Preggie Pals
Childbirth Preparation Methods: The Alexander Technique

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[00:00:00]

[Theme Music]

Eileen Troberman : The ability to experience childbirth with ease, control and effectiveness is possible by using the Alexander technique. I'm Eileen Troberman, and I've been teaching this effective technique for more than 30 years. This is Preggie Pals, episode 36.

[Theme Music/Intro]

Sunny Gault : Welcome to Preggie Pals, broadcasting from the Birth Education Center of San Diego. I'm your host, Sunny Gault. Are you a member of the Preggie Pals Club? Our members get access to all of our archived episodes, plus bonus content after each show, and special giveaways and discounts. Alright, let's meet our panelists! Let's start here in the studio with Stephanie.

Stephanie Saalfeld : Hi! I'm Stephanie Saalfeld, I am 29, I am a gemologist, due January 9th with my first baby, a baby girl, and we're having a hospital birth.

Elisa Suter : Hi! I'm Elisa Suter, I'm 32, I'm a wedding planner, I'm due April 12th with my first, a baby girl, and we are planning to have an unmedicated hospital birth.

Sunny Gault : OK, and joining us over the phone is Michele Farry, Michele is from Massachusets, and she's one of our listeners. Welcome, Michele!

Michele Farry : Hi Sunny! I'm so happy to be here today, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I am 34, and I design wigs for women and children, and I'm a creative director for a wig education website, and I'm due the end of January with a little boy, and I have one son that will be almost 10 years old, who plans to be at our delivery, and we want to have a natural hospital birth, if all goes well, I have some health issues so I'll have my doctor stay on board with me.

Sunny Gault : So tell us a little bit about how this pregnancy is going for you, because you said it's your second child, and you are having a little boy, so you've been through this before, so how is it going?

Michele Farry : I really have to say I feel terrific, it's been amazing, this guy is really active so I never feel lonely, because I spend a lot of time commuting in the car going to my office, and my son is just so extatic, it's a whole different experience with an older child who is getting to go through all the phases with you, organize his room and so on, it's an awesome way to experience pregnancy with your first child being older.

Sunny Gault : Right. I know a lot of people look at me like I'm crazy because I had two under two, and they're like, “Really? Wow!”, so many times it's like you can take it either way, you have a lot of time in-between them, there's pros and cons I guess with both. But I guess what ever you get you make do with, right?

Michele Farry : It's true, you get it from both ways, a lot of people tell me that they are so far apart, but you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way, I have more fun than the mommies with the younger ones at home, they have it rougher.

Sunny Gault : You've got a little helper! Even my two year-old likes to help me with the baby, but I would think that a ten year-old... is that the age that they can get in the mood where they don't want to be with their parents anymore? I'm not sure at age that kicks in.

Michele Farry : It depends on the day, but we're pretty fortunate, we're a pretty close family, so we're going to have to really make sure that he doesn't feel that he's loosing the focus. Same difference, just more years apart.

Sunny Gault : OK, well thank you ladies for joining us, we'll be right back.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segment: Becoming Dad]

[00:04:03]

Sunny Gault : Before we start today's show, here's Dr. Danny Singley with tips on becoming a new dad.

Danny Singley : Hi Preggie Pals! My name is Dr. Danny Singley, I'm a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in men's issues, and founder of Basic Training for New Dads. Although it's not commonly discussed in popular media, new dads often experience symptoms of postpartum depression. So let's take a few minutes to take a look at how it occurs and what to do about it. One in ten dads suffer from postpartum depression, meaning that 10% of fathers become depressed at some point between their partner's first trimester and the first year after delivery. Men with depressed partners are even more likely to become depressed, so it's critically important that moms with PPD are aware that their partners have an elevated risk as well. Similarly, women and men with a history of psychiatric issues including depression or anxiety are an elevated risk for postpartum issues. So you need to be proactive if you and/or your partner have a relevant psychiatric history. The key to understanding this phenomenon is that, in general, men tend to express emotions differently than women. Rather than tears or obvious expressions of sadness or loss, the most common symptoms for paternal postpartum depression include: anger, substance abuse, social isolation, or things like not taking joy in activities. Men symptoms tend to manifest more gradually during the third trimester and then into the year following birth, as opposed to immediately after birth, which is more common for women. So the ways and the timeframes which men experience with postpartum depression have both contributed to limited awareness about it. So what's the big deal about paternal postpartum depression? Well, it's related to a hoast of negative outcomes, including: insecure attachment, children's emotional problems, child behavior issues, parental conflict, decreased parental support, and of course, lower relationship satisfaction. Moms and dads need to be aware that postpartum issues are very much a men's issue. But that the prospect of seeking help can seem very difficult for men, because we do not socialize to deal with our feelings or to accept help until we are at a breaking point. So moms, share the parenting roles as much as possible with dad, as soon as possible, to decrease gelosy, isolation and concerns about bonding. It's also very important for dads to get support from their partners as well as to be encouraged to get support outside the relationship. Both mom and dad need time to recharge. Also, consider getting counseling therapy as well as a psychiatric medication evaluation. Thanks very much for listening, and I hope this information has been helpful. I'm Dr. Danny Singley, at NewDadsClasss.com. And be sure to keep listening to Preggie Pals for more tips on how new dads can make the most of their journey into fatherhood.

