Healthy Body and Healthy Pregnancy

Being healthy means taking care of your mind, body, and spirit. Health is life in balance.

In Part 2, you’ll learn about:

• How your body works and how to take care of it.
• Lowering stress and having a healthy attitude.
• How to balance this with a strong spirit.

Because GDM happens during pregnancy, it’s important to know how to lower your chances of getting it before you get pregnant. One thing you can do is to keep your body healthy. Another thing you can do is to plan your future pregnancies. It helps to know how your body works so that you’ll know how to plan a pregnancy. A big part of this is learning about your reproductive system.

Changing Body: What is Puberty?

Puberty is when a child’s body grows into an adult’s body. Your body changes so that it can make a baby in the future. As shown in the picture to the left, some of the changes are on the outside of your body. Other changes happen on the inside. On the outside, your breasts will get bigger, your hips will get wider, and you will grow hair in your pubic area (called pubic hair) and under your arms. On the inside, the eggs that have always been inside your ovaries will start to ripen, so they can turn into a baby. The uterus also goes through changes to make it possible for a baby to grow there, if a woman gets pregnant.