Prevent Stretch Marks During Pregnancy
by Joanna
Knowing how to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy can be a valuable tool if you’ve just found out you’re pregnant or if you are just starting to think about having kids. Having children is an amazing experience, but sometimes the effects it can have on a woman’s body can leave her feeling a bit down. Luckily some of those effects, like pregnancy stretch marks, can be prevented or at least minimized.
Preventing Stretch Marks During Pregnancy
There is a lot of pressure for women to remain young, fit and attractive even after pregnancy. It important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious foods and getting exercise so you can set a good example for your kids. It also allows you to have more energy to keep up with them as they grow. But sometimes too much pressure is felt on all aspects of appearance, and those stretch marks from pregnancy can weigh on a woman and drop her self esteem.
Whatever you can do to help maintain a good self image during and after pregnancy is important because there are so many other changes going on during this time — changes happening in the body, the hormones and the upcoming lifestyle changes. Having a greater level of confidence during this time can make the transition a little easier.
Pregnancy Stretch Mark Cream
One of the steps you’ll want to take to prevent pregnancy stretch marks is to use a good stretch mark prevention cream. Keeping your skin moisturized, especially with the right ingredients, should allow it to be more elastic. Good stretch mark creams will absorb deep into the skin and help with the production of collagen and elastin, making the skin more flexible.
When trying to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy it’s important to make sure the ingredients in the stretch mark cream are safe to use during pregnancy. If you have any questions about this check with your doctor first.
Many women have had good luck using pure cocoa butter, Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula, or formulations made for pregnant women like Tummy Honey Butter or Mama Mio stretch mark products. Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula, Tummy Honey Butter and Mama Mio all have a mix of ingredients specially designed to help prevent stretch marks during pregnancy. But there are many other great stretch mark prevention creams available as well.
Using a good pregnancy stretch mark cream can also help relieve some of the itching caused by a rapidly growing belly. You’ll want to use this cream on your belly, breasts and maybe even thighs to prevent stretch marks in the main areas that will be affected by pregnancy.
A Healthy Diet To Prevent Pregnancy Stretch Marks
Maintaining a healthy diet during pregnancy is important for many obvious reasons, but eating healthy can also help prevent pregnancy stretch marks. By eating a variety of nutritious foods you can help keep your skin healthy. Skin health is important because if your skin is healthy and continues to produce collagen and elastin your skin will be more flexible and less likely to develop stretch marks.
The easy way to do this is by making sure you eat a variety of foods including plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Focus on things like Vitamins A, C and E, and the minerals zinc and silica as they help with the production of collagen. A fun way to make sure you’re getting a good variety is by making sure you eat different colored foods like purples (cabbage) reds (beets, strawberries), oranges (carrots, oranges), yellows (squash) and of course green (spinach, broccoli).
Part of maintaining a healthy diet includes drinking plenty of water, at least 8 full glasses a day. Keeping your body hydrated helps keep your skin hydrated from the inside which in turn helps keep your skin healthy. When the skin is healthy it will continue to regenerate making it easier for you to prevent stretch marks.
Drinking plenty of water can also help with some other side effects of pregnancy like constipation.
Exercise To Improve Skin Health
Maintaining an exercise routine while pregnant will also help prevent pregnancy stretch marks. Exercise helps increase circulation which helps keep the skin elastic and improves the overall skin health.
Exercise can also help decrease the potential for varicose veins and ankle swelling during pregnancy.
By watching both your diet and exercise you can help prevent unnecessary weight gain while pregnant. You need to gain a certain amount of weight to have a healthy pregnancy, but if you go too far over that healthy weight it will increase the likelihood of developing stretch marks, along with other problems as well. Maintaining a healthy weight is important when trying to prevent pregnancy stretch marks.
Massage To Help Prevent Stretch Marks
Massage can also help improve circulation in the skin. Massage on dry skin can irritate the skin, but if you’re using a pregnancy stretch mark cream you can massage and work it deep into the skin to get an increased benefit.
By taking these steps to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy you should be able to prevent stretch marks or at least minimize the degree or appearance of the stretch marks that may occur during this time. Preventing stretch marks is easier than trying to remove stretch marks after they have formed.
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