Surviving the Summer Heat While Pregnant

The temperatures outside are rising — right along with your growing belly. And keeping your body cool is essential for both you and your baby. How does a pregnant woman's body temperature impact her pregnancy? What do you need to know about the sun, perspiration and exposure to air conditioning? Plus, our Facebook fans share what helped them stay cool during the warm summer months.

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Episode Transcript

Preggie Pals
Surviving the Summer Heat While Pregnant

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]

Wade Schwendemann : It's summer time, and the rising temperatures are not only uncomfortable, but they could create some complications for you and your growing baby. What are some great ways to help regulate your internal temperature and stay cool during the next few months? I'm Dr. Wade Schwendemann, a perinatologist with the San Diego Perinatal Center and Sharp Mary Circh Hospital for Women and Newborns, and today we are learning how to survive the summer heat while pregnant. This is Preggie Palls, episode 64.

[Theme Music/Intro]

Sunny Gault : Welcome to Preggie Pals, broadcasting from the Birth Education Center of San Diego. Preggie Pals is your weekly, online, on the go support group for expecting parents, and those hoping to become pregnant. I'm your host, Sunny Gault. Are you looking for an older episode of Preggie Pals? We got you covered, be sure to visit the episodes link on our website, PreggiePals.com, and check up the episode guide for links to all of our episodes. And it's great too because it also tells you what episodes you can listen to where. For example, our free apps, all of our episodes are available on our free apps, and through iTunes. I also want to thank all of our loyal listeners who have joined the Preggie Pals Club. Our members get access to all of our archived episodes, bonus content after each show, plus special giveaways and discounts, and you'll also get a free subscription to Pregnancy Magazine. You can visit our website for more information and to sign up. And another way to stay connected is by downloading those free Preggie Pals apps I was telling you about, we do have apps in the Android and iTunes marketplace. OK, so let's introduce all the people that are going to be part of our lovely show today; a little bit about myself, if you guys know me, I'm the host of the show, I'm Sunny, I am currently pregnant with identical twins, and we found out that they're girls, so I'm joining the girl's club. I have two little boys at home already and I have to tell you, I was really nervous that I was going to get two more boys, I was like, “Oh my God, what am I going to do with four boys?”, but now we are going to have two and two, superexcited about it. I'm due sometime in December, of course, with twins it's possible the babies could come early, I'm going to hold off as long as I can. I had a cesarean with my last, and a vaginal with my first, we're just planning to go the cesarean, we're just going to keep it nice and simple with the twins, so I don't have any complications. And Dr. Schwendemann is joining us here in the studio, and as we were chatting before the show, he said that tomorrow is his wedding anniversary, so congratulations!

Wade Schwendemann : Thanks very much!

Sunny Gault : Superexcited about that, and we'll introduce you a little bit more after the break. One thing that I do want to say to all of our listeners out there, we have a new program where we are trying to get all of our listeners to participate in the tapings of our shows, I know a lot of you guys are located all over the country, and we even have some international listeners. And so we're implementing this new program, it's called our virtual panelist program, and there is actually a link on our website, if you go to the community section of our website, scroll down the virtual panelist, and basically, if you are on Facebook or Twitter, we're going to be talking about the topics that we are going to be recording on our shows in advance, and we're looking for your comments, for you to participate in the show and then we are going to start to incorporate all of those comments within the show, as we're talking. Of course, we'll mention your name and that it was your comment, and hopefully we'll create this great dynamic conversation with our panelists all over the world. So if you are not following our Facebook page, check us out, just type in Preggie Pals, and then if you are on Twitter, we also have a Twitter account, just look for Preggie Pals. You can also search for #PreggiePals vp, which stands for virtual panelist, and as we record our shows, we're going to be tweeting out information about the topic, about what are expert is saying here in the studio, we'll be asking you guys questions, and I hope that it will be a fantastic conversation. So let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segment: Pregnancy Tips for the Clueless Chick]

[00:04:23]

Sunny Gault : Before we begin today's episode, here is Jennifer Durbin, with some “Pregnancy Tips for the Clueless Chick”.