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[00:06:50]

Sunny Gault : Today we're continuing our series on childbirth preparation methods, the Alexander technique may be a new concept for many of our moms to be, but the practice has been around for a long time. Eileen Troberman is an internationally recognized teacher of the Alexander technique, her practice is right here in the San Diego area. Eileen, welcome to Preggie Pals!

Eileen Troberman : Thank you Sunny!

Sunny Gault : I feel like you're so accomplished, Eileen, I go to your website and you studied under the Dalai Lama, you've done all these amazing things and I'm just like, “Oh, Eileen!”

Eileen Troberman : Well, I would say in the Alexander technique, in the field of movement education, I've definitely studied it a long time.

Sunny Gault : And what is your background, because it says on your website that you came to the Alexander technique through acrobatics?

Eileen Troberman : Actually, through acting.

Sunny Gault : Through acting, OK.

Eileen Troberman : When I was younger. I haven't done it since.

Sunny Gault : So you've been teaching for over 30 years, so you know this technique pretty well.

Eileen Troberman : Yes, I started studying it 1978.

Sunny Gault : OK, so let's just dive into this. What is the Alexander technique? How would you explain it to someone who has never heard of it before?

Eileen Troberman : Well, we all have ways that we are using our bodies, ways we hold our bodies and we don't even realize it, it seems like it is just us. Some people pull their shoulders in, some people slump a little, some people hold themselves up and stiffen; there are all kinds of different patterns, and then there are patterns we use to get into movement, a lot of times when we want to get out of a chair we tighten our neck and compress our head and body just to stand up. So there are these habits of movement that we do, and there are habits that just stay in our bodies, because we are so used to them. And we carry those around and those are pressure intervention on our joints and pressure and thightness in our muscles. And we don't realize we're doing that so we don't have as much ease in our muscles and freedom in our joints, and we also feel a lot of stress all the time with these habits, and they become our bottom line, our level that we're used to. So in the Alexander technique, what you learn to do is you learn to undo those. You learn a way you yourself can recognize them, troubleshoot them and undo them so you are at normal level, your bottom line becomes much easier, much more free, your stress level is easier.

Sunny Gault : And we mentioned, I think, in the introduction, that some of our pregnant moms may have never heard of this because when we think of the standard childbirth preparation methods, the Alexander technique isn't always mentioned. But it's something that it doesn't matter if you are pregnant, it's something that people can continue to use. So who primarily benefits from this? I know we all can, but who are the primary people that are using it?

Eileen Troberman : Most people come to it because of some kind of discomfort, some back pain, neck pain, shoulder tightness, a lot of stress in their lives, poor posture, carpal tunnel, hip pain, people come to it for one of these reasons quite often, and also performers, musicians come to it to – once they learn to play their instrument, then it is up to how they can coordinate their body very easily and efficiently, in terms of how well they play – it's required for all the great acting schools around the world.

Sunny Gault : Really? I saw on your website that Cirque du Soleil is one of them. Have you tought them?

Eileen Troberman : I have, yeah.

Sunny Gault : That's amazing to me, because I think that if I can get into the positions that Cirque du Soleil can, I can push this baby out! If it's working for them, maybe we should all kind of take a second look, right?

Eileen Troberman : Well they are pretty flexible and they are great athletes to start with, but this particular knowledge, once you learn it, it's so practical and obvious, but it's something that really people don't know yet. So it helps anyone, whether they are incredible performers, and really skilled in hour they use their body, or if they are just an everyday average person. It can make anyone feel lighter and easier.

Sunny Gault : Maybe it goes without saying, but how can we apply this to labor and delivery?

