5 Steps Towards Higher Health for Women

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

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1. Trust in your innate intelligence. Your innate intelligence is your body’s inborn inner wisdom. Trust in this through every stage of your life…birth, childhood, adolescence, as a young woman, as a seasoned woman. Learn to let go, have faith and trust.

2. When health decisions present themselves, stay well informed. Empower yourself with knowledge that is time tested and follows Mother Nature. Use the knowledge to make well informed decisions for you and your family’s health.

3. Surround yourself with a healthy support network of women. Your mother, grandmother, daughter, friend, neighbour, midwife, doula, cousin, aunt, partner, colleague, spiritual leader, and other women who inspire, love and support you.

4. Get adjusted. Remove the interference that minimizes the power that made your body. Regularly see your chiropractor to correct and remove subluxations that are preventing you from experiencing optimal health.*

5. Maintain balance. In this fast world of convenience, technology and information, step back regularly and gain perspective. Make vision time. Keep your priorities in order. Make time for yourself, and the things you love to do.

*visit www.teamchiropracticgta.com

Posted in Birth, Pregnancy, Uncategorized | Tagged , ,

Reconnecting with Nature

Posted on April 24, 2012 by

With spring and warmer weather, comes an innate need and desire to be outside. It is something our body craves. Our body reconnects with nature, through all the senses each time we’re outside.

Spending time outside encourages movement, which helps keep us lean and strong and healthy. Spending unstructured time in nature, encourages imagination. Spending time moving outdoors daily helps increase our awareness and attention, and our energy. Our mental, physical and spiritual health is directly influenced by spending time in nature.

With so many benefits to spending time outside…why aren’t more of us doing it daily?

There are several common obstacles that we face as families when trying to spend more time outside. Following are 5 obstacles, and tips on how to overcome them:

1. The temptation of high tech devices. The more high tech we become. The more we need nature. Adults and kids spend more than 7 hours a day in front of flat screen devices. One of the ways to overcome this as a family is to create device-free days and times. Encourage each other during these times to go outside. Go for walks or bike-rides, exploring trails, parks and forests. Invite friends and families.

2. Finding time when you’re too busy. Between work, school, and afterschool activities, it can be difficult to find time to spend outside. The schools follow the recommendation of 1 hour of unstructured time outside, but we don’t as adults. Make the time. Even if it’s 10 minutes daily as a start. Get outside before or immediately after. Replace short car drives with walks or biking. The toughest part is getting out the door, but one you do, you’re often hit with nature’s invigoration.

3. Bring the kids with you. When it’s difficult to get just yourself out the door, it can be that much more difficult to get yourself and the kids out. One tip is to invite neighbours or friends to come too. It holds you accountable, and can be more fun as a group. Another tip is to choose outdoor activities that you enjoy. Your kids will join in on your enthusiasm as you have fun together.

4. Not knowing what to do. Don’t stay inside because you’re worried you and your family won’t be entertained. In our society kids (and adults) with an overload of scheduling and structure “don’t have time to be bored”. In this case, let the necessity of invention and creativity move them. It is at the moment of boredom that imagination kicks in. Drop structure in your activities and allow nature and the freedom to explore to help create amazing experiences for you and your kids.

5. Fear of getting dirty or wet or cold. Protecting your family’s health is very important. However, when our living environments are mostly sanitized, climate-controlled, indoor spaces, our health deteriorates. Studies show that playing in the dirt is a good thing…and kids innately love dirt, puddles and bugs.  Studies also show how spending time outside in different weather helps build our body’s resilience. So put on layers of clothes, or rain boots, or a sun hat, and go outside and take in all the benefits of nature.

(A good resource: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, written by Richard Louv)

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Healthy Goal Setting

Posted on January 9, 2012 by

Healthy Goal Setting

Last summer I asked our eldest son Max, two weeks before he turned 7 years old, “what would you still like to accomplish as a 6 year old?” He put some thought into it, and responded…”I’d like to learn to ride a bike.” We were very excited for him with this goal, as we’d been encouraging him to learn to ride for many months, and had stopped and left it up to him because he hadn’t seem interested.

That day, he asked us to take the training weeks off his bike. The next day, he asked us to help him ride around the park. Every day, for three days he asked us to help him ride. On the first day, he could ride to the corner on his own. On the second day, he could ride half way around the park. And on the third day, he rode around the block, with me trailing behind, running to try to keep up with him. 