Jennifer Durbin : Hi! I'm Jennifer Durbin, the author of “Pregnancy Tips for the Clueless Chick”, and a mother of two wonderful little boys. I'd love to share with you my tips for pampering yourself during the pregnancy. While you are busy preparing for the arrival of the little one, and all the craziness that will come with parenthood, don't forget to take care of yourself and your partner. Having a baby is the most wonderful and difficult things in the world, and every mother will tell you that your baby will instantly become your number one priority. But for the sake of the baby and your sanity, don't forget to take care of yourself. Whether you plan to get a prenatal massage, or a day at the SPA with your girlfriends, or even take a day off of work to do a whole lot of nothing, it's important to schedule some time for yourself before things get crazy. You may want to plan a fun prebaby girls night out, or a date night where you're not allowed to talk about the baby. Those are fun ways to celebrate you. It's also fun to step outside of the box, and wear something super trendy that you might not normally wear. If you haven't exercised during your pregnancy, find a local prenatal yoga or aqua aerobics class; this is not only a great way to exercise, but also the perfect way to meet other pregnant women. And finally, my favorite pamper yourself tip, make a list of the pregnancy don'ts that you've been dying to do, like eating sushi or having a glass of wine. Then you look forward to checking everything off of the list after the baby is born. While you're planning for some much needed pampering, don't forget that your partner is on this wild ride with you. While you are the one with all of the pains, who cannot tie her own shoes, your partner has been there to listen to all of your woes and be a shoulder for you to cry on when your hormones are raging. Remember that time you spilled grape juice on your brand new top and you cried for two hours strait? So look for a special way that you can surprise him with his favorite dinner or a night out with the boys. For more great tips, visit cluelesschick.com.

[Theme Music]

[00:06:35]

Sunny Gault : If you've been pregnant in the summer, you know that heat can reek havoc on your pregnant body, so today we're exploring some great ways to survive the summer heat when pregnant, Dr. Wade Schwendemann is back on the show to share about how the pregnant body reacts to changes in temperature, and then towards of the episode, we will discuss some simple ways to stay cool during the summer months. Dr. Schwendemann, welcome back to Preggie Pals!

Wade Schwendemann : Thanks for having me back, it's always a pleasure.

Sunny Gault : How easy or difficult is it for a pregnant women to regulate her internal temperature?

Wade Schwendemann : Well, it's actually pretty difficult for someone to try to change their internal temperature, your brain regulates it through the control of different hormones that, as long as things are going well, don't change very much. And so, because of that, trying to change your internal temperature is difficult, which is also quite good, because generally you don't want to change your internal temperature while you're pregnant?

Sunny Gault : So it's kind of difficult to do, but not impossible to do? We do have some influence over it?

Wade Schwendemann : Sure. Everything you do in term of activity could adjust that if you're particularly active with exercise, or if you are outside in the sun quite a bit. If you're in a hot environment for a long period of time, your temperature will change, and that's something you got to be very very careful about.

Sunny Gault : So define long period of time.

Wade Schwendemann : The long period of time depends on the temperature that it is outside. If we're outside where it's 100 degrees, for example, it's going to take maybe a half an hour or an hour before you really start to see significant changes, and it's really mostly going to be your skin temperature that's going to be affected, not necessarily your core body temperature. But if you are, say, working out at the gym and you are using muscles all over your body, and burning them up, burning up calories quickly, you're going to end up with a raising temperature if you're not careful to watch your heart rate and keep cool, stay hydrated, those sort of things.

Sunny Gault : What should our temperature be? For pregnant women, we know 98.6, that's right, right? 98.6 for the general adult population. Does that change for pregnant women, is our temperature higher or lower than that?

Wade Schwendemann : It certainly might feel like it is, but actually no. 98.6 is the average normal temperature for people in general, but there is a wide range of normal for each individual. What's important is making sure you stay within what's normal for yourself and not allowing the internal temperature to go up, that's the bigger concern.

Sunny Gault : So if I am normally 98.6, just because I'm pregnant doesn't necessarily mean that's going to change?