Eileen Troberman : First of all, even if you are applying it just to carrying your baby, you see a lot of expecting mothers, and often they are standing with a lower back, arched and pushed forward, and their spine compressed, it's just very uncomfortable to stand around, they get back pain.

Sunny Gault : Both our panelists here in the studio are adjusting their posture, probably Michele too.

Michele Farry : I am!

Eileen Troberman : It really affects how you can carry the baby, and it's wonderful to do that with lightness and ease, lightness in your hips, it's great for the baby. It works with your breathing and the ease of your breathing, so the baby is getting this nice kind of massage motion with the freedom of your breathing, so it's really useful for how you carry the baby, how you move. And I'm going to get to labor and delivery, but actually it's very useful for after, when you have the baby, for what you do with nursing, so you don't get a lot of neck strain, and back strain with nursing, it's wonderful for the children, because they are going to imitate you in how you use your body as they grow up.

Sunny Gault : I know that, I've got a two year-old that tries to imitate everything I do.

Eileen Troberman : So you can really start them on good habits that way. And as far as labor and delivery, one of the ways it's very useful in labor and delivery is that it helps you have a certain ease, even under that stress, even with all that pain, it helps you have a way to let the pain disperse through your whole body, so you are not trying to contain it, so it's actually less if it moves out. But it also helps with – as you learn it before that – it helps with learning to widen with your hips very naturally, learning to have that ease and not tighten against it. There is an exercise we do for the members which is really useful for delivery and for labor. It also, actually – and I don't know if this is a coincidence, but twice I've worked with women with breech babies, and I've actually helped the baby turn around not by the traditional way which often they're just pushed by the head around, and usually that compresses their head into their spine, which is the opposite of natural movement, and the babies are wired so much for natural movement, we all are really, we just got to cover it up a bit, but the babies are so wired for that. And so just very slight – not a push at all, not even any pressure, a slight direction, a suggestion of a release of the baby's head a little bit away from the top of his spine, so that his whole body follows that, and twice, the babies have turned around next evening or so, just going all the way up around and over following their head, letting their bodies follow their head, which is the natural way they are wired to move anyway, so I don't know if those were coincidences.

Sunny Gault : When your baby turns around I think you'll try anything to get him in the right position. So are we primarily talking about babies when it comes to the Alexander technique?

Eileen Troberman : No. We talk about that, but really it's a lot about just how to recognize what you're doing with your body. It's just like when the refrigerator is on or something that you hear it's turned on, and then you don't hear it anymore.

Sunny Gault : You tune it out.

Eileen Troberman : Our nervous system just recognizes difference. Hi, Michele?

Michele Farry : Hi! I had a question about what you were just saying. I read a little bit about this technique and I think it's amazing, it's kind of like you're triggering your self awareness and then adjusting yourself to how you should properly aligned, is that what it is?

Eileen Troberman : Yes, that's right Michele, but it's not really the traditional sense of adjusting yourself to how you should be aligned, it does come up that way, but all of us grow up with an idea of correcting our posture by overlaying some extra muscle effort to hold us in a better position, to kind of sit up straight. So we're actually still doing the pulling down and tightening and compressing, and then we add some pulls in another direction with another layer of muscles to supposedly correct that, and visually, it looks a little better, but you've actually added a whole other layer of tension with muscles that you don't actually need for your breathing and movement, that should be free, not for posture.

Sunny Gault : My mom would always wack me in the middle of my back to stand up straight and shoulders back, without realizing that she's putting another layer on top of it. Doing it all wrong.

Eileen Troberman : You would be surprised, but shoulders back is really not the way to go.

Sunny Gault : So if we end up using the Alexander technique during labor and delivery, what results can we expect? Are we talking about a pain free labor? What has been your experience, 'cause that's what we want, right, we want magic to happen.

Eileen Troberman : I don't know that you can get a pain free labor.

Sunny Gault : Darn!

Eileen Troberman : But you can have a much easier time with it, you're not fighting against it, you understand what's happening with your body, you are really able to tune in to different aspects and really let things release. And you are able to relax through, to really become through it, and you have a method that you are able to use to gain that calmness. Whereas often moms would just tighten off a lot during the intense cramping, there is a way you can actually learn to release through that, and then it just moves through you much more freely, 'cause everything coordinates with it, so you get that whole coordination to eas with it. There will still be labor pains, but it makes it much easier and the delivery is easier, you are just not fighting against it, you understand how to release. You've got that mental ability and that awareness of your body, so you can just do that.

Sunny Gault : So can this technique be used with other childbirth methods?

