February 7, 2009

Pregnancy Pathway, introduction

dancingthrupregnancy Pregnancy Pathway behavior, environment, exercise, Genetics, health, offspring, preconception, pregnancy, prepregnancy

Please refer to the Preg­nan­cy Path­way chart in the Feb­ru­ary 5, 2009 entry. Dur­ing preg­nan­cy, there are some fac­tors with­in our con­trol and some that are not. The Preg­nan­cy Path­way, designed by Danc­ing Thru Preg­nan­cy® founder and Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Move­ment Spe­cial­ist Ann Cowl­in, and Cer­ti­fied Nurse Mid­wife Robyn Bran­ca­to, is intend­ed to describe the flow of fac­tors that influ­ence preg­nan­cy and its out­come.

In the weeks to come, we will focus on indi­vid­ual areas. Our goal is to help women under­stand how they can opti­mize their preg­nan­cy by focus­ing on what they can con­trol that results in ben­e­fi­cial out­comes.

Ann and Robyn are also found­ing mem­bers of the Wom­en’s Health Fit­ness Insti­tute, a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is research and pub­lic edu­ca­tion out­reach in wom­en’s health fit­ness. Our com­ments for this blog are based on sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence and 30 years of track­ing indi­vid­ual preg­nan­cy out­comes from women through­out the world. Some entries will include ref­er­ences to the rel­e­vant stud­ies.

By help­ing women under­stand what endeav­ors are effec­tive in pro­duc­ing ben­e­fits for moth­ers and their off­spring, we hope to aid moms-to-be and those con­sid­er­ing preg­nan­cy to be ful­ly present and active in the empow­er­ing process of becom­ing a moth­er.