Lauren Pope: 'It's been a whirlwind navigating pregnancy through a pandemic'

Hi all and welcome to our first Yahoo UK and Mum Space live! I’m now seven months pregnant and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind navigating this life changing journey through a pandemic and not having access to a lot of information and communication that normally we would have as pregnant women so I was thrilled that Alexis and Beccy from the Mother Box agreed to take part in our first episode of new series 'The Baby Bump with Lauren Pope'. We covered everything from piles and at home remedies to fix them, stretch marks and how we can change our mindset to embrace them, hip pain hacks and reasons why all this additional cellulite appears out of nowhere and even combing your breasts…Yep you read that right, combing your breasts (You need to hear why lol), basically we got to ask the questions we may be too embarrassed to ask our mates! Between them they have over a decade of experience working as a midwife and a doula and then together set up The Mother Box based on everything they had learnt over the years. I actually didn’t even know what a doula was until pregnancy so anyone that isn’t aware it’s a professionally trained person who is there to give emotional, physical, and educational support throughout pregnancy and labour so between these two ladies they would have seen and heard pretty much everything. I soaked up every one of these tips and hacks including how to ease hip discomfort. One thing I’ve found is how uncomfortable my hips get during sleep that it wakes me up and I need to turn over a lot which they said is really common and a quick fix to help is to add a small pillow in-between your knees so that your hips align with your legs rather than slanting downwards. Another ache related tip they suggested is a warm Epsom Salt bath which also helps with cramp which is another joy that pops up during the night when your pregnant, mainly down to your magnesium levels (They explain this in much better detail then I can during the chat). I found it so fascinating hearing how different cultures approach pregnancy and post-natal care and also body image. I have to admit I wasn’t quite prepared for how I would feel about the changes happening in my body and it’s taken me a while to get used to them and understand them which I mentioned to the ladies and was so relieved to her them explain this is normal and not something we should feel guilty about. It was lovely to hear how they actually wanted stretch marks after visiting certain parts of the world and seeing how much they are embraced and envied and even referred to as ‘Love Lines’! I hope you guys find all this info useful, I certainly did and I’m now off to buy myself a Himalayan salt lamp. See you all next week Love Lauren