Eileen Troberman : Sure. Anything, it can be used with anything. It's so basic to everything, it's how you use your body when you are doing anything else.

Sunny Gault : I just love that you can continue to use – I feel like there is so much buildup, childbirth classes to learn how to give birth, and then the birth is over, and you are like, “Wow!”, maybe it worked, but I love that you can apply this in so many different ways, I don't hear about people doing hypnobirthing or the Bradley method outside of childbirth. I like when things can be repurposed, I feel like I'm really spending my money.

Eileen Troberman : You would use this all your life, to improve how you move, to improve your lightness and ease, even when you think you're just perfect and easy and light, you'll get lighter and easier. It's amazing, it's a fascinating sense and ability that we have that we don't know about and we don't use.

Sunny Gault : Have there been studies to show how this is impacted on the medical condition of somebody? Over time, what kind of changes can we expect if we use this throughout our lives?

Eileen Troberman : There haven't been too many studies of overtime in therms of medical studies, except for one, a very large back pain study done in Britain, and it was published in the British Medical Journal I think in August 2008, maybe. A couple of years ago, maybe 2010. And it showed that the Alexander technique was the most effective method for treating back pain, both long term and both cost efficient wise, so that was a really good thing. There have been some other studies, a study of doctors doing that microsurgery or whatever it's called, doing surgery, and not only did they have less back pain, but their surgery was more accurate. But through observation, many people that have studies this over the years, what you can expect is that you use your body well on into old age, you learn to use your body in a way that you don't tend to get back pains, shoulder pain, tension, stress, you learn to move your body so that you move elegantly with grace. Not on purpose, but it just comes out of this, you have a nice ease of movement, and there are many ways that affects things, even interactions with people. If you learn to have that ease, other people pick that up 'cause we imitate each other, with things called mirror neurons found in our brain that actually do the imitation, everyone has that. So people end up imitating you, 'cause you have more ease, you have a more clear body of how to use your body, so it's a very nice thing to do for people. But it feels very light, it has a trademark sense of effortlessness and kind of floating and ease when you are very strong, you have a lot of power and strength, 'cause your muscles aren't being used for posture, yet you feel like you're completely effortless.

Sunny Gault : Weightless?

Eileen Troberman : Yeah. 'Cause the bones take the weight and they don't report weight, it's when we feel the stress on our joints, the pressure, the tightening and extra work of our muscles that we feel weight.

Sunny Gault : So what if needed to be successful at the Alexander technique? Are there certain people that are better suited for it than others? Regarding personality, that's what I'm thinking.

Eileen Troberman : Well I can tell you that I was a very slow learner. I suppose I probably have one of the worst personalities for it, but turned out alright. There are people that pick it up more quickly, there are people like me, they're just slower, maybe not as slow as I was. And I was very slow because even though I was told during these lessons that it's not a position, you don't put yourself in a position, you don't look for the feeling of it always in my head, at the right place, to feel the right way. I was told this throughout my Alexander lessons in the beginning all of the time, but I thought that maybe other people can just release their body up, but I am going to need to find a better position and, if I can just see what it feels like I can do that. I was trying to feel it out and use my muscles, I was putting muscle effort to do it, even though I knew that was not the thing to do. So if somebody can just actually switch their mind and decide, “No, I'm not going to put in any muscle effort, I'll just have a thought at this”, they can do it pretty easily. I was just really stubborn.

Sunny Gault : But, like you said, it turned out well for you, you now teach the technique. OK, when we come back, we're going to learn what to expect should you decide to study the Alexander technique. We'll be right back.

[Theme Music]

[00:22:22]

Sunny Gault : Welcome back everyone, today we are talking about childbirth preparation methods, this is one of the episodes in our series, and we're focusing today on the Alexander technique, Eileen Troberman is our special guest today, she is an instructor of the Alexander technique. Eileen, let's talk more about the classes, you've been teaching for over 30 years now; at what point, since we are talking to pregnant women, at what point in pregnancy would recommend someone to start taking these classes? Because I know you can use it throughout pregnancy, so maybe the moment you find out you're pregnant, this would be a good time, but then this technique is a little different, because you can use it throughout life. So what would be your recommendation?

Eileen Troberman : I would say starting as soon as possible, whenever that is. It really is useful to start it as soon as possible so you have more tools throughout your pregnancy. It's fine to start anytime, I've had people start in the eight month, that's a little late, but they've had success with it. But it really is useful to start early on, when you first find you're pregnant.

