Ruminating

We're all making decisions about our health minute by minute. From the outset let me confess I'm no paragon of healthy virtue, just look at this amazing chocolate orange cake that I will be ploughing through this week! And I sometimes can go for days without flossing (tho have become better on this realising that a bit more effort might mean less dreaded dental visits).
Right now I'm not helping my health any by not sleeping. How much of that is my individual responsibility and how much a result of external pressures?

Last week I went on some thought provoking training on the impact of diet in pregnancy and beyond. It's taxing my thinking in terms of how we tackle what could be seen as conflicting rights. I support a woman's right to make her own decisions about what she does with her body, and this includes what she consumes, whether she drinks or smokes etc. I can see how this gets trickier when the health of another life gets factored in too. So as always I'm a believer in informed choice - if a mum knows that a cigarette, or alcohol, or lack of vitamin d, etc etc impacts on the development and growth of her baby, then she gets to weigh up what makes most sense for the both of them. Except like I raised earlier, it's not simply about choice. I might know that sleeping would be better for me than ruminating, but that hasn't helped me nod off. Telling me to go to sleep would just annoy me. Suggesting parents stop smoking can do likewise or induce guilt, which we know doesn't make us feel good. And we might need to change structures so that a mum isn't so stressed about life, money etc that she feels she needs to smoke, Or to start in the first place.

I'm so glad I'm not a dad as their control over their baby's health is more limited. They have a crucial role in the gene production, so of course their own health, diet, whether or not they smoke etc matters immensely. (And not just for the next generation. Epigenetics is awesome. My children's health isn't only affected by what I and their dad ate and did, but also my parents and grandparents!). But then control switches almost purely to mum's body and that could be hard if she chooses to terminate the pregnancy or make decisions that affect the baby's growth. I think there's more that can be done in seeing how fathers feel - cos how they feel will impact on the baby too if they are around to raise it. And yet as I write this I'm keenly aware of the shocking photos this week from America of a whole bunch of men debating maternity issues.

Ultimately none of us do things that impact on our health, or those of others, in isolation. There's so much we can keep learning about and encouraging one another in. With none of us telling anyone else what they should or shouldn't do, and instead taking time to hear how it is for each other so we can for ourselves explore why we do the things we do. Meanwhile you might want to bear in mind I'm going to be grumpy today!