vera
stem or leaf then you just rub that gel onto
your tummy! Thank you so much for watching my video
today, I hope you found the information useful.
If you haven't done so already please subscribe to my channel and share this
video with a pregnant friend that it could help.
If you have any questions, please leave me a comment down below
and for more information about my hypnobirthing classes and online
hypnobirthing courses - please see the links beneath this video :)
Take care and see you again in my next video!
Bye!