I’ve always thought it was important to have a healthy lifestyle simply because I believe the adage “if you look good; you feel good and vice versa”.  Let’s face it our body talks to us in various ways.  Especially to us women. But, we’ve gotten pretty good at ignoring signals and mis diagnosing the truth.

I was 25 when I got married and up until then really never thought about marriage and family.  You could probably ask anyone that I used to know and they will tell you that I was adamant about the fact that if that’s all you wanted in Life you were missing out. (I was wrong)

But the tides changed and I did exactly what I told everyone not to do.

I had my first baby and my second baby back to back – hard! No question about it. I gave my body 2 1/2 years to recover before having the third.

At the end of my third pregnancy as I was approaching the delivery date.  My doctor discussed the idea of induction.  Being the naturalist that I am, I wanted to remain as natural as I could without jeopardizing the health of me or my baby.

She said that was fine but since I was passed the ideal age to have children.  Pause…

What do you mean “ideal age”?

She explained to me that the body is at it’s peak performance for childbearing between the ages of 22 and 26.  I was 32 and was considered old! OMG!

Your chances of conceiving decrease significantly as you approach 40. I knew that was true on some level but I never heard the numbers before.

Perhaps I was blinded by all the Marketing, as we all are, to believe that we could re-wire mother nature.  If you stayed healthy then all would be well..right? If I made enough money I could just buy back my time – right? WRONG.

No doubt about it; It’s hard to determine how to build your family.  You never know where you are going to be when you find “The One” and who can really predict Life’s events?

Factor in the reality of a woman’s biological clock, her personal health history, his personal health history, environmental issues and you have the perfect recipe for Anxiety central.

Maybe we thought that we could outsmart mother nature and as women we could be better able to avoid those pitfalls of marriage we saw our mother’s struggle with?? I don’t know…

But, that’s the thing you learn most about Life after kids; it’s just a phase. And so is the time that we are able to have children.  I haven’t figured it out quite yet about why God designed it so that women become infertile as they age and men stay fertile into their older years.  Any ideas? But, there has to be a reason.

Kids can be horrible as they are maturing into adults.  If we are lucky, they grow out of it.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

Most parents will tell you that there are days when you will want to just fall on the floor sobbing because you don’t know what to do to end the madness.

But, as I watch my son walk into Kindergarten I am reminded once again, that Life happens in phases.

I think women need to understand this about themselves.  Long before the decision whether to have or not to have children is decided. If we did we would make much healthier decisions for ourselves along the way.

Our body is sacred and it’s time we start to understand how it works.

Live and Learn. We all do. 

Thanks for reading. Please pass this on to someone who means something to you.