Sunny Gault : Well let's assume that someone wants to use it at least initially for labor and delivery. How long would you recommend that they take the class in order to properly prepare themselves for that experience?

Eileen Troberman : Again, this would be actually as soon as possible. The longer that you have experience with it, the more ease you'll have in your body. These are undoing habits and you'll undo a layer of habits and that will feel great, and then there is another layer, and then there is another one, and so you get so much better at doing it, especially in emergency or stressful kind of situation where you just really need to know it well to draw on it. It's really useful to have as much experience as possible. There is no set, you know, this many times, but the sooner the better.

Sunny Gault : But you said for eight months, that would probably be cutting it too close, is there a cut-off time?

Eileen Troberman : I think even having one lesson in it is useful, but it's so much better if you can have more than one lesson where you could do it, but people don't tend to follow the instructions.

Sunny Gault : It needs to settle in a little bit.

Eileen Troberman : Yeah, people sort of get an idea and take short-cuts, like I did when I was learning it. So maybe it's a little better, but it's not really the ease that it could be.

Sunny Gault : Let's talk about what people will experience in a class. Do people come in at various levels, or their specific start days, how does that work, since this is an ongoing training process?

Eileen Troberman : Well, it's private lessons, I can do group classes and I've done that, but it's very useful to have private lessons, 'cause you get all the individual time yourself and you get your particular habits undone, and then that guidance, “Oh, wait, you're doing it this way, you should actually do it this way”. So people come in and right away we start working with helping them have more ease in walking and standing and bending, and just their understanding of how their body is put together, just a kind of map of their body. We were talking earlier about shoulders and arms, when we move ur arms, a lot of times we end up tightening our shoulders up into our neck, and we don't even realize, if you ask someone where they think their shoulders are, where they think their arms are attached to their body, if you ask someone to point, “Where is your arm attached to the main part of your trunk?”, people will point way out at their shoulder, at the end of their shoulder, but really it's just there at our breastbone, at our sternum, that one little joint, that's the only place our arms are attached by a joint, so it's a nice free movement once you understand that, how you use your arms. So there are all kind of things like that that you learn to map out your body. So you will immediately move more easily, 'cause you have a much clearer idea of how your body is put together. So we do that, there is a time that is done as a laying down part of the session, that's everyone's favorite time usually.

Sunny Gault : Does anyone fall asleep?

Eileen Troberman : Sometimes they drift off into what I call the twilight zone, a dream state, 'cause it feels really relaxing, it feels even better than a massage, but you're actually learning things, you're learning what you can do on your own. And you end up feeling lightened, easy after the session. So that's pretty much what the private lesson is like. And it individualizes what you need to learn. So if somebody comes in and because of the pregnancy they're really dropping back – I mean people tend to stand that way sometimes pregnant or not, but with the pregnancy especially, with the relaxing of the ligaments, it's so important to learn this during pregnancy, because it can affect you afterwards in how your joints are. If you're putting all that pressure on using your body poorly and then afterwards you've got joints that just aren't quite like they were before. So this way they can actually even end up better, which is a good thing.

Sunny Gault : So for pregnant women would you recommend that they have a partner coming with them who might be part of the birthing process?

Eileen Troberman : No, that's not necessary. Somebody is not going to be doing stuff to them or with them during that.

Michele Farry : Eileen, I was wondering... do all certified Alexander Technique instructors see the correlation with pregnancy or can work with you in pregnancy?

Eileen Troberman : Yes, absolutely.

Michele Farry : Ok.

Sunny Gault: Michelle, I know you were doing some research earlier on the Alexander Technique and here we are talking about childbirth and stuff. But there is another important element, another area of your life that can be improved with this technique. So why don't you tell us more about that?

Michele Farry : Well I was reading quite a bit about the benefits of the Alexander Technique in pregnancy. I read a couple... doctors actually commented they saw the most calm patients ever that had utilized the Alexander Technique. And one of the patients or women that wrote about it since she also benefitted in her sex life - moving forward - from using the Alexander Technique. So it really does seem like such an awsome lifestyle investment, like you were saying, Sunny, not just for childbirth, but moving forward. And I know from myself – I really want to stay calm and in control and feel like my body is working for me, so that my doctors feel more confident about the situation and so they can trust my communication with them and that I can handle what's going on physically as well as emotionally.