This is a good example of goal setting. Max chose a clear goal. He set a time line. He had us hold him accountable. He used discipline and determination. And he set a reward for himself – the ability to ride a bike!

Goal setting and follow through can be very difficult sometimes. Especially when we don’t feel motivated, or we feel like every time we attempt it, it turns into failure. And then earlier failures can have the effect of us feeling stress when we set goals. However, goals are very important in our lives, and just as we saw with Max, there is great empowerment that comes from setting and achiveing goals.

Healthy goal setting requires a number of steps, including the following:

1. Choosing clear goals

2. Setting a timeline

3. Choose an accountability partner

4. Set a reward or leverage

5. Follow through  

Join us for our upcoming Living Wellness Workshop: ’Healthy Goal Setting’ on Wed January 25th, 2012 as we walk through these steps in detail. And to help set goals for the new year and hold each other accountable to follow through, in a small group setting.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Challenge of Infertility: Can Chiropractic Help?

Posted on September 8, 2011 by

Within the last week, I was reminded of the challenge of women and couples who are struggling to get pregnant. I understood this was my cue to share my story, and my challenge with infertility.

When I was 21 I stopped ovulating. My menses slowly stopped occurring. I underwent a barrage of tests, and was given the diagnosis ‘anovulatory.’ I was infertile. I understood that I would not be able to get pregnant, and have children later in life.

Over a 6 year period, I made many health and lifestyle changes, including changing my nutrition, my exercise, my sleep, and my response to stress. But, my menses did not come back.

During this time, I was studying to become a chiropractor. I did not fully understand what chiropractic was and what it could do.

Upon graduating, I started getting adjusted by a principled chiropractor, regularly. I had the parts of my spine that were subluxated, corrected. And 10 months into my chiropractic care, my menses restarted.

What is the connection? How did chiropractic help?

The vertebral subluxations that were found had been interfering with the normal function of my nervous system. This in turn disrupted the normal function of my reproductive system. Once the subluxations were corrected, my nervous system was able to function more optimally, better regulating the reproductive cycle in my body once again.

I stumbled upon this gift in my life. But, if you or someone you know is struggling to conceive, I recommend that they schedule a chiropractic checkup with a family chiropractor, to check for subluxations that may be preventing reproductive health.

Further resources:

http://drjacquelinetsiapalis.com/womens-health/fertility/

http://icpa4kids.org/

Posted in Pregnancy

Our 4th Birth

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

Our little one is now 9 weeks old, and we were blessed with another incredible, empowering birth at home.

Reflecting back, I need to share that there was no pain during this birth journey. The closest I got to pain was in the last few waves before our little daughter was born, when I was pushing. And…upon reflection I believe it’s because during those waves I allowed myself to get a little off focus…and allowed a little bit of fear to creep in…instead of surrendering to and embracing the process/dance as fully as I had prior to pushing. Maybe it was because I got excited that the end was near. Maybe it was the midwife’s interjection bringing me to a lower state of concsiousness. Maybe I had fears of pushing because of the intensity and searing force that our 3rd child came out with…

I don’t know…but I do know now…without a doubt…that we as birthing moms have a very great amazing part to play in birth, if we’re in the know enough to take on. And this includes…when we birth (I believe I was able to hold off the beginning of this birth journey until our oldest daughter arrived), and how smoothly we birth (and I feel I need to preface this as being available in the 90 percent or whatever it is of cases which aren’t emergency situations that require intervention), when we surrender to the process.

Thank you God for helping me experience this, see this, know this and have faith in this…and please help guide me in sharing it with others.

Posted in Birth, Pregnancy

4 Steps to Trusting the Miracle of Birth

Posted on May 6, 2011 by

When the birth process can be approached as a natural process, that a pregnant woman can trust, and when supportive birth practitioners honour its sacred nature, a baby’s birth can be an incredibly wonderous, magical, miracle of nature.

Unfortunately for many of us, our image of birth has been clouded by how it is portrayed on TV, in movies, and also by negative or difficult birth stories that are so often shared. Many of these births we hear about are highly medicalized with multiple interventions, where the birthing mom is given little control, and disempowered.

The following 4 steps will help to optimize the circumstances for a healthy beautiful birth, for both mom and baby.