Wade Schwendemann : No. Your temperature is your temperature and it's going to stay the same. Everyone's got their own internal thermostat, for lack of a better termen, so it's set where you are.

Sunny Gault : And is there a way to figure out – if I am normally 98.6 and then I check my temperature and I'm 98.3 – is there a range that I should really be watching out for? Just to make sure? 'Cause we don't usually go below. We usually talk about higher temperatures, right?

Wade Schwendemann : Higher temperatures are the bigger concern in terms of development for the baby, in terms of pregnancy typically. If you were hypothermic from being exposed to freezing water, that would be a different story altogether. But in terms of concern, it's a little bit of increase. But here's the real kicker, it's difficult to know how accurate the thermometer that you're using is. That can be a bit of a problem, if you're using an older thermometer that you stick under your tongue versus one of those more recent models where you kind of can click it once and it shoots into your ear and measures your temperature. You have to be very very careful with that.

Sunny Gault : I think that I have one for my kid that just reads the forehead.

Wade Schwendemann : Generally, the rule is – your temperature is only as accurate as your device you're using to measure it. So you have to be very careful.

Sunny Gault : So you would probably recommend sticking with the same system, if I'm always using a digital thermometer, we should stick with that one, so it's consistent.

Wade Schwendemann : Right, so you know what's normal. Some of your listeners probably are very familiar with taking their temperatures before they got pregnant in the first place...

Sunny Gault : Fertility...

Wade Schwendemann : Absolutely.

Sunny Gault : So do we really give a range? I know it's going to depend on where you started out, if there's a couple degrees this way, and you're probably OK, is there any kind of general advice we can give our listeners on that?

Wade Schwendemann : If you get a degree and half or two degrees off from where you typically are, that can be enough to change your core body temperature and start to potentially cause some effects. It's the reasons why we don't let fevers untreated in pregnancy and we strongly advice people to keep telling all around. Because our generic Acetaminophen are the same, don't take both, but one or the other, and that can help to lower your body temperature down and it's completely safe in pregnancy, as long as you don't have any unusual liver issues for the most part.

Sunny Gault : How does a pregnant woman's body temperature impact her baby? Are we passing all this stuff on, if our temperature goes up a degree or two, does our baby's temperature go up as well?

Wade Schwendemann : It does, and your baby's temperature starts out a little bit higher than yours. Your body temperature, let's say it's 98.6, the temperature inside your uterus is going to be about a little more than half a degree wormer than that, and it's supposed to be. And the baby's temperature is about a full degree wormer, which is also what it's supposed to be. But if we go another degree or two beyond that for the baby, we can start to affect development of the brain, of the spinal cord, particularly the central nervous system, and it can cause damage. It's one of the main reasons we tell pregnant women to avoid hot tubs. 'Cause it will raise your core body temperature, and it so doing, affect the neurologic development of the baby.

Sunny Gault : How do we prevent that besides not going to a hot tub? Are there things you recommend? Common things.

Wade Schwendemann : Using smart judgement. Avoiding situations where you know things are going to be particularly hot. If you are going to go to the race track for example, you don't want to stand in the middle of the field in the sun, you want to wear something to give yourself some shade, and to make sure that you stay well hydrated, and that you take advantage of the cooler areas that are around. If you are on a sideline at a Chargers game, you want to be underneath one of those little fans that they have for the players. Stay as comfortable as you can. The reason why we're most comfortable in a room that's somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees is because it's what our body is used to. You can go outside, you can even exercise, but you've got to be cautious about making sure that you get in and out of the sun and limiting your exposure that way.

Sunny Gault : With my first, Sayer, my oldest little guy, he was born at the end of July, but it was a very temperate year here in San Diego, I don't know if you guys remember 2010, but it was a very temperate summer, everyone kept commenting on that. But we had a community pool, part of our association, and I remember especially that it was about three days late for my due day, and I remember those last three days just basically living in the pool, and then getting out in the shade. Dr. Schwendemann, what should pregnant women need to know about a couple of things, I want to go over a list. When we talk about exposure to the sun, I know vitamine D – we've done an episode on this in the past – vitamine D is very good for women, but obviously there is a point that we have to start protecting ourselves, that we have to make sure that our temperature is OK and everything. So what kind of advice do you typically give patients when it comes to how much sun exposure they should have?

