Health

3 Stress Reducing Steps You Can Take Today

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2022

Stress is something that virtually everyone deals with in today’s world. We’re all under huge amounts of pressure from work, our families, and other responsibilities. Sometimes, it’s easy to feel the strain piling on top of you, particularly after a few difficult days. Though stress is a common experience, it can also be very dangerous, increasing your chances of various health conditions, from heart disease to stroke.

While you might not be able to prevent yourself from ever feeling the impact of stress, there are things you can do to reduce your exposure to this experience which might have a positive impact on your life. Today, we’re going to look at just some of the steps you can take to reduce stress in your life on a daily basis. These steps are simple, convenient, and applicable to almost anyone.

Know Your Priorities

More often than not, we feel excess stress because we don’t have our priorities in check. We hold ourselves to the standards of other people, focusing on things like working extra hours at work because it makes our boss happy, or doing things for friends because we feel like we’re obliged to do so. However, you should be thinking about yourself occasionally too. Take a moment to think about what matters most to you in your day-to-day life, and whether you’re giving it enough attention. If not, it might be time to start scheduling time for the things that matter most to you into your days. This may involve saying no to people at times too.

Get the Right Insurance

While paying for insurance can be a pain, actually having the right coverage can save you a lot of headaches and stress. Knowing your protected when disaster strikes is crucial, whether you’re looking at health insurance, home insurance, or life insurance. Life insurance is perhaps the most important investment you can make when you’re looking out for your family and loved ones. Make sure you take the time to consider your options carefully, including looking at things like whether you might be able to sell your life insurance policy in the future. You can read guides about how to sell your life insurance policy online if you’re looking for a convenient way to access extra cash when you need it most.

Look After Your Sleep

Finally, this might be the most obvious tip we have to share today, but it’s also one of the most important. This is one of the best tips for managing stress and you’ll find your life is much easier if you’re not constantly dealing with sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Lack of sleep not only damages your physical health, but it also seriously influences your mental health too, making it hard to focus each day.

Committing to a regular schedule of sleep, usually between 7 and 9 hours per night, should ensure you can look after yourself more effectively each day. If you have trouble sleeping, a schedule where you set aside time for relaxation and winding down each night should help. With these three tips, you should be able to take some crucial steps towards a lower overall stress level and a happier life.

Health

What Interferes with Successful Breastfeeding?

Published

3 weeks ago

September 5, 2023

Michelle Langton

While breastfeeding is ideal, it comes with many difficulties new parents might face.

After experiencing the intensity of labor and delivery, many new parents are left exhausted. Despite this fatigue and surviving pospartum, new parents soon learn the importance of managing the needs of an infant. Putting aside their own desires, parents learn to quickly adapt.

Exhaustion and recovery are not the only things that discourage parents from breastfeeding. There are a variety of other woes that can make it difficult for a lactating parent to continue to choose this option.

While 83 percent of women breastfeed at the beginning of postpartum, there is a drastic reduction by 6 months, resulting in only 56% of babies still being breastfed.

Engorged Breasts

When a lactating woman’s milk comes in, she may experience intense pain and discomfort. The breasts typically become overly filled with milk because they have not yet regulated their supply. This engorgement can continue throughout the breastfeeding journey for a variety of reasons.

If the baby’s schedule changes, a woman’s breasts can become overly full. If the parent misses a feeding, breasts can experience discomfor which can lead to breastfeeding infection. If a woman becomes preoccupied at work and does not make time to pump, she can experience discomfort.

If breast engorgement is not treated properly, milk ducts can become blocked, and if a woman does not work to move the milk through her breasts (via feeding her baby, pumping, or expressing the milk), this engorgement can lead to further problems and may cause clogged milk ducts.

Infection

One of the biggest concerns beyond the pain a woman experiences with engorgement is infection. This is known as mastitis, and leads to a woman experiencing not only breast pain and warm breast tissue, but also flu-like symptoms that come with fever, chills, headache, and further exhaustion.

In order to help prevent infection, regular feedings are essential. Often, the best mastitis treatment, at least for early symptoms, is to massage the breast in a warm shower and express the extra milk.

Furthermore, by working with an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), parents can have a great resource on how to best deal with, treat, and alleviate these problems.

Not only is an IBCLC a great resource in helping prevent breast infection, but a great source for your breastfeeding journey to encourage and educate you in best practices.

The best way to achieve breastfeeding success is to utilize the many tools that an IBCLC offers.

Burnout

To exclusively breastfeed your baby can be quite overwhelming and exhausting. Between nightly feedings, cluster feedings, and pumping sessions for working mothers, breastfeeding is difficult to maintain. Unless a woman is properly supported by her family, friends, and workplace, the chances that a woman will continue to breastfeed are significantly impacted.

Culture also impacts the likelihood of a baby being breastfed beyond 6 months. The CDC discovered that parents in the Southeast United States are less likely to breastfeed their children past six months. This was in contrast to the Northwest, where business policies and the culture is more breastfeeding-friendly and supportive.

Conclusion

Despite the nutritional benefits afforded to a breastfed baby, there are many obstacles that can be discouraging for parents on their breastfeeding journey. From exhaustion to pain to lack of supoort, parents have many reasons to give up.

To increase your chances of success, surround yourself with supportive individuals, reach out to an IBCLC, also known as lactation consultants, and gain the necessary tools required to provide your child with the healthiest option available – you!