1. Know that you have ‘options’ when it comes to your pregnancy and birth, and the power to make your own decisions around your birth. One of these decisions is choosing your birth care provider. You’ll want to find practitioners (obstetricians of midwives) who will truly nurture you while you are in labour, and who will offer you choices and respect your decisions (for example different birthing positions that use gravity to help the baby) and who will also be present with you throughout your labour (this can be difficult for obstetricians who have multiple hospital births at once). Know that if you are choosing midwives, you’ll need to notify the midwive centre in your catchment area as soon as you know you are pregnant, to be able to be assigned a midwife.

Another decision is deciding who you would like present and supportive of you during and after the birth. Consider reading books or taking courses together with your spouse or partner that will help bring together similar values and needs around the birth. (eg. Birthing From Within, Hypnobirthing, and the Bradley Method).

Another option you have is to find the best setting and atmosphere for your birth. Some hospitals have birthing centres furnished with their own tubs for labouring in water. And many more women are choosing the birth in the comforts of their own homes, with midwives, preferring it over the hurried drive to a hospital while in labour, the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital, the loud sounds and the hectic atmosphere of a hospital.

2. Surround yourself with postiveness around birth. For every negative story you hear while pregnant about difficult or long labour, read 3 postive stories. There are so many amazing beautiful stories out there. Choose not to listen to the negative ones. Create your own positive mindset, which will help so much when your own fears come up during birth. Remembering the good stories and joining these women will help you to stay in a trusting state, instead of going towards fear which will slow down the birth process, causing tension and constriction. You can find these stories online, in books and videos. Some resources are: Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth book, by Ina May Gaskin, Suzanne Arms’ Giving Birth video, and online http://www.positivebirthstories.com

3. Get adjusted. Optimize your body for the gentlest, easiest birth by being adjusted regularly throughout your pregnancy. Find a chiropractor who is comfortable with and/or specially trained to work with pregnant women, like the doctors at Vaughan Chiropratic. When your spine and pelvis and sacrum are in their healthiest alignment, this opens up your pelvic outlet, where the baby comes out, removing restrictions, allowing for a faster easier birth. (studies show 30% faster). Your chiropractor also checks regularly the position of the sacrum and tightness in the ligaments supporting the uterus, to remove any tension or torquing in the uterus that can cause in-utero constraint to the baby. This is called the Webster Technique that is highly effective at gently removing constraint, so that most often a breech baby will turn head down on their own afterwards.

Most importantly, the adjustments help to optimize the nerve flow to the uterus and baby, for the baby’s healthy development.

4. Trust the birth process. When fears come up, and they are bound to, as we are only human, go back to that place of ‘letting go.’ Giving birth is one of the most normal natural things, and we see that when we watch an animal in the wild give birth. When we come back to that place of trust during birth, it allows the body to open up and soften to allow the process to unfold. When we move into our fears, it causes tension, slows the process, and tends to lead to mechanistic birth interventions (eg. pulling, forceps and vacuum extraction). Follow your innate intelligence, listening and trusting your body, as it was designed to give birth. Surrender your spirit, your body and your mind, and you will be amazed at how your body will open up to this dance of life, as your baby is born.

Many blessings,
Jacqueline Tsiapalis, D.C.

Posted in Birth, Pregnancy

Yay!

Posted on April 4, 2011 by

Yay! It’s started! After being called to do a blog, and then a long period in between, I am writing! My goal in sharing is to help empower women, and expectant moms and their families to live to their optimal potential, starting with pregnancy and birth.

We are excited to be celebrating pregnancy, with our 4th. And the countdown has started with about 6-8 weeks to go before our newest little one arrives. I share the 2 week leeway, as our 3rd came about 2 weeks later than we estimated, and our 1st and 2nd arrived on or a day off from the date that I had in my mind. So we are ready for any timing. The way I’m carrying so low, I am wondering if this little one may come sooner.

So far we’ve been blessed with another beautiful pregnancy. A little more nausea this time in the first trimester, an awesome second trimester, and now we’re in the continuously growing and tightening in the belly stage, with frequent practice waves (contractions).

We again envision a home birth, with a watertub available should we feel the desire to go through waves or birth in the water. This time one of our midwives lives right in town, which is nice, as we’ve been blessed with fast births for our second and third, and our second was unassisted with Gus catching Max. Again, to birth at home is what we envision and pray for, but we’re ready for whatever is in plan for us.

Many blessings,

Dr Jacqueline

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