Wade Schwendemann : In terms of sun exposure, it's going to be what a person wants to tolerate for the most part, but you got to protect yourself. Sunscreen is critical for everyone, not just because it helps to prevent sunburn, but because of the potential issues down the road from sunlight damage to your skin and possible things like melanoma as you age, and melanoma can affect young people, so if you are not careful, it's not something to ignore. When you put on sunscreen, you want to put it on about 10 to 15 minutes before you're going to go outside, so that that film actually is dry, otherwise, you're going outside with wet liquid on your skin, and it's just like going outside with cooking oil. You want it to dry first. And you should probably reapply your sunscreen every couple of hours, even if you are outside, even if you buy the waterproof or very water resistent formulas, just the wind and the air can help to kind of break that down and really give you more exposure. So it's a good idea to reapply in general. In addition, everyone knows about some of the skin changes in pregnancy, while there's no specific studies that demonstrate that pregnant women are more likely to burn or to have sun damage, it follows that if your skin is more active in pregnancy, the potential for damage is more as well, so even though we don't have good data to justify that that's the case, it makes sense, and so protecting yourself in that regard makes a lot of sense as well.

Sunny Gault : I mentioned vitamine D before, where is the cut-off from women getting enough sun for vitamine D purposes, versus being in the sun a little bit too long. Even when it comes to sunscreen, that's meant to block a lot of UV light, right? So how do we balance this? 'Cause we're kind of getting conflicting things here, don't spend too much time in the sun, yet you need to spend time in the sun for vitamine D.

Wade Schwendemann : You need to get vitamine D and the easiest way to get it is from the sun, but if you're taking a supplement or if you're drinking milk, than you're getting your vitamine D probably anyway. It's not as critical. You don't need to avoid the sun when you are pregnant, I wouldn't say that you necessarily need to seek it, either. Most people can probably try to get what they need from other sources.

Sunny Gault : I have to admit, pregnant ballet dancers that are tan look really nice, I'm not advocating for spending hours and hours out in the sun, but I'm just saying, during one of my pregnancies I had a nice little tan, and in the other ones, including this one, I look like Dracula.

Wade Schwendemann : A lot of people think that tan looks better, that's why so many people seek the sun, but you have to be safe.

Sunny Gault : So you mentioned putting on the lotion when it's still wet and going outside, but what about sweating and perspiration? How does that impact us, obviously, our body when we are sweating or perspiring are hot, our body is trying to cool itself. So what does that do to the pregnant body?

Wade Schwendemann : That is exactly what you need to watch. As long as you are sweating, it shows that your body still has the total body water that you can use to cool yourself. This is exactly how your body internal thermostat works, sweating keeps you cool by placing this thin layer of water on your body and then, hopefully, dissipating heat through the surface area. If you stop sweating, you're getting to a point of danger. That's a big issue. Whether it's danger from dehydration, or danger from heat exposure, or a combination of the two, you got to be very very careful about that. And so making sure that you are staying hydrated is absolutely important.

Sunny Gault : So if we notice ourselves sweating it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can like a warning sign, to be like, “OK, our body is starting to get a little heated, maybe we should seek some shade”, somehow cool ourselves off.

Wade Schwendemann : Absolutely right, and if you are in Carolina, in the South, as soon as you walk out the door, you are sweating. You open the door from your air conditioned home, and you're taking bonus showers.

Sunny Gault : OK, so that leads me to my next point. When it's hot outside, we usually use the air conditioning and if we are going from place to place, we may be going from a situation where it's really hot outside, to a situation where it's really cool, we may even be sweating in-between. So what are some things that we have to keep in mind when either going from hot condition to a cold condition or just spending our days in an office environment where they have air conditioning on, is there anything that we should keep in mind with regards to that?

