That's Fit

Revolution Health has a new interactive tool, momScore, that ranks states based on the accessibility and quality of maternal health care. To determine the score, a team of health experts compared state-to-state criteria including:

• Access to prenatal care
• Maternal mortality
• Risk of pregnancy complications
• Childcare availability per capita
• Infant mortality
• Air quality
• Violent crime rate
• Access to health insurance
• Affordability of children's health insurance
• Mandatory paid leave policy
  

You can check your state's score overall or by specific health topic. My state ranked roughly in the middle, which was what I expected to see. Where does your state rank?

In our Fit Pregnancy feature, blogger Jennifer Jordan speaks her mind about maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Every two weeks through March 31, 2007 she'll weigh in on exercise, diet, wellness and other health-related issues as she manages her own journey from pregnancy to motherhood.

There's a line in a song I heard somewhere where the singer notes his "get up and go must've got up and went." Like the tweener that found deep-rooted personal meaning in every sad song she heard, this line pretty much sums up life for me these days, as I wallow in the glory of my third trimester.

I say wallow because I have done very, very little in the way of extra exercise since the holidays hit. And, in an unusual twist of fate, I don't really care. Normally, at the start of the new year, like everyone else, I am champing at the bit for another shot at rounding the park in an effort to get my body "bikini ready" by bikini season. This January, however, as I enter the last three months of pregnancy, I am finding that I have little interest in hoofing it anywhere. It's not that I'm overly tired yet (although have heard energy can decrease in T3) or that I'm bored with my routine. It's not even that I can't breathe from my giant uterus smushing my diaphragm--I managed to adapt to this pretty quickly.

It's just that, well, I'm so DISTRACTED. There are simply so many things to do in this last trimester that I can't seem to find the time or interest in working out. Between getting a nursery set up, picking a stroller, figuring out the wonderful world of maternity leave and getting the rest of my life in order before baby makes his debut, I'm just too caught up in life to work out! This is coming from a woman who LIVED to see if she could outpace her husband during a 9 mile race and who considered hills catalysts for speed. Ah well.

Now I'm lucky if I can get myself changed into workout wear and stretched out for ten minutes before hitting the pavement. What's worse is that I know it's wrong for me to become sedentary at this crucial time. Well, I wouldn't say "wrong" exactly, but I understand the importance of exercise during pregnancy and the many benefits resulting from it. I also know that I'm more mentally sound when I work out and more grounded. Grounded is the last thing I feel right now. Giddy? Sure? Gassy? Definitely! Overwhelmed? Perhaps a tad. But grounded--not so much.

My husband likes to tell me the story of how this one colleague of his walked almost every day until she gave birth and had an easy delivery two weeks early. I can't verify if this is true but according to him (according to her) the exercise is what made everything so smooth. And she got her bikini body back. Truth is, I don't care about my bikini body. That may change post-pardum, but I feel like the thing to do is concentrate on what seems right NOW.

If my body--and perhaps my baby--is telling me to take it easy, enjoy myself, focus on things that need to be done so I can relax and enjoy my new son, then so be it. I know I'll never give up exercising completely, even during the last few weeks of my pregnancy. And I know that after he's born, I'll weave my son in to the wonderful world of exercise that I share with my husband. Perhaps that's why I'm not so worried about it right now--I know exercise is a part of life for me and always will be.