Eileen Troberman : There's a process and you'll see this in toddlers. You'll see when they go to move – you know at that age they have these big heads – and what you'll see is their head will sort of flat a little on and up and just lightly nod a bit forward; and that will get them racing across the room. They'll start walking or running like that. Or they'll bend. And there's a way that all vertebrates are wired to move that's going on in a toddler and that's our neck releases, which allows our head to float a little bit, slightly nodded forward and up that triggers a lengthening in our spine and a widening of our back. And that triggers a knee to release forward and a start of walking or both knees and bending or to standing easily. So that's wired in us to start movement. Animals do it – you see a cat or a dog, they're sitting and they hear a loud sound: you can just see their neck release, their head goes up, their back lengthens and widens so they can move easily at their joints and look around and be prepared. And we're just wired for that. But we walk around in the opposite. We live our lives sort of in the opposite, the startle pattern, where the neck tightens and our head compresses down into the back of our spine and our spine shortens and our back narrows and we stiffen our knees... So this pattern of undoing that is just what naturally happens when you cancel that pattern of tightening, when you give a signal to cancel that – when you recognize it and cancel it – your neck will release and your head will float a little forward and up; it's kind of like our heads are, if they were football shaped – they were standing on end, you know that kind of... the top with length in that way, people think of their heads going up and often they bring their face up. Anyway, that nice float of the head that causes that whole trigger of the spine to just act in this natural coordination where it lengthens, and your back widens, and you're breathing improves. We teach that pattern to everyone, how to do that and use that during labor, during delivery, or during anything, to get out of a chair, to start to speak, to move. And you start seeing that, you start seeing the opposite too quite often in people, so it makes it easy not to imitate that habit of tightening, which we all tend to do. And it's so great for the kids, if you can do that for your children, if you can actually have that easy use of your body, they pick that up instead of the other thing when they want to imitate and feel like mom.

Sunny Gault : Eileen, what resources would you recommend that our listeners check out? They are listening to this episode, maybe they want some more information. Are there sites, are there books, what would you recommend?

Eileen Troberman : On my site, I have some little instructional exerts of videos, for free. You can just go to AlexanderTechniqueSanDiego.com, and if you go to the video link you can see those. There is also a book on pregnancy and Alexander technique, I brought it here, and it's by Ilana Machover and Angela and Jonathan Drake, there is a website you can go to look up a teacher in your area, msetonline.org.

Sunny Gault : OK, Eileen, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing all this information with us. If you guys would like more information about Eileen, she did mention her website so we'll be sure to link to that on our site. And we'll put your bio and stuff on our episode's page as well, so visit our website for more information.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segments: Baby Registry Secrets]

[00:33:37]

Havien Salls : Hi Preggie Pals! My name is Havien Salls associate at Agana Baby, here to discuss some tips you want to consider when creating the baby registry. First tip is about what you should actually register for. We separate these into three categories, the needs, the things that are good to have, and the things you don't need but would like to have as a gift. There are certain things that are must-haves, these would be the needs category. They're the items you will need at some point while caring for your baby. These items include strollers, car seats, cribs, bottles, walking chairs, bathtubs, baby formula, and baby wash cloth. Strollers and car seats are high cost items which sometimes get passed on due to their purchase price. You should definitely include the needs if they are must-have items for new parents, and there is still a possibility that they will be purchased for you. The other items in this category of very easily purchased and they should always be included in the registry, as this will help you get many of the items needed for a new baby. Next is the things that are good to have category. This usually includes things like walkers, bouncers, changing table, as well as swings and carriers. These are items which are not necessary, but many people prefer to have them. It's good to have them on the registry because although you may not need them right away, there is a good chance that you will want to have them on the road. Finally, you have the things you don't need but will like to have as a gift category. This may be an expensive organic sweater blanket, a special bottle, or an organic carrier you checked out on your last visit. Toys are also generally included in this category. Registry are a good place to put in some of the items you really like but may not reach for if you have to spend all of your money. This really is where you get to say, “That's really cool, but I wouldn't buy that myself”. For more tips on creating the best baby registry, as well as what to include in the registry, visit aganababy.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter at aganababy, and be sure to listen to Preggie Pals for more great registry tips in the future.

[Theme Music]

Sunny Gault : Alright, that's it for today's episode, except for members of our Preggie Pals Club, they will get a bonus content, we are going to practice an element of the Alexander technique with Eileen. So that's coming up here very shortly. Of course, we want to thank all of our listeners for listening to our show, our panelists here in the studio as well as Michele, joining us over the phone. Thank you guys so much for contributing to our conversation today. Thanks for listening to Preggie Pals, your pregnancy, your way.

[Disclaimer]

This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

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