Wade Schwendemann : As long as you are in an environment that you are used to and comfortable with, your temperature should be regulated pretty well. When you go outside, where you are hot and sweating, to inside, where there's air conditioning, your body hasn't had a chance to stop sweating and you haven't had a chance to clean the sweat off, so you're going to get cool very quickly. It's a good reason dress in layers and make sure that even though at summer time, to have something light to cover yourself, in case you do get cold.

Sunny Gault : Awesome. When we come back, we're going to discuss some specific ways pregnant women can stay cool during the hot summer months, I know we've been kind of chatting about it, we're going to go over some common things, and maybe some stuff you guys haven't thought of before. And we also checked in with our Facebook friends, to see what helps them during their pregnancies, and we'll share their comments as well. So we'll be right back.

[Theme Music]

[00:20:12]

Sunny Gault : Welcome back, today we are talking about ways to survive the summer heat when pregnant, and our expert is Dr. Wade Schwendemann, he is a perinatologist, at the San Diego Perinatal Center, if you guys don't know what a perinatologist is, I've actually become – or becoming – very familiar with them, because that's the OB now, it's basically a high-risk OB/GYN. Let's continue on our conversation. We want to discover, we want to explore how pregnant women can stay cool during the summer months, we've talked about temperature and somethings to keep in mind when going from hot to cool conditions. So let's just talk about how can we stay cool. And I found some of these things that pregnant women were recommending online, and we've also reached out to some of our Facebook fiends. So let's just go through this list. I think we brought this up a little bit before but this is kind of an obvious one, we're talking about cool wash cloths, or towels, but anything like that, maybe even like ice packets or something like that, all this stuff, I'm assuming, is good, Dr. Schwendemann?

Wade Schwendemann : It's all totally safe. When you think about placing cool water or cool wash cloths on your body – it can even be worm water – it's going to be cooler than your body temperature, and what you're doing is you're helping your body to dissipate heat. It's basically like simulating your own body sweat. You just got to be sure that you're still sweating or that you're still hydrated in addition to that, because if you're dehydrated and spring water on the outside, you'll be a lot better putting that water on the inside instead, like Amy mentioned before.

Sunny Gault : One of our Facebook friends says that she takes cool showers in the evening, after a swim, so it looks like she is kind of doing both, she says walking around the house like a nudist – just make sure that the blinds are down if you're going to do something like that.

Wade Schwendemann : Or that you have a really good relationship with your neighbors.

Sunny Gault : This next one I thought was really funny, a really good point though, and that is eating cooler foods, we kind of know that, if it's a hot summer day, you grab a popsicle or a cold bottle of water, all that stuff's good.

Wade Schwendemann : Sliced watermelon.

Sunny Gault : Yeah, I've got one in my fridge right now, all that stuff is good, but the other thing to add to this is – watch the type of food that you're eating, like spicy food, and it totally makes sense, but that isn't something that I would probably eliminate from my diet, I might not go for a super hot meal in temperature, that makes sense to me, but to watch the spicy stuff too, 'cause you start perspiring, and you just start to feel hot. So yeah, I thought that was really a good point.

Wade Schwendemann : So many pregnant women have heartburn acid reflex, that they tend to avoid those naturally, because of the revenge that the food has on you alter. You got to be careful, when you eat spicy foods. They're not going to raise your core body temperature, but you're certainly going to sweat a lot more, and that may leave you lees available for later.

Sunny Gault : We already talked about swimming, so I don't want to go over that too much.

Wade Schwendemann : One thing to add with swimming – swimming in the ocean or floating in the ocean. I want people to be aware that they need to be cautious with that. The ocean is not to be disrespected. The power of waves – if it's in a smooth gentle place where there is not a lot of waves, then that's fine, but if you are someplace where there is a surface that might hit you, you got to be very very cautious about that. When you're pregnant, your center of gravity shifts and your balance shifts, and when you are swimming, things are floating and they are weightless, and so it's very easy to loose your balance, try to be able to stand like you would normally been able to do, but then not be able to do it, because you have more weight in your abdomen so you fall forward or something. The swimming itself is not the problem, it's the falling that can be an issue for pregnant women. So you got to be very very cautious with impact.

