I wish I had read GCBC before I got pregnant
Unfortunately I did only about 2 years after my son was born.
I still breast-fed him for 20 months and weaned him on home food - fruits, vegetables, egg yolk and yoghurt. But that's about it.
Wish I had done lots more while pregnant/breastfeeding.
1. Avoid sugar and refined flour totally. Eat lots of dairy fats and eggs. And of course lots of fatty meat, if you eat meat.
2. Good supplements of Vitamin D3 and Omega-3. At least 5000-6000 IU D3 and 1500-1800 mg EPA+DHA omega-3 supplement.
3. A good quality pre-natal vitamin.
4. Prepare for childbirth and breastfeeding while pregnant itself - once labour hits, you wont have time. Read up a lot, watch videos, research on good products (including breast pumps and baby stuff). Read up about the entire process of labour, breathing techniques etc, do the exercises which will ease labour, including pushing techniques required at the end of labour.
5. Once labour starts, dont panic. You dont need to rush to the hospital, wait until the contractions are 30-35 mins apart before you do. Don't let the ob-gyn or doula or whoever is in charge rush you through labour. There's no need to induce pains or give you any shots to speed it up etc. Let it follow its natural course. Only after 10-12 hours, if there's still no dilation etc, you can agree to speed things up, if needed. Do you breathing to ease you through the first few hours. You will need all the strength for the end, preserve it.
When fully dilated and ready (the ob-gyn will tell you when), push and push really hard to get the baby out.
6. Breast-feed the baby within an hour of birth. This is very important. If you've had to have a C-section, that's OK ... recovery takes a while, but try and breastfeed ASAP.
Breastfeeding does hurt a bit for the first few weeks. Proper latching techniques (read up, read up) do minimize this, but it still will hurt a little. But in a few weeks you will get used to it. Really, you will.
7. Continue the diet and supplement regime for as long as you're breastfeeding. Avoid sugar and refined flour totally. Eat lots of dairy fats and eggs. And of course lots of fatty meat, if you eat meat. Good supplements of Vitamin D3 and Omega-3. At least 5000-6000 IU D3 and 1500-1800 mg EPA+DHA omega-3 supplement. A good quality multivitamin.
8. Please breastfeed for as long as you can. 2+ years is good. There's nothing abnormal or unnatural about breastfeeding after 2, the longer the better. Thats the best gift you can give your baby.