Sunny Gault : I think that we kind of forget how strong the undertow can be, and if you are carrying a lot of extra weight, we may think that we can do something that we can't, and we may find ourselves in difficult positions. I think that's a really good point to make, that when you're swimming especially in open waters, you have to be careful. The other thing, wearing light breathable fabrics – like our Facebook friend said earlier, you can walk around naked, but if you don't want to do that, there are plenty of types of clothes out there that definitely are more breathable. One of our Facebook friends, Stephanie, says, “Dress your beautiful pregnant belly in a bathing suit, go to the beach, bring shade cover and enjoy the breeze. I did that when I was 9 month pregnant, it was cool and liberating, just do it, it also makes other people smile”. I bought a couple of specific bathing suits that were related to pregnancy, maternity suits or whatever – once you get big enough and you can definitely tell it's a pregnant belly, that's kind of fun to do. You will get more people noticing you, but usually it's a positive thing. And we've talked about this next point a couple of times during this show, about staying hydrated, and Dr. Schwendemann, I really want to focus in on that. What do you mean by staying hydrated and how do we know that our body is properly hydrated?

Wade Schwendemann : The most important thing – pregnant women need at least 8 ounce glasses of water a day, in addition to the other liquids that they are consuming. It sound really easy, but not everyone does it, because they feel that they don't want to go to the bathroom so much or something like that. That's not going to happen, your body is going to take the water from your body's stores and you're going to lose it. Staying hydrated is something that you got to be on top of. If you're outside loosing water, in sweat or just through activity, you're going to need to replace that as well. It's just like all those Gatorade commercials you've seen dozens of times before, you're body looses hydration during activity, and you need to put it back. It's critical to do that. And if you don't do it, it's a little bit of a deficit, it can be replaced later, but if you start to get really dehydrated, it can be dangerous.

Sunny Gault : What about other drinks, somethings kind of deplete our hydration. I was talking about coffee earlier today, I haven't had my coffee yet this morning, and I know that that's not probably the best thing to keep our body hydrated, but are there other things that you recommend? As pregnant women, I feel like we are drinking water all the time, especially if you've got to stational diabetes in a previous pregnancy, you are like, “Gush, the only thing I can have is water! Everything else has so much sugar in it”. Are there specific drinks that you recommend that we can either add to our water – and I'm not talking about brand names, you don't have to go into that, but are there other drinks that you recommend that we can stay hydrated with but not feel like we're just drinking nothing?

Wade Schwendemann : Things that add fruits or that kind of thing to your water are just adding flavor, without adding calories, is fine for the most part. You want to be careful with things like that, because if you drink things that are high in fake sugar essentially, it's going to increase your drive for real sugar and so that may not be where you want to go. The electrolytes solution, things that you see on the market, generic stuff, it's fine to drink if you want something that's not water. Generally, those are pretty low calories. Water is definitely the best, there's no denying that.

Sunny Gault : I know, it's the best, but it's boring.

Wade Schwendemann : It is boring.

Sunny Gault : One of our Facebook friends said that those little electrolyte packets, the things that we've been talking about, she said she bought her sprouts and it saved her from heat stroke during her pregnancy. She was actually pregnant with twins, so I'm thinking if it works for a mother that's pregnant with twins, theoretically it would work for a single baby. Some other things I want to make sure we touch on before we wrap up today, obviously, exercising, we're told – I'm actually not supposed to be exercising anymore because of the twins, but most pregnant women are encouraged to kind of keep some sort of activity up, and I think it only makes sense that women who are exercising, you know, maybe 2 o'clock in the afternoon is not the best time to do it, outside in the sun.

Wade Schwendemann : Sure, if you want to exercise outside, you absolutely can. When it comes to exercises, we can spend another whole session on just exercise and pregnancy, and it would be a good one to do actually. But when it comes to exercises, you want to make sure you're not putting yourself or your baby at any risk, and so you want to keep your heart rate in your target zone, which varies based on your age and pregnancy. You want to make sure that you're not substantially increasing your activity suddenly, which is the same thing you wouldn't do if you were not pregnant, but it's even more important then, because you don't want to stress things, your joints are in a different position, they are more relaxed in most cases. So if you want to exercise outside or someplace where it's not air conditioned, for example, then you want to try and choose times when things are going to be cooler.

Sunny Gault : One thing I think you brought up really quickly and it kind of goes along with this, if you're not exercising – kind of the opposite of exercising or moving around a lot is just resting, I know a lot of the times when I'm taking care of my two boys that I have already, and I feel like I'm exercising.

Wade Schwendemann : You are!
Sunny Gault : Grabbing them, moving them around... But sometimes, when I feel kind of overheated, I just take a moment and I just relax on the couch, and it's amazing how much just resting your body can cool you off.

Wade Schwendemann : Absolutely.

Sunny Gault : So that's something that I would recommend as well. And then the last one I wanted to bring up, I thought this was interesting too, they mentioned on the Internet – you know, everything is 100% right on the Internet – but they mentioned consistent breathing, so breathing can actually help cool you off. Do you have any experience with that or knowledge about that?

Wade Schwendemann : First I want to make an Internet comment – we're on the Internet too, right? Just to be clear.

Sunny Gault : Yeah, we are. But everything we say it's true! So it's going along with my comment.

Wade Schwendemann : I would agree, I can't argue with that, it's true. In terms of that, I think that consistent breathing does help you – I don't know that it necessarily helps regulate your body temperature more, but you certainly wouldn't want to breath rapidly or slow your breathing down, just to try and change your temperature, your breathing is as important or more important even than your internal temperature and so your body of course needs the oxygen that it needs. It's important to stay well oxygenated so you wouldn't want to exercise in a room full of perfumes for example, but the point is you want to make absolutely sure that you are breathing that way.

Sunny Gault : And it may help you rest, you may go into that last comment. You're starting to slow down your breathing – if it was elevated for some reason, like me running after my little guys, I'm starting to take a break, I'm starting to really breath in, breath out, anything that's allowing my body to rest. So maybe those two are kind of connected a little bit.

Wade Schwendemann : That's absolutely right, and it helps you to focus and center yourself to relax a little bit, if you take a slow deep breath, it really helps to get your mind right. Which, with two little boys, I can imagine is a challenge.

Sunny Gault : You'll know someday, I don't know about the boys, but you'll know about the kids, I promiss. Alright guys, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being part of our show today, if you guys want some more information and about Dr. Schwendemann, you can visit the episode page on our website. I do want to let you know this conversation is going to continue for members of our Preggie Pals Club. After the show, Dr. Schwendemann will discuss the warning signs to look forward to determine if your body is becoming overheated. So for more information on our club, visit our website, PreggiePals.com.

[Theme Music] [Featured Segments: From Our Listeners]

[00:32:15]

Sunny Gault : We have a comment from one of our listeners, and this comes from Mary. Mary asks, “Hi, Preggie Pals! I just downloaded your app on iTunes, I love how easy it is to listen to all the episodes, and even star your favorites for easy access. I'm wondering if there is a way to listen to all the episodes continuously, without having to click on to a new episode each time. It would make listening to episodes in the car so much easier. Thanks!” OK, Mary, yes, there is a way to do this. If you are in your app, and I believe this option is just for the iPhone, I don't believe this option is available for Android, but if you have an iPhone, go to the settings page, scroll down a little bit and you will see a section for continuous playback, and you do have some options. You can listen to all the episodes new to old, episodes old to new, all the star episodes, you can repeat the current episode. So you do have some options there, just click the option you want, and it should be saved. So, Mary, thank you so much for your question!

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Sunny Gault : That wraps out our show for today, we appreciate you listening to Preggie Pals, don't forget to check our sister shows, Parent Savers for parents of newborns, infants and toddlers, and our show the Boob Group for mommies who breastfeed their babies. Next week, we're discussing the importance of dental work during pregnancy. This is 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.

[00:34:16]

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